Minecraft Seed: All Flesh Must Be Eaten

So, I have been experimenting with different Minecraft seeds for a while now. For people who are new or unfamiliar with Minecraft, The worlds are somewhat randomly generated. However you can input words and numbers into the game and it will generate a world from that. If you see a world you like, find the seed, input into the game and it will load that world for you. Lately I have been using Song names, Bands, and Magic the Gathering card titles to generate the worlds. This time I went with a seed, taken from a pen and paper zombie survival role-play game that was sitting on my bookshelf called All Flesh Must Be Eaten. The results bring some of the most visual mountains I have seen in Minecraft. I am very pleased with the results.

There are three villages in the map, two are not implemented into the map sucessfully, as you can see, one village has a very steep drop near the outskirts, the other spawned on the very edge of the map so buildings are cut in half.

I haven't started digging down into the earth yet, so I cannot confirm any abandoned mineshaft, I haven't found any ravines on the seed's surface. Sadly, I could not take a picture of the map as I don't have a camera on hand and the game will not let me take a screenshot of the map directly.  The center of the map consists of a snow biome, to the north east is a desert, Swamp to the north west, and plains gathering at the south west and east.

I can see this seed being an interesting world for many who like to build on strange and complex looking hills. I'm not sure if I will use this seed myself but I thought it was an good looking seed to share with you all. Enjoy, and get building!

NaNoWriMo: I Suck at This, But That's Okay.

Firstly, yes I said I would offer weekly reviews and content, and I am working on it, I have a review of the video game Faster Than Light lined up that I am still writing and I have to finish a few more things before I can offer weekly reviews, One of the issues I have come to face is images. I really don't want to simply rip the images of google search and host them here. I might have to with certain items I review but for the most part, I will try to get screenshots myself and host them instead of stealing other peoples work. - As for content, here is an update on National Novel Writing Month I mentioned last update.

So November hit us yesterday, and I haven't written a single word down yet. The reason for this is a mix of procrastination and anxiety. I have very little faith in my own idea, and I am massively worried about people reading my ideas. I am not the greatest of writers. As you can most likely see from all my grammar and punctuation errors that will no doubt plague all my future posts. It's the one reason I got into script writing, yes, I will be making a metric tone of errors and spelling mistakes, no one will read them because no doubt the script will be acted out in front of a camera - it all becomes irrelevant during post production. - As for novel and essay writing, I crumble under the worry. Creative writing is causes a great deal of stress for me. Questions flood my mind about plot holes, "will people find plot holes here?" - "What if I haven't described this characters motives well enough" - "Crap, Do I write in first or third person!?"

I think another worry for me is that I don't read enough, I know I should but I have an extremely short attention span, I will lay that down now. Something has to interest me from the get go, I don't believe in reading a book that gets "good" half way through, although I really should give books more of a chance, I just find it hard to find novels I actually enjoy, but when I find one, man do I enjoy it! - The reason this is a problem? I haven't read enough in order to get a grip on the different writing styles and influences. - silly, perhaps, but this does bother me, and I know how to fix it, read more books.

But why am I rambling on about this? It's because a thought dawned on me just now. I suck at writing, but that really is okay. I tried to write a story in this format last year, and while it was fun, it wasn't polished, I liked the idea, but I felt my writing let it down, but before I tried last year, I had never tried to write a story in that form. I am aware that writing is something you have to practice with, and everyone starts somewhere, I just feel a little late to the party. So for now, it's okay to be pretty poor at this, I just need to keep writing and surely it will improve. No one is great the first time, so I really need to stop trying to impress, and being a perfectionist, I should just sit down and write, and worry about all this afterwards.

Hey, it's been a while!

So yeah, I hardly ever write here, mainly because I feel it's a little redundant, since it seems I have hardly any readership. But that's okay, what I do post is mainly what happens to be on my mind at any given time. Mostly not worth reading really. On the flip side though, I feel a little bad that I hardly use this blog after my friend Emma Thorbinson helped me make this blog look really professional. - Also, as a thanks to Emma, please go check out her band Jessicas Ghost.

So what's been happening James, anything interesting. Well. Not really. I moved house a few times this year before settling down in February. Started a new relationship, thinking of returning to education and recently gotten back into playing Magic The Gathering, but that's not that all interesting really.

Also, I have been tinkering with the idea of providing weekly content here, I haven't fully planned the schedule but I was thinking of providing reviews every Friday, Personal updates weekly (I haven't figured out what day, I might move the reviews to Monday and do the weekly personal post on a Friday) and some other posts during the week, update on that coming soon I guess.

I am thinking of doing National Month of Writing (Nanowrimo) this November. The basic idea of Nano is you have one month to write a 50.000 word story. If you work around 3000 words a day you can pretty much pull it off. There are no prizes involved other than the self satification that you have the dedication to write 50.000 words within such a small time frame. 

It sounds great on paper but I really have little idea what I want to write about this year. in 2011 I was writing a story I spent a few years planning, only to have life get in the way and to be slapped in the face with a story that was far to detailed and pretty much impossible to find an ending I was happy with. This year I have two options. One idea is set in a dystopic future where the media controls all aspects of the population, imagine Rupert Murdoch being in charge of government and fox news was his main source of propaganda. The other idea involves Lucifer trying to find who is behind the recent killings of his fellow angels, both Arch and Fallen Angel. I might go with the latter idea, it's the one that appeals to me the most but the more I write the basic run down of the story the more I find plot holes in the plot. Maybe I can just go for it and suspend disbelief. A lot of novels never really follow real life, and I have Morningstar as the main protagonist! So yeah, I will update more when it happens.

And that pretty much wraps this post up, I hope you have a good weekend and I hope you have fun in what ever you guys do.

Minecraft: Xbox 360 edition.

Grab that Pickaxe, Grab your wolf, it's time to mine bitches!

Well Minecraft has come to the X-box 360 and let it be said that am somewhat of a fan of Minecraft. I have no shame in admiting to you dear reader that I have spent countless hours slaving away in the worlds made from blocks, creating houses and killing monsters coming my way to destroy my work.Firstly for anyone who is unaware of Minecraft or haven't taken the chance to look to much into it. Minecraft at it's heart is a virtual Lego set. This joke has been passed around since the games inception and it's actually true, even to the point Lego themselves have made a Minecraft themed set of blocks.

Minecraft creator Notch (One with the Hat) and Developer (Jeb) play with the Lego Minecraft Sets

The game starts you out in a randomly generated world filled with rocks, dirt, water, lava, snow, and various trees and animals. You start out with nothing and there really is no goal in the game, rather you set the goal yourself. First things first however, you must build shelter before night comes, for monsters spawn and generally want to make your life as hellish as possible. A good shack and a bed help elimate this problem. The more you play, the more eleborate your building designs come, you start to craft better tools and go on to do bigger and better things than when you first started. The thing about this game is as stated above, there really is no goal to work towards, you have to give yourself projects for there are plenty of avenues in the game to explore. You can build houses, explore caves, build a farm. They even introduced elements such as creating circuits that let you create doors and traps that open when people walk on pressure plates. The possibilities can be nearly endless.

Monsters burn during the day. BURN ZOMBIE!

But now that the game has come across to the console, lets get down to it. Is the port good? Short answer, yes, but there are some things to take into account. Thankfully there is a tutorial mode that welcomes new players to the game and teaches them every aspect of game play. The PC version would just drop you in a world with no explanation on how to play, and leaves you mostly to figure it out yourself or spend an hour scanning internet wiki's in order to find information on how to craft tools. I have read that some people online complain about dumbing down the game but this was seriously needed. While the game is simple to those with a little experience, it can be complicated for newcomers.

Lack of control customization annoys me.

Playing the game with a control pad is tricky at first. The main system revolves around using the triggers to mine and place items, it takes some getting used to but it works quiet well. My only complaint is that while you can change the controls, they don't offer you complete customization of the control system. You are restricted to three profiles of assigned changes and you cannot change the button system to suit your liking. This is just a minor issue for me.

Game Customization such as character skins and texture packs are sadly missing for now.

There are several things missing from the console version. Firstly, there is lack of creation mode. While this isn't exactly a killer for me, as I never really played on creative, this will be a killer for many. Secondly, the console version is a few updates behind from the original PC version - You're missing things like jungles, hunger, XP, enchanting and potions, but this doesn't bother me to much, you still get to visit and explore Minecraft's version of hell, you still get to play around with redstone circuits. They have stated these elements will come to the 360 soon so hopefully not to long to wait. Also missing is are the user generated modifications and texture packs that radically change the look and feel of the game.

Local Split screen Multiplayer is actually really fun way to play.

However, what the 360 version of this game lacks, it makes it up, somewhat in the multiplayer aspect. Getting multiplayer on the PC version can be a right pain as you have to know IP addresses and requires additional software to run a server, however withing the console port, you are able to play over X-box live with up to 8 players, and play 4 screen local co op split-screen and it makes the experience so much easier. Its actually really fun having a friend sit next to you, helping you build, or even taking swords and striking each other down. The massive downside to this element is that you have to have a HD television. Using a scart lead to connect you're 360 to a television, forget Local co-op. I think this is a MASSIVE deal breaker for many, inducing me. While I run my 360 through my 19 inch PC widescreen, my old CRT television is much bigger and would be perfect for getting on a sofa with friends. I am really hoping this will be fixed at some point.

On the whole I have spent a good few hours playing this port of one of my favorite game, sure there are some things missing from the console version but it's still highly enjoyable as playing it on the PC. If you can't play this on the PC and you have the funds, it's 1600 points on Xbox Live Arcade, check it out as getting the chance to chill on a sofa and just build is a really nice way to play. I will state that lack of multiplayer on standard definition televisions is a major dick move but don't let that discourage you.