In Minecraft Westeros, You Win or You Mine

I just recently wrapped up watching the first season of HBO’s Song of Ice and Fire adaption Game of Thrones and I have to say that it was fantastic. The producers clearly have a reverence for the source material and the small screen adaptions of the various locations looked spot on to me (except for King’s Landing which struck me as oddly tropical). Of course, with anything nerdy there comes the inevitable Minecraft interpretation of it, and a team of dedicated builders recreated the world of Game of Thrones in blocky form.

I’m always impressed with what people are able to do in Minecraft, and with the dedication they have to undertaking these massive projects. What do you guys think about Minecraft Westeros?

Notch’s Space Epic: 0X10C

Notch

Our love (and the Internet’s at large) affair with Minecraft has been well documented in these parts. While I’m not a guy that actually plays a ton of Minecraft, I consider myself a fan – I’m fascinated by the experiment and totally enthralled by the things that communities produce when they have that kind of free license and creativity. So it should probably go without saying that Notch’s announcement of his new game, 0X10C, is something that I’ve been looking forward to.

If there’s anything to say about 0X10C (besides that bizarre name that I have no idea how to pronounce), it would be that it gives a whole new meaning to the word “ambitious.” As epic as it would be to describe it as Minecraft in space, even that synopsis is reductive. Here’s a quick bit about the plot:

“It’s now the year 281 474 976 712 644 AD, and the first lost people are starting to wake up to a universe on the brink of extinction, with all remote galaxies forever lost to red shift, star formation long since ended, and massive black holes dominating the galaxy.”

It gets even better than that. A list of some of the features… Continue reading Notch’s Space Epic: 0X10C

What Are You Playing: Easter Edition

mincraft 1.5 weather

Happy Easter, everyone, hope you got your fill of chocolate and/or religious significance this weekend. As a godless heathen (aka, non-denominational well-wisher), I’ve been using this time off to play a few games like Minecraft, Portal 2 and the Gears of War 3 Beta. I might sound like a broken record on a couple of those, but what they hey, it’s not like anything is coming out until L.A. Noire hits.

Every since the 1.5 update of Minecraft, I’ve been getting back into that game in a big way. I’ve been playing cooperatively with my buddy and it’s been going rather well, except for the two occasions where he lured a Creeper into my tower and demolished my ground floor. Oh, and there was that instance where he built a giant pyramid but forgot to stock the inside with torches, so all the monsters spawned inside the darkened interior and we had to flood it with lava to kill them all. Good times. The weather effects are also pretty neat, and I’ve witnessed a couple of decent thunderstorms. Even though you spend most of your time underground, coming up to a different atmosphere is a nice change of pace.

What have you guys been up to these past few days? Portal 2, Mortal Kombat, or polishing off the backlog? I’ve told you what I’ve been up to, what you got?

Minecraft: The Last Minecart Gets Real

Minecraft mania swept the Internet a few months ago, and we went right along with it. We posted every cool video about the Enterprise or a mine cart interstate, so I understand if you’re a bit Minecraft weary. This video that I’m posting, though, is a different sort of Minecraft fan-film. Instead of showing off a crazy mega structure in-game, two dudes took the setting of Minecraft and turned it into an ass-kicking throw down.

I think this is pretty awesome, and the panoramic shot at the beginning showing off a Minecraft like terrain really sold it for me. So, did you guys like the video?

The Kanto Region of Pokemon Red & Blue Done in Minecraft

Happy Saturday to you, Gamersushi visitors. As we unwind from the week, I thought I would dip back into the endless font of insane Minecraft videos and bring you something completely different. While we’ve seen some intense stuff, never before have I witnessed dedication on this level. Some poor, lonely soul has taken it upon himself to recreate the Kanto region of Pokemon Red & Blue in Minecraft and he did a really excellent job. For those of us whose younger years were formed by a Pokemon addiction, this video may bring back misty-eyed memories of that once simple pastime. Take a look:

It’s amazing what this little indie runaway has inspired people to do. This is a perfect facsimile of the levels from Pokemon, complete with a Power Plant hiding a certain Legendary bird inside. Pretty nuts, if you ask me. Anyone else impressed by this recreation?

Today’s WTF: Angry Minecraft Fans Shut Down Minecraft Because They Want More Minecraft

minecraft ddos attack

Don’t worry, GamerSushi faithful, today’s Minecraft post isn’t about some crazy contraption or a replica of a Star Destroyer (although that would be cool), but instead about a group of pissed-off protesters who are attempting to force the developer to update the game with a hack attack.

According to the blog of the head developer of Minecraft and newly minted owner of Mojang Specifications, Notch, the Minecraft servers starting having trouble last night because of a DDoS, or Distributed Denial of Service, attack. For those unfamiliar with the term, this basically amounts to occupying a specific resource for a long time so no one else can utilize at. As Notch himself put it, it’s kind of like paying for your groceries with small coins, then finding out you don’t have enough after you’ve counted all of them up very slowly.

Notch himself isn’t too sure why Minecraft is being targeted, but Kotaku dug up an apparent manifesto on 4chan, which is the Internet equivalent of Mos Eisley from Star Wars. According to the rant, a group of hackers banded together to force Notch to update Minecraft which, for a half-price Alpha, isn’t being improved upon fast enough in their eyes. Here’s the group’s alleged ransom letter: Continue reading Today’s WTF: Angry Minecraft Fans Shut Down Minecraft Because They Want More Minecraft

GamerSushi Asks: What Are You Playing?

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

Since I haven’t been playing very many games in the last few days, I thought I’d live vicariously through you guys. Caught up in the middle of a substantial amount of personal writing, I’ve set my gaming aside just a bit. It keeps nipping at my heels, too, but I try and resist as much as possible.

So, if I weren’t writing, here are the games I would be playing: Halo: Reach (Captain Grade 1, bitches), Lego Harry Potter (I refuse to return it until I get an achievement), Breath of Death VII, Dead Rising 2, and Minecraft, although I might cave and check that one out tonight. On my list for the next couple of weeks: Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.

What about you animals? What are you playing?

Minecraft: The Guest Review

People first started suggesting I cover Minecraft on Bytejacker a little over a year ago. I messed around with it a bit and felt lukewarm on it. At the time, it was basically just a world of Legos – a cute sandbox you could dig and build in with others, but really nothing more than a technical demo. “Impressive for being made by one guy,” I thought. “I hope he can turn it into something.” Continue reading Minecraft: The Guest Review