I’ve been playing a lot of “Words with Friends” for iPhone lately. My friend sent me a mystery score where his opponent used all 7 tiles to produce the word “Grinders” for 54 points but the score on the board should have only been 19. I found the Words with Friends Rulebook which reveals that you get 35 bonus points for using all of your tiles in a single turn. Interesting!

The Words with Friends rule book also reveals the source dictionary of valid words for the game. The game uses the Enhanced North American Benchmark Lexicon (ENABLE), a free public dictionary filled with many “words” that would never make it into Merriam-Webster. I found it interesting that NewToy (Zynga) also throws in words of their own to modernize the game’s lexicon.

The first DLC map pack for Call of Duty:Black Ops came out earlier this week. Having played it a little, I would say that I really like the Berlin Wall map with the guard towers. Interesting choke points. Kowloon is frustrating but I think over time it will be fun once I figure out its intricacies.

What are your thoughts in First Strike?

Many gamers consider Treyarch-produced CoD franchise to be inferior to Infinity Ward counterparts. (I.E Modern Warfare 1 and 2 vs. World at War and Black Ops). However, one of the great things about Treyarch is they put a lot of effort into keeping contact with their legions of loyal fans. They have a Twitter stream, a well-moderated forum, and various other other social media channels.

Last week they pushed a substantial patch for XBox 360 and PS3. Of the list of new features, I like the addition offline “Practice Dummies” and the “Dolly Cam’. Although I personally wouldn’t take the time to go into the theater, I look forward to seeing some fine cinematic displays of 30-kill streaks on YouTube in the near future.

See the 15 levels of Black Ops prestige symbols