I have been getting busy in Minecraft on our new beta server. I found an awesome cliff side to hollow out and then I replaced the cliff face with a giant wall of glass. Here are some pictures I took during the process:
Getting started.
Notice the fenced in area, creeper protection.
The glass wall is in.
Another shot of the glass wall.
A third shot of the glass wall from my neighbors home.
Work area for digging out the inside.
Ladder leads up to the top so I could add a wooden ceiling.
I asked for help digging everything out and this is what I got.
And digging is complete!
View from the outside after digging was completed. Monster trap to the right.
A sunset as seen from inside the base.
Next on the agenda:
1. Pick a good name for this base. Any suggestions?
2. Make super secret entrance and remove old boring entrance.
3. Set out to "cool ass rock formation" and build our server's minecart track switching station. We are building a more manual, switch-based station this go around to avoid the maintenance automated systems require.
4. Fill up all this empty space with a cool multi-level platform (think scaffolding that will be there permanently).
5. Destroy monster trap outisde base and build a new one on top of mountain. Funnel new trap loot into base.
6. ????
7. Profit!
2. Free 2 Play will continue its march forward and many will consider 2011 the year that F2P becomes the dominant business model not only for MMOGs, but for any online game (MOBA, FPS, etc.)
Yay, I still have $6.25 left to spend on non-gaming items! And damn it, how did I miss Puzzle Quest for $1.50! Anyways, this is how I feel after Steam Sales:
Thanks to this post over on Reddit, I just scored a copy of Battlefield Bad Company 2: Vietnam for $5 via the UK EA Store. The code is redeemable on the US version via Steam. And after a single game I am convinced it was well worth the $5. Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Morning Vieeeeetnaaaaam!
Sorry, there will be no part 2 to this post about what I was building in Minecraft. As the beta approaches for Minecraft, tomorrow actually, my friends and I decided it was time to go all TNT Armageddon on our server. And, well, my house was first and is now nothing but a giant hole in the ground.
Normally, a month of hard work lost in a few heartbeats would cause a rage inside me that most have never seen, but with Minecraft things grow stale. Also survival multiplayer has been updated so much that when I started my project the game was immensely different than when I left off (players NEVER finish anything in Minecraft). I'm looking forward to starting over with all the awesome knowledge I have now. This time, I may actually fit my mine cart system in my initial building instead of some sort of Frankenstein building that I was building on the old world!
A new world dawns tomorrow at minecraft.gamesnacks.org. Come on over and say hi.
Here are the results from my first multi-player match in League of Legends? I think I did fairly well. We won the match even though we had one player AFK nearly the entire match. I played as Ashe, who I am liking (following this guide).
NOTE: If you are interested in playing, please sign up via my referral link.
If you've been following my Raptr stream, you may have noticed that I've started playing League of Legends (LoL). LoL is a strategy game based on the concepts of the Defense of the Ancients (DotA) map from Warcraft III. Players pick a champion and battle an opposing team and their defense towers, NPC minions, and an NPC filled "jungle".
However, one sentence is not going to describe this game adequately. It took a 48 minute long video for me to finally grasp the possibilities that lie within this game. And there is nothing like a crazy British person to introduce you to a game with the acronym LoL:
With the video out of the way, here is my pertinent info:
Ingame name: heartlessgamer
Now, I've only played practice matches up to this point against AI bots. The community from all reports is unforgiving of newb players. The game is designed so that a bad player really hurts a team. A player that repeatedly dies without accomplishing anything is in reality "feeding" the other team and allowing them to increase their power and control of the game.
I suspect that I will be coming out of practice mode soon, because there are some things I won't learn until I am playing the real game. Also, I need to climb the leveling ladder to 30 which will never happen just running practice games. Leveling is a player's learning period, so I need to take it serious instead of just rushing to 30 because a level 30 newb has no excuses as to why they don't understand the game.
Oh and did I mention that the game is completely free to play? No? Well it is and most of the extra parts of the game can be unlocked for free as well by just playing. The items that can be purchased in the cash shop are cosmetic or allow for players to skip past a bit of grinding in game points to unlock the various champions.
I am still helplessly addicted to Minecraft. I've given up on survival singleplayer now that survival multiplayer is alive and kicking with damage. I play on a small server with a few friends (but its down currently :( ) The game is definitely still alpha in many regards, but the quality of the core components makes it very playable.
Here is a few screenshots showing the evolution of my little spot on our server. This covers my basic building. I have a lot of progress past this which will come in another post.
This one is before I realized how to use F1 and F2 to take clean screenshots.
Putting the interior balconies up and finishing the ground floor walls.
Framing out the second floor and testing different roofing styles.
The Steam sale has been fairly underwhelming up to this point, but that may be due to the fact I own so many games from last years sale that I have yet to get around to playing that I'm afraid to buy anymore this year! Dawn of War II Gold Edition is on sale now as of 1 PM EST for $13.60 (thats DoW II and DoWII Chaos Rising packaged together)
It sure has been quiet around here lately. I missed out on EA Louse and the copy cats. Work has been crazy and in my free time I've been settling down to watch the Green Bay Packers play, watching my son, or listening to the soothing sound of blocks being mined in Minecraft.
First, lets get the business out of the way. I have embedded the new What I'm Playing/What I'm Paying spreadsheets for September and October below. The overall spreadsheet (includes previous months) can be found here.
Game of the Month and /Played
To be honest, September and October were all about one game: Minecraft. Minecraft is a simple, yet brilliant game. Mine blocks, build stuff. The entire randomly generated world is made up of blocks that can be harvested either through tools or through the use of raw fist power. The blocks can then be used to build anything imaginable. Throw in flowing water (or lava), monsters, weapons and armor, and online play and you start to see why I am putting so much time into the game.
To best describe the game let me refer you to one of the video series that convinced me to buy the game:
Minecraft is addictive fun and nearly everything I've ever wanted in a game. Oh and its still in ALPHA. ALPHA! Now with the beta on the horizon and promises of better functioning multiplayer, I may have found the addiction... err game... I've been waiting for since giving up my addiction to World of Warcraft.
Best of all, I can run Minecraft on my work PC. Good bye productivity (just kidding boss, I only play on break or on lunch).
Total spent this Month: $13.47 My Value Rating: Excellent
Minecraft costs anywhere from $12 to $15 depending on the conversion rate at the time. This purchase price includes all future updates for the game. This is the best game purchase I've made in a very long time.
will maintain its dominance.
will NOT launch this year.
will be announced by Microsoft. Nintendo and Sony will stay with their current generation.
- $10
- $25 (Includes original, Awakening expansion, and all content packs)
- $5
- $3.75
for $1.50! Anyways, this is how I feel after Steam Sales:
![Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam - Expansion [Online Game Code]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uaBNXpiC2O6j_YbXSRvnplCfQeJCCp3KoUJNLD8x9Jnchy4zOYIQfabGLi95MnxZRryUD2Y96toCECTbc0c2leeBaFxS3-NzvTQleuYtaGbrD_VBaoN7pibvWpX3oLIM7M4tCOSozt1KNRGnx75VJ7S2FFGMVGXotiweKpGGhabYPDQVGb6mM05fpsDqwzcsD7LzHbNxpHBJPwpxZ5ybPGdEVR-O4AdcRVvF6D85E=s0-d)
Thanks to
for $5 via the UK EA Store. The code is redeemable on the US version via Steam. And after a single game I am convinced it was well worth the $5. Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Morning Vieeeeetnaaaaam!
? I think I did fairly well. We won the match even though we had one player AFK nearly the entire match. I played as Ashe, who I am liking (following this 
. Players pick a champion and battle an opposing team and their defense towers, NPC minions, and an NPC filled "jungle".
is on sale now as of 1 PM EST for $13.60 (thats DoW II and DoWII Chaos Rising packaged together)
(Xbox 360) - $29
s (Xbox 360) - $29
- $169
- $34 (save $45)
- Check back shortly for deal
- $98 (save $3)
play, watching my son, or listening to the soothing sound of blocks being mined in Minecraft.
.
