this is not a journal title

There's a GemCraft iPhone app. It is more similar in gameplay to the older GemCrack games, not GemCrack Labyrinth. The free version has 5 levels, in each you can play 3 styles, and there are three difficulty levels. I haven't yet tried the paid version, I'm waiting till I beat the free version (I tend to spend too much money in general, so I try to spend as little as possible on video games). The interface is okay, but of course a bit more kudgy than a mouse and hotkeys. I recommend hovering one finger over the pause button. On the iPad you can tell it's not using the full resolution, but that doesn't significantly reduce its addictiveness.

I know one of you asked for another long tower defense game comparable to Gemcraft. Protector IV might fit that bill.

I'm doing surprisingly well on the new French vocabulary version of FreeRice. they've also got other languages now, multiplication, geography, and more.

Yet another good time wasting game I just discovered: Bubble Tanks. This one has a gameplay similar to Geometry Wars, plus upgrades along a tech tree where you can go for fast but weak, or heavy tank.

spazzy444 was asking for games to play during her lunchbreak, so I made her a list. Here it is, in no particular order, because we all need more procrastination. Items in italics indicate factors that may make play difficult during a lunch break.

( List here, cut tagged for those with addictive personalities. )


ETA: rosefox asked for more recommendations, and there are many in the comments here.

A java "crayon physics" -type game. Yes ayashi, it took me this long to beat all levels. :-P

Nearly 2 years and more than 132 hours later, I've beaten Final Fantasy XII. I did *not* complete all the side quests; I got quite far in them, but I was getting bored of doing them so decided to advance the plot and next thing I knew, I was done. Well, not really - what I thought was going to be the last quest turned out to not be, it was the second-to-last, strangely. I think I'd lost track a little of the plot, or I might've known. It was refreshing that the male and female leads did not fall in love and marry and live happily ever after.

I'd say the story is a little less intriguing than my favorite, FF8, and I miss the Junctioning and GF system, but I like the Gambits a lot, takes away a lot of the micromanaging that I am not a fan of. The License system is intriguing, but it becomes moot after you've done a bunch of leveling towards the end of the game. I'm glad I didn't have to dick around with any stupid card games; the Hunts are a nice set of sidequests that net you good items and experience. There were a few Magics I never found in the whole game, and should I play it through again I will attempt to find them. Or I might just pick up from the last save I had and get the remaining Hunts and look for those Magics - the structure of the Hunts makes it so that (as far as I can tell) none of them ever become unavailable, so I don't think I "missed" any Hunts. I kept expecting some sort of mini-game of flying the Strahl, but there wasn't one. I found in the end that the best combination of character roles was a tank who also did stealing, a defensive spellcaster, and an offensive spellcaster who also did some other technics in boss battles. Losing the encounter system and being able to change weapons mid-fight was great.

If you have a short attention span, do NOT play this game. If you like RPGs where you get soooooooo many hours of gameplay for your buck, then do.

Test your vocabulary and feed the hungry simultaneously!

Just for you, jethereal, though I'm sure framefolly won't turn down a time-waster. ;) Yoinked from the_xtina here.

ETA: After donating some 200+ grains of rice, I'm hovering at level 39-40. Not quite as awesome as you, the_xtina, but pretty damned good for a scientist. And I'm sure I'll get there if I don't get bored first. :-P Meanwhile, I'm tempted to calculate these grains of rice in a more meaningful unit, such as volume or mass...

ETAA: 700+, and I'm bouncing from 39 to 43. :-P

To warm up for the MIT Mystery Hunt, try your hand at identifying these objects, and also seeing how far you can get at this puzzle. For the latter, no cheating - you can find all the answers via Google, but you shouldn't. It's ok to use it as a tool to get to the answers though.