Holiday Gifts: Minecraft: The Complete Handbook Collection

If you have a Minecraft fan to shop for this Christmas, then here is the perfect gift at the perfect price. Minecraft: The Complete Handbook Collection, is currently on sale at Chapters Indigo, both in store, and online, for just $10, which is a savings of 81% off the regular price!

Be sure to check the store stock for this item online, before you head to your location, to avoid disappointment. If you are ordering online, shipping from Chapters is free over $25, or you can send it to a local store location to pick up for free.

Pick up your copy here.

Note: This is a deal in Canada only.

The Ghost in the Blue Ghost Tunnel Found!

So my boyfriend has gotten in photography recently and like the loving girlfriend I am, I have been driving him around to various locations and even going on his trips with him. One of his recent trips took us to a local urban legend spot called the Blue Ghost Tunnel which is apparently an abandoned train tunnel in the old Welland Canal.

Apparently the tunnel's curse started with an accident with two trains that crashed into each other and the two firemen who were operating the boilers who died in the accident. Ever since this train crash, there have been more deaths in the tunnels including 8 men who died from the Lock 6 disaster and this caused rumors to spread that the tunnel was cursed. Those who come to the tunnel now tend to experience feelings of sickness and report hearing sounds of children crying or whispers.

Personally I just got mud on my shoes and heard the squeaking of my boyfriend's camera case. But the complete lack of light and having to walk on wet wood did scare the crap out of me nicely.

Photographers have been able to capture pictures of the tunnel with glowing blue orbs in its center which is apparently proof enough of the tunnel haunting for some. This phenomenon of the blue orbs has earned the tunnel its name, The Blue Ghost Tunnel. While there at the tunnel, my boyfriend managed to snap his own photograph of the Blue Ghost and you can see it here.

Hit the jump for the picture of the Blue Ghost.

Best Buy Canada Deal: Trade In 5 Games, Get A DS XL

Today only (March 28) participating Best Buy stores throughout Canada are giving away free Nintendo DS XL when you trade in 5 games worth at least $9 in credit.

Each store roughly has only 20 units to give away though and the games must have their boxes, plus you have to trade in games that are on their updated trade in list.

Honestly I was thinking of trading in some games to do this in order to finally get a new Nintendo DS and get rid of my Pink one but I can't think of 5 games I really want to trade in that would be on their trade in list. Besides I find it funny that they say the game has to at least be worth $9 but if you read the fine print, they say they can deny a trade-in if they have too many copies of the game in stock and most of the games they have on their trade in list are all higher valued games worth generally $40 at my local game store.

If I really wanted to do this deal, I would find a bunch of game worth roughly $9 in credit games or at less games that are old, so I could get my DS in a decent deal. Selling newer games worth $40 in credit would mean I just bought the Nintendo DS XL for full price - $199.99 and I don't want to do that. I could do that anywhere on any day just by trading in 5 of my newer games.

Hi Silicon Knights!

For those coming from the Silicon Knights Forums:

Sorry I didn't review Too Human sooner but I have a bad habit of not wanting to review the games I really love playing. Much like Fable 2 which I still haven't reviewed and yet I am still currently playing, I feel if I review it, then I have to stop playing it and move onto the next game.

I know its a horrible excuse but its my excuse.

I'm glad you all liked my review enough to talk about it though and I really do think that the other reviewers that gave it low reviews didn't give this game a fair chance.

I am mad that Dennis doesn't remember me though. Geez, you do a TV show with a guy and he can't even remember your name.

Ubisoft to Setup New Studio in Toronto - UPDATED

Ubisoft announced on Monday in an official press conference that they will be opening a new studio in Toronto, Ontario, Canada as part of a program to bring new jobs to Ontario.

Ubisoft, which has a studio already in Montreal which employs 2000 people, also setup a new studio in Vancouver early this year.

The CEO of Ubisoft, Yannis Mallet and the Premiere of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty appeared together to make the official announcement about the new studio.

UPDATE: Ubisoft has posted a highlight video from the press conference on Monday.

[Via CBC News]

49% of Canadian Gamers are Female

At the Ubisoft Press conference today, Ontario Premiere Dalton McGuinty stated that over 49% of Canadian Gamers are female. Okay, so I'm one of them, so who's the other chick? Just kidding.

That's great to know that the gaming population in Canada has finally become 50/50 men and women. Must be all those long cold winters with nothing better to do than play videogames.

[Via VG247]

Videogame Art from Maria Sunderland

I love to feature artists on my site and a while back I promised to post about an artist known as Maria Sunderland from Deviant Art.

Her real name is Jessika and she lives in Ottawa, Canada. She became interested in the arts when she was 13-years-old and is a huge fan of Sailor Moon and Sonic the Hedgehog. Jessika has a college degree in Fine Arts and a bachelor's degree in Arts and Design. Her art style tends to be more comic book and though she started her artwork as a hobby, she now takes orders for commissioned pieces.
Jessika has done several videogame fan art pieces for BioShock, Silent Hill, Kingdom Hearts, Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil. I've posted a few of my favorite pieces from her Deviant Art page here, but please check out the whole gallery to see all her work and also check out her webcomic, Drunk Duck.

Sony Must Have a Cool New Marketing Team

Though Sony has had some weird commercials in the past for their Playstation brand videogame systems, I have to say I am impressed with the latest commercials hitting the air waves recently.

The Playstation 3 Murals commerical that promotes games like LittleBigPlanet and Resistance 2, plus the PS3's BluRay player, has got a unique art style and a very catchy tune that would make even an iPod commercial jealous.

The music in the commercial is called "Everybody Ona Move" by Michael Franti and Spearhead.


Sony also has a commercial playing in Canada that promotes the new Sony PSP 3000 that follows a PSP on a silver ribbon through Canadian landmarks and city areas. I also love the music playing in this commercial which is called "Sleepyhead" by Passion Pit.

The commercial also does a great job of promoting the PSP's games and movie use.

Congrats Sony for finally moving away from commercials that confuse us or use talking rodents. Keep up the cool new marketing campaign.

Happy Holidays from Ubisoft

Today I went to the mailbox and found another sweet Christmas card from the nice people at Ubisoft Canada.

They sent me a holiday card with a pop out paper rabbid and greetings in multiple languages. Of course, I love anything rabbid related so I put my little Splinter Cell agent together as soon as I got the chance. The inside of the card showed 3 other rabbid types though ... Altair, Shawn White and a normal rabbid, all in papercraft form.


If anyone got those, post them because I want to see.

Happy Holidays from Sony Canada and Sackboy!

This is the best card I got in the mail this Christmas. Sure the family ones are nice, but who can beat a Christmas card with happy little Sackboys and girls on it?

Sony Canada was kind enough to send me holiday wishes this year with a custom Canadian LittleBigPlanet card. HOW CUTE!!

Look for my review of this game this week too.

Epic 8-Bit Art: Meet Purple Tentacle!

Today St.Catharines and most of Southern Ontario is getting hit with the nasty snow storm, so I spent the day working on some of my Etsy store orders and this guy - the Purple Tentacle from Day of the Tentacle.

I plan to make the Green Tentacle too and maybe Bernard and the gang, but they may be kind of big to make. The Purple Tentacle is about a foot high to begin with.

Sooner or later I plan to take all my Lucas Arts creations and frame them to hang up.

Rabbids Running for Parliament in Canada?

So yesterday Canadians voted and we ended up with pretty much the same government we had before we spend millions of dollars on a stupid election. How wonderful.

I just want to say I actually wanted to see change in the Canadian government, so I voted for the guy in the picture above, Mr. Jack Layton from the NDP party.

But now that the horrible attack ads are over, we can get back to the more important issues like ...

RABBIDS!!!



Ubisoft has created another Rabbids viral video and this time they are running for office in Canada. Check it out as Rayman Raving Rabbids TV is out on store shelves November 18, 2008 in North America.

Warhammer Expert Wanted!

Today I was doing a bit of job hunting and came across this listing for a part time job as a Warhammer expert. Apparently some club out in Welland, Ontario, Canada is looking to hire someone to help run their Warhammer club.

Neat job, but too bad I know nothing of the game. Best list of required skills I have ever seen though.

Click the picture to see the full ad

The Girl Gamer Visits Microsoft's X'08 in Toronto

While everyone else is spending last week checking out the latest in gaming at Leipzig GC 2008 or packing their gear for the upcoming PAX 2008 convention, Mike from Attack This! and I was checking out the latest in the gaming from Microsoft at the X'08 preview event in Toronto.

Since I don't get to jet set off to any of the big gaming events due to money and time issues, X'08 is one of the two gaming events I get to look forward to every year in my local area. The X event is put on by Microsoft to showcase all the upcoming Fall and Holiday titles coming to the Xbox 360.

This year's event was held in downtown Toronto in a bar called Circa, which is a pretty amazing looking bar with multiple levels and even a special room decorated in vinyl toys.

Several developers were on hand at the event like Activision, Midway, Warner Bros. Interactive, Square Enix, Electronic Arts, 2K Games, Sega, Ubisoft, Konami, THQ, Epic Games, Disney Interactive, and even a few small developers were there showing off their independent Xbox Live Arcade titles.

While no big announcements are ever released at the X event, Microsoft did decide to bring in the big guns with Cliff Bleszinski, who was on hand for interviews about his upcoming title, Gears of War 2, which was playable on the show floor.

While there were tons of big titles to play like Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, Call of Duty: World at War, I was only able to get my hands on a few titles for which I will be posting my hands on impressions soon.

I will say Microsoft definitely knows how to throw a party with tons of food, a open bar and a nice swag bag, though none of the t-shirts fit me. All of them were one size fits standard male geek and I'm standard female geek. All the better to sleep in I guess.

Big howdy to Jimmy at The BBPS.com and the gang at This Week in Geek! Sorry we didn't get to spend more time with you at the event.

So stay tuned for all my hands on game previews.

The Girl Gamer Heads to X'08 and Fan Expo this Week

This is completely full of epic week for me.

Tomorrow I'm going to Toronto to check out all the new and upcoming games for Xbox 360 and Games for Windows at Microsoft's X'08. I attended this event last year and though the building lost power an hour after I got there, it was still a great day and loved every minutes of it.

On Saturday I'll be hitting Toronto again for the Fan Expo which is 5 conventions in one: Science-fi, Gaming, Horror, Anime and Comic Books. There I'll be checking out all the vendors, stopping in on some Q&A sessions with some celebs and hopefully get to meet, Electric Playground host, Victor Lucas at the G4 Booth.

I'll hopefully have lots of coverage for you when I catch my breathe on Monday after all the excitement.

Now, back to Too Human!

Electric Playground launches new show: EP Daily - UPDATED

[UPDATED: It looks like EP Daily has replaced The Lab with Leo Laporte on G4TechTV, so expect to catch the show multiple times a day. The newer episodes should be on around 6pm or 8pm and run 30mins.]

With the crappy segments Attack of the Show has been feeding us lately, G4TechTV Canada has been ripe for its own version of a daily news show tailored just for geeks to come flying in to save the ratings.

Luck for us, Victor Lucas and Greedy Productions have the answer to AOTS's epic fail and it starts today. It's called EP Daily and it's a daily news show that plans to cover the latest in gaming, comic books, movies, TV shows, gadgets, toys & collectables, conventions, animation, music, web programming, and sports.

Don't worry though about those non-geeky catergory because all topics covered in the show will be made geeky. Athletes on the show will be talking about their newest videogame and musicians will be talking about their latest song or soundtrack in the a videogame.

EP Daily will be seen 5 days a week, Electric Playground will still be on one day a week, and in the Fall, a new show called EP Canada will also be launching that will profile talented Canadian working in the gaming, entertainment and tech industry.

The shows' coverage will also be expanding as perminant crews will start popping up in places like Toronto, Los Angeles, San Franciso, Montreal, and there is already a crew in Australia.

Finally all these shows will be available on G4TechTV and CityTV in Canada, and also available on G4TV.com and through G4's On Demand service in the US.

Unfortunately G4TechTV hasn't updated their schedule yet for Monday (I'm writing this on Sunday), so I'll just have to keep your eyes peeled for the new show today like me.

Fire Flowers Mysteriously Spring Up in Toronto!

Posterchild, the master of street art, has started guerrilla gardening in Toronto, Canada last month. He randomly installed mario block planters through the streets of the city with different types of flowers that look like fire flowers in them.



He installed block planters along St. Clair, outside Queen’s Dairy Family Restaurant, and a few other places too. Try and find them if you live in Toronto.

He also started a Mario Block campaign previously that he opened to everyone to get involved in, but it actually caused the bomb squad to come out in Ohio. Silly cops, it's just filled with Mushrooms.

[Thanks Ryan for the Tip!]

Sam Roberts " Them Kids" Video Mimics The Sims

Will Wright would be proud.

I've been meaning to find this video to post it on my site, but Ryan over at The BBPS did the dirty work for me and posted it first, so I'll give him the credit for finding it.

Sam Robert's new song, "Them Kids" as a wicked video that mimics the world of The Sims. I actually caught this video on TV the other day. I had to chuckle when I saw all the diamond icons appearing above the character's heads, but I never noticed the other Sims references.

The video clip I saw didn't show the whole screen, so I missed the Sims status bar in the left corner during the video. I'm glad I got to see the whole thing finally, because the news show really butchered the original version.

The Love Guru Trailer: the Only Way I'll Ever See the Toronto Maple Leafs Win the Stanley Cup

The Love Guru is the new Mike Myers movie and it's just too darn funny not to post. Plus it's so Canadian! Mike Myers, the Toronto Maple Leafs, Hockey, French people, etc.

Just screams post me! Comes out June 20th and I will be seeing it in threatres. Justin Timberlake is in it as a French guy from Quebec and he is friggn' funny. Watch the trailer!

Playstation Network Prices Coming Down in Canada

Since the recent changes in the Canadian dollar, the lovely people at Sony have been dropping prices on their gear up here in the lovely Canadian to match the US prices and we love them for it. *cough* Microsoft *cough*

Now they've been kind enough to announce a price drop with the May 1st update on the Playstation Network Store. Yeah! So now you can download complete PS3, PS1 and arcade games for hopefully the same prices as the PSN store in the US. We'll have to wait and see what the new prices with be, but if they're anything like the console price drop, then they'll be the same as the US prices. Nice, huh?

"We are continually looking for ways to enhance the player experience on the PLAYSTATION Network, and downloadable content through the PLAYSTATION Store is just one of our areas of focus," said Grace Chen, Senior Manager for the PLAYSTATION Store. "We anticipate that this price adjustment will meet the expectations of our Canadian consumers and provide them with a better PLAYSTATION Network experience."

Sony is like Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy rolled into one lately. Who knew?