Microsoft Releases Flight Simulator X

The day is finally here! My son has been eagerly awaiting the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator X. I have heard the countdown for weeks. When he announced it again last night (while watching Top Gun in surround sound with my husband), we suggested that it would make a great Christmas present. His response - "No way!" as he announced to us that he had this much birthday money left and this much allowance, and a gift card, so he was going to get it as soon as I would get him to the store.

You can download a trial version or get a screen saver for your PC at Microsoft's official Flight Simulator X page.

More Flight Simulator X reviews, info, and tips can be found at:

• FSPlanet
• FSInsider
• Simviation
• Wiki
• Avsim

Leave us a comment and let us know what you think of this new game!

Gaming Try Before You Buy!

We cleaned out the playroom over the weekend and got everything reorganized. In the process I noticed something - there are a lot of PS2 games down there that have not been played in ages. A lot of them I question as to whether we got our money's worth from.

I just found out about a service where you can rent unlimited games with GottaPlay.com.
It is kind of like Netflix for video games. Think of the money I could have saved!

Basically, you set up an account, decide how many games you want to rent at a time, pick your favorite games, and go. They send you video games. You play them as long as you want and when you are done, you send them back and they send you your next title. If you decide you really like the game you can just purchase it. How easy is that?

Product Review: Trinkies - Bling for your Cell Phone

Now that more and more tweens are getting their own cell phones, we're seeing more products that let them customize their phones. Last week we found Trinkies. Let's just say they are bling for your "ring." We got two of them. A cute green shamrock for me and the sparkly pink fairy for my daughter.

Trinkies are like jewelry for your phone's antennae. Slip them on and off easily and change them out to match your mood, your outfit, or the seasons. You can even make your own custom Trinkies! They can make your own designs into cell phone antenna charm rings. Perfect for school or athletic teams or company promotional items.

We even found another use for them - my daughter and I have identical digital cameras. We figured that we could use the Trinkies to help us keep track of whose phone was whose by slipping the Trinkie through the camera strap.

Hit Parade from the Kid's Office

What's hot right now? Based on the activity in the kids office these days, this is what I can figure:

• DoSomethingAmazing - A must visit for anyone interested in the Air Force, airplanes, or the military in general. It is actually the Air Force's recruiting site, but it is COOL. You can watch videos of air refueling, the Thunderbirds, space command and more. There are also games on it like the very addicting Air Refueling game.
• Cat Bowling - In the spirit of Halloween, bowl with a pumpkin and knock over the cat-pins. Lots of fun, great sound effects, and truly done with humor in mind.
• Webkinz - My daughter got two of these animals for her birthday and they come with codes for registering them on the web. Once their codes are entered, you can play all sorts of games on the site.
• Lego - My son is taking a Lego Mindstorms class and really likes this site. He has taken pictures of his creations to submit to their site.
• Shockwave - They have so many games that our whole family loves. My favorite is Chuzzle.

What games/sites are making the charts in your house? We'd love to know!

Microsoft Flight Simulator X Deluxe

In the eyes of my tween, October 17 can not get here fast enough. He has been saving his birthday money and doing extra chores so that he can be one of the first to get Microsoft Flight Simulator X Deluxe.

He loves flying planes and has gotten more than his money's worth out of Flight Simulator 2004. One thing he is looking forward to in the X version is the ability to fly actual missions. Other features according to Amazon.com include:

• Fly 24 different airplanes, including Ultralites for when you don't want to deal with all the knobs and dials
• Visit 24,000 of the world's airports, on all 7 continents
• Authentic road layouts - fly over your home town and navigate by the streets below
• Simulates advanced GPS technology
• Deeply immersive world to providing more structured gameplay elements

Why get the Deluxe version? Rumor has it that it will contain more airplanes, more airports, a multicrew mode and software to make new planes.