• RSS
  • YouTube
  • Twitter

Blog Links

Email KeybardsKeybards TwitterKeybards RSS FeedSubscribe by Email

Blog Archive

Labels

Defense Grid: The Awakening - My Favorite Standalone Tower Defense So Far

My review of Defense Grid: The Awakening, a great tower defense game with solid design, lots of content, and much-appreciated challenges and difficulty.

Defense Grid: The Awakening

Atom Zombie Smasher: Great, Unique, Difficult, and Fun...For Awhile

My review about Atom Zombie Smasher. I really enjoyed the gameplay but I have doubts about the game's replayability and staying power.

Atom Zombie Smasher

Cthulhu Saves the World and Breath of Death VII Reviewed: Great RPGs

My dual reviews of Cthulhu Saves the World and Breath of Death VII, two great retro RPGs available as a bundle. Cthulhu, which was developed second, is undoubtedly the better game, but Breath of Death is worth playing too.

Nehrim: Erothin

Minecraft 1.8 (Adventure Update) Trailer Released, Update "Leaked"

Information about the (intentional) "leak" of Minecraft 1.8, the first half of the Adventure Update. Also includes embedded official trailer and some of my early experiences playing after the update.

Minecraft 1.8 Adventure Update

Portal: No Escape - Amazing Live Action Portal Short Film

A short post simply to direct (more) attention to Dan Trachtenberg's short film "Portal: No Escape." Go watch right now (on YouTube in HD).

Portal: No Escape

Tech Tales

Before its official release, Minecraft 1.8 was "leaked" for testing. Today, a pre-release version of 1.9 was similarly "leaked." I guess this is becoming a trend. 1.9 is another part of the Adventure Update, which has now been split again, with 1.10 coming later with even more adventure changes.

1.9 includes many interesting new features. NPCs now populate villages (though they currently do nothing), the snow biome is back (and red flowers are too), and swamps were made...swampier, with tinted water, lily pads, and other changes. There are new giant mushroom biomes with Mooshrooms (not a joke), new Nether fortresses made of new blocks and with new enemies, and you can even create "snow golems" (snowmen) with some snow and a pumpkin. Also, lava and water now visibly "leak" (particle effects) through blocks below them.

As this leak is a pre-release, there are of course some issues. Lighting issues are not fixed entirely, swamp water transitions look strange, and leftover debug code makes jumping change your experience. Also, holding down space no longer allows you to continuously jump, but Notch has already pledged to change this back to normal tomorrow.

If you can't wait to try out the new update, grab the pre-release. An updated server.jar is available too. Otherwise, wait for the official release.

Leave a Reply