I tamed my first wolf the other day. Since 1.6 of the Minecraft beta was released, there’s been lots of cool new features, but by far the best addition is the packs of wolves that now roam the countryside. Now I can live the dream of exploring a new world with a canine companion. Its just like that film Cast Away, only with a dog instead of a football.
So there I was wandering through the woods near to a small shack which I currently call home, and through a gap in the trees I spotted them milling around in a clearing. The sun was going down so I knew I had to be quick if I was going to catch one. There were 3 wolves, and they scattered as I approached. I managed to get close enough to one, bone in hand, and fed him it. Nothing happened at first, so I gave him 2 more and suddenly a little red collar poofed into existence around his neck, and he looked up at me and barked. I was in love. I named him Frank.
Frank and I made for home. It was dark now so the zombies were approaching and there were some creepers in the river which we had to cross. After a short swim we made it back to the hut where I fed Frank some pork chops to give a boost to his health and his tail perked up showing me that he was healthy. Tomorrow, we would need to find Paul, who had gotten lost and setup a new home somewhere far away. I decided I needed a map if I had any hope of finding Paul and finding my own way home, but in order to make one, I needed redstone. So first, Frank and I would go hunting…
Sleeping in my bed made the night go by, and Frank was waiting for me by the door where I had left him the next morning. We set out for a nearby cave, which I had explored a bit of, but was yet to discover anything of value inside. With Frank at my side for protection, I was sure I’d find something worthwhile down there.
On our way to the cave, Frank walked too close to a lava pit, and caught fire. There was nothing I could do. He yelped and ran around, I tried to lure him towards the river but it was too far and after a few seconds he keeled over, stopped moving and then disappeared forever in a small puff of smoke.
I mourned.
Then I saw a pack of wolves just outside the cave entrance. I had some bones left, so I tamed one and named him Frank. We made our way to the cave.
It took all day and the following night to explore the cave, and Frank was a true hero. Countless times he saved me from skeletons, zombies, spiders – I’d usually attack with my sword first, and he’d spring into action teeth first and bite them to death. If ever I was ambushed, he’d be there ready to defend me. We were a true team. I managed to find a whole heap of minerals and even some gold. We explored the dark passages together, fighting off the monsters and whenever Frank got injured, a couple of pork chops later he was ready to go again. Then I fell down a hole, and Frank followed.
We both crippled our legs and were in total darkness as I fumbled for a torch. Unfortunately, we had fallen into a zombie lair, and I heard yelps from the darkness as three of them attacked Frank, who was viciously fighting back. I fed him the last of the bacon and together we dealt with the undead. Battered and beaten, I realised we had to get out.
I saw light coming from a nearby tunnel, so headed that way. As I got closer, I realised it wasn’t daylight, but lava. Frank whimpered. I told him to sit while I scouted ahead, and he obeyed. Using gravel, I covered up the lava so it was safe for my faithful friend to traverse, and then spotted the redstone glowing in the floor. Success! I mined it up quickly and went back to Frank, who was constantly whimpering in pain, clearly only capable of taking a few more hits.
We fought our way out, but a sneaky skeleton fired off a lucky shot which Frank caught in the belly. He yelped one final time and joined his brother in wolf-heaven. I smashed the skeleton to pieces and ran for the exit. By the time I got out of the cave it was daylight, so I made my way home.
I crafted a compass and then a map using the materials Frank had helped me collect, and now I am ready to find Paul. Tomorrow, I will venture out in search of him and his new land, but the Franks will never be forgotten. And hopefully I’ll even meet a new one on the way.
Minecraft 1.6 is glorious.
Dome Keeper is an excellent little spin on the tower defense game, in which you play the role of a jetpacking miner defending his base from swarms of aliens, whilst searching for a hidden relic buried somewhere beneath him. And now, with this huge free update, you can play it with friends.
I want to talk about Cloudpunk, a game where you get to be a flying-car delivery driver in a futuristic cyberpunk city. Its world is an incredible achievement of environmental design, and while the gameplay itself may be basic, the city of Nivalis is a thing of beauty to behold. Nivalis is built out of hundreds of hand-modelled cuboid buildings; there’s nothing procedural about it. Apparently it took 3 years for the devs to design the city, and it really shows.
I do love me some quality pixel art, and it doesn’t get much better than this. Cast n Chill is a cozy side-scrolling fishing game by small indie dev team Wombat Brawler, with absolutely gorgeous visuals. It’s simple to play, and you you can dip in and out of it at your leisure, making it a fine addition to our collection of coffee break games.
Format: PC
Year: 2000
It may look clunky as hell thanks to the original Unreal engine, but Deus Ex was a pioneer in videogames because it gave the player so many choices to make. It resulted in one of the deepest gaming experiences of the time, because it went to great effort to show the consequences of those choices. The story was spread across many ‘hub’ levels, giving you total freedom to approach your objectives whichever way you wanted, aided by an RPG style upgrade tree that you invested in as you played. Wanna finish it without killing a single soul? That is entirely possible. Prefer to tool up with a rocket launcher and just murder your way to the end? Nothing could stop you. Your NPC allies would respond differently back in the Unatco base, depending on what you did out in the field. This level of responsiveness was unparalleled for a long time, to the point that even if you walked into the ladies toilets, your boss would scold you for it during the mission debrief later on. It was many little moments like that which made the game so memorable for me.
It’s safe to say that Fumito Ueda’s third game was one of my most anticipated titles of the previous generation. Announced in 2009, I eagerly watched every gameplay trailer and read up every snippet of information I could. Ico and Shadow of the Colossus remain two of my most beloved games, and I found the idea of another game by the same studio a mouth-watering temptation. A multitude of delays and long periods of silence from both Sony and the developers led many to believe it would never see the light of day, not to mention the troubling news that Ueda himself had left the project due to creative differences with Sony. The game lingered in development hell for several years and its fate was uncertain. Ueda and his team remained with the project as consultants and the game eventually had a release date set for December 2016. My excitement rekindled and I wondered how it could ever live upto 7 years of anticipation. So, was it worth the wait?
The following took place in 2012, in the beta version of the DayZ mod for ARMA 2. It recounts the story of how I survived the zombie apocalypse by eating 87 cans of baked beans.
Chernarus is not a welcoming place any more. The lush green fields are now infested with hordes of shambling undead. And if the zombies don’t kill you, other wanderers surely will. Being alone is risky, but trusting the wrong person could cost you your life. In this harsh new world, you won’t get far without friends.
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