CE Wills

    Hey, everyone, across the globe. Since I have taken a year off from blogging, I felt that I should tell you about my past year in gaming. As you older hands know, I played everything from pong to Intellivision, back in the day. But I became fiercely involved in raising children, building a career and the like. I missed the whole X-Box generation. Once the initial I-Pad came out, I became a gamer again.     When the in-app purchase plague began to raise sores on the buttocks of I-Pad owners, I sought a better experience. I decided that Steam gaming on PC might give me better gaming at a reasonable price by buying at the sales. And so it did for awhile.     What a thrill it was for me to play Tomb Raider, Mordor and Serious Sam! But then I was to learn that many desirable games would not play on my PC. I had a real desire to play Far Cry 4 after playing Far Cry 3 . Alas, it would not play on my machine. I even bought the Game Guide a...

    Hey, everyone. Glad to see that y'all have survived yet another work week. I have been remiss, of late, in describing a game for the puzzlers who lurk among you. My wife, Carley, is battling with a popular game that has skyrocketed into the top 10 or so games in the ole app store. It is called Bonza and as one might expect from the above pictures, it is a word game.      As I might have surmised, being a shooter gamer, myself, I am not crazy about this game. It is quite difficult, even for the puzzler contingent. This demographic, that represents the more stable, quieter, more studious and brainy members of our society, once they get their teeth into a puzzle, are like the proverbial iron-jawed mastiffs. So, Carley has played this game for several dozen hours, muttering to herself as the minutes tick by and occasionally asking me for help, which is amusing. She is like the High Priestess of puzzle games, so I was shocked, shocked I say, when ...

    Hey, everyone. I stopped by Best Buy the other day and had a nice chat with a rep from Samsung. He was a pleasant bloke and he had his own display there at the store, devoted mostly to tablets. He had a thick piece of magic glass there on the counter and told me that if he hooked an I-Pad to it, that the device would sense the apps contained on the I-Pad and install the Android equivalent on a Samsung tablet, free of charge.     This is brilliant marketing by Samsung, because many people believe themselves locked into the Apple system once they have the gear and the attendant apps, music and games. Apple is King of tablets, but the competition grows more fierce as each day passes.     I walked down the tablet isle at Best Buy and marveled at the variety and prices. There were tablets as low as $47. I started to buy a new tablet myself, just for something new to mess with. My son has been showing me his new tablet ...

         Hey, everyone. This evening I am awaiting the arrival of Modern Combat's newest version to your friendly neighborhood app store. While I am sure it will be a great game, I have been playing another game today. It is entitled Western 1849 . I write some western stories and very much like gunmen of the old west. This is the story of a gunman who arrives in a town too tough to tame. Though a little green, the shootist takes over as the town's lawman and must rid the town of undesirables.     I started out with a 'Rubbish Gun'. No, I'm serious. That is what they called it. They are fair about the in-game gold coins, though, and even on my humble sheriff's salary, I was able to buy a secondary weapon called a common rifle. The rifle is important when the riff-raff you are fighting hides behind a cactus or on a rooftop that is a stretch for your Colt.       The gameplay is quite simple and quite fun, actu...

      I was off the coast of Nassau on my lovely ship. It had just turned dawn and the fleet of fat merchant ships was in sight at last. The journey had been long and eventful. I had tired of being humbled by the men-o-war and had bought myself a vessel. A ship with red sails, as you can see. I thought that my prey would tremble in fear at the sight of the red sails, red being the color of blood and all. I had bought the ship and some trimmings for $7.99. The one-eyed geezer who sold it to me called it a starter pack, for some reason. He was narrow between the eyes,...uh, eye, and spoke out of the corner of his mouth, but we shook on the deal. It has been a good ship, aye, and I have trebled my booty. That's spoils, for you landlubbers.         By my side on the deck is the fetching woman called Aaminah. I saved her off a slaver ship that I caught in open water. She is a trim vessel; the girl I mean, with a smi...

        Good morning, happy people all over the world. I downloaded a free game yesterday called Assassins Creed Pirates . It is currently free so you might want to check it out. It is a huge file, around 860 MB. The graphics are stunning, as you can see. It has an interesting story, also. I found the animations and controls good and have enjoyed it tremendously, thus far.      I am one of the few gamers on Earth, possibly, who has never messed around with an Assassins Creed game of any sort, on any console or tablet. One reason was that I felt, from what little I had seen of it on screen at someone's house, the games seemed to be somewhat anti-christian. The reason I bring this up is the disclaimer of this particular game. Ubisoft put a blurb on the screen saying something to the effect that the game was developed by a team of cross-cultural folks of all religions. So, possibly, I was not alone in this thought. At any rate, I am rea...

     Hey, everyone. We went to see the movie called Edge of Tomorrow this er... afternoon. Let me give you a few thoughts on the subject.      Normally, I don't care for the "Groundhog's Day" type of shows which feature people having to relive something over and over again. Frankly, that part of the movie which I saw today wasn't my favorite thing either. Other than that, I really liked the film. The special effects were awesome and the two lead actors were exceptional. I liked the story. Goodness knows that there are precious few sci-fi stories that are very good.      Tom Cruise stars as William Cage, a Major in the military. Bill is not really a fighting man. In fact, he is responsible for manipulating the public perception of military activities. I think they call that a "P.R. Man". It is in such a capacity that he comes to the European theater of the desperate war against an invading species of alien life that might ...

         Hey, everyone. Happy Independence Day, to all you folks in the U.S.A.     I forgot to send along my congratulations to my Canadian viewers the other day when I was talking about Wimbledon tennis. Milos Raonic played in the semis and lost to Federer. Eugenie Bouchard is in the finals on Saturday and I'll be pulling for her. Also, Canadian Vasek Pospisil will be in the doubles finals. I get a big charge out of seeing people, athletes and nations make a breakthrough in any field of endeavor. To have both a man and a woman reach the semis at the big W for the first time is awesome. Last year Andy Murray made his breakthrough and I enjoyed that.      This morning I watched Novak Djokovic beat Grigor Dimitrov. I was surprised when Novak allowed himself to get so flustered. I really liked Dimitrov's demeanor. All business, hustle and energy. He didn't really seem to play tight at all, despite the big stage. ...

  Hey, everyone. You may remember that I had a Cardinal building a nest about a foot or two from where I sit on my porch. She had two eggs in it. This morning as I drank coffee I heard an abundance of tiny chirping noises. Sure enough, the baby birds have come forth into the world and seem abundantly happy about it. They have no feathers. Good thing it was a hot day. Of course, unless she is hunting food, the mother bird sits with them and keeps them warm.      It is hard to be in a bad mood while you listen to baby birds cheeping. It is a feeling like "Hey, the world must be okay after all, or those little rascals wouldn't make all that cute noise. Hopefully, they'll keep it quiet if a cat comes around. Cats are a bit cruel at times and could care less about cuteness.      Hey, maybe Facebook could put the sound of baby birds cheeping on their site and measure the happiness response of their victims customers. Ha, ha. Bizarre to experi...

   Hey, everyone. As you know, I have been playing the fantastic game called Lego: Marvel Super Heroes . Yesterday, I was in the Hydra base, in my guise as Captain America. I was fighting the Red Skull and his minions when something happened which shook my psyche. The Red Skull started to shake his booty at me in time with the background music. I felt like it was disrespectful of me, a worthy opponent. As you can see from the picture above, I hung my head in shame and wept upon my shiny shield.     Oh, sure. He could have been overcome with the moment, the throb of the music, the exhilaration of facing his old foe. It probably meant nothing and I shouldn't have taken it personal.     The dude had a depressing place to live and work. It could certainly use a splash of color. There was a huge, rotating centrifuge with little bulls-eye flaps sticking up like targets. I flung my trusty shield at them and they flipped down which left the Red Skull ...

    Hey, everyone. I bought the newest Lego game when it came out late Wednesday night. It is $4.99 and over a Gig in size. It has bunches of Super Heroes and it is possibly one of the best IOS games ever .     It has a lot of separate chapters but one overall storyline. I have played it for hours and hours this weekend and have yet to reach the halfway mark.     It seems that the Silver Surfer has been cruising around  and Shield is tracking down 'Cosmic Bricks'. I, as a Super Person am lending a hand. Sometimes I play as Iron Man. Sometimes as Hulk. Sometimes as Spiderman. Sometimes as Black Widow or Hawkeye. I have fought the Sandman. I have fought Mandarin and Loki. Doctor Doom has made a brief appearance as well. I had a tough battle with Doctor Octopus and I beat him by throwing my shield, in my guise as Captain America. It was funny. Doc Ock put me on a rotating platform with disco lights and music and I could only throw my sh...

    Hey, gamers. I have been playing a game called Sky Force , as you might have surmised from the title of this missive. It certainly has its good points and its bad, like almost anything.      As you know, the old app store is in a state of evolution. There is a lot of negative stuff going on and I think Apple is trying to rectify some of it. I have said a lot about this stuff in the past so I will endeavor not to rake over the same ground today.     Sky Force is fun. You can actually play it without getting stuck. That is a good point, also. You are flying your plane during a military skirmish of some sort. Heck, let's just call it a war. In fact, for people like me who were alive during Korea and Vietnam, it might be tempting to call it a police action. Ha, ha.      Anyway, you are flying missions over a series of landscapes. The first one is daytime, the second is a rainy night, etc. There are enemy ships th...

    Hey, everyone. We have been without power for a lengthy time and I am glad to have rejoined the current century, as far as tech goes. In my area, there was a massive amount of downed trees but things are mostly copacetic (Old term for cool.) as we speak. I hate sitting in the dark, even if I am reading The Clash of Kings. For several nights, I read while in bed, which I never do, and was very happy to have the back-lit screen. I mean, Abe Lincoln must have really strained his eyes, reading by the light of a fireplace.      Hey, it is Valentine's Day, here in the states. This holiday was invented by marketers but it is a nice gesture when heartfelt, sharing your love with whomever. As a token of my dedication to the merits of love, I did something nice for my car today, which I'll tell you about shortly.      I have been writing a new western book. It started with a real bang, but I have been doing other things for a few days. I ...

   Hey, everyone. I wanted to update you on my new game called Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project . This game has quickly become too difficult for a casual gamer such as myself. It is with regret that I say it seems to be one of those games which will require considerable in-apps in order to have any sort of pleasant experience. I began to suspect this when A.) I could not overcome certain difficulties without extreme effort and B.) I saw that the in-game store had a place where you can buy a skip-level token. This is a shame since I saw potential for this to be a cool game. At least the in-apps are reasonably priced. Sigh!      I have been playing some music this morning on my keyboard. I was playing well, for me especially, and I lingered on a new song that I am working on. The song is far from new, but I just started learning it. It was written by Joni Mitchell and performed best by Judy Collins. Yes, I am talking about Both Sides Now . Whirls and furls o...

     Hey, everyone. It is a bit of a pill today, weather wise. There is a howling wind, snow and the temperature is dropping quickly. I have just returned from town. I bought a massive sub sandwich. Not a nuclear sub but just bread, meat, cheese and fixings.      This morning I had a good time. Why? I played the new game called Duke Nukem, Manhattan Project . I must confess that this is my first time with the Dukester and I like him a lot.     The game is a very reasonable $1.99 and I don't think it will require in-apps to beat it. I am only on the second level, though, so I might be wrong. It is not a huge file download either. It is around 200 MB, I think. On the app store, I saw some complaints about the save system.      Duke and I are tasked with an important mission. It seems that a bunch of gators and hogs are dressed up in people-type clothing and threatening New York. We are running around rooftops ...

    Hey, everyone. Yesterday I had an odd day. I had I-Pad trouble with my I-Pad Air. Let me tell you about it. I'll have to give you the "Reader's Digest Version". Ha, ha. This is an old saying, common during the dark ages. At that time Reader's Digest put abbreviated novels out for consumption by those who didn't really have a lot of time. They were quite good, usually.      So, a weird thing was going on with my Padster. To wit, I would buy a game and it would not appear on my I-Pad. The store would indicate that the game had downloaded but alas, there was no icon. Distressing. How could I possibly save Duke Nukem in The Manhattan Project ?      I bought other games, like Alpha 9, and they didn't appear either. I just chilled out for a while and meditated on the problem, hoping it would go away or a flash of genius might overtake me. I plugged the Padster into my PC and added some of my old games. They didn't appear either...

   Hey, everyone. This morning I heard a loud thump at my house. It sounded like something had hit the house. Later, when I walked onto the front porch I saw something that looked like a misshapen leaf, lying under the porch swing. When I walked down to look at it I saw that it was a dead bird, a cardinal. It was a female cardinal and you might wish to know how I figured that out. No, not like that.     Actually, a male cardinal is the pretty one, being a nice, scarlet red in color. The female doesn't have to strut around and be fetching, I suppose. At any rate, this was a female.      So, this lady cardinal, flew from goodness knows where, perhaps St. Louis, to fly into my window and break her neck. Odd. Suicide in birds is something that I find perplexing. I think it may have started with the Angry Birds craze. When word got around the avian community that some birds were making millions of dollars by being flung from a sling shot and ...

    Hey, everyone. The other day, some of the grand-kids came by and we talked a lot about games, since one of them had received an I-Pad for Christmas. I recommended some games for them and they showed me this game called Pocket Tanks . When I first opened it, my thought was: "These graphics are not impressive." Sorta like the way that one might be guilty of judging a woman by her looks. Games, like women, are complex, and offer much deeper things than meets the eye.     Pocket Tanks is simple, really. You play against the computer in the sport of shooting at one another, taking turn about. After a given number of rounds, the high score wins. You choose a difficulty level, which I love. Yes, I choose easy level and lose some of the time.     You have a vast array of weapons. You can either have your 10 weapons auto-picked for you or you can pick manually, time about, like in school when you chose up sides in baseball games. You can play ...

    Hey, everyone. It was a cold night at the green retreat. I was up early, around 5A.M. At that early hour I decided to try and finish the Thor game which I have been involved in for the past couple of months. I was glad to finish the aggravating rascal. Even on the last level, my reward of 50 Runes was not given to me. No big deal, I guess. Overall, a deep, fun game with lots of glitches. No regrets on the money spent for it. You can expect to pay for some in-apps, like I said before.     Well, the NFL Playoffs are in full swing. Yesterday I was amused during the early game when Jim Nantz said something to the effect of "The Nationwide Insurance Action Cam". The NFL, up to now, has been really good about forbidding commercials during the actual game. I guess the greed of marketers in the boardroom has finally won out. That, along with several other sensitive topics which I can't mention, has soured me on the sport. I have watched the NFL since 195...