Starbase Orion

A Master of Orion clone? Perhaps ... but still fun to play. It brought back fond memories of my teenage years when I was gaming on a Pentium II.

The interface will be familiar to fans of MoO. Essentially a galaxy view with stars to explore. Even the home screen looks like a leaf of MoO. That's not to say its not a good game on it own. I've been playing these for the last days and pretty sure it's a keeper.

If there is a bone to pick, I'll have to say the AI and diplomacy aspects are not as refined as MoO. Yes, MoO isn't that good to begin with but Starbase Orion doesn't seem to be at that standard, even though its a game built 20 years(?) after MoO.

But if you are looking for a simple turn-based strategy game to pass time, this is a good game to play. At $11, why not give it a try?

OO @School - Hand Prints

OO likes to work with her hands. And they encourage it as part of the motor skills training at playgroup. She has been asking us to draw the outline of her hand when she places them on pieces of paper. We didn't know exactly what they were learning in school but thought they could be doing the same.

Then we saw the pictures from the school's portal and discovered she was playing with paints and making handprints.

Nyama was especially excited to see OO enjoying the activity and proudly commented that OO made the best prints in her class #GrandmaPride. Meimei and I love that the school is simulating her senses with different activities, things which is hard for us to replicate at home.

Poop-Poop @ Vivocity

OO decided she needed to poop and squatted right there and then along the walkways at Vivocity. I, of course, accompanied her and simply wait for her to do her thing.

Falling Asleep On The Highchair

Not sure what happened but OO fell asleep on the high chair during lunch. I suppose her illness contributed to it.

Afraid she is uncomfortable in the chair I tried to lift her out. That was a big big mistake. She became agitated and her knees pulled in against her thigh, clamping tight on the chair. Sigh ... and she was screaming and crying because we interrupted her sleep. The more we try to pull her out, the tighter she holds her legs ... Arrgghh strong to self ... never disturb OO when she's sleeping.

Bastion

Since quiting Wonder Tactics, I've vowed not to get into online gaming for awhile. The money I've spent in that game could have bought me a couple of the big name paid games like Final Fantasy series, Banner Saga etc.

As I search through the pay-once-and-play catalog in iTunes, I chanced on Bastion which is getting very good reviews. At $7, it seemed like a cheap investment on a game that potentially can add up to 10-15 hours of gameplay.

I must say the graphics of the game is fantastic. It feels polished and the music score certainly adds to the embience of the game world. Sadly attempting to play this on a Ipad Pro has proven to be a challenge for me. Maybe its my stubby fingers or my lack of 'skills' for real time action games. Whichever it is, I gave up after playing it a couple of hours.

No biggie, at least I know now not to choose another fast paced action game for my next buy. Well, I've always been more of a turn-based strategy, old-school RPG (remember Might and Magic series, Daggerfall, etc) type of player.

OO @School - 我的五官

The week's key theme is learning about self. I think because it's playgroup they weave a lot of play and hands on activities for the kids. That's good, OO likes to touch and feel.

The only thing I would liked them to do better is have individual shots of the children and not put them up in a montage. I don't want any of the other parents complaining that I put up their child's photo on the wild wild web.

23 Months - Horrible Temper

OO has been sick for most of the month. In fact I think she hasn't recovered, only keeping the ailments at bay with medication. And with the irritation of an illness comes quick temper and frustration. She has been pretty stubborn. I wonder if it's just due to the sickness or part of it comes from entering the terrible 2 phase.

"The Mama on the Bus go Shh Shh Shh~"

A snuggle feast with friends 

Out with Piyao~

The only way to travel on a pram

"Gong Xi Fa Cai!"

Tidbits ... Mine all mine!

Gaigai with NyaOng

Relax Time with NyaMa

Sticking to Mama

OO @School - Expressing Feelings

OO is learning about expressions of feelings this week through handiwork. She looks like she likes to draw. Hmm maybe we should get her some colouring pens or crayons.

It's been a month since starting school. She seems to be enjoying the activities. I'm still monitoring to make sure she really fits in. I suppose I'm trying to convince myself that we did not send her to school too early. These photos are always encouraging that we made the right choice.

Letting Go Wonder Tactics

I've been playing a game called Wonder Tactics for a little over a year. Its another game from the publishers of Summoners War. I had gotten sick of SW after a good 3 years and decided to go into another game.

The mechanics of the game is pretty similar to SW except that it takes lesser commitments to get ahead. Well one of the primary reason was that the player base is so much smaller in WT than SW. I estimate there to be about three to four hundred on the WT Asia server versus thousands on SW Asia one.

But that's ok, I like it easy ... its a game after all. What drove to quit though was a silly whimsical error on my part, though I blame the game developer for implement useless updates. They had just made minor interface tweaks over the weekend. And before I could get used to the changes, I made a fatal mistake of selling off a key weapon on a main toon. 

So I was so pissed that literally squander all my gems on hero summoning that amounted to null. Essentially I was destroying my account and end any hopes of returning to the game. I had spent hundred odd dollars on the game and this washes all of it away. I suppose it's a far price to pay for a years of gameplay but with this they are not getting any cent of my money.