Why Inkheart the Video Game is like my cold

Well, I finally got it this year. If I hear one more person say "Yeah, there's a really nasty bug going around right now" I will shoot them. Can you honestly remember, in the past two years, when you didn't hear someone say "there's something nasty going around?". It's the nature of the nasty.

Speaking of nasty, I played "Inkheart" for the Nintendo DS yesterday while waiting at the doctor's office so she could tell me about it "going around". You can read my full review at the Armchair Empire sometime in the next week or so, but until then, here's a summary.

Much like my nose this morning, this game blows. The animation of the main character sprites reminded me of the Amiga computer from 1985. When I say it reminded me, I meant that it reminded me that the animation that came out on the Amiga was better than this 2009 release. I wish I was joking.

So like my cold, this game made me ache. It was painful. Like a train wreck, I couldn't help staring at the animation to make sure what I was seeing was real. It felt like a dream. A dream from 1983.

Germans made this? I stared in disbelief. I like Germans, they usually make good things. I was thinking German, so when I sneezed on my DS, I said "Gesundheit!" and the sad part is that my screen looked better after the sneeze. Unbelievable.

Wendy's and the ELANS

I know it's not directly related but what game room hasn't seen some Cheeseburger action? Well I'm here to give you some advice on ordering at Wendy's if you are super hungry and want to save a bit of money. Some friends and I were having a discussion about how to order things at Wendy's. My brother taught me a number of years ago to order a "#4 Combo" with an extra patty if you wanted a better sandwich than a double (a #4 in most of Canada is a Bacon classic combo). So you get two patties, bacon, cheese and the better bun at a cheaper cost than doing the same thing to a double. It was pointed out to me recently that perhaps a better way to order this is get the new "Baconator" combo with "everything on it". The default way the Baconator comes it essentially has the cheese, meat, and ketchup (and mayo I think). I like the lettuce, tomato and pickles so I've tried ordering it with everything. It turns out that so far, they've got it right 50% of the time. To some people "everything" that is on a Baconator includes just what is normally on a Baconator. It depends on whether they trust you, as the ordering party, to say what you want and not what you mean. It's a tough call at times. The upside of going the Baconator route is that it's $0.10 cheaper, and you get more bacon.

Bottom line - if you're hungry and willing to risk the possibility of getting a burger that you're not 100% happy with, go the Baconator route. You'll save that $0.10. If you're not much a risk taker, stick to the #4 with an extra patty. If you didn't know about these options, now you're just a little bit of a smarter consumer.

Talking about games though, I've been selected to be a judge of the ELANS - which is basically like the Oscars only for video games, animation and special effects. It's based out of Vancouver. You may not have heard about it before, but it's a truly up and coming event. The first year was hosted by William Shatner. Last year, it was Seth McFarlene. This year it's Tom Kenny (AKA SpongeBob SquarePants). Victor Lucas of Electric Playground, Reviews on the Run and now EP Daily is going to be talking about the nominees at a press conference.

It's a real honour to be part of this process and I enjoyed it. Although I can't talk about who I chose, the process was interesting and perhaps more challenging than it should have been. But that's what learning is all about.

Visit http://www.theelans.com for more information.