Battlestar Galactica Hits XBLA (Finally!)

Heads up nuggets! After dropping off DRADIS for awhile, the Battlstar Galactica XBLA title has reappeared and will hit the service in just a few days (Oct 24 to be exact). Although essentially just a mad shoot-em-up based in the re-imagined Battlestar universe, this should be a hoot for fans of the show.

We LOVE the re-imagined Battlestar here at GirlGamers Australia. If you haven't had the pleasure, go buy the mini-series and season one.. then when you realise it's some of the best sci-fi TV ever made, go buy the other seasons and hold your breath til November when 'Razor' is released, prior to the season 4 (final season) opener in January (USA).

Additional BSG Info for nuggets!:
DRADIS - Direction, RAnge, and DIStance (BSG Radar essentially)
Nugget - Pilot Trainee (ie a newbie)
Razor - TV film about Battlstar Pegasus
Minisodes - Playing in the lead up to Razor (look on youtube 'razor flashback')
PC Users - PC version of the game is released Oct 23

Stand Out Game Store - Gametraders

As female gamers the act of going into a game store can be a good, or bad experience. More often than not we've found it's the latter "is it a gift for your boyfriend?", no moron, it's a gift for myself, I like to frag! Anyway, we've come across a little Aussie gem, no we're not being paid, this is a selfless act of bigging up a game store with a difference.

We'd never heard of 'GameTraders', having moved to Queensland from bonny Scotland, but always having to walk into a game store, in we wandered, bracing for the worst. One of the guys working behind the counter looked pretty young -- here's part one of the gem bit. Never judge a book by its cover, this guy was a gent, chatty, knowledgable and an asset to the store, so was the guy working wth him.

More to this, every staff member we've dealt with in the Hypderdome Gametraders at Logan has been polite, never assuming that we're not gamers ourselves, that we're purchasing for someone else or most annoyingly that we know nothing about gaming because we're women. They're as passionate about games as we are and we think they deserve a big w00t! If you happen to be in the area, pop into the store and make a purchase, you won't be sorry you did.

Folklore Sneaks Onto Shelves

Folklore seems to be one of those games that fit the category 'Released but Unheard', at least to a certain extent. This title snuck onto Australian store shelves today, without so much as a murmer or a poster hailing its arrival. Given you get the chance to play either a male or female character, we of course nabbed it from the PS3 section of our local Gametraders (which we love and perhaps will post about shortly).

Anyway, back to Folklore, we haven't given it a look as yet, but as soon as we get the time, we'll be letting you all know whether it was worth the expenditure or not (probably in our own comments as opposed to another post). We just wanted to highlight it, since it's all very fairy hush hush around its release.

Perrin Kaplan a Fond Farewell

Ok, so we're a few days late with this as 'news', but we're not putting it up for its news value, we're putting it up because were a female gamer site, we're all about the women gamers and / or women in the games industry. Needless to say Perrin Kaplan is one of the big fish, given her role as Vice President of Marketing & Corporate Affairs at Nintendo of America.

Sadly though, that role will cease as of the end of this year, when Kaplan leaves Nintendo. What's the chance of another woman taking on the role? Worse still, what's the chance of another woman with Kaplan's finesse taking on the role--we'd guess zilch.

Perrin Kaplan always seemed so... honest, so nice and let's face it, supportive of the female gamer community. It's hard to say goodbye, but we wish Perrin all the luck with whatever project she's falls into post Nintendo.

Read Comments by us (Girl Gamers) for more on this story as it unfolds.

Simon the Sorcerer PC

Long before a certain Mr Potter waggled his wand and shouted "Expecto Patronum" there was a young wizard named Simon, who appeared in the simon the Sorcerer adventure games. The game was first released in 1993 (DOS & Amiga) and fell into the point and click category. What set Simon the Sorcerer apart was the fact it was fairly comedic and included parodies and various popular culture referencing.

Why are we reporting on an Amiga game from 1993? We're not, we're reporting on the fact Playlogic will be publishing the fourth title in the series next year; it's already out in German, but this will be the English version obviously.

So there you have it, fans of the point and click genre, be prepared for smart mouthed boy sorcerers to hit the PC sometime after Christmas. You can check out more about the game at the official site.

Wii Loved Space Channel 5

Remember 'Space Channel 5' on the Sega Dreamcast, what a superb game. There were mad characters, camp dancing and weird aliens. Don't get excited, we don't have an exclusive that it's definitely coming to the Nintendo Wii, but since Thumb Bandits podcast host Gadget Girl has been right about both Samba De Amigo and Sega Bass Fishing heading to the Nintendo Wii, we're thinking maybe she was right about Space Channel 5 as well.

Ok we're thinking and hoping, REALLY hoping she's right, because this game would be awesome on the Wii. If it does hit the Wii at some point, we hope it uses the Wiimote as a sort of dancing baton. No point in playing a dancing game, unless it has the ability to make you look like an absolute ass in front of your friends.

More Female Gamers Than Male for Wii & DS

According to notes from the Nintendo Conference a few days ago "For each household, the DS has 3.0 users, the Wii has 3.5 users. DS has a 53% female user base. Wii has a 51% female user base." Yes ladies, we're playing it big, at least on Nintendo, which poses a slight problem really, it harkens back to the yawny view that those are the only sorts of games we play--Nintendo, pretty, bright, cute and 'fun'.

Not to say it isn't great news, too long have female gamers been on the periphery. With this news, perhaps developers and publishers will take the female market more seriously than they have been. We've long known the surveys have come back with a 50 / 50 split over most gaming types, though usually it does lean slightly in favor of the male gamer, which makes this Nintendo news so amusing. Are the gaming tides a changing? Is the female gamer on the rise? And if so, where the hell is MS and Sony's marketing to that fact. Look out boys, we're a comin.