14 April, 2012

Minecraft got a lot of loving

A lot of Minecraft

Wow. Just…wow.

Back about 13 April 2012 at 23:11 (UTC) or so, Minecraft made five million, five hundred and fifty five thousand, five hundred and fifty five sales, and more by now. I even managed to get a screenshot of the event.

Oh, and as the full sized screenshot will show, I was using a favourite plugin of mine—FlashBlock.

04 April, 2012

Feel like bacon, anyone?


Let's ham it up

Bacon and eggs go together like…well, bacon and eggs. They're great as a pie, or even on their own without pastry. However, one place where they really don't go together is in a game. Except for one family of games.

First, take a family of birds. They like life. And they like eggs. Funny that, because that's how they become birds. And then there's pigs. Pigs like eggs too, but not for the same reasons. They don't need the eggs to become birds first. They just like eggs. Cooked. Any way they can.

Needless to say, the birds don't like this. In fact they get rather angry about the fact that the pigs (green, in this case) have come along and stolen their eggs, in preparation of a right pig-out. Yes, that's right, I think you've all figured it out by now.

Take some angry birds…

In the game Angry Birds and their sequels, you play the part of some really really angry birds. You're given a catapult, and different sorts of birds, all to kill any pigs on screen. The fewer birds you have to use, the better your score. Oh, and it's even better if you wipe out every piece of structure protecting the pigs too, but killing the pigs is where it's at. Or releasing the other birds, if you happen to have bought Angry Birds - Rio.

It's become kind of a cult classic, but I've no idea what following it has, save that it comes top of the category at the App Store for downloading. Suffice it to say that this may not be the game for COD4 or MW3 players, unless they're tired of playing with all their buddies online, and just want some downtime, to rest up the braincells.

Don't think you'll be resting them with this game, though. Even though the target is simple—kill all pigs (or release all the captive birds)— that can get surprisingly hard to do, especially if you're after the full three stars that nearly every level offers. And then there are the chances to get golden eggs, which unlock further levels for you to play on. If you think “Pshaw, how hard can killing pigs be?” then try going through all four games, completing all levels, and all goldenegg levels. When you've succeeded in that, decide whether you want to run back to MW3.

Then there's the inevitable chase for the highest score you can possibly get in each level. I don't quite know how the score is calculated, but the higher you get, the more points you have. And you might even get a golden egg level out of it. If you feel like releasing a bit of frustration, then I'm sorry to say that some of the levels in this game are infuriatingly hard to get. Needless to say, I haven't finished all the levels yet.

The games are cheap enough, at only $4.95 each you're not going to have months of gametime, but it'll while away enough time for the price. The most recent episode costs $5.95, but that's because it's only just been released. In addition, the games are not just available on your humble PC. No, sir. It made an appearance in the smartphone market when I first saw it, and it had become a classic top-of-category by then. Once tablets started becoming more common, it was only a matter of time before Angry Birds (and sequels) topped the charts at the App Store. In addition, you can even play some of Angry Birds for free, in a number of ways. It's available as a Google Chrome applet, a Google Plus game, as a Facebook game, or even as a standalone demo for the PC/Mac (running on OS X)/Android/iPad or smartphone.

And it's a good alternative to Minecraft.


EDIT: Unfortunately, these games are no longer available for download in their PC versions from the original producer, so the only way you can get them is either on disc from retailers that still sell them, or from Steam, who currently only sells Angry Birds: Space through their platform.




Piracy and its effects (link to article)

I've just finished reading an article about piracy that has opened my eyes a bit more than they already were. I'm not going to bother summarising the points in the article, instead, I'm going to point to it instead.

It's available as the Piracy article on tweakguides.com.

'nuff said.
Oh, and due to the controversial nature of the current feeling about it, I deliberately won't be accepting comments. Sorry, folks.