My New Addiction: Minecraft

I'm probably the last person to buy minecraft, but boy, have I fallen in love with it. I understand why people like it so much now. I first bought it a couple weeks ago when my friend Tyler mentioned he was going to start playing it, so I joined him and a few other friends on a multiplayer survival server to see what it was all about... and I had a ton of fun. Unfortunately the server went down a few times, and I didn't take any screenshots, but still- Minecraft is fun. Just trying to gather materials to survive in the world is one of the aspects of the game I find exhilarating. Another thing I love about it is how every world you start is randomly generated, and exploring that world, finding different biomes and formations.

The game runs pretty well on my netbook, but I can only set the render distance to normal and the graphics to fast. Sometimes my netbook reboots itself as well when I multitask too much... but I'll get more into that later, I'll probably get a desktop sometime over the summer so I can continue to play PC games.

ANYWAY...

Yeah... Minecraft... it's awesome. If you haven't bought it yet, do so now.

And I made this anthro Dragonair skin for myself, check it out:

Senor Boligrafo is Ink by the way.

Gaming on a Budget: 3D Dot Game Heroes & Muramasa: The Demon Blade

3D Dot Game Heroes
Price New: $15.03

Yes I know I already covered the Atlus sale from 2 weeks back but these two games feature fairly atypical graphical styles and are just plain fun games. Get 3D Dot Game Heroes if you are interested in a classic Zelda style game with 3D retro graphics with plenty of in-jokes for those in the know. Get Muramasa if you just like a good hack 'n' slash with RPG elements and a hand-drawn art style that is a increasingly rare thing nowadays.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade
Price New: $12.83

And a bonus new game:

Portal 2 (PS3, 360, PC)
Price New: $34.99 (PS3/360), $29.99 (PC)

I can't recommend this game enough. Portal 2 expands on everything the first Portal offered and makes them better. Not only that is hilarious. And us PS3/PC folks can play it cross platform which is pretty damned neat. I don't know how long this particular sale will last so get it now.

Weekly articles on suspension (maybe...)

I had a terrible weekend.

First my laptop went on the fritz, the graphics processor went haywire and overheated, and after a while, it was doing fine, but then I accidentally broke the keyboard while trying to fix it, so that's also something wrong with it, and now it has pretty much died and I've given up all hope. I'm using my dad's PC to post this right now, and I'm going to try to get my old laptop to work a bit later.

Soon after my laptop started screwing up, I was getting sick. It's some kind of cold mixed with allergies or something, and I don't usually get a sickness like this. There was also a huge storm in my state this weekend. Tornadoes everywhere, luckily, none came near where I live, but there was a severe warning for my county.


To make matters worse, I found out that a job I wanted to get hired for has been filled, and there was only one other person going for that position, so I feel pretty crappy about myself right now. I was hoping I could use the money earned from that job to buy a new laptop or at least a netbook.

I don't really feel like writing on the blog because it's hard for me to think straight... even though I just wrote on the blog. (I'm such a hypocrite, I hate myself.) Anyway, I've been taking some medicine for the cold/allergies and I have a long break for Easter this coming weekend, so hopefully I'll feel up to speed and start writing some more articles that aren't just weekly ones. I'll be sending a heads-up to the other editors to see if they want a hand at any of my weekly articles, so be on the look out for that.

Thursday Trailer: Primal Carnage

Guess what! I thought of another feature!

Every Thursday, I'm going to be posting a trailer for a game, new or old. I just thought it would be something interesting to see and may make people aware of some games they might not have known existed! Like this one that I keep telling people about: Primal Carnage! This is a new gameplay trailer for it that I came across last week:

This game was also mentioned months ago in my 'Dinosaurs!' article. Hopefully, we'll get to see more of this game very soon! I'm loving how it's turning out so far. If you're not sure what the game is about from the video, here's a short explanation: there is a team of humans, and a team of dinosaurs, you try to kill one another, that's it really. Well, there are more game types that are mentioned on the official website, and some of them sound really fun.

Top Ten Games You Probably Never Heard Of

So in celebration of 10/10/10, our malevolent admin Paleo is making us do top ten lists.
I'm doing mine on awesome games you've probably never even heard of, in absolutely no particular order.

10. Giants: Citizen Kabuto (PC)
Giants: Citizen Kabuto is a third-person shooter with strategy elements. Doesn't sound too exciting, but the humor is great and the plot is engaging. Each race is diverse and plays differently from the others, and becomes a new experience for each faction you control. Sadly, the game gets a tad monotonous during the later stages.

9. MDK (PC)
Murder Death Kill, one of Shiny Entertainment's best games. It's a first person shooter, but your character, Kurt, has the ability to snipe from very long ranges. The graphics are unique in the fact that most objects are just 2D sprites rendered from 3D models, like in Donkey Kong Country. This also made the game less taxing on slower computers, due to the reduced requirements. The humor was great and the weapons were zany. Who wouldn't want the World's Smallest Nuke?

8. Sky Odyssey (PS2)
The cover art looks pretty intense, huh? Well you're right, but not intense in the way you'd think. Sky Odyssey is a flight simulator. No combat ever plays out during the game. It's mainly about going from point A to point B, while flying across treacherous hazards such as rock slides. Sky Odyssey isn't the prettiest game; It was an early Playstation 2 title and there's a fairly short draw distance. The best part? The music is composed by Kow Otani, of Shadow of the Colossus fame, and it's just as beautiful here as it is in SotC.

7. Okage: Shadow King (PS2)
Alright. This game can really only be described as "Earthbound meets Nightmare Before Christmas". It's an incredibly quirky RPG about a boy whose shadow becomes the avatar for Evil King Stan. Yes, Stan. You have to set out and destroy the other evil kings who have usurped Stan's position, taking the title of evil king for themselves. The music is very nice, and the art style is actually inspired by the Nightmare Before Christmas. The only really bad part about this game is the awful battle system, but if you can tolerate that, it's a fun play.

6. Seek and Destroy (PS2)
Originally released as a budget title, it soon became a favorite of mine. It's a game about adorable tanks. Fighting other equally adorable tanks. Everybody is a tank in this game, including the priests and civilians. The best part of the game is the customization, allowing you to modify any real-world tank and giving it insane weapons. Is that a chainsaw on your M1A1? Why yes. Yes it is.

5. Opoona (Wii)
Opoona is developed by ArtePiazza, known for having helped develop many of the Dragon Quest games, and it shows. The game is an RPG that can be played one-handed with the nunchuck. It's a very casual, fun sort of game, where you take jobs and perform them. The game has alright pacing, but it's easy to get lost, even with a map. Also, no waggling for all of you anti-waggling Wii owners out there.

4. Prey the Stars (DS)
Also known as OM NOM NOM - The Game. It's a very quirky party game about four space dogs who go to earth to devour everything in sight. Each item they devour makes them larger, and the object is to become the largest. People liken it to Katamari Damacy without the rolling.

3. Lugaru HD (PC)
This is a game about ninja bunnies. That's the basic premise, and yet it works so well. Lugaru HD is a 3D combat game where you control a rabbit capable of performing insane acrobatic moves and attacks with just three buttons. Each button does many things depending on context, and you're free to create your own fighting style. The graphics might turn off some, but then they'd be missing out on a game where you can drop-kick a wolf into the stratosphere.

2. The Neverhood (PC)
The Neverhood is a classic in of itself. It's an adventure game sort of in the vein of Myst, but with Doug TenNapel's artistic flair. The entire world is made of clay, giving it a quirky, alien feeling as you control Klaymen and explore the various places in The Neverhood. The puzzles are Myst-inspired, but the smooth animation and funky music are definitely something unique that only the creator of Earthworm Jim could do.

1. Messiah (PC)
Messiah is a very zany game. You play as a cherub named Bob, sent to earth by God to cleanse the sins of mankind. The game has a distinct cyberpunk theme, contrasting the happy, cheery angel you play as. Bob can possess people and animals to infiltrate areas or to take out a target. The levels are very open and it's very easy to get lost in them, but it's a very amusing game nonetheless.