Minecraft - Link to the Past - Desert Palace

 

Work continues in my Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Hyrule build in Minecraft. I just finished work on the Desert Palace which brings my Light World up to about 75% complete. I'll move on to Kakariko next (which will go fast) and then the Lost Woods which might take a bit due to the sheer number of trees required.

Minecraft - Link to the Past Work Continues

Okay, so I've been back on a Link to the Past kick recently and have been working on it more than I should. Sue me... :-P

Anyways, I've completed the wooded section between Link's House and the lower section of Kakariko. I was dreading this because of the sheer number of trees in this section, but it turned out not to be bad at all. I laid out the basic foundation with just the stumps, then used MCEdit to copy/paste an already done tree on top of all the trunks. It actually didn't take long at all.

The wooded area.

Another update I made was to the woods surrounding Link's house. Before, they were in-game grown trees (instead of the hand-crafted "Hyrule Tree"). They got the job done, but never quite looked right. Now I think they look a whole lot better if I do say so myself.

A closeup view of a single "Hyrule Tree". 2x2 stump, 7 blocks high, with 4 Glowstone in the leaves making each tree give off a little bit of light.

Now where did he bury that ocarina flute?

Another section that I have completed the roughing in portion is the lower half of Kakariko. You can see part of it in the first screenshot in this post. In order to accommodate the levels and still stay in sync with the rest of Kakariko, I wound up digging that section down into a valley. It works and I don't think it's too disruptive to the world design.

Plugging away and the half-way point is approaching. I'm 2/3 done with the Light World now and then it's on to the Dark World! The Dark World will go a lot faster as I plan to copy the entire Light World using MCEdit and Paste it down below. A quick find/replace with Grass for Mycelium and voila, a rough Dark World. Little bit of hand editing to the over-world and build the dungeons and call it good.

Minecraft - Link to the Past Updates

It's been a long time since I stepped foot in my Link to the Past build in Minecraft, but I did just that and have made a good chunk of progress. I finished the light-world swamp area and the entrance to the desert. I've also laid out the ground work for Kakariko village and part of the Lost Woods. It's not much to look at yet, but it's progress nonetheless.

Now that 1.8 is out, we have many new blocks at our disposal and I really like what is now available. I need to go back through my world and see if any of the new blocks can benefit the rest of the map in terms of design. One place I know of off the top of my head is the Tower of Herra. Because of world height issues, I had to make each floor only 2 blocks high with a 2 block high floor so that the orange/blue "switches" wouldn't show from the floor below. Now that we have carpet, that's no longer an issue. I'll remove one layer of flooring to make each floor 3 high and replace the wool blocks with carpet tiles.

Below are some screens of the recent progress. I'll post more when I have more work done.

The Swamp Area is now complete.

Entrance to the Sewer area.

Flood Gate room.

The path to the desert area.

The very roughed in desert area.

Paths are in place for Kakariko. I've doubled the scale of the village to help it fit in the world since I have extra space. It will also make the houses much less cramped once constructed.

Taking advantage of the better render distances to show off an overview of most of the world. Here is Hyrule Castle and the Eastern Palace.

Overhead view of the lake and swamp.

Sanctuary and Death Mountain.

Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster Still Going

In my last post, I talked about picking up a copy of the game from a friend at church. I've been playing the tar out of X since then and have completed everything except a few Dark Aeons and Pennance. I'm trudging through the grind to get my Luck stat boosted (Greater Sphere for 2x Luck Spheres, then Earth Eater three times for the 6x Fortune Spheres needed to activate the Luck Spheres). It's a lot of grinding, but it's going to be necessary to continue.

So far, I've taken down Dark Valefor, Ixion, Ifrit, and Shiva. I've tried both Yojimbo and Bahamut, but even with maxed stats, they still evaded my attacks (hence the need for boosting luck). I'm determined to at least make it to Pennance, but we'll have to see if I bore of the Greater Sphere/Earth Eater grind over and over and over again...

Beyond that, the only thing I haven't accomplished is getting Wakka's Celestial Weapon fully powered. I like Blitzball, but it gets tiring playing the ton of games required to get the different reels. I have a Break Damage Limit weapon for him as it is, so he's not completely useless.

If I decide to go trophy hunting and go for the platinum, I've only got a few left. The first being Wakka's Attack Reels. I've also got to max out the sphere grid for one, and then all characters. My main team of Yuna, Rikku and Titus are close to being there already and if I wanted to waste time grinding out easy spheres (MP, Accuracy or Evasion) I could do it fairly quickly. I also have the one in Remium Temple to get 5 chests and win the race. Then there is the beat Pennance trophy. Off the top of my head, that's all I have left. So close!

I'll stick with X for a while longer before moving on to X-2.

Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster

A few weeks back, I bought a copy of the Final Fantasy X/X-2 Remaster off a friend at church and I've been playing it quite a bit. It brings back a lot of memories running through Spira once more and I'm glad I acquired it.

I've played several other HD Remasters of older PS2 games and this is definitely one of the better ones. Quite often, I've been playing other games and all I could think about was how "last gen" the game was. Yes, the graphics looked better, but it was still slow and clunky behind that compared to more modern games. Fortunately, FF X still holds its own. Yes, it has quirks that scream PS2 like awkward animation and camera, but the gameplay is still solid, even after all these years.

Story wise, I haven't completed it yet. Even though it's an old game, I still don't want to spoil it, so I'll just say I've completed Zanarkand and am doing side-quests now. In fact, last night I acquired an item I was never able to get in the original PS2 version. I beat the Chocobo Trainer with a time of 0:0:0. I'll finally be able to get Titus' Celestial Weapon! (His was the only one I didn't have before).

I've ran into some of the Dark Aeons and have managed to die horribly each and every time. They are going to be a challenge for sure. I know I can beat Nemesis in the Arena (I did last time and I'm so far doing better now than I was then), and we'll have to see how things go later on.

I read my old review of the game and I gave it a 9.5/10, a score I still stand behind.

Eventually, I'll complete X and move on to X-2 and see if it is as well redone as X.

DLC Quest

I was browsing through the Xbox Indie section on Xbox 360 last week and amongst the tons of crap, I found a gem called DLC Quest. This is a satire game that pokes a lot of fun at the gaming industry and the current trend towards paid DLC.

You start the game with only the ability to move to the right. There is no animation, no sound, and you don't have the ability to jump or move to the left. As you glide across the screen, you collect a few coins and run into the merchant who will sell you DLC with the coins you just picked up. Once you buy your first DLC, you can now move about with all those extra moves that "should have shipped with the game".

What makes this game so much fun is how much humor there is in the dialog and interacting with the world's characters. I laughed plenty during the playthrough of this game.

The worst thing about this game is the length. It's far too short, but what the games does have is well done. Fortunately the sequel, Live Freemium or Die, is much longer and even funnier.

If you're looking to kill a few hours and need a few laughs, I recommend picking these games up. Not only are they funny, but they're good, simple platformers too. Plus, they're only $1 each on Xbox 360 (I guess they're on Steam too, but I'm not sure the cost there).

DLC Quest Link
Live Freemium or Die Link

Minecraft - Link to the Past - Zora's Domain and Lake Hylia

Time to continue on with my Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past recreation in Minecraft. Today, we'll head into Zora's Domain and jump down to Lake Hylia.

Still Alive

Four months. That's how long it's been since I've blogged about anything on here. No, I'm not dead, I am in fact still very much alive. I've been busy between church, work, and my newest son and haven't had much time to do a lot of gaming let alone write about it. Of course that doesn't mean I haven't been gaming at all! I just don't get to as often as I would like to.

Minecraft

I still continue to play Minecraft (PC) and have been working on my own world quite a bit. I finally discovered my first Stronghold and defeated the Enderdragon which was exciting. The Stronghold itself is an amazing structure. It's smashed together with an abandoned mineshaft and a ravine. Very cool. I'm in the process of "cleaning" the structure up by replacing all the cracked and mossy stone brick with regular stone bricks. I also have gotten in the habit of widening the mineshaft tunnels by 1 block on each side so I'm doing that as well. Really opens things up and makes the place look cool.

In my Hyrule map, I've finished Zora's Domain and Lake Hylia. With that, the entire eastern side of the Light World is complete. I've moved along the southern side into the swamp area and it's about half complete.

I guess the Xbox Edition has received a nice update recently. I find it hard to go back to that version after spending so much time on the PC. It's a shame too. I finally completed my underground pyramid and don't even feel up to doing anything with it to enjoy it.

Going Back In Time

Here recently, I've taken a step back a few console generations and have been playing PS2 games. What makes it special is the fact that I'm playing them on my laptop thanks to the pcsx2 emulator. I'm also able to use my ps3 controller to play them thanks to MotionJoy. Right now I'm working through Kingdom Hearts II. Been a long time since I have played the game and I had forgotten just how much fun it is. I don't know if I'll play any other PS2 games after I complete KH2. It's just fun to do for the time being and it's nice to be able to put a show/movie on for the kids and still play something without watching My Little Pony or Magic Schoolbus for the millionth time...

Borderlands 2

On the Xbox 360, the last time I even turned it on was several weeks ago. I got online and ran around Borderlands 2 for a while finally completing my first Headhunter Pack. That game is still a ton of fun. I need to finish up True Vault Hunter Mode, especially since I discovered the "Loot The World" app on Android. I've sent some sweet equipment to my game and need to get back on and collect them.

Fable 3

Since my last blog, I've finished up a few Xbox games. I finally made it all the way through Fable 3. Truly a fun game to play. I played a good character (and have the angel wings to prove it). I think I'll try an evil character if I ever start a new game and see how much of a difference that makes. I've been tempted to pick up a copy of the Anniversary Edition of the original Fable, but that will have to wait.

Bioshock: Infinite

I also finished up Bioshock Infinite. All of the Bioshock games have been absolutely amazing and Infinite is no exception. It took me a while to fully grasp the ending (I had to go through it again) but once I did, it was a true "Bioshock Moment". Not quite the same impact of the twist in the first, but good nonetheless.

SOCOM

Switching over to the PlayStation 3, we said goodbye a few months ago to the game that was the original reason for me getting the system: SOCOM: Confrontation. Now that the PS4 is out, Sony is slowly shutting down servers for PS3 games and this was one of the ones that got the axe. What's even more unfortunate is that the game is online only so now I basically have a nice coaster. Once the major launch issues were worked out, this game was a lot of fun and we make sure to play it as much as possible in the final weeks to properly say goodbye.

Gran Turismo

Also on PS3, I put Gran Turismo 5 back in and have been doing a lot of racing. I'm about 80% through the A-Spec races, but I'm to the point where each race is either a 30+ minute race or a championship that takes well over 90 minutes to complete. Beyond that are the Endurance races that start at 4 hours and go up to 24 hours of racing. And yes, that is literally 24 real world hours of racing! I hate to say this, but I think I'm done with it. I might move on to GT6 in the future, but I don't plan on it as of now.

Friday Night Gamimg - Killzone

For our Friday Night Game Night on PS3, we're currently playing multiplayer on Killzone 2. Quite a few of us picked up the Trilogy a while back and this has been the game of choice after SOCOM went kaput. We're basically learning the levels and trying to play without bots as much as possible to help us rank up and get better weapons. Last Friday, I finally unlocked the shotgun. The other guys didn't like that...

I played part of the campaign for the first Killzone, but it's too much of a "PS2 shooter" that I had a hard time getting into it. Instead, I went to YouTube and watched all the cut-scenes for the basic story so I could move on. I haven't played any of the campaigns yet for 2 or 3, so those are on the ever growing to-do list.

Ratchet & Clank

One last thing I completed on PS3 was the complete Ratchet & Clank HD Trilogy as well as Deadlocked. That was 3 easy platinum trophies (I'm missing the one for the first R&C game because I don't want to spend that many hours grinding bolts for the RYNO...) Aside from Final Fantasy, this has got to be one of my favorite gaming series. I'm thinking of getting Into The Nexus once the price comes down a bit. It will be a sad day when Insomniac announces the next R&C game is PS4 exclusive.

Moving to Next Gen?

One thing my friends keep asking me is if I'll make the switch to next gen and if so, which one. My honest answer is not yet and I don't know. PlayStation 4 was my first choice a long time ago and I'm still leaning that direction. We don't have cable or satellite (we barely watch broadcast TV even), so the One doesn't appeal to me on that front. Either way, that's a ton of money to save up for something I wouldn't be able to use and enjoy nearly as much as I would like to.

For right now, I'm saving my money for 2 things: Diablo 3 (Xbox 360) and a Homebrew Kit so I can make my own beer. ;-)


Until next time!