Minecraft - New Survival World Castle

I bet you were hoping my next update would be a continuation of my own Hurule project. Well, work on that has slowed down a bit, but I am still plugging away at it. I've finished most of Death Mountain now except for the Eastern caverns. Figuring how to make all those work has been a pain! (There are a few quick photos at the end of this post)

What I want to share today is a new world I started that I've become rather fond of. As usual, I started on pure Survival without cheats, but with the Bonus Chest. Right off the bat, I found an extreme hills biome with a great mountain that had a huge opening through it. Naturally, I had to climb to its peak and claim it as my own. From a simple dirt base in the side of the mountain, my castle began to take shape. This is where it stands currently.

Minecraft - Big Project (PC) - Hyrule from Link to the Past

Hello everyone. No, I haven't disappeared. I've simply been busy with life and haven't had much time to play games recently. Most of my time has been spent playing Borderlands 2 on the Xbox 360 and playing some in my Survival Map on Minecraft PC. I've also still been blasting away at what I'm now considering a stupid project in Minecraft: Xbox Edition; my bedrock to surface pyramid. (I'm getting close to completion though!)

But there is one project that I have been working on when I get a chance on Minecraft for the PC that I'd like to go ahead and share with everyone. Now, when you see it, you're probably going to say "But you already did that on the Xbox" which is partially true. But, with the power of the PC's version, as well as the extra block types and items, I've been able to do it so much better. Plus, being able to use external tools such as mcedit has made a huge difference. Add to that the customizable "Super Flat" levels, and I now have the foundation for my epic project.

I'm recreating the entire world of Hyrule from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

Opinion: Target parenting, not games for violence - Rep. Duncan Hunter - POLITICO.com

Finally, a politician who gets it and isn't afraid to spell it out!

Opinion: Target parenting, not games for violence - Rep. Duncan Hunter - POLITICO.com

Growing Up

As I said in my very first blog post, I've been gaming since I was a kid way back in the NES days. I'll probably be gaming through many more generations of consoles too. I'm a gamer for life. In many ways, it makes me feel younger, a little like a kid in many ways. Games still provide an escape for me, like a good book does for others. But every once in a while, something comes along that slaps me in the face and reminds me that I'm 30.

Today's Penny Arcade comic did just that.


When you think of it in those terms, it's shocking and really puts things in perspective. I wonder how long it will be before I'm having a similar discussion with my girls when I break out my SNES or N64 for them to start playing with? I've already had to create a special world in Minecraft for my oldest to run around in. She likes playing Daddy's "block game". She's only 4 and it's already started.

At the same time, I wonder if she'll even be receptive to the older games once she gets a little more older? Especially after watching me play the newer games, will she be able to transition back to 2D or early 3D and have the same enjoyment I did?

I guess time will tell...

Minecraft - Still Mining

Happy New Year everyone! Fear not, I haven't disappeared! I simply haven't done much to warrant a new post yet. The "little project" I started back in December is taking a lot more work than I thought it would, especially since I'm doing it all by myself. I never really thought it through when I had the hairbrain idea in the first place. On the plus side, I am inching closer to my goal of creating a surface to bedrock pyramid underground.

Minecraft - The Next Project

Okay, so I just can't stay away from this game for long!

I started a new world on the Xbox using the seed "yolo" and in this world, I only play Survival with monsters on. It really makes it a whole new game and experience doing this. Before I 'officially' started playing this world, I explored it in creative and I must say it is going to be an interesting place to explore once I really get started. There are lots of villages and ravines, abandoned mineshafts and at least one stronghold. I don't remember where any of them are, but they're out there somewhere. (I deleted the creative world and started again with the survival one) I spawned near a desert village to the far south and that place has become my home base. So far, I've been fortifying it and building up supplies. I have managed to find a little bit of iron for a few tools, but not much yet. It's still a ton of fun except those darn Endermen keep taking my blocks...

Back in my first world, I have began yet another massive project. Or at least it's turning out to be massive. I didn't think it through just how big it would get when I started. I went to the very center of my map at 0,0 and created a 3x3 hole 1 deep where the center of the hole is the exact center of the world. From here, I proceeded to dig down and create an underground pyramid so each layer down gets bigger by one. At first, it didn't seem to bad, but I'm about 25 layers down and each new dig is taking more and more time to do. Thankfully, I have a ton of TNT stored up. In the very center, I left a pillar and have a ladder going all the way up to the top as my only entrance.

When I'm down at the bottom looking up and what I've done, it truly is an amazing view and I can't wait to see what it looks like when I hit bedrock.

So far, I have been pretty lucky in that I've only hit one water block and a few caverns. I predict that luck will run out soon when I get deeper as this region of my map has a ton of lava in it. Luckily I now have a ton of gravel to get rid of it all. I'm also running out of room in my store room for cobblestone. I'm working on filling chest number 17 with cobblestone and I have a long ways to go.

Borderlands 2

As annoyed as I am with the Black Thursday Friday sales, I did get a new game for my collection at an amazing price. Thanks to an awesome stranger who grabbed the copy for me, I now have Borderlands 2 on the Xbox for $25.

I had played it a bit split screen with my brother-in-law before, but this was my first opportunity to play it solo and full screen. Needless to say, I had a blast! I played it about an hour or so by myself before a great friend jumped in soon followed by my brother-in-law. The three of us played co-op together until the wee hours of the morning. We ended with us arriving in Sanctuary and taking care of a few things there.

This game is so much fun to play, especially with others. I'm just glad that I get experience for their kills as they are all several levels over me and were tending to kill everything that moved before I had a chance to join the fight... Oh well, still fun.

I also like the graphical style of the game and the massive size of the levels. Being a big fan of large world and loot games (Diablo, Fallout, Oblivion), I have also been enjoying exploring the world, opening as many containers as I see and finding as many guns as possible. I just wish I had more backpack space.

Right now, I've been working on an Assassin character and am almost level 11. I'm looking forward to trying out the other classes as well and eventually getting the DLC, probably via the season pass. I can tell you right now, this game is probably going to take up a lot of my gaming time now and is a welcomed break from Minecraft. 

Update: I guess I'm a 'bad blogger'. Here is yet another blog I've had drafted for well over a week and haven't posted yet. I'm now a level 12 Assassin and still loving the game. I just met the Firehawk when I left off.