Indie Games - Don't Starve

A few weeks ago, I saw a Youtube video about a game called 'Don't Starve'.  I was immediately interested. The game reminded me a bit like Minecraft, yet still had a totally different feel of its own.  After a 10 minute demo, I was immediately hooked and had to purchase beta access to the game.

The basic premise of the game is that the character has been transported to a deserted island and has to survive.  The game has a lot of space to explore, and strange creatures to meet.  The basic need to eat drives the player to continually be searching for food.  The game also has it's own unique art style and sense of humor.  I found the game to be very interesting and imersive.

Here's a video for the next version of the game that was released sometime today.

Enjoy!  Don't Starve!

Face to Face Learning and Play

Back in the olden days, teachers taught their students face-to-face.  Instruction like this is as old as time and part of God's plan.  Missionaries teach in homes face-to-face.  It's natural and is what we as human beings are used to.  Though wether or not sitting down is a good idea is debatable (I tend to think standing is a healthier environment for both work and learning), face-to-face instruction is definitely indespensible.

Face to face interaction is not just lacking in schools but lacking in other social circles, activities, and even in geek culture.  How can a community really be a community without the energy of being in the same presence?  Learning, in of itself, is meant to be a community experience.  Dungeons and Dragons or Magic the Gathering may still be fun online but cannot measure up to the experience on the table.  The bonds we create with our classmates or playmates is much stronger by being in their presence.
The same is for education.  There is an experience in learning in a classroom that cannot be recreated online on a computer.  That experience is what makes traditional schooling (or even gaming) so valuable.  It has an impact on something that cannot be shown in a report card or statistics but can be seen in lasting friendships or even networking.  So the next time you head to class to learn or go to a table to play, appreciate the specialness of bonding with an actual human being.

-Stephen

(Submitted to UsBundles.com scholarship)

Trailers!

Confession: I'm sick and it's finals week, so here's a bunch of trailers.
Enjoy!
-JOE

HAHAHAHAHAHA

Okay here are the trailers you wanted to see:

Man of Steel

Iron Man 3

Warm Bodies

Lego Lord of the Rings

The "infinite" dungeon - Fractals from Guild Wars 2

When Guild Wars 2 released their new content with the karkas, they also released a new dungeon...or series of new dungeons called 'Fractals'.

The basic premise of a Fractal is that it is a small dungeon that can be completed in 30-45 minutes.  Each has 2-3 major events, such as boss fights, although some have very interesting puzzles that require a well coordinated team to pull off.  There are a number of different fractals, and the ones you visit are determined randomly each time you enter the fractals.  As an added level of difficulty, each set of fractals will have a level, starting at level 1.  When 3 consecutive level 1 fractals are completed, then the character gains access to level 2, and so on and so forth.  Each level is slightly more difficult than the last.  To make it even harder, at level 10, a condition called 'Agony' shows up.  Agony has a high chance of killing any character that doesn't have any sort of Agony resistance on them.  Luckily, around level 10, items that provide that resistance start to show up.  I've yet to experience Agony.  I've only gotten up to level 5 fractals (insert me being embarrassed here).

So, here are some screenshots from some of the fractals.

The Ascalonian fractal. Characters become Charr (just for this fractal) and  attack an Ascalonian city

Things got a little heated (quite literally since I like fire)

In this fractal, we had to save people from being sacrificed to a Grawl shaman. As an added bonus, the Guild Wars 2 references a Gamecube game called Eternal Darkness.  One of the sacrifices yells "This can't be happening!"

A random Easter egg from the same fractal.  Indiana Jones?  Quite possibly

A fractal called the Jade Sea.  A frozen green sea filled with nasty monsters, like this dead wind rider.

The big bad boss of the Jade Sea.  He's very big!

The Colussus fractal.  Part timing puzzle, part highly coordinated fighting, part carry the evil artifact hammer  and drop it before it kills you

The Blizzard fractal.  Have to stay near fires to avoid freezing to death.  This is a huge bonfire near the beginning of the fractal.

A random picture of me being a chair.  No, this has nothing to do with Fractals

As always, share, like, subscribe, whatever.  Next week, I should be posting on a new 'Indie' game that is in development.  I might even throw in a post about some new Minecraft mods a week after that.  Stay tuned!

Joe’s Thanksgiving: Good warming zombie killing family goodness

Well since everyone else is going to post about Thanksgiving I may as well throw my gravy-stained hat into the ring. Fine by me, since my Thanksgiving ROCKED!!!:D

I spend the holiday as well as the day before and after down in Riverton Utah at my mom’s house with her, her boyfriend Bill and my younger brother Josh. Making the journey with me was Mr. X-Box 360, and our favorite zombie genocide games, the Left 4 Dead series. I know you’re expecting some spiritual thing about gratitude or the pilgrims, but no I’m going to gush about zombies. (okay, there’s a spiritual thing at the end, but till then…)

To anyone not familiar with the games, Left 4 Dead is essentially you and three other people, either AI or co-op friends, getting from point A to point B with about a thousand zombies in the middle. You get guns, bombs, and in Left 4 Dead 2, a selection of melee weapons including my favorite, the chainsaw. There’s no story, barely any characterization, just gooey zombie fun. It was the first game I got when I bought a 360 a few years ago and it’s been a favorite since, with my brother and I’s favorite catch phrase being “It’s not called “Wait around for your buddies!””

Like in a real zombie apocalypse, the idea is to run. And if someone gets left behind, tough.

This became especially poignant for me this weekend when my brother and I were nearing the completion of a level. At the end of every level there’s a safe room, complete with a reinforced door which upon closing will declare victory for whoever is still alive. The problem is in order for the game to end all the surviving humans, AI included, have to be inside. Right before reaching the door, we were attacked by a particularly large hoard of zombies, complete with all the annoying little special zombies that like to throw you around like a chew toy before killing you. My brother was playing the big black guy Coach, and I had the little redneck dude I always play because he brings me fond memories of my mission. The girl, Rochelle, was fine inside the shelter, but the swindler character Nick had been knocked down just outside and was being assaulted. With another hoard on the way I knew there was no way we could go up and do the little button combo to get him back up, so I made a survivalist decision. I ran outside the protective shelter and shotgunned the poor AI right in the head, then ran back in with my brother shooting zombies around me so we could close the door. He re-spawned with us on the next level and I could swear there was an awkward tension in the air between us.

Nick got payback though. Several levels ahead Rochelle had bit the dust as me, my brother and Nick sprinted towards the helicopters. Unfortunately, I ran into a nasty little hoard right as my shotgun ran out of bullets. I started hopelessly swinging with the bat as the hoard grew bigger and bigger and started discussing wine options. The following is the dialogue between my brother and I while we slammed buttons on the controller:

Josh: Keep running we’re almost there!

Me: I can’t I’m surrounded! Go on without me!

Josh: You don’t have to tell me twice!

Me: Wait! It was a figure of speech! Come back and carry me!

Josh: Sorry I can’t hear you over the rescue chopper’s blades!

Then they blew up the bridge I was on and Nick and Josh survived. Nick I’m sure was laughing. Smug series of 0s and 1s…

Now you’d picture our mom was probably off somewhere annoyed that her sons were playing video games on Thanksgiving, but nothing could be further from the truth. She could hear our laughter and screams from upstairs, and was thrilled to have the familiar sounds of her family ringing through the house. That’s what I love about my family. Throughout the weekend we played video games, discussed zombies, super heroes, and our favorite ghost shows. I’m grateful for a family who accepts me for who I am and shares my interests with me. 

A Magical Break

As I've stated before, I'm a big fan of the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering (or MTG for short).

Well, this past weekend, I got to play a LOT of MTG. There was a four-player game with my wife, Stephen, and my friend Bill that we played on Thanksgiving. When Mary plays Magic, it makes me happy since she's putting time in a hobby of mine, one of my favorite hobbies, at that.

I like playing random Duel Decks, which involves taking the 16 (out of 20) Duel Decks that I own and rolling to decide which deck a player uses. We added the four Planechase decks (borrowed from Andrew) as well as the Planechase cards for a variation to the game.

Gotta say, it was a long, but fun game. Of course, my kids needed attention from time-to-time. As the game continued, there came different times when one of us could have been taken out, but it didn't happen as it was good to keep in the competition. However, there came a turn when Mary played an enchantment that was able to remove some of our creatures.

 Then...with that enchantment, she played a sorcery that caused her to lose her 7 or 8 creatures and replace them with 4/4 creatures, thus doing 4 damage per creature. She killed all three opponents in one turn.

And with that, the game was done.

I got to play a few games with Stephen over the break, which was nice since I don't feel like I get to play enough. I can't remember too much from them, except our last one-on-one battle. But that was more of a standstill.

On Saturday, Mary, Stephen, and I played a 3-player Planechase with Random Duel Decks. For the fourth time (so it seemed) for the break, I ended up with the Demonic deck, while Stephen had its Divine enemy. Mary had the white/green Aura deck from Planechase. We started off here:

And hated it until we finally left. Then, at every turn, the creatures kept leaving the battlefield. That was until Mary rolled the planar dice and took us to this place:

And then it was on. We had a bunch of creatures able to attack on the battlefield. And I was scared of all of them. I couldn't decide which creature I feared more between these two:

Stephen had Reya, while Mary had Krond. Both were scary. Thankfully, Mary killed Stephen's Reya and Stephen attacked Mary, taking her down to 11 life. At the beginning of my turn, Stephen had two creatures (one was Mary's he'd 'stolen'). I had like six mostly flying from Orzhova's trigger still. I drew Corrupt.

With that (and 12 swamps) I was able to kill Mary. And with my six creatures (four flying), I was able to kill Stephen. That was twice in the weekend where the game came down to one lucky draw in a multiplayer game where, at the beginning of the turn, all players had still been active.

Magic is an awesome game. A player can be on the verge of losing, draw one card, and take control (and a win). I'm absolutely addicted to the game, but I enjoy it nonetheless.

Alien abductions are involuntary, but probings are scheduled.

Thanksgiving

Today is a special holiday in the United States called Thanksgiving.  It holds a special place in my heart this year because I have found there hasn't been room for all the blessings in my life.  I have so much to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving has always been a great time for nerds.  Why?  Well, there's Black Friday the day after to get all of your nerd gear.  There's the break from school/work to play endless hours in video games.  With the Christmas season upon us, there's lots of time devoted to looking at catalogs and making wish lists.

Video games are nice.  A couple of weeks ago I wrote a love letter of my rekindled understanding of how important play is when there's so much stress and work in my life.  But really, as much as I love games and the time off, that's not really what I'm the most thankful for.

When I think of my favorite memories of Dungeons and Dragons, playing Left 4 Dead, playing Magic, or enjoying my fall break, it is the faces of loved ones I immediately see.  Yes, it's cool when a character crits and slays the giant spider in one turn.  There's a bit of awesome in the moment a Hunter get's mowed down just as he's about to pounce a player.  I always remember the gasp around the table when I summon that 12/12 creature.  But in the end, I will always remember these moments of who I'm with.

So what is it about the Thanksgiving and Christmas season that's so great for geeks?  Community.

I cannot adequately express the love and gratitude I have for the Mormon Geeks contributing authors.  T.J. is my best friend.  I find support and comfort from him that is really quite rare for me to find anywhere else.  Joe is also a close friend and is always there to support me when I'm having trouble.  He can always make me laugh.  Andrew's authenticity is something I always learn from.

Geeks need each other.  Really, I think everyone needs community but especially geeks.  Growing up I always felt like a fish out of water in the church.  The other guys in my quorums were always more interested in sports and looked liked deer in the headlights when I talked about Dungeons & Dragons.  There were some great boys and young men in my quorums but they weren't quite like the friends I have today.

I'm also thankful for my trials.  I'm thankful to know what it's like to move every 3 years and have your heart break when you say goodbye to your friends.  I'm thankful to know what loneliness feels like.  I'm thankful to have been in awful, unhealthy, codependent relationships--and even more thankful that they ended.  I'm thankful to know the frustrations of rising insurance rates, car payments, and traffic tickets.  I'm thankful to have experienced childhood trauma.

Why would anyone be thankful for trials like these?  Well, I know that these trials helped me appreciate the blessings in my life more.  And not only that, but the hard experiences in my life taught me to preserve the wonderful things I have now.  I couldn't have the healthy friendships I have now if I hadn't learned from unhealthy relationships in the past.  Knowing what loneliness feels like has helps me appreciate the time I spend with family and friends.  It's also given me time to see and appreciate me individually and be a best friend to myself.  Moving around so much allowed me to build solid friendships with my siblings and parents.

But the biggest and most wonderful blessing that I can think of is becoming best friends with my savior, Jesus Christ.  How could I really feel the power of the atonement without having the experience of heart ache and feeling lost?  No trial goes wasted.  Our hardships can bring so many blessings to our life if we allow Him to make it so.

Something I started doing was expressing my thankfulness for everything in prayer.  I started expressing gratitude for stuff like speeding tickets.  I was afraid to do this because I expected, "Oh, you like that?  Ok, well here are some more trials for you."  Yikes, just because I'm thankful for it doesn't mean I want more of it.  As scary as it was, it definitely had an impact on my life.

We talk about having the Christmas spirit all year round.  What about the Thanksgiving spirit?  It says in Alma 34:38,

"...live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you."

If we want or need more blessings from our Heavenly Father, expressing gratitude to Him will help us first recognize how many blessings are already in our life.  Stuff is great but all it is is stuff.  What I love about this holiday is the beautiful reminder of what's really important to me.

Thanks for reading and for allowing me to share my feelings on Thanksgiving.  Enjoy the song!

-Stephen

Lost Shores madness

Only a brief blog post from me this week.  I'm exhausted from playing the new Guild Wars 2 content, and work is pretty crazy right now (deadlines are coming up!).

Last weekend, Guild Wars 2 released some new content called 'The Lost Shores'.  Apparently a group called the Consortium discovered a new island in the Sea of Sorrows.  One of the representatives went to see what they could take from the area.  Unfortunately, the person somehow triggered an attack by the race called the 'Karka'.

In the first event, Karka attacked Lion's Arch (one of the major cities in the game).  They destroyed a lighthouse and basically caused a lot of havoc in the area.  Karka are a very dangerous and powerful race o crab like monsters.  The hatchilngs explode and latch onto players.  Young have a powerful ranged attack.  Veteran and champion karka (basically older ones) have powerful armor that must be destroyed before they can be killed.  They also can dodge attacks, roll over players, and fire off blasts of acid and glue.  I've seen three of the large champion karka take out a group of about 40 players in a matter of minutes.

In the second phase of the release, players banded together to drive back an Ancient karka that was terrorizing the area.  Armed with special guns that sprayed corrosive acid, players were able to defeat the creature (which was resistant to normal attacks).

After the ancient karka was defeated, players discovered a whole new island called Southsun Cove.  The new area was a tropical island inhabited by karka and other new, dangerous creatures.  It also had passion fruit.  As a personal miff, the passion fruit was harvested from bushes.  When I went to Brazil on my mission, I saw passion fruit growing on vines!  As part of the second phase of the rekease, players helped to establish a foothold on the island.

Us pummeling some veteran karka moments before they pummeled us

The third and final phase was pretty crazy.  First off, players helped escort explosives experts.  The experts planted bombs in a giant karka nesting area.  Then, another ancient karka area appeared, and players had to drive it back to its nesting area.  To do this, players had to defeat massive waves of the giant karka reinforcements, batter down giant trees onto the ancient karka, and other things.  At one point, we had to attack a rock wall to trigger a rockslide.  In another, we had to destroy nests, then place boulders from the nests in geysers that would then launch the boulders at the ancient karka.  Sadly, I had to leave to do home teaching for the latter half of the event.  Eventually, the ancient karka found it's demise at the bottom of the nest near a pool of lava.

My character vainly tries to fireball the Ancient Karka

Fighting off waves of Karka reinforcements

Dancing on the corpse!

Future posts will have more information on the new content with this event, including the Fractal dungeon and the new jumping puzzle!

Alexis Carrington, A Different Kind of Catwoman

Something that I am going to do is create a cast of characters from popular TV shows (and maybe movies) to recreate the villains for Batman. Why? First, I really like saying "what if So-and-so was on Such-and-such-tv-show?" It's a fun geeky game. And second, I couldn't find any other way to write this fanboy post that Joe challenged me to do and tie it to Mormon Geeks.

Welcome to April 20, 1981. It is over 8 months before the oldest Mormon Geek is actually born. It is an age when prime time soap operas are popular. Enter Vincent Duke and Aaron Spelling's new hit Dynasty. Like CBS's Dallas, ABC's Dynasty is about a wealthy oil tycoon (Blake Carrington), a new-to-the-riches bride (Crystal Jennings), the tycoon's kids (Stephen and Fallon), his friends (Jeff Colby and technically Claudia Blaisdel), and of course, his enemies (Cecil Colby and Matthew Blaisdel).

Now, this isn't the date of its premier. No, it's the date of its first season finale. Blake is on trial for murder and the prosecutors bring in a surprise character witness. The episode (and season) ends with a thin woman dressed in black and white (if it'd been polka dots, she'd have been Cruella De Vil) walking into the courtroom being revealed as Blake Carrington's ex-wife.

Fast-forward a few months (and a few casting calls) and Joan Collins is portraying one of the most memorable villains in the 80s. Now, there are no superheroes on a soap opera (there are evil twins, people who just won't die, and an unending supply of money). On the other hand, there are super villains (who have used money to their advantage) and Alexis Carrington was one of them.

If Alexis Carrington lived in Gotham she'd have been Catwoman...well...probably Cougarwoman, but you get the picture. Alexis Carrington wanted money...all of it. And she had very good methods of doing so. Where Catwoman would steal, Alexis would manipulate. Put Alexis in Gotham City and Bruce Wayne would be broke, outed out as Batman, and living with Dick Grayson in a small, run-down apartment in Metropolis wishing to be as cool as Superman.

Now here we have the beautiful Julie Newmar as Catwoman in the 1960s Batman TV show. Now de-age Alexis a bit, put the ears and faux-leather on her and boom, instant Catwoman. (If I knew how to photoshop, I would do what I can to make that happen.)

So, Joe and I have a few things in common. We're both fairly short. Neither of us will be mistaken as being anorexic. We love Carrie Underwood and Catwoman. And by all means, we both think Alexis Carrington is awesome. Yes, Joe told me that since I'm being authentic here about liking a prime-time soap opera character, that he willingly will admit it too.

Tune in next time. Same Bat blog. Roughly the same Bat time...I have no idea which villain I'd do. Any suggestions?

Alien abductions are involuntary, but probings are scheduled.

Why I HATE Wolverine

He looks like he forgot what he was going to say

I know what you’re going to say: “Joe! Having a psychotic rant about why Kingdom Hearts is dead is one thing, but are you really going to go after everyone’s favorite misunderstood psychopath?” The answer is Yes, yes I am.

So as I’ve stated several times I’m a DC fan, but one part of Marvel I’ve always found fascinating was the struggle of the X-Men. I got into it mainly with the Ultimate series back in 2000 but since I’ve delved into the adventures of the students of Xavier and I’ve loved nearly everything I’ve ever read.

Everything except Wolverine.

Let me start off with this: HE TRIES TOO HARD! When he’s not in uniform (I’ll get to that in a minute) he’s a motorcycle riding cigar smoking cowboy who has a possible alcohol problem. They’ve done everything to make this guy cool from his out of place Japanese samurai piece in his backstory to the endless scenes with him breaking the fourth wall and popping his claws. I swear sometimes he sheathes them just so he can unsheathe them again when another bad guy walks up. And tell me how many times we’ve seen this: Wolverine in a bar smoking a cigar with a beer playing pool against a bunch of hicks who then make fun of his stupid haircut or how short he is and he proceeds to beat everyone in the establishment to death with his pool cue. Even the movies found an excuse to stick him in a bar (which apparently has no drinking age) and get him into a bar fight. This is the kind of behavior I would expect from Homer Simpson or Stan’s dad from South Park.

Why do his boots have ears?

As for his costume, his little super hero outfit has got to be the stupidest costume I’ve ever seen. Here’s a guy who’s all but invincible with unbreakable caws trained in stealth and covert ops and they stuck him in bright yellow with sky blue briefs. I’d buy the idea that it’d give the bad guys a target to shoot at when his X-Men teammates were around, but he showed up to the team wearing this nonsense (Granted, his origins he wears a dark orange thing but whatever). And where on Earth did he get this thing? I always see him running out of Weapon X in a diaper or less, it’s hard for me to imagine a confused and newly created Wolverine stopping off at JoAnn’s fabric for a few yards of material. Let me ask you this too, does he honestly want to be taken seriously in that mask with the ears? Batman barely pulls that off!

How much does she spend on nail polish?

They say you can judge a man by the company he keeps and I’d say that’s true in this case.

Analyzing Wolverine’s romantic interests we come across a girlfriend from his Japanese days named Yuri Cho (A name which he dramatically says every 5 seconds in the 90’s cartoon) who ends up being a psychopath with a complicated relationship with her manicurist, and Jean Grey, who not only is spoken for but is also possessed by an all-powerful evil space-bird. Seriously, why do people fight over this woman? I know I’m getting off topic, but are there really no better women on the X-Men then the space-bird woman? Anyway, for some unexplained reason Wolverine also pines for the affections of Jean Grey, despite she already being spoken for by the world’s blandest super hero, Cyclops. I know it’s supposed to add some element of drama but all it does is take away from the overall struggle the X-Men deal with, not to mention takes pages away from more interesting characters, like anyone else.

Because every man wants an insane pyro...

Besides everything else, Wolverine is just a psycho. A lot of people make a comparison between him and Batman as them both being anti-heroes, but the difference is that Batman may be a dark brooding anti-hero, but Wolverine to date has killed more minions than a decent sized natural disaster. The only reason I think he even hangs out with the good guys is because the bad guys have more minions for him to dice up. I’m sure if Magneto, Apocalypse, Mr. Sinister and that guy who keeps building the sentinels were all killed Wolverine would just turn around and slaughter his teammates next. And how does Xavier allow this guy on the team? It’s going to be pretty awkward when he’s finally awarded the Nobel Peace prize for uniting Mutants and humans and someone brings up Wolverine.

Me and my cool Canadian friend Nathan. 

Like I said in the beginning, Wolverine just tries way too hard to be liked. Instead of making a consistent character with a focused background he’s just a mess of storylines, cliché’s and useless overmasculinity.  Someone once told me he’s trying to make up for being Canadian, but I know plenty of cooler Canadians than this guy! Nathan Fillian is a cooler Canadian! Michael J. Fox is a cooler Canadian! My buddy Nate Maguire is a cooler Canadian! Wolverine is just a loser who’s overcompensating for being a short, angry, hairy man.