Minecraft is interesting. Dan mentioned …

Minecraft is interesting. Dan mentioned a few times that he has a Minecraft server and when I saw the headlines today that it has sold over 1 million copies I had to have a look.

How’d I do? Well, thanks to the tutorial below I managed to survive my first day. I built a craft table, shovel, torches, stone pick and barricaded myself inside a cave while the zombies roamed outside.

Now to figure out what to do next!

Edit: if you can’t get Minecraft to run on your Mac, try the following after unzipping it in Downloads:

chmod +x ~/Downloads/Minecraft.app/Contents/MacOS/JavaApplicationStub

The site where I found that useful nugget of info is gone now so posting it here as a reminder!

How would you fare in actual war?

I think one person who reads this blog may have had actual experience in the military but for the rest of us the closest we get is through video games and Bad Company 2 in particular. This question on Reddit asks, “DAE wonder how they would fare in actual war?” and thankfully most people on the thread are realistic.

One person linked to http://www.history.army.mil/moh.html where the reports behind medals awarded to military personnel are recorded. Worth reading if you’re all gung-ho about war..

*DUNHAM, JASON L.

Rank and Organization: Corporal, United States Marine Corps
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Rifle Squad Leader, 4th Platoon, Company K, Third Battalion, Seventh Marines (Reinforced), Regimental Combat Team 7, First Marine Division (Reinforced), on 14 April 2004. Corporal Dunham’s squad was conducting a reconnaissance mission in the town of Karabilah, Iraq, when they heard rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire erupt approximately two kilometers to the west. Corporal Dunham led his Combined Anti-Armor Team towards the engagement to provide fire support to their Battalion Commander’s convoy, which had been ambushed as it was traveling to Camp Husaybah.
As Corporal Dunham and his Marines advanced, they quickly began to receive enemy fire. Corporal Dunham ordered his squad to dismount their vehicles and led one of his fire teams on foot several blocks south of the ambushed convoy. Discovering seven Iraqi vehicles in a column attempting to depart, Corporal Dunham and his team stopped the vehicles to search them for weapons.
As they approached the vehicles, an insurgent leaped out and attacked Corporal Dunham. Corporal Dunham wrestled the insurgent to the ground and in the ensuing struggle saw the insurgent release a grenade. Corporal Dunham immediately alerted his fellow Marines to the threat. Aware of the imminent danger and without hesitation, Corporal Dunham covered the grenade with his helmet and body, bearing the brunt of the explosion and shielding his Marines from the blast. In an ultimate and selfless act of bravery in which he was mortally wounded, he saved the lives of at least two fellow Marines. By his undaunted courage, intrepid fighting spirit, and unwavering devotion to duty, Corporal Dunham gallantly gave his life for his country, thereby reflecting great credit upon himself and upholding the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service. (source)

L4D2 Shenanigans

Just a bit of fun on Left 4 Dead 2 with Duck, DOD and Conor on Xbox. I’ve played survival mode with randoms and some of the campaign levels with friends but I must try some more of those modes with friends. I’d love to try recording our team chat through Skype too if anyone’s up for it?

I discovered l4dmaps.com too. You can download lots of new maps there, but that’s PC only of course.

Oh, if you’re reading this on the blog or your your feed reader, please click through to Youtube and give the video a thumbs up will you? Have to keep the witch happy….


And if you’re a fan of “The Hangover” you’ll like this parody!

I can circle strafe

How long is Bad Company 2 out? March last year isn’t it? Well, Gavin said he learned how to circle strafe the AH-64 and I decided to learn how too. With help from Geoff’s video above I figured it out.

Basically, point at where you want to circle around, press right on the left stick which will strafe to the right. Then with the right stick push left and up-down adjusting the nose to keep it centered on the target. The effect of pushing the right stick adjusts the rotar at the back of the helicopter, thus turning it. (I think that’s right, I need to spend more time in Onslaught perfecting it.)

Oh, full throttle the whole time too!

Cracking fun on The Gamer’s Craic

Well, David did a great job editing episode 1 of The Gamer’s Craic. It’s now available for all to listen to and I sincerely hope you enjoy it.

Our first guest is Mike, or mj_whittle as many of you know him as. David and myself have been playing Bad Company 2 with Mike almost from day 1. If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time you’ll see me mention him again and again so he was an obvious choice to appear on the very first show.

More details about the podcast are here, and you can even subscribe to it through iTunes, although you’ll have to do it manually at the moment.

The Gamer’s Craic

This is a new podcast David and myself will be hosting where we chat with a guest about gaming. The guest will be someone we know from the Battlefield community so it’ll have a bias towards that but we’re going to cover other topics too. If you’re on our friends list watch out!

Check out David’s announcement post on the podcast blog for more details (or not, we’re keeping it suitably vague!)