MINECRAFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, but I’m playing Minecraft all the time!

Minecraft is a game where there’s a world, or multiple worlds, made up of blocks.  A lot of people think the graphics are crappy, but that doesn’t really matter right now.  Minecraft is a game of trying to survive in a world where you have nothing, but you can collect resources over time.  Your player’s name is “Steve,” and the main point of the game is just trying to survive, but the thing everyone likes to do most in Minecraft is – obviously – mining!

There are a few types of things you can mine in the beginning of the game.  The two main things you can mine  – once you get your first pickaxe (which is usually made out of wood) – are stone, cobblestone and coal.  Coal is used for making torches and putting it in a furnace.  Cobblestone is good for making tools, weapons and stuff, and it’s a basic construction block.  Stone is used to make buttons, weight-activated switches called pressure plates, and they’re also normal construction blocks, like cobblestone.  When you mine stone, you get cobblestone.

You start out at dawn, and as the day goes on, it will become evening.  But it’s a good idea to have armor and a sword ready, because there are zombies (called mobs) coming out as it gets dark. Zombies are normal foes – they just bump into you to damage you.  When you kill them, you get food.  Skeletons are like zombies, instead they don’t bump into  you.  They shoot arrows at you.  When you kill them, you get a few bones and a few arrows.

Something you should really know about is a creeper.  It looks like a stick with a green head, and it’s always frowning.  If you get too close to them, then they will blow up.  When you kill them successfully, then you get gunpowder.

What I like about Minecraft is that each time you create a world, it’s never the same – it’s always a randomly-generated world.  It’s fun because it’s always changing.    You can also change the game by getting texture packs, which change the art of mincraft.  So if you’re getting tired of the default looks, you can download a texture pack and it won’t look the same; the art will be different.

There are also mods, which are bigger changes than texture packs – they change the way you play.  They can add new things to the game, they can change things in the game, they can take things away from the game, and so on.  Some mods are packs of mods, but you install them normally, like a normal mod.  Some mods are also incompatible with each other – so if you have one mod and try to install another, your game may crash if you have mods that weren’t made by the same person.  (You can get a lot of mods, texture packs and things like that at PlanetMinecraft.com. )

One of the best things about Minecraft is that you can play with other people.  While in game play, you can press escape and there will be a button that says “Open to LAN. ”  This means that other people who use your internet server can join your world, so you can play with your friends.  If you want a permanent LAN world, it’s called a server. I don’t know how to make it, but my dad does.  Anyone who uses the internet can use the server if they type in the IP address.  And even when you’re not playing, other people can play on your server.  To access a LAN world or server that you’ve already set up, click “multiplayer” mode.  To type in a server IP address, click “add server” and then “server address” and then type in your IP address.

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What I discovered in Minecraft today:  if you have the mod pack “hack-slash-mine” and you hit a chicken with a wooden sword, your game will hang.

Coming Soon: Awesomeness Defense

Awesomeness Defense is a new tower defense game on the Packed.com factory. The reason why it says “coming soon” in the title is that the game is not done yet – I’m making it!

Tower defense games are about protecting your base from enemies that come in, and you protect them with towers that you put along the path they’re coming on.  My game has a few custom pictures uploaded, and all the default towers and enemies from the website.

The way you play tower defense games is before the first wave of the enemies coming on the path, there’s a menu that has towers on it.  You place these towers anywhere but on the path (unless there’s an instruction to put them on the path) and when enemies come along, they turn toward the enemies and start shooting.  And if you have enough enemies and you have enough towers, the enemies will get destroyed and you’ll get money.  Every tower costs money.  If you don’t have enough money, you can’t get that tower.  And if you can’t get that tower and there’s a strong enough enemy, you may lose a few lives (you always have multiple lives).

My tower defense game isn’t stupid, isn’t crazy and just has a bunch of things.  (By crazy I mean like Bloons Tower Defense and PacMan Tower Defense, where they’re so small you can’t even see what’s happening and the enemies just come like crazy without stopping, and you only have like two lives.) I wanted to make my own game because all the other games seemed too strange.  I wanted to make something normal and cool that other people would like too.  And since I’m pretty good at tower defense games myself, why not try making one?

South Beach Parking

South Beach Parking is a parking game where you’re a substitute for the valet parker that had an accident with a shark.  If you bump into the tiniest thing or make the tiniest mistake – see, you can’t park anywhere but the red-lighted space – and it only gives you 50 seconds to park one car, and an extra 5 seconds after you park it.  Then the next car comes, and so on.  It’s kind of hard.  It doesn’t end until you fill up the whole lot.  Then you have to empty the cars out.  It’s really hard to drive because all the cars are a bit too fast on the sand.  The cars that you drive in the game are a red VW Bug, an orange Ferrari, a green and white VW Bus, and a blue sedan with a giant sunroof.  When you make a mistake, a little white circle shows where your car crashed; you fail that turn, and have to start all over again.

Diner City

This game is about running a restaurant with the best reputation and the most decoration.  You choose which kind of restaurant to run; I usually do the sushi place, but there’s also a burger place.  I don’t know why the picture shows the burger chef holding a pizza!

The object is to get the most decorations to earn the most money.  You start out with $50, and people pay you when the food is good.  You lose money if the food isn’t good.  You earn more money by placing decorations, like balloons, and other things, like an underground bar.  Cleaning your place helps you make more money, too.  The best way to earn more money is to add more employees to speed up service.

You can add on things like newspaper stands, benches, or ice cream stands outside your store… but so can your competitors.  Your rival’s add-ons are red.

The most important connected add-on is a security camera.

The game ends when you or your competitor meets your revenue goal.

You can find this game at http://www.play181.com/games/7467/diner-city.html

This game rates a 9 out of 10.

Cafe World

Cafe World is a Facebook game, which means that if you have a Facebook account, you can find it there and play (I use my mom’s account).  This game is about running a restaurant with the best reputation.  It’s not about the fast pace, but earning  experience and coins…the more money you earn, the more you can buy stuff to make more people come.  It’s also about how good the food you cook is.

The most simple food is a bacon cheeseburger, and that earns the least money.  There are a lot of others, but I’ll give three or four as an example:  Super Chunk Fruit Salad, French Onion Soup and Triple Berry Cake.  (I’ve already mastered Triple Berry Cake.)  Mastering is about how much you cook the food, and it tells you how many times you’ve cooked it.  It will tell you how many more times you need to cook it to get to the next mastery level.

To cook something, click on any stove you have and then just simply select the food you want to cook.  There are two exceptions for two kinds of stoves.  The “Lightning Stove” lets you select the dish and then it’s instantly ready.  With a “Super Stove,” you select the dish and you don’t have to prepare it, it’s already cooking.  Normal stoves you have to prepare and then wait for it to cook. The best stove is the “4x Mega Stove.”  It cooks four dishes at one time.  (I got fooled by the brown and brass stove, which has four burners but only cooks one dish at a time.)

I like this game because it’s about making a restaurant and I love restaurants.  What’s not so good is, for example, how much time it would take to cook a corn dog — in Cafe World it takes two days.  That’s what I don’t like about it — unrealistic time.

Also, do not expect to earn Cafe Cash as fast as Cafe Coins.  You can earn coins in the zillions, but you only get one Cafe Cash every time you level up.  You can also win Cash in the Prize Machine, and use cash for more plays on the Prize Machine.

You can also visit other people’s cafes once you become friends with them. And you can send your friends gifts and they’ll send you one back.

Another piece of interesting info is that not all dishes take two days – the shortest ones take three minutes.  And if you don’t come back to serve them when they’re done, they rot and you have to throw them away (or you can use Salvage Sage – one of the spices in your spice rack – to save them).

There are also a bunch of buildables in Cafe World, so you have to get parts for those.  You get parts by asking your friends for them, and they can send them to you.

This game rates 16 out of 10…it’s so good!

Crazy Cabbie

The game is a time-based game, and the goal is to get to the next level without time running out.  You drive a taxi, and can jump over cars that are in your way, or steer around them if there’s room.  You control your taxi by using the arrow keys, space bar to jump.  It’s a very simple game, so there’s not much more to write about it.  I like its simplicity and ease of use… and I don’t like that sometimes your car doesn’t jump far enough because you’re not going fast enough.   The way to win the game is not to just keep going — you have to see the pattern of cars and choose the lane with the least traffic.  Oh, and just to let you know, your taxi might tilt on two wheels when you’re turning!  You can play this game at http://www.play181.com/games/8665/crazy-cabbie.html It rates a 4 out of 10.

Train City

Facebook fans only!  Train City is a Facebook-only game, but all of you with Facebook accounts can play it. It’s like the very popular game Farmville, except you run a city. You have to collect taxes, earn money, run trains to earn money, and build your city.

It’s easy to collect the tax — all you have to do is click on some coins in a speech bubble.  They will be there in certain amounts of time, depending on what kind of business it is.  Your goal is to get the most coins possible and – don’t waste your money on this – but if you want to, you can buy Facebook coins with real money (it will just give you more things, but I don’t want to).

To make the train go, click start and hire any operator that’s available.  Click “hire” and your train will go.

What I like about this is – duh – it’s a train game (the first one I’ve posted).  What’s not so good is that some operators only run for like three minutes at a time, and then you have to repeat the whole cycle.

You can connect with your other friends who are playing by posting on Facebook. And you can visit other friends that are playing by clicking on one of their icons.

Here are all the buttons you need to know before really getting started.  The Hammer is for building, and then there are lots of categories for residential, decorations, public, commercial, etc.  These all cost coins or Facebook coins.

The next button is Trains.  You can select and buy a train.  The next button is Friends.  If you have visited a friend, you can choose one of the two modes to just visit or to help and get a reward.  This is where you claim your rewards.

The next one is Collections — if you collect enough taxes, then a collection will be full and you can trade it in for a reward.  Next is Gifts.  This will have all the things that other people have sent to you, or Train City has sent to you for leveling up and other things.

Next is Achievements.  You can see all your trophies.  The best trophy you can get is the red trophy.  I only have one.

Last but not least is Wonder Card.  A Wonder is big and expensive, you have to be at level 5, 10, 15, 20, etc. to get one.   Just click on a certain kind of wonder card to make your decorations more beautiful or more normal.

You can play this game at http://apps.facebook.com/train_city.  This game rates a 10 sextillion out of 10!CONDEMMED! this game isnt running anymore!

La Patisserie

This game is a cooking game, but the food is already cooked.  You just have to pick it up and get it to the customer.  But sometimes, there’s only 10 dishes of each dish, and then once you run out of the 10 dishes, you have to wait for a minute so it can get cooked.

What you have to do is serve as many customers as fast as possible to get bigger tips, to get to the day’s goal.  It’s simple how to play:  all you have to do is click on what you want to get, and then click on the customer to give it to them.  To get the customers to sit down, drag them to any seat.

What I like about this game is that you’re in a restaurant, and you operate it — you’re the manager, the waiter.  Here’s a tip:  when a customer orders a drink, there’s a small table in the lower right corner, where you can click on the drink they ordered (either orange juice or wine).

And what’s not so good is that the customers’ patience runs out a little too fast.  And if they get too mad, they will leave.

If you want to serve two customers at once, you can have two things on your plate at the same time.

You can play this game at http://www.freeonlinegames.com/game/le-patisserie.html .  This game rates a 7 out of 10.

Burger Jam

This game is a cooking game.  Unlike others, this is only a click-and-drag.  I like cooking, so this game is sort of a perk to me.

See all the ingredients in the picture?  Those you have to drag make the order.  French fries are the only thing that’s already ready to serve; it’s the only thing you can just drag to give the customer. Everything else you have to drag the pieces together and then drag it to the customer when it’s ready.

Orange juice is the only thing customers won’t order. When they’re sleeping, give it to them and they won’t wake up angry.  If you don’t give it to them, they’ll wake up angry and think you took too long (and they’ll leave).  But if you use the orange juice, you’ll have a five second penalty, and you’ll have to wait five seconds for the orange juice to fill up.  If you give orange juice to someone who hasn’t fallen asleep yet, they won’t fall asleep.

If you make a mistake, drag the wrong order to the recycling bin.  Once I made a wrong veggie burger and they didn’t like it because the order of the things were wrong.  So they left and I got minus $13.

See the guy on the very left in the picture?  He’s asleep.  If he wakes up and you didn’t give him orange juice, he’ll go away.  If you want to see how happy people are, check the hearts above their orders.

What I like about this game is that it’s cooking.  What I don’t like about this game is that people get angry way too fast.  Oh, try to make each order as quickly as possible.  See that little book?  That’s for help in case you forget how to do stuff.  You can play this game at http://www.gamesgames.com/game/Burger-Jam.html This game rates a 5 out of 10.

Transporter

Transporter is a rescue game. You use a helicopter to rescue peeps (people) from floods or from when they parachuted into a lake and they can’t swim — just emergencies.

Press left to go  left, right to go right, and down to go rapidly down.  Up to go up. If you just don’t press on the up key it will go slowly down.  There are no combination keys.  Use X or M to control your spinning, so you can go different directions.  Use Space to control the rope so you can rescue people.

What I like about this game is that you fly a helicopter – I like flying helicopters more than planes for some reason, even though I like planes better than helicopters.  What I don’t like is that the rope only stays down for about 5 seconds at a time, and then you have to press space again to put it down again.  But it goes up automatically, so you can’t make it go up.

Here’s a tip:  you start on your helipad.  You can land anywhere except on mountain peaks.  You can only land on flat spots.  But to get repaired and drop off your passengers, you have to land on the helipad.

You can play this game at  http://www.play181.com/games/5062/transporter.html.  This game I like a bit more than other helicopter games because your helicopter has two rotors – in other games, they only have one.  This helps you go up faster.  This game rates a 6 out of 10.