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August 11, 2011

Mining for the Future: Minecraft

Lately I have been looking for more games to play and things to do while wasting time online (don’t tell my boss that last part, though), and I came across Minecraft. I know: terribly late, but better late than never, amiright? Anywho, the game is pretty cool, as it allows players to dig mines, create anything they can think of--as long as it is in block form, and kill “creepers.”

My original run-through of Minecraft was found on a CD distributed by PC Gamer. It’s a great demo that lasts ninety minutes, I believe, and gives you the ability to see what Minecraft is like and a feeling of how to play. The controls are relatively easy to pick up, and it becomes second nature as you go through the game and spend a bit of time building, crafting, and, or course, mining.

While many of the games I have become accustomed to playing leave your mind ample time to rest and do nothing, Minecraft makes you think about the best ways to build your caverns in order to maximize space, avoid creepers, and to make your place pretty…. I mean manly, yeah, manly. While your supply of building materials is, for the most part, limitless (as long as you have a way of mining them), the strategy you use to get what you need is often one of your own. The idea is to create all of the items you could want, while staying protected from the outer elements and the bad guys who are spawned at night, or in the realms of darkness while underground.

The list of stuff you can make is extensive, from your basic necessities like cooked pork and baked bread, up to the complicated compass and everything in between.  In order to craft weapons you have to collect materials that you find around the island to make certain objects. You can then make a crafting table and other things to help you create the rest of the list of objects. In order to help you create everything that your giant mind can fathom I am including THIS, which is a list of all the objects you can “presently” craft, courtesy of the Minecraft Wiki. However, the word “presently” is in quotes because, with the addition of mods that seem to be increasing every 2.3 seconds (I counted), you can craft anything your mind can imagine. This is including, but not limited to, people who will do the work for you (minecolony), a mod that allows you to use the ballistic knife from Black Ops, and even guns, (yes guns) which you can use to annihilate creepers and such by running through clips at an alarming rate, or slowly if you want!

Minecraft is a great game and I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone who wants a game that contains a little more than just running around shooting everything you encounter. Well, to be honest, I would still recommend Minecraft, but I would just tell you about some mods!

-Jason

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