Friday, November 19, 2010

A little something about Games and Money

Ellen Degeneres' show is doing a "Top 12 toys of 2010" show. I don't watch the show, I don't care about the show. The thing is, her and her kind(talk show hosts people, mind out of the gutter) have made big gaming news lately.

I give you exhibit A. Oprah gives all her audiences Kinects.
Exhibit B. Ellen gives all her audiences Kinects.
I'm pretty sure Fallon did the same... though I can't remember. I do remember him practically having commercials on his show about it.

Anyway. I just find it funny that people think Oprah knows what the hell a Xbox is, much less a Kinect. These people were payed money to do it. Now, Fallon I can't look down upon so much, he probably would've had SOME kinect coverage, and if they're gonna throw money their way, why not take it.

The point is, Microsoft gave them the consoles free of charge and if anything payed them money.

Now we get to Ellen's Top 12 toys. On that list is going to be Tony Hawk's latest videogame. I call bullshit. Why? His first "skateboard controller" game is a infamous bomb among the gaming community. So much so that the sequel sold 3,000 units in its first MONTH. THREE THOUSAND UNITS. The worst of the worst bullshit games usually do at least 20,000. Its bad. Horrible. And its going to be on a list of the best toys for Christmas? Ellen got a check, don't let anyone tell you different.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

A renewed look at offline Multiplayer for PS3

I never achieved a circle of online friends in my console gaming. When it comes to PC Games, I achieve it rather easily. Due to the inherent user investment of time, there are many mature and fun circles of players in almost any PC game.

When it comes to multiplayer with consoles, I prefer the offline kind. In my earlier years, it was important for me to have games like Mario Kart or Road Rash 2. Later I got away from that kind of stuff when I went hardcore into RPG's. Goldeneye and WCW/NWO Revenge brought my friends together again for 4x multiplayer. After that it was rare I enjoyed anything. Wii Bowling was good for a few days, Guitar Hero came and went.

When I got my PS3, I found myself with a room full of family members of many ages during our holidays and grill outs. When I had somewhere along the line of 20 game demos, it was Little Big Planet that stood out. I soon got the game and now had a new outlet for people of any age. It was also really great single player when no one was around.

Now I'm looking to expand my multiplayer capabilities. I have a few guidlines

-must have simultaneous multiplayer that is fun for a whole room to watch

-must be controller trading friendly so the room can quickly rotate in and out of the game

-must look impressive and not have sluggish framerate even in 4 player split screen

-must be fun from 12ish years up to sky is the limit on ages that can play

My first look is to Modnation Racers. This game isn't as loved as I expected it to be. Its like Little Big Planet combined with Mario Kart. Except there's no blue turtle shell BS. You can create your racer, you can create your kart. You can even create your track. I pretty much would have to limit people to choosing to either make a kart or make a character, but not both... in the interest of time.

Another I'm looking at is Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game. Its a cheaper download only game. It has 4 player fighting and it is sort of like a Double Dragon/River City Rampage game based on the comic book. I hear its very challenging even though its only 7 stages. Plus its like 15 bucks. The game is very enjoyable to watch, so I think it may fit well.

The hard thing to decide on is a multiplayer first person shooter. I do not think Goldeneye was that enjoyable to watch. We usually only had 4 people around when we played that one, so it wasn't an issue then. I hear Resistance has some good 4 screen matches, it uses more familiar WW2ish era weaponry, so nothing crazy like the RPK90. That's all I got for now, so I need to look for more.

Wrestling matches are too long these days to even bother with.
There is no interst in the group for something like Street Fighter. Fighting games are just too dependent on someone having prior experience with the game. No one would play me.
Party games are not an option, I will not "waste" my gaming on a game I'll bring out 10 times a year. I have to have something that I will play when no one's around as well.

Oh well. I'll just have to keep looking

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Minecraft Relocated.

This is for what seems to be the 15ish of you that read my gamer blog now that I have a Minecraft blog.

I moved the Minecraft blog to:

http://skyppcraft.blogspot.com/


Its so I can list it on the Minecraft forums. So please go there for Minecraft updates.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Season 2 Minecraft: The River 5 Vengeance in Mine!

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I started out pretty simply. I ran out at dawn, found several creepers and killed them with arrows. It takes about 5 arrows to kill them, so the "sling" sound was pretty fulfilling, but it was not enough for me. They weren't suffering.

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For something filled with gunpowder, these guys sure do take a long time to burn. Which is actually fine with me, they squeal while they burn to death. Just light the ground in front of them on fire and they run strait through. Ah. That felt good.

But was it really enough? No.

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This guy fell in a hole, and was then helpless. He couldn't escape, just hop there, hoping I would get close enough for him to explode... but I had other plans. I covered the hole with wood... nice flammable wood. Then I stacked gravel, nice heavy gravel on top. Oh? You didn't know that gravel falls as if held down by gravity? Neither did he.

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It would be bad for him if somehow that wood was to disappear and allow all that rock come crashing down on his head.

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"I don't deserve this." he said to me.
"Deserve ain't got nothin' to do with it" I said, as I lit the wood.

I then remembered I get extra rewarded for killing Creepers.

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Poetic justice.

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"I'll see you in hell" this one told me.

"Yeah... I reckon so" then I lit the fuse.

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EDIT
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To anyone that is new to this, this is season 2, titled: The River. Season 1 was titled: The Bay. You have to dig back a few posts to find The Bay as this is my gamer blog and I have some non-minecraft stuff going on.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Minecraft: The River episode 04

This one gets interesting at the end.

The next big cut was a rather large one, the first where I really cut into a mountain side. It was during this cut that I realized how drastic a change to the scenery this would be. This would not just require cutting work, but eventually sculpting landscapes as well. For now, the grunt work.

I surround the land areas I want to cut with torches because they are plentiful, renewable, and easily seen at night. I decided my route and I placed them down in what I thought would be a manageable cut.

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Next I went to "water level" and I traced and cut out the shape so that I knew when to stop digging down while I was clearing the land to the bedrock.

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I continued like this for several blocks of land. Each night I would return home with my tools, unload a ton of dirt and rock, and prepare for the next morning. The time in my treehouse was rather nail-biting. There was not a lot of room up there, and every morning I was greeted to this:

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That was a light morning. I also learned the flaw to a treehouse... it shaded the undead from the sun, so every morning I had to jump out of my tree house, turn around and kill whatever it was keeping me awake at night.

So this particular morning I woke up and waited for the dead to turn to ash and I jumped out of my treehouse, only to see this in front of me:

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If you remember, these things are full of gunpowder, they hiss, blow up and destroy things. I didn't want my tree house to be blown away, so I ran as well as I could. I must've stubbed my toe cause it blew up...

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my oven! :(

This was a declaration.

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This was war.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Minecraft: The River episode 03

The grunt work begins.

Remember that open mouth of hell I said I found? Well, I'm on top of it here to get a survey of the landscape below. I'm trying to plan out the path I want to take the river through the hills in this area near my Tree House.

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It is not very easy to see a simple path through. The strait line method doesn't really match the contours of the land, nor does it really "feel" that's where the river would go. So I have to kind of take a detour as you can see in this shot here:

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A bit further along the path, you can see that it goes beneath Hook Mountain and continues on towards the ocean in the valley between Hook Mountain and the other cliffs opposing the mountain.

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So here we go, the first real big cut. I knew I was not going to do any turning just yet, so I dug strait lines in the direction I had decided. Next I started clearing the dirt out, and then I had to switch to picks so that I could get the rock out. I wanted to save all this dirt in case I needed it later. I made several big storage boxes near the tree house to hold much of it.

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Finally I broke the dam once again and let it flood the area.

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I know this wasn't the most interesting of updates, and I promise its not a season of "I cut here, I flood here" so stick with me, more cool stuff to come!

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Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Minecraft: The River episode 02

So today I was to set up and get ready to work on the River. I thought I would test the waters a bit, and learn how water worked in the world. At this time I did not even know if I would be able to make a river.

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You can see Fort Lookout in the view, and that the bay turns into a sort of river and elbows off into the distance. You can also see that the river blocks up rather early in a very shallow spot, it looks perfect for my plans.

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The blockage is short, so the plan is to simply cut right through the area. First I find my depth:

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A creeper from the night before helped me out with that... while I was surveying, it ran down and exploded right beside me. No complaints I guess, I did not die, and now I have a start.

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Next I cut a shape out in the way I wanted the river to go. I made sure not to make it too strait and to have some variation in its path so it did not look too man made. After cutting the shape, I start hollowing out the land.

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Next I break the earth dam, and the water rushes in. It doesn't fill fully like real water, so I have to bring in water using a bucket to fill the corners, but in no time the river is connected with the pond and we have the makings of a waterway.

It has actually been several weeks since season 1. I did things like planted trees and flowers near Fort Lookout, I explored a bit more around the area. I am ready to move to a new area, so I think of where my river is likely to take me and I know how much work is going to keep me from Fort Lookout. I find two trees up in the hills and I make myself a tree house in their leaves and branches. I later add a simple chimney stove on the ground so that I can cook myself some food.

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Monday, November 1, 2010

Minecraft: The River episode 01

When we left off, I had created a lookout tower to live in while I explored the world I found myself in. It was perched high upon the land and located in a bay of water. Monsters hardly ever ventured near the area, it was a nice safe haven. I began looking at my bay as a sort of highway, and it hit me; why shouldn't it be?

I did not understand the monumental task that I had layed out before myself.

If my plan was going to come to fruition, I had to find out how far I was from the ocean. I made some fresh leather armor, I cooked some ham for the trip, shined up my tools and made my trek at dawn.

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My bay had a bend in the shape up near my gravel pit mine which gave it an illusion of being continuous. In reality it was about 3 ponds that were very close together, from up high it looked like it was a river that had just been dammed by some beavers. Exploring from the farthest pond, I came upon this site:

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It looked like the mouth to hell had opened up to my left. Out from the mouth was a deep and winding valley, and in the background there was this gigantic looking mountain rising out of the earth.

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I made my way over lots of hills for a closer look. I ended up calling this feature "Hook Mountain". Images of a little cottage on top of hook mountain entered my head, or perhaps a sort of Fort Lookout number 2. It was underneath lookout mountain though that cemented my resolve. The valley in between had lots of sand, like it was a dry river bed. It also seemed to be low enough to perhaps be sea level.

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Speaking of sea level, there was a hint of water. I hoped through an archway and kept moving, it was not long before I had found what I was looking for: an Ocean.

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Its beaches were vast and its water seemed to go on for a very long time, I made sure it was not just a small lake. While exploring I saw what looked to be a chimney.

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I had not kept up with where I had gone, so I thought maybe I had found an earlier explored area where I had used blocks to get a better view, but no, it turned out that this was a natural formation. I had found what I call Chimney Falls.

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Once I was there, it started to turn into night, so I had to dig myself a small shelter and wait out the darkness near the falls. In the morning I would head back home and prepare for the large task at hand.

I wanted to dig a river to the ocean.