Sun And Games

Computer Games, Life, Business, Family, Stuff

Monday, February 28, 2005

Solitaire RULES Half Life DROOLS

Why Solitaire beats Half Life 2 . . . hands down!


It's a popularity contest.

Solitaire is hip, cool, and way more popular than Half Life 2. Don't believe me right? Well, the numbers don't lie. According to two of the biggest search tracking tools on the web (Wordtracker and Overture) more people are looking to play Solitaire then Half Life 2. Almost twice as many. Wordtracker says that every day 5,031 people searched for Solitaire, while only 3,610 looked for Half Life 2. Overture says 3,095 searched for Solitaire, while only 1,180 searched for Half Life 2. And these days, Half Life 2 is in its prime. It's having its 15 minutes of fame. Within 6 more months, when all the buzz has worn down, Half Lifes numbers will drop. After those same 6 months, Solitaire will be just as popular as ever. It's a classic; it never goes out of style. It's retro, old school, and bleeding edge all at the same time.

Save your money.

Ya gotta read the fine print folks. Flip that pretty shrink-wrapped box of Half Life 2 over, and take a peek at the little letters. You know, the ones with all the tech speak, that only the 14 year old in the family understands. Don't bother trying to read it; I'll translate for ya. It says, "Not only will you have to shell out 59.95 for this glitzy box in your hands, but prepare to cough up another $150-$ $200 (plus installation) to upgrade that pathetic outdated machine you have at home". Yea right. Is there a big "L" burned into my forehead? I'm willing to bet however, that if you can read this article, your PC has all the juice it needs to run the biggest baddest version of Solitaire ever created.

You'll never be bored.

If your looking to expand your Solitaire experience head on over to your favorite search engine, type in Solitaire, and hit enter. Google finds about 6.8 million sites. Pick one, and have a blast. I'm sure you can find one that's way cooler than the one that came with your windows machine. Now, how many variations of Half Life 2 are there to choose from? Umm I believe the title suggests there are 2. Not much choice there.

You don't have to train with the circus contortionist.

You'll really need to get your fingers limbered and loose for all the crazy keyboard commands, combinations, and permutations you'll need to master for Half Life 2. The original Half Life had 49 different keyboard / mouse control combinations to play the game. I suspect that version 2 has even more. Last time I checked, the version of Solitaire installed with Windows, only needed 2. Point . . . and . . . click. Once again, if you're reading this article (and obviously you are), I think you've got all the training you need for Solitaire. Ever seen a deck of playing cards before? Ok then, your trained!

Slingo, Platypus, Breakout, Tetris, Zuma, Magic Vines, etc, etc, etc.

If Solitaire doesn't get you all worked up, then look around a little. Don't just settle for the latest hype from today’s headlines. There are thousands of fun, easy to learn game gems out there, just waiting to be discovered by someone like you. They never get old, they’re always fun. Plus, you can download them right now, and be playing in minutes. They're great games, they don't need to be hyped. So, what are you waiting for, stop reading, come on in, and play play play!

About the author:
Chris Campbell is secretly envious of everyone with a PC good enough to play Half Life 2. When not writing articles praising the glory of independent games and their developers, he dreams of the day when everyone searching the web for "solitaire" ends up visiting his website: http://www.SunAndGames.com Then maybe he'll be able upgrade his PC, and finally play Half Life 2.

Saturday, February 12, 2005

Another Crazy Week

Well, this week has been pretty hectic. The kids were sick, Karen was sick, Karen's dad was sick, and some looney is threatning to take us to small claims court for not paying for service they didn't do for us. But, by weeks end everyone is either recovered or feeling better. Unfortunately the looney is still harassing us, but hey, as long as you have your health everything else is small stuff.

I had a pretty good week as far as the new business venture goes. I actually sold my first game. Pretty cool stuff I know. It wasn't a game I wrote, but it was sold from my website. I'm an affiliate thru the Reflexive games network. Which really means my website is like a salesman for their games. So that's a major step for me. As well, the site is starting to generate a trickle of revenue from my advertising. Not much, but there's really not much traffic coming through yet. All I need is a few thousand more visitors per day, and the money should come rolling in ;) Ha! I'm still pretty pumped about it anyway. Gonna try and get the word out there a little more. So, if you or your friends are looking for some fun games to play . . . . then click on over to SunAndGames. We're gonna make you smile . . . Guaranteed !

Thursday, February 03, 2005

New Aruba Pictures

Just a quick note, to say I've posted 20 or so new pictures from our trip to Aruba. Personally, I like watching them as a slideshow, but to each his own. Feel free to leave comments on any of the pictures. I know I need to add more descriptions to some of them.