Dropping Some Crazy Updates!

While the PC version of Minecraft is finished with the Beta portion of it's life, the XBLA version is still trying with all it's might to be just like its older brother.

And I can confirm it is doing a great job so far.

I have spent most of today on the Creative mode of my map building, destroying and re-building my newest project, Nerd Tower, and the surrounding village, originally named... Nerd Village. (Naming it didn't occurred to me until just now..) I will try harder with the names...

Of course Creative mode isn't the only thing featured in the update, there is a multitude of items, both new food and new blocks to play around with.

But I honestly cannot stop playing creative mode. My houses no longer suffer the wrath of having a lack of resources! I don't have to use a pick to re-design my house, I just punch it if I don't like the way it looks.

edit:

So since I started my project I have had a new idea...

I want to make my map a community map, full of buildings and creations from all of my friends. I'm writing this as I watch the first of hopefully many friends build... something castle-like with vines and such. Kudos to her, because even though the exterior design is quite simplistic it does look quite brilliant next to Nerd Tower.

I'm thinking of uploading photos to Facebook of all these buildings as they are finished. But more on that once I actually get a few people to contribute.



So I think that's it for now, I will be writing again in a couple of days I hope, with updates on the creation of the village.

Happy Minecrafting!

Oli

The One Where I Run Out Of Ideas

While I'm sitting here with my laptop, watching Slither (starring Nathan Fillion from Firefly no less) and I thought that I would be kind, and give you all something to read. But then I found I had writers' block. I want to write, but I don't have anything to write about. Well, I have one thing. So, they decided to call one of the characters on Slither Grant Grant. Really? Grant... Grant? You can't see me, but I'm shaking my head in disappointment.

And that's me all out of ideas.

So, E3 hmm? I watched the Microsoft and Ubisoft presentations on YouTube (To be brutally honest, I only watched the Ubisoft show because Toby Turner was co-hosting) and this year of upcoming games looks quite interesting. I think the new game to watch in my opinion would be Watch_Dogs from Ubisoft Montreal. A sandbox game, where you have the ability to hack into any electronic device, which you can use to your advantage, and by doing so, literally use the city as a weapon (I recommend watching the video, it does a lot better job than I just did of explaining, but I'm just going to blame that on the writers' block)

The other game that really interests me right now is Assassin's Creed 3, now set in Colonial America, spanning 30 years between 1753-1783. New game mechanics, such as Naval battles, and not just that, but also navigating ships through storms, while avoiding unfortunate swells (Makes for difficult sailing). Even though I think that this will be brilliant fun, what I really want to do is use the bow and arrows, while hanging out of a tree. But of course, that's just me. Anyway, I'm looking forward to October 31st this year. You won't see me trick or treating this year.

That's all I got. Considering I didn't know what I was going to write, I think I did quite well, don't you?

Anyway, I'll start thinking about my next post right... after Slither finishes.

See y'all next time! (That's my American typing, pretty good, right?)

Oli

You Don't Have To Be A Nerd To Play Minecraft

It's been a while since my last post, so instead of going outside and enjoying Sol I figured I should write about what I've actually done over the past few days.

Sometime in the past week, I decided that I was going to design a new world for Dungeons and Dragons complete with sketches of the towns and cities. I got distracted by a TV show I used to watch as a kid, Avatar: The Last Airbender. I thought that if I could adapt this idea to DnD somehow it would be kind of cool to play... It's a little more difficult than that though, partly because everyone would want to be the Avatar, but I don't think getting rid of the Avatar altogether wouldn't fix the problem either. Then, of course, there's the elemental manipulation problem... And the six-legged, flying Bison...

So yeah, that's what I've been trying to do.

I have also noticed a spike in Minecraft activity in my friends list. It mostly seems to be girls who play it though, either that or guys just don't want to tell anyone about it. It seems that you don't have to be a Nerd to play Minecraft anymore. But I have seen people openly against the game, and I think I understand why. Its probably because of the graphics of the game are intentionally... blocky. But what I don't understand is why that should matter. Anyone who plays any game should be playing games because they have good stories or the gameplay is good. Ok, Minecraft doesn't have a lot of story, but it's fun to play, and I for one would much rather play Minecraft than most games out at the moment.

I'll keep this post short, and I'll try to post again soon.

As always, Comment on this post, tell us what you think, and Share us with your friends, we always appreciate new readers.

Oli

Adventures in Minecraft 360

It's been a long time since I last posted, so I wanted to write about the most recent game I found on XBLA.

Minecraft!

I have been looking forward to this, ever since Tobuscus started making Minecraft gameplay videos (His first video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVAcd-ffIMg) where he has adventures in WorldBuscus. Anyway, that's how I started learning about the game, and it's a good way to waste an hour or two. And also a good distraction from writing this post.

So, I just started playing Minecraft, this being my first time actually playing, and I want it recorded for future generations so they can learn from my many, many... many mistakes. Seriously, at one point I left my house and I fell onto Creeper (I fell down the ladder to my house) and his friend caught me by surprise, killing me, and destroying my poor house in the process.

Let me walk you through my unfortunate first few hours of the game.

So I started on Peaceful, because I wanted to get a feel for the game. And it was good, for a while. But, it turns out, that I picked the only mountain in the game which was nowhere near a single block of coal or iron. And. as I found out in a very unfortunate accident, very close to a pool of lava. Seems I wasn't ready for peaceful...

Sometime later, after mastering the controls, and my urges to swim in lava, I had built another House on the highest point of the map, it was intended to be my own version of Mount Olympus, I even brought water and tilled earth to grow my own crops up there. I was, and still am proud of my creation. From there, I could see most of the Surface-World and the lights of the random torches I placed across the world.

It was going well. So I got bored...

I decided that moving up to easy would be a good idea to help keep my interest. You have to take your time on things like this. I started a new World, and built a new house before nightfall, (complete with windows!) still unable to find coal once again, probably because I was cooking some windows, instead using cacti as a barrier vs. Creepers and hid in my dark and lonely wooden hut. What fun that was, but we've all done it, right? The cacti were effective though, at times they were even keeping me away from the house. And for the first few days I felt kind of safe. This is where I decided to move houses, and I built one above ground, so that I needed a ladder to reach it. That's where it started to go wrong. I should have stayed with my friendly neighbourhood cacti friends, because this is when I fell from the ladder and met my new Creeper friend...

For any beginners out there, I have three basic Rules that I hope will help keep you alive longer. Just a shame I forget about them...

Rule One: Check your surroundings before you open the door. I cannot stress this enough. It may be that I'm just unlucky, but it seems that everytime I leave the safety of my house, there is always a Creeper, or a skeleton just hanging out by the cacti, waiting for me. Granted, it did get better once I made torches, but still, I think the game is out to get me.

Rule Two: Never underestimate the power of shutting the door behind you. I won't go into that, just trust me.

And finally, Rule Three: Make sure it's definitely Day Time before leaving the house. No amount of torches or cacti defenders will help if a Creeper decides he doesn't like your face.

If you ever thought before that you wanted to see what all the fuss was about with Minecraft, the Xbox version is great, but as development started months ago, Notch (the creator) and Mojang (the developers) haven't been able to keep the Xbox version the same as the current PC version, so there are some differences. I do recommend this game for Xbox though, as there will be updates soon, and even though it isn't fully up to date yet, I've still wasted most of my last few days playing Minecraft. There's always something to do, and it can keep even the most easily distracted occupied for days at a time.

Happy Gaming!
Oli