New addictions

I have, strangely enough, been spending all my time playing social games online. I say strange because while CB is a gamer, I am not. I discovered with my ex that I enjoy watching games with stories—I loved watching Eternal Darkness even though it freaked me out, and I had a lot of fun watching Zelda: Wind Waker. But I'm terrible at playing them... I tried other Zeldas on Wii and Nintendo DS, and I never made it past the tutorial on the former and rapidly got bored of killing things in the latter.

But then, CB got hooked on Sims Social on Facebook, and then he sicced it on me! Argh! Now I am actually active on Facebook, what the heck?! (I play on an incognito browser window and delete cookies every so often due to recent reports of Facebook tracking you everywhere.) I think Sims appeals to my rampant consumerist nature, and at least buying virtual things online with virtual cash slightly appeases the desire to do so offline. (Also, I am geekily excited about all the Halloween stuff coming out right now. My Sim can sleep in a coffin!)

And then troisroyaumes introduced me to Glitch, an extremely cute MMORPG that involves no fighting or killing whatsoever. Normally I would have found it too complicated to play—the learning curve is much, much steeper than Sims—but the absolutely gorgeous and adorable art direction kept me in it even as I couldn't figure stuff out.

So possibly now I have a free trial at Gamefly... I have tried City Interactive's puzzle/quest games Murder in Venice and Tree of Life, both of which I find very clunky in design but puzzly enough to spend my time on. Am still waiting for the new Professor Layton to come out. I tried Sakura Taisen: Takarazuka in New York in the Roaring Twenties! Sadly, not its actual name. Even more sadly, I bounced off it due to all the talking and how obvious it was that the game was written for fanboys to ogle at all the different women. Ew.

Anyone have Gamefly recs (Wii or DS preferred)?

• I don't like anything that involves combat or combat stress. As in, I found Plants vs. Zombies and Angry Birds too stressful. And I am really sad, but I couldn't get past the tutorial for Okami too =(.
  
• I can't do 3D games with a lot of movement because they make me queasy (see: Ilo Milo, which is fun and adorable and sadly makes me feel like throwing up, and Portal, which looks really cool and has great writing but makes my head spin. Picross 3D is ok because of the tiny DS screen.)
  
• I am awful at physics-based games (see: Angry Birds and Cut the Rope).
  
• I really like puzzly games like Professor Layton, and I have been chronically addicted to Picross (as well as Piczle Lines on iPhone).
  
• I can do block-type games like Tetris, Dr. Mario, and Puzzle Fighter.
  
• Despite my current addiction to Sims Social, I generally find simulation games too complicated... I hate amassing armies; I don't want to run a city or a shop, much less a country or a world; and mostly I'm as much a giant homebody in games as I am offline.
  
• I like a very easy ramp-up period. I.e. I tried Myst a long time ago, entered the world, stared at the screen for ten minutes, clicked on five things, and then gave up.

(Both Sims Social and Glitch accounts are under my legal name, ergo my not linking.

ETA: And now the Glitch account is fandom friendly!)

Brook, Meljean - Demon Marked

Nicholas St. Croix is trying to track down the demon who killed then impersonated his mother; royally screwed up his psyche; and killed Rachel, the woman who loved him. Ash doesn't know who she is, although Nicholas tells her she looks exactly Rachel. All she knows is that she has absolutely no memory from before three years ago, that sometimes her eyes glow eerily, that she frightens all the nurses, and that she doesn't need to sleep.

I like Ash, especially when she's trying to figure out how to survive with human beings and their strange emotions. I was much less fond of Nicholas, who lives for revenge and doesn't trust anyone. That said, Meljean Brook was trying to break the mold a bit; several times in the book, she mentions that thankfully Nicholas isn't a misogynist due to his evil mother-who-was-a-demon-in-disguise. I also like that there is no illusion about Nicholas being a nice guy. He's a jerk a fair amount of the time, and that's actually what Ash likes about him. Er. That sounds off-putting, but I feel it makes much more sense when your heroine is part demon.

The other thing I really like about the Guardian series so far is how prominent the women are. The first few books definitely feel like "Now meet the hot heroes of books #2-8!" But I was glad to see that several female characters from previous books continue to play a large role in the plot. I think it's more in the last three Guardian books, due to spoilery events, and the final Guardian book is focused on the biggest baddest Guardian guy (of course), but I will take what I can get in this genre. More details under the cut.

( Spoilers for previous books )

My main issue with the book is that the plot resolution and the romance resolution aren't paired up, so after the main plot is resolved, you still have to wait around a bit for the romance, which makes it feel anticlimactic. And then there's a bit more plot thrown in to set up the next book, which also feels a bit anticlimactic when it really shouldn't.

Other than that, I am glad Brook seems to have more interest in awesome heroines who may not like each other but work together. I always want more, but I figure it's a nice departure for the paranormals I've been reading of late.