Minecraft! And some sad news.

OK, it has been way too long since I've posted here.

In the past 6 months I have, sadly, not played very many games. There were other things going on and I just didn't make any time for them. This is a decision that I regret! At home I no longer had access to a TV all to myself, so if I wanted to play my Wii I had to take everything downstairs and hook it up to the TV there. I'm a touch lazy, so I ruled out this option many times. I really need to work on that.

The few times that I did manage the arduous process I found myself playing Kirby's Epic Yarn. A couple of ventures saw New Super Mario Bros. and some virtual console titles. For Christmas I received Epic Mickey, but didn't play it. I also acquired Donkey Kong Country Returns, Mario All Stars Wii and Lost in Shadow. My sister and I had a few rousing evenings with DKC Returns, but I didn't play Mario All Stars or Lost in Shadow. My free time was dedicated to working full time at good ol' GameStop, preparing to leave for Ireland and seeing my friends as much as possible in anticipation of being out of the country.

My reasoning for not playing very many Wii games was that I planned on bringing my Wii with me and playing games in Ireland. Well, I'm in Ireland now and I haven't played any games. You know why? Because I think I broke my Wii. Now, I'm going to try very hard to not dwell on this fact because I am pretty effing distraught over it, as I'm sure one can imagine. There's an ever so slight chance that the AC cable is just fried, but there is also a chance that the Wii itself is toast. I won't know for sure until I get back home and can test it with someone else's cable. I hate not knowing. If I lose all of my VC downloads I am going to be so angry. Then I'm going to riot to Nintendo and let them know that they are unfair for not having a login system so that customers can re-download their purchases in the event of a broken system, like PSN and XBLA do. I know they're worried about protecting people and children's identities but man, I don't want to lose my money.

Alternatively, I may be able to have them fix whatever is broken and retain all of my downloads and save files. I wonder how much they charge to fix Wiis? And what the turn-around time is? Hmm..

In slightly more positive news, I at least have my DSi. And, if all goes well, I'll have my 3DS along with Pokemon White and Okamiden next month. Just in time for my birthday too! I have a very generous mother :3

Looks awesome, right? Hopefully I'm better at it than I was with Okami -_-

For my DSi I have a nice selection of games that I could be playing, but I haven't dedicated any time yet. I bought Ghost Trick just before I left the States at the recommendation of my co-worker and some reviews that I read online. I'm anxious to play it but have been very befuddled with my computer and Skype so that I can talk to my boyfriend. I love technology. I remember when I was about 11 or 12 I was on the phone with my dad who I only saw once a year for the summers. We were talking about how great it would be if video phones existed, that way we could see each other everyday even though we were on opposite sides of the country. Well, dad, the future is upon us and you don't have the internet. Way to embrace it! Sheesh.

Anyway. My DS. I love it dearly. I could play on my lunch breaks but I've been busy reading awesome and punny fantasy novels! I'm happy to be reading more, so I don't begrudge the book. It's call Night Mare, and it's by Piers Anthony. Andrew picked out a bunch of books to send to Ireland with me. We're reading them in chunks together, sort of like a book club. My days are filled with awesome <3

I had every intention of reactivating my WoW account upon my arrival here, but I've found that that's very difficult to do with no money. I'd have a bit more money if it weren't for the dollar being so horrible right now. Add the $$$ lost during conversion on top of the fee charged to me for pulling out money from a non-affiliate ATM and I am running out of money right fast. Doesn't really leave much room for a subscription fee. That is OK though because I have been playing MINECRAFT.

This was definitely me, although I didn't make it so far as to creating torches or glass before I started to have help from someone else.

Last fall Andrew told me that I should play it with him and his co-workers. I was busy being antisocial, so I told him maybe. Then in December I had a chance to play on a friend's computer and I got super excited. It definitely helped that Penny Arcade made a mini arc about it. I trust everything that they say whole-heartedly. They're the reason that I bought Katamari Damacy. <3 those guys.

So since early-to-mid January I've been playing on a multiplayer server with Andrew and his co-workers. He and I have been traversing and building and exploring and slaying and spelunking. It has been nothing short of awesome. I've been taking screenshots when I remember to because there's so much fun stuff happening. Currently we live in a monster castle that is complete with waterfall, dining hall, garden, gothic tower, floating house, living quarters, supply room, subterranean cave system, library and mob catcher. He's always thinking of new things to add, so who knows what else it'll turn into! We also have a lighthouse on the shore and we built a mine track to our old house via skybridge.

This here (from left to right) demonstrates the mob catcher, the floating house, cathedral, other tower and library. Note that the library is covered in lava for awesome's sake.

The internet at my mom's house in Washington is DSL (yuck) so I regularly encountered some issues when logging in. They were mostly funny but occasionally did cause some irritation. The most common problem was a severe chunk error.

Just monster chunks of terrain missing all the way to the bottom of the world.

He let onto the fact that we could use these errors to our advantage. That hadn't even occurred to me! Sometimes they filled in and loaded as normal, but sometimes they'd just flat out refuse to load in. In the instance captured above I happened to see some large reservoirs of iron, something that were were lacking in. So, I directed him on where to dig and where to find the reserves! After that I built a bridge to cross the chasm and went down with him to look for diamonds. I've never loved diamonds so much before!

-MJ

Posted in: 3ds,donkey kong country returns,epic mickey,ghost trick,ireland,kirby's epic yarn,lost in shadow,minecraft,nintendo,okamiden,pokemon white,super mario all stars,wii