Are You Afraid of the Dark - Pt. 2

As I mentioned in the last column, some of the only actual gameplay in Minecraft is surviving the nightly spawning of zombies, spiders, skeleton archers and hissing bomb-snakes called Creepers.  Eventually (or way too damn soon, depending on how you look at it) the sun-cube will set, and monsters will spawn in the darkness.  If you're well-equipped and skilled you could try fending them off long enough to survive until morning, or you can build yourself a safe hidey-hole and wait for the sun to come back up.  This single mechanism, the need to survive, does an incredible job of prodding the player to build better and more effective structures as they play the game.

My first Minecraft character wasted no time building a fort and staying behind its wood-and-stone walls until daylight roasted everything that was still slithering outside, but that just wouldn't do for Captain Reynolds.  He'd want to grab the darkness by its jimmy-jams and ride it like it was a steel beast forged in the depths of Hades until it bleated for mercy.

But he'd also want to be smart about being foolhardy.  First, he'd need a weapon.

Are You Afraid of the Dark?

I paid to download Minecraft about a week ago, after watching several videos about just how nifty it is.  The indy sandbox game is very much like a "Lego" videogame made for adults:  you mine blocks, then craft things with them.  The game is still in beta, but has already had two million people pay to download it.

While there are no specific goals for the player to accomplish (other than achievements that were recently added to give the player a kind of guide to get started), the single- and multiplayer modes have a "survival" theme built in.  When the sun goes down, monsters spawn in dark places and try to kill you.  There are some monsters that can survive in the sunlight, but most burn into a crisp once the molten cube rises in the east, leaving behind stuff you can loot.

I played quite a lot my first week, and decided to start a new character in a new world just to see what I'd learned.  And since I'm a roleplaying geek, I'll play as if he were some explorer stranded on a rustic new world and trying to get by.

Welcome to Serenity, Captain Reynolds.

Raid Night

Tuesdays are raid night.

That's become one indelible imprint that playing World of Warcraft has made on my life.  On Tuesday morning the servers go down for maintenance, and then when they come back up and I get off work in the evening there are fresh bosses to down and a surge of players ready to take their stuff.

For raiders, the week starts on Tuesday.  Monday is a day for finishing up old business, knocking out a couple of dungeons, or getting mats like flasks and feasts ready to fuel the raid machine.  We watch Monday Night Football, or take the significant other out to eat, or do a few extra chores because from 7pm to 11pm on Tuesday...

It's raid night.

The Only Good Troll On The Internet

I saw WoW is going into extended maintenance tomorrow, and since they just put out the above trailer for Patch 4.1, "The Rise of the Zandalari", that means one thing.

"THE PATCH'LL COME OUT... TOMORROW!  BET YOUR BOTTOM DOLLAR..."

Still No Cake: But Lots of Memories

Portal 2's single-player campaign has been vanquished.  Questions have been answered.  Robots were destroyed (and one saved).  And plenty of science was had by all.

Before the nit-pickyness sets in I wanted to bask in the euphoric glow I got when I flung that last portal and solved the final test, so here's my favorite memories from playing Portal 2.

So long, Aperture Science... and thanks for all the memories.

You monsters.

D&D Monday

"Gelatinous Cube, party of two!"

My D&D group just hacked and slashed their way to level 5 Sunday afternoon.  The players themselves have really gelled as a group, but their characters in many senses are still establishing themselves.  Especially the "veteran" of the group, who has switched classes and races several times before settling on the goliath barbarian Lokag.

From the beginning, I have told the members of the group (most of whom are playing 4E for the first time) to not worry about retraining or remaking their character if they find themselves at a point where they aren't having fun anymore, or with a bad combination of abilities that haven't worked the way they wanted.  Out of the new players the warlock has changed the most, switching from a fey pact to a melee-based Essentials hexblade before switching back when the veteran decided he wanted to play a melee character too.

But now, after going an entire level without making a major change, the barbarian wants to switch to a controller.  A while ago I would have been thrilled, because this now gives the party one person in each party role, but I just hope it's the last time he wants to completely reformat his character.  I can't even figure out what loot to award him week to week!

Portal 2: A Primer

Because the PR engine is revving past the red line for Portal 2 right now, there's quite a few people who're still trying to figure out just what's up with the robots, weird ads and portal guns.  So, for the like... four of you who didn't play the first Portal, here's what I would suggest:

Play.  The.  First.  Portal.

There's really no other way to describe or explain the wave of emotions people experience when they hear the synthesized malice of GLaDOS' voice, the plork sound of a portal hitting a surface, or the knee-jerk reaction that comes from hearing someone even humming "I'm Still Alive".

(Seriously, my friend was humming it at the table once and I kicked him without thinking twice about it.  Jerk.)

So what's all the fuss about?  Why are people crying themselves to sleep with their Weighted Companion Cube plushies, only to wake up screaming in the middle of the night "THE CAKE IS A LIE!!"?