For those who don't get it, it's a push by a large set of gamers to get a publisher (Valve) to release details about their plans for the future of the franchise (nothing new released since a cliffhanger game in 2007), and they think if they can get 50,000 people playing an eight year old game on Steam all at the same time, it will show them there is a lot of demand for this information.
If you've never played the game, and want to, I have a free copy of the game on Steam. Back in the day, it was an awesome game. Not so awesome anymore by today's standards, but still pretty darn good.
GJ said 2 days later
Well, we got up to #11 on the stats page for Steam. Not too bad for a very old game, and we'll see if Valve responds at all.
Civ 5 review posted by GJ on July 5, 2011 @ 3:21PM
Civ 5 came out last fall, and requires a hefty machine to play. Steam has it 50% off today.
It's an interesting revision to the Civ game--much different game than Civ 4. I do actually enjoy it more--when it actually works.
Here we are, more than nine months after release, patched at least 3 times, and the game is still unstable. It is rare that you can actually complete a game, due to bugs likely relating to some kind of limit on the total # of cities in the game based on map size.
So...if you haven't bought it--don't waste your money on it.
You'd think there'd be some clause to be able to return a game that doesn't work, but I know how these things work. I bet they'll tout Civ 6's stability as a feature. :)
Minecraft v1.6 will be released tomorrow, and with it, the Baumbach Family Server will be rebuilt on Thursday night. Being that I'm visiting with Mom & Dad Fri-Sat-Sun, chances are the server will be yours to play with as you see fit. Stake out the best territory, yada yada yada.
What to expect:
How to play: buy the game at minecraft.net and then point your multiplayer server connection to:
sixty-seven point two hundred fifty two point seventeen point sixty one
I haven't played the game inawhile...I think it is time the king returns. What will be the rules of the server?
GJ said about 3 hours later
Rules are simple. No griefing (destroying other's property, stealing their stuff, setting forest fires without agreement of nearby players). There is no PVP at the moment, but could be added if enough desire it. Monsters are on, portals to the Nether will be enabled.
There are non-Baumbachs on this server on occasion (Abby's friends), and my youngest as well. No foul language. And of course, until you see server announcements that the server has been rebuilt, you are playing on the old server. You may want to check out my kick butt monster tower before it's toast.
Marc said about 7 hours later
I haven't played in quite some time either. You'll have to let us know once it's up and running and I'll come check it out!
GJ said about 14 hours later
Well, the server is on 24x7, including right now. I will be rebuilding the server world today during lunch, after having set fire to my wood constructed beach house next to my monster tower last night for kicks (and before Notch nerfed fire in 1.6).
I play tested 1.6.2 briefly (Notch had two bug fix releases before I rebuilt the world this morning). Found two major bugs, one a client-side CPU consumption issue, the other a lighting refresh problem. Minor bug--spawn location resists modification.
He's up to 1.6.4 by now, I'll update the server again in the next hour. Be sure you update your clients before connecting.
GJ said about 18 hours later
Btw, for those of you who haven't played in a while, the game defaults to smooth lighting. Most of us don't care for it, you can change back to the old lighting model under video options in the pause menu.
GJ said about 22 hours later
Single player code seems ok for this release, but multiplayer is seriously broken. I'll leave the server up (currently running 1.6.4) but I don't plan to do much on it until a better release comes along. If released tomorrow, I will update the server before taking off for the weekend.
Geoff said about 24 hours later
This guy seriously needs to hire beta testers or something.
Geoff said 3 days later
You guys see this game? Look like some competition for Minecraft. Pretty cool. Different take on Minecraft...2D vs 3D, but seems like a lot more battling (but you can still build too).
Yes, seen it. Nothing really like Minecraft, and Notch actually finds it fun to play.
MC is a building game, Terraria is more a combat-orientated game.
Notch released 1.6.5 today but SMP is still very broken, so the server is offline until likely Monday. I'll be doing some testing Sunday to see if 1.6.5 makes it bearable. Will update comments when ready!
GJ said 4 days later
1.6.5 is installed and running. Just testing it now.
GJ said 4 days later
Sorry, folks, Mr. Server ate his 8800GT video card tonight, and a new GTS250 is on order. For those that build you own machines, that 8800GT was a PNY. The new card is a Zotan. No more PN-freaking-Y for me.
Geoff said 4 days later
lol...I played some single player last night since your server was down...he's added a bunch of new stuff to the game. Forgot how fun it can be to play.
GJ said 5 days later
Waaa, NewEgg's CA warehouse is shipping the card, not the Newark one. Won't be back up much before Thursday, I'm betting.
GJ said 7 days later
Of course, I'd find out about baking video cards after I ordered a new one. So, for grins, I'm doing it anyway to see if it works.
GJ said 8 days later
It appears to have worked--8 minutes at 385 deg F. Running some acid tests now, but it's already gotten farther than before with NO artifacts and NO BSODs.
GJ said 8 days later
30 minutes in, playing MC and running youtube videos, and rock solid. Guess I'll put the GTS250 on my other rig, which is only running a 240GT.
Nvidia, please make your model names make some sense in the future. You guys are a big pain in the ass. GTS250 > 240GT, ok, but also better than an 8800GT. However, the 8800GT > the 240GT. I'd really like a hp/lb rating like I can get for cars. :)
GJ said 8 days later
Server is up and running again. I played on the server briefly yesterday, from what I can tell, SMP is still significantly broken. When you first join the world, lag is pretty bad but goes away after a minute or two. However, once the lag stops, the lighting issues appear (um, or don't, as the case may be). The issue is not so much lighting as it is graphic display refresh. You'll see thinks like the following:
* chop a tree, you get an invisible wood block, and the tree doesn't change. Change the fog level, and the display is fixed.
* place a torch in a cave, but it doesn't appear to broadcast light. Again, cycle the fog level to fix.
* occasionally the world's surface disappears, leaving you with just a display of animals/monsters. You know the drill by now.
The problems aren't rare, they appear to happen constantly. I do not see the same issues in SSP. Anyhow, I'm leaving the server up, let me know if you see the same issues or different ones should you try to give it a whirl.
GJ said 9 days later
Server is stable (for now). Most issues have gone away. Please join!!
Geoff said 9 days later
Cool! I'll join in
GJ said 11 days later
Note if you have lag issues playing MP, stop using Windows 7/Vista. ;) If you get square blocks of land missing, you're running out of memory--disconnect, kill the client, and restart it. Same approach holds for any other weird problems that just start happening and don't go away. Kudos to Notch for one heck of a memory leak in the client--that's almost Microsoft worthy.
Geoff said 12 days later
I've encountered this, on my 8gig quad-core Macbook Pro! I decided to drop into one of those "abyss" holes to see what happened. Needless to say I had to disconnect and reconnect. I found one hell of a cavern at my basecamp. It is quite the maze...biggest I've personally encountered. I've gotten pretty aware of the surroundings since I've been killed numerous times from falling creepers and those stupid arrow firing skeletons...man their aim is tremendous.
GJ said 12 days later
Yeah, it's not so much your machine running out of memory as the Java instance Minecraft is running in being 100% allocated.
On Darcy's Core i7 box with 4gb of ram, it's nearly unplayable due to lag and the memory allocation, which hits 1GB very quickly. At least on XP32 (older core2quads each with 4gb of ram), it hovers around 700-800MB for a while before going belly up. Want to really screw it up? Load a multiplayer game, quit, and load a single player game. It never deallocates what it used in map 1, and usually goes south loading map 2.
Geoff said 13 days later
interesting. Mine only really slows down if I adjust the fog.
Geoff said 18 days later
Hey GJ...if you can't find your dog upon your return, it's because I slaughtered it. I tried to feed it a bone and inadvertently whacked him over the head with it. He then proceeded to push me off my bridge into a lava pit...killing me and destroying all my freshly created diamond equipment. Needless to say, upon my respawn, I immediately grabbed a stowed broadsword from the helm and vanquished the foul beast. My condolences to you and your kinfolk, but I shall not mourn that mutt.
GJ said 18 days later
LOL. You have a way with dogs, Geoff. Lesson of the day, don't mess with my mutts. :)
FYI, you can't feed a dog a bone, only a wild wolf.
Marc said 19 days later
This memory leak is really impressively bad. It's pretty difficult to create a memory leak in Java, but leave it to Notch. After playing for a few hours yesterday I noticed my computer was running horribly after quitting Minecraft the night before all due to his memory leak. No wonder I was getting huge lag even after quitting and re-opening. I had to give it the reboot treatment to fix the problem.
GJ said 19 days later
LOL. It's funny how well the server is written, given how poor the client is.
Geoff said 27 days later
Ladies and Gentlemen, the initial stages of our epic Colosseum has begun. I have laid the groundwork for what will be an epic build. The foundation resides behind Barad-dur (my castle) off to the left in the desert. I have built a 19 block radius battle field (39 blocks in diameter) and I have hollowed out beneath it with the beginnings of a mine and some ovens and what not. I also built a temporary shelter nearby with some beds for nightly passings.
You will also see that I've built up one wall of the outer Colosseum spectator stands. The final radius of the Colosseum is 46 blocks (93 diameter).
I will be requesting some help with this if any should want to participate. Obviously, I will need A LOT of stone (which means a lot of coal too). Each outer radius layer requires 260 blocks...so you can imagine I will go through well over 15-20,000 stone blocks when all is said and done. I'm going to start outlining the outer wall radius and then begin some major mining. All who wish to participate are welcome in mining and building. I will have laid out a pretty simply template that we can follow for the basic build, and then I will go through near the end and build entrances and walk-throughs. Gotta still plan out the monster lairs so we can get circuitry going as well. More to come...
GJ said 28 days later
Yeah, I'm still fuzzy on placing spawners. Best editor is supposed to be MC-Edit, which hasn't been updated in eons and sets off virus warnings...not too good.
Geoff said 28 days later
can't you simply generate them with the /give command inside the game itself?
spawners placed by players only spawn pigs, last I checked.
GJ said 28 days later
but it's worth trying...when I have some time. or maybe I'll get lazy and grant you the give command (and save you some mining)
Geoff said about 1 month later
I downloaded MCEdit...what a cool tool. Seems to work. You can clone stuff and transfer objects from one map to another. GJ, any chance you could send me the server world file to I can attempt to clone my structure to another map and see if it works without blowing up?
GJ said about 1 month later
Sure, but you might want to use email for requests like these--this thread is getting old. :)
Geoff said about 1 month later
you saw it didn't you :)
GJ said about 1 month later
Eventually. I'll see if I can do this when I'm back in town Sunday, before I fly out again on Monday.
Those of you who are looking for a vanilla Minecraft Server to play on, I'm opening mine up to the family. It's not on a static IP, so it will change from time to time. If you decide to play on it, comment and I'll add you to my server update email distribution list.
Server rules are pretty basic:
1. No griefing.
2. No stealing.
3. Monsters off until Notch fixes the lag combat bug.
Minecraft just entered beta, and there's been a number of new changes. Check 'em out!
* minecarts work
* trees decay again
* tools wear out now
* inventory objects are now labelled
* water sorta works better
* gravel over lava is NOT your friend
Server is currently running 24/7, and will be getting a battery backup soon (power outages are baaaad for server maps).
Oh yeah, server can be laggy when we occasionally use it as a client, too. Deal with it. LOL! Still, it's a quad core machine with 4GB of RAM, so it does pretty well most of the time. Doesn't run 24/7 all the time, either...ping me if you can't connect to it but want to.
GJ said about 5 hours later
New server soon--Geoff is offering to host it on his full time, real 24/7 server, which is beefier and more reliable than one of my gaming rigs. Expect a new server IP in early January, but don't let that stop you from playing now, if you wish.
For those of you who still have no idea why you'd want to play it, let me ask you this: did you play with Legos as a kid? How about any other building set? Like those? You'll absolutely love this game, then.
Steve said about 12 hours later
So do I have to buy a copy of the game to play it on your server? I'm bored tonight, waiting for paint to dry....
GJ said about 23 hours later
You do want to buy a copy. Unfortunately, the great price and unlimited updates offer was done by 12/20. Go to minecraft.net, I think the beta price is a bit higher than the alpha price, but lower than the final release price. Think you don't get unlimited updates any more, but you can get all updates through the final release of the product, and maybe for 1 year afterward instead of lifetime.
GJ said about 23 hours later
I think you can do a trial install, and even join MP servers like mine. Try it and see!
Notch released another update for the server today, but he's hinting another may come shortly, so I'm holding off for a bit before updating. Probably will update around 5-6pm ET tonight.
Geoff said about 24 hours later
Yup we'll get things setup over the holidays on the new server.
GJ said 9 days later
Server now has a battery backup (well, technically, it's backed up by a generator, the battery is there to keep the system running for the five second transfer).
GJ said 27 days later
Server was rebuilt for the new beta release (1.2.01). It's up most of the time, except when Trevor is using that rig for his own gaming activities since Minecraft server doesn't play nicely with others. If you want to reserve time on the server, email my gmail account at dragoniv dot greg at gmail.
Will be converting over to a new Admin server suite soon that will perform auto-backups and do other nice things. Stay tuned.
Geoff said 27 days later
yeah I gotta get back on it sometime...need to build something epic
GJ said 28 days later
oh, yeah, btw--monsters on! LOL
Be wary--while I have the server running now across all four cores on my machine (which addresses some of the lag) my Time Warner connection is suspect, so you may have some trouble with sword combat if not protected by a door. Use of a bow and arrow is highly recommended.
GJ said 28 days later
Minecraft.net is having issues, which until fixed will block you from joining the server until it's fixed. Basically, if you can't log into the game reliably, you won't be able to authenticate to the server reliably either. Sorry!
Geoff said 28 days later
no surprise there. lol
GJ said about 1 month later
Minecraft server is back up, new map. Running admin software, too.
OK, for those of you who haven't played Minecraft, or those of you who have but still would love to see a cool trailer about it (showing some awesome works of construction to boot), check this video out:
great video! Love the music, Inception has a great sound score.
Some very good structures built too. I must say, my Neuschwanstein castle would definitely be up in the runnings for best structures (I should hope so, I spent a month building it). I've yet to see a castle match it. Though I've seen some other incredible structures out there. The German library is one of the best.
Still need to finish it but I'm way too busy. Good post!
GJ said about 14 hours later
You still playing on Marc's server?
I might join if it's stable and rebuilt after major server updates (new world to take advantage of biomes, etc.)
Abby said 1 day later
Love the zombie sounds at the end. That's great :D
Geoff said 1 day later
actually, I built it on our server. We had set one up but I haven't touched Minecraft in weeks. Just been *super* busy. It's at minecraft.bushcommunications.com...but need to update the server I believe.
GJ said 2 days later
Yes, the server has been updated 3x in the past two weeks. Might be worth a world rebuild, if you like the idea of lakes--but his idea of lakes and mine are pretty different.
Yeah, busy with real life stuff, like stacking and splitting wood, that sort of thing. But yeah, this was pretty funny.
Marc said about 18 hours later
I actually think it would be worse if a creeper just came up and pushed over your structures, it's a bit more demeaning. :)
Geoff said about 21 hours later
lol nice! Love the biomes.
GJ said about 22 hours later
Having the creeper kick him when he was down just killed me..because, dammit, that's what they do!
OK, the skeletons shooting me into lava really suck too. You almost need a buddy system to play this successfully on hard.
Marc said 1 day later
The biomes were a great touch. The buddy system sounds great....almost like multiplayer. Except ya know... there's monsters that can hurt you and you can hurt them. Too much to ask though I think.
GJ said 1 day later
well, that's sorta what I mean--the game is really more fun and productive in multiplayer, where you can work together. :)
GJ said 1 day later
and oh, yeah, lava-proof items, or bag, would be nice.
This looks like an sweet implementation of I Am Legend. This is a perfect example of something that is likely awesome and the graphics don't matter at all (in fact I think they fit perfectly with it). Have you tried it much? I assume each day/discovery, things get more and more crazy. Do they provide any help for learning how to build these things, or do you just have to play around and try building different things and hope they will help you that night?
Geoff said about 1 hour later
Yeah and why not post a good link too :) minecraft.com is even worse than these graphics!
Geoff said about 1 hour later
minecraft.net
server is down. You can download the game .exe file (or mac equivalent, unfortunately you need an account to play and you can't register an account because the server is down)
Geoff said about 1 hour later
This needs to be an iPhone app
GJ said about 2 hours later
Marc- the guy who wrote this video has at least 8 parts to it--more than enough to get you running. Right now, there is no sound, so night time is *really* interesting.
Geoff- Thanks, yes, the link is indeed minecraft.net. You can download the executable and run it--when it says "log in" just do that with no credentials and the game runs.
Geoff said about 3 hours later
wow...talk about a good deterrent...I didn't even both to click login lol
Marc said about 3 hours later
Have you tried the multiplayer yet?
GJ said about 4 hours later
Nope. Think that's offline for now. Not sure tho
Marc said about 5 hours later
Looks like you just download the minecraft server and run it yourself. I don't know if it connects off to some remote server for verification though.
Geoff said about 7 hours later
you just had to post this didn't you? Like I don't have enough addicting games to play. First NeverWinter...then a sale on old Sega Games on the iPhone (I'm playing Phantasy Star II), and now this! I've decided I need to build a fortress with a lava mote to fend off those damn skeletons and sheep!
GJ said about 9 hours later
Oh, gosh, you should see my place. I have a tower of Babel complete with a sundeck overlooking the abyss of hell. Mined to the bottom of the mountain to my original hidey hole, and have a few other secret ways into the maze.
Trying to farm, and failing badly. Where are all the damn seeds?
GJ said about 23 hours later
Dammit, build a killer monster trap...but I'm only getting zombies in this one. Where are the spiders and the boom giraffes? How about skeletons? I build it in a field surrounded by several deep caves / crevasses, and one even has a zombie generator in it. Yep, it only produces zombies. No idea why they produce feathers, but I'd prefer something like gunpowder!
It wasn't my idea, but holy crap it works good. It's like the trap I used to catch the chipmunks, only in this one I sit inside the trap and watch (and listen) to them drown.
Multi-player would be weird in this one--not sure how you could keep people from raiding your houses. Even if there was a lock, it's really not too hard to dig through the strongest fortress. Might be cool, however, if you're far enough away to begin with--and watch as far off lands start to change as the user there plays god with the terrain or constructs tall buildings.
Anyhow, I bought the game yesterday--pretty good deal for 10euros.
Marc said 1 day later
I was thinking of setting up a server on my home server where we could all connect into it and build things there. It would be always running, so it would be cool to be able to get resources and build something pretty awesome. I was playing with this quite a bit yesterday, ended up finding this gigantic cave full of all sorts of ore. Cave mining is a scary thing though, every time I was about to place a light, I was afraid of being bombarded (and was several times). I've got a giant furnace in my place cooking me up all sorts of materials so I've got a good stockpile of swords. Now I enjoy going out at night. :)
Geoff said 1 day later
lol...i just FINALLY found ore. Been digging awhile. I'm trying to keep my caves nice and neat. Got some nice stair cases. I freaking hate those exploding green things. I'm busy chopping down cows and pigs one sneaks up on me and blows the front of my fortress away lol. Way too addicting...
Marc said 1 day later
Those exploding green things are really annoying. I was chillin' in my hidey hole cooking up some ore when suddenly half of the wall of my house blew up (As did half of my life). That was my reminder to go kill some cows and get some armor. :)
Marc said 1 day later
So do you guys have any interest in a server you could connect to where we could build some massive village or something?
Geoff said 1 day later
definitely.
Marc said 1 day later
Ok, a server is setup. You'll likely need to purchase the game to join in, but when you start Minecraft, select Multiplayer and enter this for the IP: (contact me for the IP)
Let me know if you run into any issues.
GJ said 1 day later
guys, build a stone wrap around your houses--they don't go boom any more.
Marc said 2 days later
I'm hoping you're not implying that half of my house was destroyed while I was gone last night. :)
Geoff said 2 days later
they can still blow up stone, correct?
GJ said 2 days later
they can blow up stone if right next to it, but not much. Earth, gravel and sand will go kablooie much easier. Water absorbs most of the blast.
GJ said 3 days later
and no, I didn't make your house go boomie.
That said, mp is really boring the hell out of me due to the lack of danger. And in SP, I'm getting weary of starting over, because map after map I play through a few night/day cycles and most of the time fail to find any really good caverns, or sizeable deposits of anything other than coal.
Might have to give it a break for a few days. :) Hahahah, suuuuure.
Geoff said 3 days later
you just need to focus on building some great!
GJ said 3 days later
I found a good world finally--kick ass cavern with good deposits, and I must have a skeleton spawner nearby since they keep raiding my base camp in the cavern.
GJ said 3 days later
Did a test on full stone with those blow-up giraffes. On a flat stone surface, they knock out only two blocks. Not too shabby.
GJ said 5 days later
Hmm, those giraffes seem to have more power in mp mode. They've made a mess of my work site so far. I'm constructing a fence to keep them out, but dummy me stepped on a fence and am now stuck. I'll have to have Darcy remove the particular fence piece later today.
Geoff said 11 days later
ok...who laid the track down and/or mine cart? Marc's server has been unplayable lately....
GJ said 12 days later
dunno, but yeah, I can't get in either. Maybe it was Silent Bob?
Monster Hunter Tri showed up in the USA earlier this month on the Wii. Um, hunting monsters? Sign me up!
Here's the intro. Yes, I've played it--this is the in-game graphic engine.
Looks good. How about the first boss fight? This was from the demo--when I had to take this guy down, suffice to say my weapon was nowhere near as nice, and this fight took a good 20 minutes. Oh, and he had a lot more reinforcements.
Best of all, you can play online together, and even chat live with Wii Speak. AWESOME.
. . . . when I stop procrastinating on regents review I'm going to watch my DVR shows and then try playing this myself. which might happen sometime this year, I'm not so sure though
Super Mario Brothers returns to the Wii, this time with up to 4 player simultaneously on the screen helping to get through the puzzle.
I was hesitant to get this, because it's pretty expensive and I don't know how much better it would be than Super Mario Brothers 3, which you can download on the Wii as well. I also heard the multiplayer is "kinda cool" but really frustrating. Disregarding all of these seemingly valid points, I decided to throw my money away and pick it up anyway.
This game is cool. If you like the feel of Super Mario Brothers 3, you will love this. It can get just as challenging and frustrating as the old games and the multiplayer is really fun (so long as you don't get overly frustrated with taking your time through the levels). I find it's actually more challenging with other people because the difficult sections become even harder trying to get another person with you through them. Nintendo came up with an easy out though in case it's just too frustrating, just have your partner enter their bubble and they'll float around as you finish the section of the level.
All-in-all, I've been pretty addicted to it this past week and would recommend it.
That video is an unlockable video in the game and is really impressive and cool.
GJ said 33 minutes later
The game is awesome, and I'm enjoying it more than Galaxy. Multiplayer will be very frustrating if you take it too seriously, but once you chill out it's a blast. We've had it for a few weeks and are still playing it all the time.
GJ said about 1 hour later
And the bubble is hilarious--that's how you come back into the game after you die, provided other players are still alive and not in bubbles. Nothing like getting popped over a chasm or some other trap!
Marc said about 6 hours later
Laura is the champion of the dying, or I should say was. She's gotten real good at bubbling right before she falls to her death. I didn't realize how often I had been doing it too until I played the single player and started to die a fair amount!
I liked Galaxy, but from a multiplayer standpoint is was pathetic, which is fine since I thought it was at least a neat little addition over no multiplayer. Galaxy was really easy though, this game just has that classic feeling of difficulty and well thought out maps.
GJ said about 9 hours later
Yeah, we're mired somewhere in world 5 with those damn rolling logs. We're *all* good at dying, but some of us (I'm looking at you Darcy) have made an art form out of bubbling. Unlimited continues is a good thing...Aaron is somewhere around 60 now. I'm about halfway there. :)
GJ said 3 days later
Oh, and the bubbling to get players through would be fine, except when the bubble drifts near you. See, you interact with the bubble--hit it in midair during a jump, and you fall from where you hit the bubble...likely over a death trap. So you bubble to save your skin--and of course the original bubbler has (probably) bubbled. If all players bubble, the music slows to a crawl and you're booted from the level. You don't lose a life (good), but you lose any status changes (dammit, I want my propeller hat back!!!!).
Marc said 3 days later
The propeller hat is by far the cheapest upgrade in the game. I love it to death, cause it's so much fun, but man it makes the levels easy. Laura and I beat the game last night (or DID we?!) and we were really struggling with Bowser, then I had the bright idea to upgrade before going into the level to the propeller hat and beat it first go.
To me, the ice levels kill me. I thought the swimming world would suck based on the first swimming level, but it turned out to be pretty tame. Now I'm just going through and collecting all the gold coins (I never was a big fan of collecting everything, but it's kinda fun in this game) and man some of them are in ridiculous locations. One of them I found by "dying" or so I thought until I was warped into another part of the level.
Playing back and forth between multiplayer and single player is a very strange feeling with Mario. Some things are super easy by yourself (pretty much all the castles), and other things are super easy in multiplayer (collecting star coins). The best part is attempting to bubble right before you die in single player, it's so disheartening and makes you feel like such a cheater that you even attempted it. :)
Marc said 3 days later
I also love, love, love jumping off walls. I don't remember what mario they first added that in, but it's a joy in this game. That's actually how I found another star coin, I was fooling around waiting for Laura to catch up (hopefully she doesn't read this ;)) and I was trying to get really high up bouncing between two close walls and suddenly got warped to the coin part of the level.
GJ said 3 days later
Yeah, overall this is a terrific game (which is high praise indeed from a non-Mario gamer).
Geoff said 4 days later
how much is it?
GJ said 4 days later
$50 (but I got it on sale for $40 at best buy several weeks ago).
So far, at least Dominion (both the original game and the Intrigue expansion) and Killer Bunnies. Anybody want Catan and/or Ticket to Ride? Anything else?
How about Wii games? Any suggestions? NHL06 for the genesis? :) I played that on the big screen the other day and fell back in love with it. :)
I was gonna say, NHLPA96 might be more like it. :)
If the kids like Dominion/Killer Bunnies then those two are probably fine. I'm definitely game for some NHL06, that's always fun to beat you guys up in.
GJ said about 3 hours later
hehe...you and geoff leave me often yelling...."Kaaaaahn!" after you guys finish pummeling the crap out of me in that game.
GJ said about 3 hours later
And actually, 1993 was the only version of the NHLPA game. Beginning in 1994, it went to just NHL94.
And frankly, the 1993 game is still the best game in the universe.
Marc said about 5 hours later
I need it was early or mid nineties and the NHLPA was the best.
Kristen said about 19 hours later
Don't forget to call mom, it's her birthday today!
I won't be home for turkey day--I'll be driving Drew home from the hospital after hip replacement numero uno. I have to give him shots as part of the recovery plan...hehe...I guess I'll bring up everything I want for christmas then.
GJ said about 20 hours later
good luck with the hip replacement!!
Geoff said 2 days later
I'm back from driving all over US and Canada...ugh. Sorry I missed out. Ticket to Ride, definitely. I'm game for anything else!
Steve said 5 days later
I've now played Dominion 4 times, and it is indeed fun. I don't really like the beauracrat card. Have yet to play with any of the other attack cards, but have heard from a friend of a game he played where the winner was the one with the least negative victory points! Sorry we'll miss it at Thanksgiving, but would love to play it at Christmas.
GJ said 5 days later
The Bureaucrat card has its place--it's a great money making card in games that lack card like the Mine and such. I think the most fun in the game is finding out how to make the set of cards in the current game work for you, and work against the others!
