Identify this freaky spider I found outside my house!

Thanks for the help!

#Minecraft Boo

• Explore a scary new realm! A brand new hell world for fast travel. Portal in, move ten meters, portal out, and you're hundreds of meters away.
• Fight scary new monsters! Actually difficult this time around.
• Experience scarier depths! The deeper you are, the brighter it has to be to stay safe.
• Be scared of the dark! Torches will die after a while. Use flint and steel to reignite, or place lanterns that last forever.
• Catch scary fish! Or possibly just regular fish.
• Scare other players online! Less bugs, more implemented features.
• Carve scary jack-o-lanterns! Pumpkins can also be worn as totally useless helmets.
• Keep track of the scary time! A craftable watch lets you know when it's safe to emerge from the caves.
• AND MORE! Biomes. More music. Better sounds.
• Coming october 31, 2010 http://www.minecraft.net/boo/

So, this explains where I've been... #Minecraft

That's more hours in a single day than I spend during an entire month on most games.  Yep, I'm addicted.

Minecraft

Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft

Yes, I'm playing Minecraft.

4 Civ IV Annoyances Fixed 5 ways in Civ V

I've had a few days to play around with the Civilization V demo now and I've found a few of the annoyances of Civ IV removed.

1. Religion. Religion was just an annoyance in Civ IV for most players and of benefit only to the hardcore. Religion added more onto an already bloated management screen for a player's cities. Conceptually solid, but not much fun in practice.

1. Civ 5 fixes this by simply removing religion in favor of a revamped Social Policies skill tree familiar to anyone that has played an RPG in the last decade.

2. Stacked units. Some Civ fans love stacked units and others hate them. I'm firmly in the hate category. It made it impossible to strategically plan a war as a player's stack or stacks could never sufficiently defend a landmass. Choke-points and bottlenecks were non-existent. Not to mention the headache that it was to manage stacked units.

2. Civ V features one unit per tile gameplay.

3. Too many units. It was amazing how many units that could be built in Civ IV. Micro-management of these forces of war was never-ending, leading to long turn times.

3. Civ V dials the total number of units way down making each unit far more important as they occupy a hex all by themselves. Also some resources are strategic in nature and limit the number of troops of a certain type a Civ can field. For example: a Civ with one iron resource can only have one iron-based unit.

4. Squares.

4. I really didn't realize squares bothered me until I played Civ V with it's magnificent hexes. Then I thought about all of the best board games I play: Settlers of Catan, Battle Lore, etc. They all have hex boards!

5. Finally, Civ V puts the smackdown on a lot of other annoyances by simply having a better UI; one that is clear and easy to understand on almost every single screen.

Civ5 Demo has me covered

Just a quick note during the busiest work weeks of my life to say that the Civilization V demo is all I need right now.  It's amazing how much it offers for the price of FREE.

Get your own copy of the demo via Steam.

This is WHY Free 2 Play works, quote from Pirates of the Burning Seas team

Just a quick quote drop here. Pirates of the Burning Seas is going Free 2 Play and their lead developer explains a little bit why in this article at Rock, Paper, Shotgun:

RPS: Firstly, the obvious. Why free to play? Why now?

Declan O’Connell: Subscription-access greatly limits the potential player-base of a game. You’re making money off of every player who is willing to pay $15 a month, but you don’t get those players who would play if it was $10 or $5 a month, or those who would pay piecemeal for things that grab their interest. You also only make $15 per account for which your hardcore players can find a use, when they might pay even more for extra features. That’s the money end.

STOP!

Read no further. That is why F2P works as a business model. It removes the barrier to entry and allows players to participate at any investment level. Proper game design can then go a long way to encouraging players to spend more at the same time making sure players that don't spend as much don't feel left out.

MUST WATCH: A Game of Thrones HBO teaser trailer and more

The A Game of Thrones series being produced for HBO is in full swing and today we get a pair of teaser trailers.  This looks amazing already and I can't wait for the series to hit!

Arsenal of WAR goes live

Just a quick note to help promote a fellow blogger's new project.  Werit's Arsenal of WAR (that'd be WAR as in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning) website has launched.  Blurb:

When playing Warhammer Online, it is important to know what tools you have at your disposal. The Arsenal of WAR is a new item database to help you find the right piece of armor or weapon for your character. There are other item db's out there, but I wanted the Arsenal to be easy and up to date. Read on for the details.

Features:

* Over 8,200 items in the database
* A simple and quick interface
* Easy commenting, no need to register
* Search by name or by stat
* Links generated for each item from the WAR community
* Updated regularly, includes scenario weapons and the new sovereign armor sets

Dissecting Firefall's Gameplay Video

Red 5 Studios has finally come out of their hole to reveal the MMOG project they have been working on.  Titled Firefall, we got our first look at it this past week via this gameplay video.



There is no commentary with the video, so I wanted to take a few minutes to dissect it and throw around a couple of comments I have.

00:29 - We meet the two characters we will be following around the entire video. The second character has a visual effect of what can be assumed to be a continuous heal-over-time ability. Little blue plus signs swirl around the character. Visual queues seen by all instead of only textual and/or UI elements is a must in any modern game. Sadly, we've seen many MMOs where this is sacrificed for performance.

1:01 - Jumping! Jumping higher with jet packs! Jumping higher with jet packs and shooting! Hook, line, and sinker.

1:11 - The main character places a beacon to call down a Thumper which spends the next few minutes mining for minerals.

1:12 through 4:27 - Phew, that was a long boring three minutes. Wave after wave of enemy that looked and acted the same. This sort of repetitive combat that annoys players who are given guns and jet packs.

I really hope that this was more than just a quest and is actually Firefall's form of resource gathering. Locate a pocket of minerals, call down a Thumper, protect it while it gathers, let it shoot back off into space, and when you are back at base you can collect the minerals for crafting or selling or whatever they may be used for (fuel possibly as we'll see next).

4:31 - Seriously, loot with purple lettering!? I hate having loot spray out all over the place, especially when it makes no damn sense. Crystals and armor from bugs? Disappointed.

4:44 through 7:17 - Oh fuck yes, transport ship! The trip we take to the bastion of Dredge is quite amazing. We get a glimpse of an absolutely stunning open world. My main question, is this on rails or can players pilot the ship anywhere they want to go? Disappointing if this is only World of Warcraft's flight paths, but with space ships. Well maybe not too disappointing if they can be called in to pick a player up anywhere in the world! Lots of potential.

5:09 - Before moving forward, were those player-controlled ground vehicles I spied? They don't seem to be taking any preset path, so here's hoping they are player vehicles!

8:04 through 8:35 - Dredge: looks cool, seems dull. Standard MMO city, vendors and a bar. None of the NPCs really seem to be moving around at all. The place seems as boring as the cities from Borderlands.

8:36 through 9:36 - But right as it seems to be boring all hell breaks loose as Dredge comes under attack. This felt like a very organic fight. Obviously it is set to replay itself out on a regular basis, but this was cool enough that I wouldn't mind multiple run-throughs. Populate the entire world with events such as this and it's a promising feature.

9:37 - Alert, giant fucking robot attacking.

10:09 - Just as we are getting a taste for the ground combat, the character jumps into a turret and starts laying waste to the enemy. Next, the turret turns on the giant robot and we finish the video wondering what the outcome was.

Overall, I really enjoyed the video and I feel the game has potential. I understand the blog'o'sphere's concerns about it being Free 2 Play (F2P), but there is overwhelming evidence (from DDO to Allods Online to Battlefield: Heroes) that F2P works. Not to mention the evidence showing that the subscription model is faltering (WAR, LotRO/DDO dumping it). My advice to those glancing past Firefall already because it will be F2P: play it first.