Game review: Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition
After a massively successful run on the PC, Notch's innovative indie game Minecraft has finally arrived on Xbox Live Arcade, and it's a surprisingly solid port - given the switch to controller.
Minecraft is a sandbox title in which you can literally build and manipulate the world to your heart's content - with no clichéd story to get in the way. Everything in Minecraft is about freedom. The freedom to switch up the difficulty whenever you want - although you will need to save and exit and switch when you reload it, or create a tree to look like a certain Pegasus from a popular cartoon. You could even plant a row of suspicious wee- well, you get the idea.
The basis of Minecraft's gameplay is mining the environment, crafting items and weapons, and building structures to protect yourself. The tutorial mode does a good job of guiding you through the basics, such as crafting and mining. Although it's a little redundant because every time you craft a new item, or discover a new element, the game provides a brief description.
Once the tutorial is out of the way, you start the game with a map - which for some reason is stuffed in your inventory. It's a good idea to equip the map and set out exploring, as it's a bit tedious to cover every inch of the world.
Another fine example of tedium pops up when it comes to mining - it can get rather repetitive as you are digging one block at a time. Fortunately, tools created via the game's crafting system negate the tedium.
Minecraft has a tool for every aspect of mining: shovels for digging, pickaxes for breaking rock, and TNT for taking out large chunks of land. In addition, you can craft weapons - such as bows and swords - for hunting passive animals for food and their hides, as well as defending yourself against the hostile mobs.
Some items you craft, such as beds and torches, can be taken down and placed back in your inventory. The basic tools and weapons require a crafting table. It's easy to get a handle on crafting with your first crafting table, and you can create the tools to mine the things you need for the next, and so forth.
The worlds in Minecraft are populated by mobs. Depending on the difficulty level, you might get little more than passive and tamable creatures such as sheep, cows, and wolves. On higher difficulties, you will encounter hostile mobs at night including Creepers.
The hostiles will easily overwhelm you if you aren't prepared, so it's a good idea to start on peaceful difficulty or lower it before it gets dark - even if a creeper is attacking you if you exit the game and saved then reload the game on peaceful the creeper will vanish and your health will recover. Alternatively, you can keep the game on peaceful and just keep on building things - although you won't get any achievements related to killing mobs.
Inventory management has been optimised for the Xbox 360's controller remarkably well. To start with, the interface has been tweaked to allow mass movement - you can move all, or half, of an item from your inventory at the push of a button. Minecraft also provides three options for movement controls; the default is your standard FPS setup, which - while familiar - makes swimming a little awkward, as a face button has been assigned to swimming up while the right stick is assigned to looking.
Visually, Minecraft looks identical to the PC version - like it was released in 1995. Few of the visual effects that we take for granted in 2012 such as texture filtering and anti-aliasing are present. However, the lack of effects pays off in the game's expansive environment, as it runs at a consistent 60 frames a second. You can even make your way up to cloud level without experiencing the slightest frame rate dip.
Minecraft's graphics should be taken as more of a unique style, rather than dismissed as 'dated graphics'. Everything in the game is made of blocks - from the rain sprites to the mobs. The only drawback to the visuals is that there is a fair bit of pop up due to the long draw distance at ground level. However, if you collect tons of dirt blocks and build a tower up to cloud level you can get high enough to see the entire play field.
New to the Xbox Live Arcade version is a horizontal split-screen mode, allowing another player to earn achievements and mine your level. Online multiplayer allows players to visit your world and mine; you have the option to make the game invite only, or open to anyone. It's a good idea to be careful who you invite to your world because when a visitor leaves their avatar is saved to your world and any item they've collected is locked to that copy of their avatar's inventory. If, however, they place stuff they have collected or crafted from their inventory in a chest, it's there for any player to take out and use.
In terms of scale you have less room to play; it's just 1024 X 1024 compared to the PC version's 5000 x 5000. That said, the smaller scale combined with unique features is reflected in pricing at 1600 Microsoft Points; it's cheaper than the PC version. In addition, Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition is one of the more unique games on Xbox Live Arcade.
Minecraft is a sandbox title in which you can literally build and manipulate the world to your heart's content - with no clichéd story to get in the way. Everything in Minecraft is about freedom. The freedom to switch up the difficulty whenever you want - although you will need to save and exit and switch when you reload it, or create a tree to look like a certain Pegasus from a popular cartoon. You could even plant a row of suspicious wee- well, you get the idea.
The basis of Minecraft's gameplay is mining the environment, crafting items and weapons, and building structures to protect yourself. The tutorial mode does a good job of guiding you through the basics, such as crafting and mining. Although it's a little redundant because every time you craft a new item, or discover a new element, the game provides a brief description.
Once the tutorial is out of the way, you start the game with a map - which for some reason is stuffed in your inventory. It's a good idea to equip the map and set out exploring, as it's a bit tedious to cover every inch of the world.
Another fine example of tedium pops up when it comes to mining - it can get rather repetitive as you are digging one block at a time. Fortunately, tools created via the game's crafting system negate the tedium.
Minecraft has a tool for every aspect of mining: shovels for digging, pickaxes for breaking rock, and TNT for taking out large chunks of land. In addition, you can craft weapons - such as bows and swords - for hunting passive animals for food and their hides, as well as defending yourself against the hostile mobs.
Some items you craft, such as beds and torches, can be taken down and placed back in your inventory. The basic tools and weapons require a crafting table. It's easy to get a handle on crafting with your first crafting table, and you can create the tools to mine the things you need for the next, and so forth.
The worlds in Minecraft are populated by mobs. Depending on the difficulty level, you might get little more than passive and tamable creatures such as sheep, cows, and wolves. On higher difficulties, you will encounter hostile mobs at night including Creepers.
The hostiles will easily overwhelm you if you aren't prepared, so it's a good idea to start on peaceful difficulty or lower it before it gets dark - even if a creeper is attacking you if you exit the game and saved then reload the game on peaceful the creeper will vanish and your health will recover. Alternatively, you can keep the game on peaceful and just keep on building things - although you won't get any achievements related to killing mobs.
Inventory management has been optimised for the Xbox 360's controller remarkably well. To start with, the interface has been tweaked to allow mass movement - you can move all, or half, of an item from your inventory at the push of a button. Minecraft also provides three options for movement controls; the default is your standard FPS setup, which - while familiar - makes swimming a little awkward, as a face button has been assigned to swimming up while the right stick is assigned to looking.
Visually, Minecraft looks identical to the PC version - like it was released in 1995. Few of the visual effects that we take for granted in 2012 such as texture filtering and anti-aliasing are present. However, the lack of effects pays off in the game's expansive environment, as it runs at a consistent 60 frames a second. You can even make your way up to cloud level without experiencing the slightest frame rate dip.
Minecraft's graphics should be taken as more of a unique style, rather than dismissed as 'dated graphics'. Everything in the game is made of blocks - from the rain sprites to the mobs. The only drawback to the visuals is that there is a fair bit of pop up due to the long draw distance at ground level. However, if you collect tons of dirt blocks and build a tower up to cloud level you can get high enough to see the entire play field.
New to the Xbox Live Arcade version is a horizontal split-screen mode, allowing another player to earn achievements and mine your level. Online multiplayer allows players to visit your world and mine; you have the option to make the game invite only, or open to anyone. It's a good idea to be careful who you invite to your world because when a visitor leaves their avatar is saved to your world and any item they've collected is locked to that copy of their avatar's inventory. If, however, they place stuff they have collected or crafted from their inventory in a chest, it's there for any player to take out and use.
In terms of scale you have less room to play; it's just 1024 X 1024 compared to the PC version's 5000 x 5000. That said, the smaller scale combined with unique features is reflected in pricing at 1600 Microsoft Points; it's cheaper than the PC version. In addition, Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition is one of the more unique games on Xbox Live Arcade.
MINECRAFT: XBOX 360 EDITION SELLS 1,000,000 IN THE FIRST WEEK
The phenomenal success of Minecraft is a pretty well covered subject at this point, but forgive me for running over it once more. Launched in its Alpha stage in 2009, the game was met with widespread acclaim, and gathered a large and loyal following of fans. When its Beta stage was released in December 2010, it took less than a month to rise to over a million sales, and a little over a year later, in February 2012, sales of the game were around 5 million. Bear in mind this is a game developed primarily by one man, with very limited funds and resources.
The incredible success of Minecraft didn't end there though. Last week Minecraft: 360 launched onto the Xbox Live Arcade, and absolutely smashed all the existing sales records. Launched on May 9th, In its first 24 hours on sale, it became the fastest selling game on the Arcade. By May 14th, just 5 days after its release, sales had reached 1,000,000. To put this feat in perspective, not only does it make Minecraft the fastest selling Arcade game ever, but it also means a staggering amount of money for Mojang, the game's developers.
Priced at a fairly reasonable £13.60, you don't have to be a maths whiz to multiply that number by a million. Microsoft takes a 30% cut of all Arcade sales, roughly 4 million in this case, but according to a tweet from Notch (Minecraft's developer) the game became profitable within an hour of the launch.
The Xbox port of Minecraft was produced by a tiny Scottish company called 4J Studios. Working out of a tiny studio in East Linton, near Edinburgh, a small team of dedicated designers worked for 11 months to port the game from PC to Xbox. They were recommended to Mjoang on the strength of their previous work with Microsoft, including porting Overlord 360 and Oblivion 360 to the PS3.
The success of Minecraft: 360 means an awful lot for both Mjoang and the small Scottish studio. Paddy Burn, the studio's director said:
"The sales of Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition have been mind-blowing, and to break the day one sales record, and hit a million sales in five days is difficult to comprehend, but everyone at 4J, Mojang and Microsoft is delighted by the success."
With the resounding success of the Xbox version now clear, and the PC version continuing to enjoy huge sales, the future is only looking brighter and brighter for Minecraft.
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The incredible success of Minecraft didn't end there though. Last week Minecraft: 360 launched onto the Xbox Live Arcade, and absolutely smashed all the existing sales records. Launched on May 9th, In its first 24 hours on sale, it became the fastest selling game on the Arcade. By May 14th, just 5 days after its release, sales had reached 1,000,000. To put this feat in perspective, not only does it make Minecraft the fastest selling Arcade game ever, but it also means a staggering amount of money for Mojang, the game's developers.
Priced at a fairly reasonable £13.60, you don't have to be a maths whiz to multiply that number by a million. Microsoft takes a 30% cut of all Arcade sales, roughly 4 million in this case, but according to a tweet from Notch (Minecraft's developer) the game became profitable within an hour of the launch.
The Xbox port of Minecraft was produced by a tiny Scottish company called 4J Studios. Working out of a tiny studio in East Linton, near Edinburgh, a small team of dedicated designers worked for 11 months to port the game from PC to Xbox. They were recommended to Mjoang on the strength of their previous work with Microsoft, including porting Overlord 360 and Oblivion 360 to the PS3.
The success of Minecraft: 360 means an awful lot for both Mjoang and the small Scottish studio. Paddy Burn, the studio's director said:
"The sales of Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition have been mind-blowing, and to break the day one sales record, and hit a million sales in five days is difficult to comprehend, but everyone at 4J, Mojang and Microsoft is delighted by the success."
With the resounding success of the Xbox version now clear, and the PC version continuing to enjoy huge sales, the future is only looking brighter and brighter for Minecraft.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
RATING: 9.5
Style: 1 Player Role-Playing Game
Developer: Bethesda Softworks
Release: November 11, 2011
The Elder Scrolls has always had a dedicated following, but given the success of Oblivion and the expectations for its sequel, I assumed Bethesda would play it safe and deliver a slightly enhanced continuation of the franchise. Instead, I walked away feeling I had played the next evolution of the series.
I wasn’t so optimistic as the game opened. Skyrim’s story begins with a political prisoner’s beheading at a public execution. This sequence is worrisome, not because my character was the next in line to feel the axe, but due to the choppy narrative flow. The intensity that is supposed to accompany this scene is stripped away by robotic character animations, confusion over who is talking at any given point, and uncomfortable lulls in the pacing. Making this scene feel real requires just as much imagination as a Dungeons & Dragons session. Cinematic storytelling has never been Bethesda Game Studios’ strong suit, and I find it surprising that the team decided to make it such a prominent component in Skyrim’s introductory moments.
This disappointing sequence concludes with an unexpected yet praise-worthy series of events. Before my character's head was permanently separated from his body, a dragon swooped in and burned as many of the poorly established characters as it could. This awesome moment transitions to an escape sequence that plays out similarly to a Call of Duty “follow” mission. As I ran in the opposite direction of the thrashing beast, it smashed through walls in pursuit, implying that I was the target all along. Again, this exacting approach seems out of place in an open world Bethesda production, but it ends up being a great transition that sets up the true heart of this adventure. After its rocky first steps, Skyrim’s story and gameplay find their stride.
From the moment the attack subsided and my character emerged safely onto Skyrim’s mountainous terrain, I found myself in awe of the world around me. All of Bethesda's releases this generation have given me that “I’m not in Kansas anymore” feeling once the open world is revealed, but not to the degree that Skyrim does. This world has that Rapture or Arkham Asylum allure, and is as much of a star of this adventure as any of the characters, dragons, or gameplay.
While Skyrim's landscape doesn’t have the fantastical elements of the aforementioned places, excitement and a true sense of discovery are tied to the secrets hidden within. I climbed a mountain to find a long-forgotten tomb, crossed a frozen tundra in search of powerful masked adversaries linked to one of this world’s greatest mysteries, and found myself riding my steed with haste toward a village under dragon attack. Much of the content the world offers is worth devoting time to, whether that leads to an enchanted sword or a settlement filled with side quests.
The frequency with which you obtain new quests is astounding. At one point, I had 14 main quests and 32 miscellaneous quests active at once. This huge list turned me into an antisocial outcast; I stopped approaching other characters for fear of getting more quests from them. Even this strategy wouldn't work, as messengers would hand me documents containing new quests, and some NPCs rewarded jobs well done with additional tasks. After completing the narrative quest and logging over 100 hours into the game, I still found myself overwhelmed by the amount of uncompleted quests, NPCs I neglected to talk to, and areas of the map that I hadn’t visited yet.
A story thread accompanies almost every quest. Some of these tales tie into the main conflict at hand (your character is the “Chosen One” tasked with cleansing the kingdom of dragons), while other side stories stand on their own or flesh out the world history. In a way, the game feels like a gigantic collection of short stories. The main campaign is superbly penned and is Bethesda's best effort to date. All of the scenes involving the greybeards are fantastic. I also thoroughly enjoyed Skyrim’s take on the Dark Brotherhood, and I got a big kick out of being a part of the Bard's Guild (my evil character had music in his heart all along). Even the books scattered across the kingdom, of which there are a dizzying amount, have great tales to tell.
Most of these story threads took me to new places on the map. Oblivion was knocked for its lack of variety in its dungeon designs. This isn't the case with Skyrim. Yes, there are repeated textures and rock formations, but the composition of each dungeon is largely unique and individualized – in some cases with one-off Indiana Jones-like puzzles or traps. The dungeon designs also factor in player convenience with easily accessible exits. That's right, you no longer have to endure extensive backtracking to return to the overworld.
I planned to create a tank character who relied on a sword and shield combination, but quickly became addicted to the brilliantly designed spell casting. It empowered me with the feeling that I was a medieval Emperor Palpatine, capable of decimating foes by blasting fire and electricity simultaneously out of two outstretched hands.
Since your character is Dragonborn (“Dovakiin” in the game’s ancient dragon language), he or she can also bellow powerful magic-like shouts. The fact that the simple act of yelling can engulf a handful of enemies in deadly flames is hilarious, bad ass, and an amazing new power added to the Elder Scrolls mix.
The variety of spells and shouts is extensive and fun to experiment with (try rocking fire, ice and electricity at the same time). I also found myself experimenting more with my skill types than I have in any other Elder Scrolls game, thanks to the rewarding new perk system.
All of the game's spell and weapon management is handled exceptionally well through a streamlined menu system that is the most user-friendly solution I’ve seen in an RPG. Any spell or weapon can be added to a favorites list and magic weapons can be recharged with soul gems with just a few button clicks. I wish inventory management were handled better in a broad sense, since I had to spend too much time finding vendors who would accept certain items and have the adequate funds to buy them. Not being able to sort items in the chest is also a time-consuming pain.
Combat showcases just as much improvement as the spell functionality. In Oblivion, I exploited enemy AI by backpedaling and firing spells as foes haplessly tried to reach me. This tactic no longer works in Skyrim. Enemies on the offensive move faster than your backpedaling character. While their pathfinding can still be exploited in certain situations – such as an enemy being unable to navigate a table successfully – combat is largely a test of skill. Every facet of the combat system works well. Swords clang violently, shields are the lifesavers they should be, and thanks to your ability to multitask, healing spells can be cast at the same time as striking.
As terrifying as it is to see a dragon rain fire down on people fighting to save their homes and families, early fights with these beasts don’t pack much excitement or challenge. Despite their menacing appearance, dragons don’t have much defense for sword or spell strikes to the leg or wing. These flying pigs are easy to cheese...early on. More powerful dragon types come into play as the game goes on, even after the critical path's conclusion.
The biggest problem Skyrim runs into has plagued every Bethesda-developed game I’ve played: It’s buggy. Not to the degree that Oblivion was – Bethesda makes headway in delivering a more stable product, but I ran into numerous bugs that forced me to reload previous saves. The auto-save system charts several recent points, which can be a relief, but losing progress is annoying and can erase significant victories and character development. If you play the game for dozens of hours, you’ll likely run into setbacks like these a few times. Some of the glitches can be quite funny. For instance, one of my followers floated behind me horizontally like Han Solo trapped in Carbonite. I also killed a dragon in one hit, yet its skeleton remained alive and invincible in the world (I named him Broken, the fearsome).
These problems, as unwanted as they are, don’t hold Skyrim back from being Bethesda Game Studios’ finest release to date. This is one of those games that I go into with a clear idea of what I want to accomplish, but somehow along the way find myself on the other side of the continent with eight hours of gameplay under my belt and no checkmarks next to my planned tasks. Skyrim ruled my life for two straight weeks, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes a fixture in my gaming rotation for the remainder of the year. It's one of the biggest, most content rich games I've had the pleasure of playing.
I wasn’t so optimistic as the game opened. Skyrim’s story begins with a political prisoner’s beheading at a public execution. This sequence is worrisome, not because my character was the next in line to feel the axe, but due to the choppy narrative flow. The intensity that is supposed to accompany this scene is stripped away by robotic character animations, confusion over who is talking at any given point, and uncomfortable lulls in the pacing. Making this scene feel real requires just as much imagination as a Dungeons & Dragons session. Cinematic storytelling has never been Bethesda Game Studios’ strong suit, and I find it surprising that the team decided to make it such a prominent component in Skyrim’s introductory moments.
This disappointing sequence concludes with an unexpected yet praise-worthy series of events. Before my character's head was permanently separated from his body, a dragon swooped in and burned as many of the poorly established characters as it could. This awesome moment transitions to an escape sequence that plays out similarly to a Call of Duty “follow” mission. As I ran in the opposite direction of the thrashing beast, it smashed through walls in pursuit, implying that I was the target all along. Again, this exacting approach seems out of place in an open world Bethesda production, but it ends up being a great transition that sets up the true heart of this adventure. After its rocky first steps, Skyrim’s story and gameplay find their stride.
From the moment the attack subsided and my character emerged safely onto Skyrim’s mountainous terrain, I found myself in awe of the world around me. All of Bethesda's releases this generation have given me that “I’m not in Kansas anymore” feeling once the open world is revealed, but not to the degree that Skyrim does. This world has that Rapture or Arkham Asylum allure, and is as much of a star of this adventure as any of the characters, dragons, or gameplay.
While Skyrim's landscape doesn’t have the fantastical elements of the aforementioned places, excitement and a true sense of discovery are tied to the secrets hidden within. I climbed a mountain to find a long-forgotten tomb, crossed a frozen tundra in search of powerful masked adversaries linked to one of this world’s greatest mysteries, and found myself riding my steed with haste toward a village under dragon attack. Much of the content the world offers is worth devoting time to, whether that leads to an enchanted sword or a settlement filled with side quests.
The frequency with which you obtain new quests is astounding. At one point, I had 14 main quests and 32 miscellaneous quests active at once. This huge list turned me into an antisocial outcast; I stopped approaching other characters for fear of getting more quests from them. Even this strategy wouldn't work, as messengers would hand me documents containing new quests, and some NPCs rewarded jobs well done with additional tasks. After completing the narrative quest and logging over 100 hours into the game, I still found myself overwhelmed by the amount of uncompleted quests, NPCs I neglected to talk to, and areas of the map that I hadn’t visited yet.
A story thread accompanies almost every quest. Some of these tales tie into the main conflict at hand (your character is the “Chosen One” tasked with cleansing the kingdom of dragons), while other side stories stand on their own or flesh out the world history. In a way, the game feels like a gigantic collection of short stories. The main campaign is superbly penned and is Bethesda's best effort to date. All of the scenes involving the greybeards are fantastic. I also thoroughly enjoyed Skyrim’s take on the Dark Brotherhood, and I got a big kick out of being a part of the Bard's Guild (my evil character had music in his heart all along). Even the books scattered across the kingdom, of which there are a dizzying amount, have great tales to tell.
Most of these story threads took me to new places on the map. Oblivion was knocked for its lack of variety in its dungeon designs. This isn't the case with Skyrim. Yes, there are repeated textures and rock formations, but the composition of each dungeon is largely unique and individualized – in some cases with one-off Indiana Jones-like puzzles or traps. The dungeon designs also factor in player convenience with easily accessible exits. That's right, you no longer have to endure extensive backtracking to return to the overworld.
I planned to create a tank character who relied on a sword and shield combination, but quickly became addicted to the brilliantly designed spell casting. It empowered me with the feeling that I was a medieval Emperor Palpatine, capable of decimating foes by blasting fire and electricity simultaneously out of two outstretched hands.
Since your character is Dragonborn (“Dovakiin” in the game’s ancient dragon language), he or she can also bellow powerful magic-like shouts. The fact that the simple act of yelling can engulf a handful of enemies in deadly flames is hilarious, bad ass, and an amazing new power added to the Elder Scrolls mix.
The variety of spells and shouts is extensive and fun to experiment with (try rocking fire, ice and electricity at the same time). I also found myself experimenting more with my skill types than I have in any other Elder Scrolls game, thanks to the rewarding new perk system.
All of the game's spell and weapon management is handled exceptionally well through a streamlined menu system that is the most user-friendly solution I’ve seen in an RPG. Any spell or weapon can be added to a favorites list and magic weapons can be recharged with soul gems with just a few button clicks. I wish inventory management were handled better in a broad sense, since I had to spend too much time finding vendors who would accept certain items and have the adequate funds to buy them. Not being able to sort items in the chest is also a time-consuming pain.
Combat showcases just as much improvement as the spell functionality. In Oblivion, I exploited enemy AI by backpedaling and firing spells as foes haplessly tried to reach me. This tactic no longer works in Skyrim. Enemies on the offensive move faster than your backpedaling character. While their pathfinding can still be exploited in certain situations – such as an enemy being unable to navigate a table successfully – combat is largely a test of skill. Every facet of the combat system works well. Swords clang violently, shields are the lifesavers they should be, and thanks to your ability to multitask, healing spells can be cast at the same time as striking.
As terrifying as it is to see a dragon rain fire down on people fighting to save their homes and families, early fights with these beasts don’t pack much excitement or challenge. Despite their menacing appearance, dragons don’t have much defense for sword or spell strikes to the leg or wing. These flying pigs are easy to cheese...early on. More powerful dragon types come into play as the game goes on, even after the critical path's conclusion.
The biggest problem Skyrim runs into has plagued every Bethesda-developed game I’ve played: It’s buggy. Not to the degree that Oblivion was – Bethesda makes headway in delivering a more stable product, but I ran into numerous bugs that forced me to reload previous saves. The auto-save system charts several recent points, which can be a relief, but losing progress is annoying and can erase significant victories and character development. If you play the game for dozens of hours, you’ll likely run into setbacks like these a few times. Some of the glitches can be quite funny. For instance, one of my followers floated behind me horizontally like Han Solo trapped in Carbonite. I also killed a dragon in one hit, yet its skeleton remained alive and invincible in the world (I named him Broken, the fearsome).
These problems, as unwanted as they are, don’t hold Skyrim back from being Bethesda Game Studios’ finest release to date. This is one of those games that I go into with a clear idea of what I want to accomplish, but somehow along the way find myself on the other side of the continent with eight hours of gameplay under my belt and no checkmarks next to my planned tasks. Skyrim ruled my life for two straight weeks, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes a fixture in my gaming rotation for the remainder of the year. It's one of the biggest, most content rich games I've had the pleasure of playing.
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
RATING: 7.5
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive
Developer: Traveler's Tales
Release: November 11, 2011
As counterintuitive as it may seem, the last LEGO Harry Potter was the most faithful attempt at bringing J.K. Rowling’s world to video games. That tradition continues with LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7. Fans who have already mourned the release of the last book and the final movie have at least one more way to postpone their Potter-free existences.
This installment doesn’t add new features like LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars’ RTS elements, but it offers a nicely refined version of a series that was already in pretty good shape. For instance, you don’t have to select your spells from a clunky radial menu anymore, thanks to the ability to quickly cycle through them with the press of a button. There’s also a button dedicated to Expelliarmus, which is great considering that it’s the spell you cast most often to blast environments apart and attack enemies. Warner also added some new spells and abilities, such as an assortment of gadgets from the Weasley twins and a water-spraying spell. They are nifty additions, providing a critical element of variety.
One of the niggling problems I had with the first game – a finicky targeting system – is still a problem, particularly when you’re trying to levitate objects with a friend. It’s not a deal-breaker, but having to jockey around into cryptically exact positions is frustrating. Years 5-7 also adds a tremendous amount of backtracking; I’ve probably logged as many miles in Hogwarts’ halls as Hagrid at this point.
LEGO Harry Potter 5-7 is a charming farewell to the series. As with a lot of Traveller’s Tales’ games, you won’t see a whole lot of crazy gameplay innovations or surprises, but it’s reliably entertaining and appropriate for a wide range of gamers, Potterphiles or not.
Minecraft
RATING: 9.25
Style: 1 Player(s) Simulation Game
Publisher: Mojang
Developer: Mojang
Release: November 18, 2011
Despite ostensibly being a PC game, Mojang’s unprecedented indie smash hit has more in common with an eclectic box of toys than with Skyrim or Warcraft. Like a well-rounded set of trucks, balls, blocks, and figurines, Minecraft gives you the tools you need to bring your imagination to life. But with a real-time simulation constantly running, this is more like Toy Story than a LEGO set.
Minecraft has been out in beta form for several months, but officially released on November 18 with the addition of more RPG-like elements (thus this review, which speaks solely to the current version of the game). Those additions are a mixed bag at best, but Minecraft is an amazing achievement regardless.
Wandering the infinite, randomly generated 3D world of Minecraft is a game in itself. The mathematical magic Mojang has working inside the game’s code creates fantastic vistas, sprawling cavern complexes, towering mountains, and much more while relying on very few pre-defined pieces like the buildings that make up NPC villages. Every world is unique, fascinating, and bursting with possibility. Whichever direction you choose, wondrous adventure awaits. It can take innumerable forms: befriending a pack of wolves, clearing out a monster-filled dungeon, creating a mountainside terrace farm, planting a forest, or sailing across a sea are just the beginning.
Interacting with the world takes two fundamental forms: removing and placing blocks, and combining materials to make new tools/blocks/decorations/weapons/etc. When you start out in a fresh world, you’ll likely build a rudimentary shelter with a single torch lighting the interior to hide in during the monster-filled nighttime. A few dozen hours later, a skilled builder could have a mountaintop castle (built block by block with quarried stone) with a redstone-powered automatic farm (carved into the land by hand, with harvesting machines built from rare deep ores). Persistence leads to dungeons with traps set to kill the monsters that spawn within (including controlled flooding to deposit all the drops in a central location), and even a high-speed rail system to quickly travel through expansive mines.
Alternatively, you could build whatever you can imagine. The interactions between your character, machines, plants, animals, and monsters can be combined to bring just about anything to life. However, if you’re more of an adventurer than a builder, getting the materials in the first place is more than half the fun.
Despite having very few explicit goals, Minecraft generates fantastic scenarios. Once, while following a vein of ore a few meters below my underground home, I stumbled across an enormous abandoned mine. The crumbling mineshafts converged on a hundred-meter tall waterfall. While carving a path along the cliff face with my mining pick to try to reach the other side, skeletal archers began peppering me with arrows from above. I tried to retreat to safety, but an arrow knocked me from my hastily carved ledge and I plummeted to my doom – or would have, had the waterfall not poured into a giant lake that cushioned my fall.
Utterly lost, low on the wood needed to craft more torches, and a mile or so below the surface, I was having an amazing time without being told to advance on the glowing arrow marking an enemy position or collect a dozen bear pelts to help a poor hunter. The sense of accomplishment when I finally made it back home with my inventory full of fabulous rare metals was unparalleled.
The beauty of Minecraft is that no two players’ experiences are alike. What I just described was the natural outcome of my randomly generated world, the path I took through it, and a healthy dose of random die rolls. You’ll have an entirely different adventure, but Minecraft’s unrivaled content generation means that no matter your world, you always have something awesome to do.
The final piece of the Minecraft puzzle is the community. That auto-farming castle – wouldn’t it be cooler if your friends could admire it? Find a good multiplayer server (or run one of your own) and that becomes reality. Network performance is occasionally problematic, with any hint of latency or overstressed servers causing frustrating desynchronization, but on a good server it’s a non-issue.
The millions-strong global Minecraft community has made the game far more than the sum of its download. Gamers collaborate to design amazing machines for you to draw inspiration from and modders make everything from texture packs to whole new dimensions and power sources. Minecraft is more of a platform than a game in some ways. Diving into the mod scene can extend Minecraft miles beyond the base game.
While the toybox/platform side of Minecraft is incredible, the “game” side of it is lacking. The few explicit goals it dangles in front of you by way of its achievement and enchanting systems are lame, unwelcome distractions from the goals you set for yourself. The hellish Nether dimension is a fun place to explore but lacks content, and the boss fight at the end of the game isn’t worth the effort to get to it. If you can’t make your own fun or are heavily slanted toward achievement rather than exploration or building, Minecraft’s lack of structure may disappoint you.
Reviewing a game that sold four million copies before its official release may seem like an exercise in futility, but Minecraft is a phenomenon that deserves all of the many accolades it has already received. I’d love to see achievers thrown a bone at some point, and for NPC villages to have some kind of interaction, and for more interesting monsters to appear, and for MojangMinecraft a grave disservice, though, because Mojang has created a unique and wonderful star in the greater gaming sky.
Mario Kart 7
RATING: 8.5
Style: 1-8 Player Racing Game
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Release: December 4, 2011
As always, players are encouraged to find a rally-like rhythm of powerslides through the zaniest courses Nintendo could dream up while dodging gonzo power-ups and environmental hazards. Races naturally stay close as players in worse positions get better items. The occasional total screw job (for example, getting blue shelled, then lightning bolted during a jump right before the end of the race) is frustrating, but skill wins 90 percent of the races. I rarely placed poorly because of random chance rather than driver error – tough though that may be to admit.
Mario Kart is almost exactly how you remember it, but what tweaks have been made are generally positive. Powerslide-boosting (blue sparking, in the vernacular) is now dependent on the degree of the slide instead of d-pad gymnastics, meaning that boosting down straightaways is a thing of the past. Heavy characters no longer steer like drunken camels, so you can play as DK or Bowser without unintentionally activating hard mode. The much-hyped glider and underwater segments are minimal and kind of neat, and it’s cool that they adapted the retro stages to fit MK 7’s gameplay systems. I’m less convinced that the return of coins has much effect on gameplay; I think they make you go faster? If nothing else, I dig having something else to aim for during the race.
The new tracks range from good to excellent. Including races that consist of three unique sections instead of three laps is a wonderful choice that adds much-needed variety. New hazards like airships firing oversized Bullet Bills regularly show up, and alternate paths abound. As much as I adore the Double Dash tracks, this set is the new high water mark for the series. The retro tracks don’t have the same wall-to-wall quality, but I appreciate that they have a few new tricks dropped in as well as glider sections.
First-person mode surprised me. I was prepared to hate on the new perspective and its gyroscopic driving controls, just like I despise Mario Kart Wii’s motion controls, but it works well enough to win 150cc races. I’ll be sticking to the traditional method, but I can honestly recommend this to people who like first-person views or motion control.
Battle Mode is, of course, still stupid and boring. I have never understood why anyone would voluntarily spend any time in this poorly balanced, luck-of-the-draw mode that may as well assign a winner by a random die roll. I guess it’s amusing to nail a well-placed green shell shot, but you can do that and have an otherwise fun experience in a proper race.
Nintendo’s other big push for Mario Kart 7 is in online play. It seems to work as advertised, but I’m hardly inspired by racing against strangers with no persistent leagues or overall ranking structure to validate my progress. The ability to create communities of users with custom rules (no blue shells, for example) is neat, but the functionality is limited enough that I would rather just race with the default rule set. I see MK 7’s online as much more of a distraction than a destination.
Mario Kart 7 isn’t 100 percent golden, nor is it going to make believers out of anyone who wrote off the series years ago. Taken on the whole, though, this is one of the best entries in the series. As a fan, I’m thoroughly pleased.
Nuclear Facility Part 2
Hello folks, I am just quickly giving an update of the nuclear facility. I am still steadily working on it and I feel that it should be completed sometime this week. I am going to try to have it done by Wednesday.
I am waiting in anticipation of how this will turn out, it has taken me approximately 2,000 to 3,000 blocks, but I will be placing even more by the time I complete this project. If you liked the images I posted in the introduction to this project, you will enjoy the images you are about to see! Check back often, as I will be thinking of new projects in MineCraft and how to build them bigger!
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