Merry Christmas!
Have a good time and I hope you all get what you asked for 
Minecraft Server
If you remember the article I wrote about Minecraft a while back, you may recall I said that there was a multiplayer aspect to it, well I have set up a server of my own, imaginatively named “Astro’s Server”, in case you are confused about what a server is it’s a world where I am the supreme master and I have complete control over everyone 
I can ban, kick etc etc, if you are a minecraft player and want to be an admin on this server, comment with your name.
Boderlands Makes My Trousers Tight
If you haven’t heard of Borderlands, where the hell have you been?
It pretty much is a free roaming game with up to four player online co-op, did I mention it has more than a million frigging guns? Granted, some are similar anesthetics, but that’s still a gun for every occasion.
There’s four generic charecters you can play as, the sniper, the meele, the soldier and the spy/mage, all these classes can be improved by buying skills from each individual skill tree, so you can make the soldier able to heal your team mates by shooting them, or give him extra damage etc etc.
All in all this looks like a quality game that I look forward to getting a chance to play, me and John are planning to get it.
So if you are going to get this game, tell me and we’ll arrange to play together when it finaly comes out
The Tech Pod
The latest episode of the podcast I’m in, The Tech Pod, is on iTunes, please subscribe and give us a review, five star prefferably
Why I Hate Loading Screens
I don’t mind the screen itself, I just don’t like how it interrupts the flow of the game.
I have recently started playing Oblivion again and have entered the Assasins guild intent on getting to the top, and [MINOR SPOILER ALERT!] one of the missions you have to sneak into a castle and poison a warlord and not allow his team of mecenarys see you, brillient. My hearts started to race when an enemy passed inches away from me and I remained undetected, I got to the cabinet, replaced the medicine with the poison and stole away again, my heart was still racing when I delivered a single arrow to someones head, killed her in one shot, and left.
But instantly I go to a loading screen, my heart stops pumping and I lose the feeling of excitement.
You see, I play video games to feel like I’m in another world, to escape real life, but when I get to a loading screen the spell is instantly broken and I’m hurled back into real life.
If that loading screen hadn’t of appeared I would of ran of, got on my horse and rode away, all the while feeling like a assasin.
Please developers, I don’t want higher frame rates, photorealistic graphics or anything like that, I just want a game that draws you in, makes you feel like you’re someone else, and then doesn’t ruin it with loading screens.
What do you think?
Podcast Change!
My podcast co-host can’t make up his mind so the podcast name has gone from Talking Tech to The Techpod, check us out on iTunes
Why I Don’t Like Loading Screens
I don’t mind the screen itself, I just don’t like how it interrupts the flow of the game.
I have recently started playing Oblivion again and have entered the Assasins guild intent on getting to the top, and [MINOR SPOILER ALERT!] one of the missions you have to sneak into a castle and poison a warlord and not allow his team of mecenarys see you, brillient. My hearts started to race when an enemy passed inches away from me and I remained undetected, I got to the cabinet, replaced the medicine with the poison and stole away again, my heart was still racing when I delivered a single arrow to someones head, killed her in one shot, and left.
But instantly I go to a loading screen, my heart stops pumping and I lose the feeling of excitement.
You see, I play video games to feel like I’m in another world, to escape real life, but when I get to a loading screen the spell is instantly broken and I’m hurled back into real life.
If that loading screen hadn’t of appeared I would of ran of, got on my horse and rode away, all the while feeling like a assasin.
Please developers, I don’t want higher frame rates, photorealistic graphics or anything like that, I just want a game that draws you in, makes you feel like you’re someone else, and then doesn’t ruin it with loading screens.
What do you think?
Talking Tech #2
The small podcast I do has been recorded today and is now up on iTunes, please check it out at http://bit.ly/3MKyPN
Extra Life
My favourite website, sarcasticgamer.com, every year runs an event called “Extra Life” where you get people to sponser you to game for 24 hours, what could be better? Here are the official details:
SARCASTIC GAMER
For Immediate Release
CONTACT:
Lesley Adams
281-658-0945
lesley@sarcasticgamer.com
http://www.sarcasticgamer.com
Sarcastic Gamer Announces Extra Life
Play Games. Heal Kids.
Sarcastic Gamer is proud to announce its 2nd Annual Extra Life, a 24 hour gaming marathon to fund pediatric cancer research and treatment. Last year thousands of gamers from 7 different continents raised over $120,000 for this great cause.
We are challenging our community and other gaming communities to band together for something big! “My life has been permanently changed by kids battling cancer, and I want to do something amazing for them this fall,” says Doc Adams, founder of Sarcastic Gamer.
On Saturday, October 17 gamers will play their favorite video games for 24 hours in order to raise money for one of the planet’s premier pediatric cancer and hematology centers, Texas Children’s Cancer Center (txccc.org).
We’re asking each gamer to find four people to sponsor them at one dollar per hour for the duration.
Be a hero! In three simple steps you can make the difference in the lives of kids battling cancer!
1. Sign up at http://extralife.sarcasticgamer.com/
2. Ask your friends and family to sponsor you
3. Play video games for 24 hours on October 17
About Sarcastic Gamer:
Sarcastic Gamer is a video game website that offers its growing community a place to meet and socialize and supports that community with 3 weekly podcasts, editorials, “broken” news, song parodies, and more. Since 2007 Sarcastic Gamer parody songs and videos have been downloaded and/or streamed more than 14 million times. Since its inception Sarcastic Gamer has been committed to the cause of eradicating pediatric cancer. Sarcastic Gamer is also a proud member of the GamerCast Network.
About Texas Children’s Cancer Center:
Texas Children’s Hospital is an internationally recognized full-care pediatric hospital located in the Texas Medical Center in Houston. One of the largest pediatric hospitals in the United States, Texas Children’s Hospital is dedicated to providing the finest possible pediatric patient care, education and research. Care is provided for children from around the globe, regardless of their family’s ability to pay.
# # #
If you have any questions regarding this information, or if you would like to schedule an interview, please contact Lesley Adams at 281-658-0945 or via email: lesley@sarcasticgamer.com
Minecraft, Game Review
Recently I have been spending a hell of a lot of time on a small indie game called “Minecraft”.
What it is is a world created completley out of different types of blocks, you’ve got sand blocks, soil blocks, water blocks, glass blocks etc etc. These blocks can be deleted and replaced with a different block, so on Singleplayer you make generic houses and dungeons.
But it’s on Multiplayer this game really shines, with several people working on a prodject you end up with things like inverted glass piramids or massive stone castles, some of these things have to be seen to be believed.
This may sound perfect but it’s not, like every game online you get a bunch of douch bag’s, here called “Griefers”. What these people do is go along and take chunks out of your buildings/monuments/whatever, so you may leave behind a massive tower and come back the next day to find it gone, of course this doesn’t happen on Singleplayer but it’s much more fun and easier to build something with friends.
The only other problem (although temporary) with it is that the forums have been down for a while so I can’t ask if I have a problem. EDIT: This has now been fixed
Minecraft is free to play, so that’s an instant recomend from me, but if you want to change the look of your charecter the game costs 10€, £8.85 or $14.60, I’ve brought it and there’s nothing to regret from such a small amount of money (my name on it is AstroNit by the way).
It’s only in it’s Alpha stage at the moment but when it’s been released the price will raise to 20€ so it’s best to buy it ASAP.
If I’m going to review more games like this I’d better get a system in, instead of 9 out of 10 etc etc I’ll either “Recommended” or “Not Recommended”, simple.
Overall I give Minecraft a “Recommended” (I also recommend buying the game).
Minecraft can be found and played at http://minecraft.net
It’s also worth checking out the YouTube videos on it just to see what can be made.
Thanks, Astro Nit
(Joe)
(The reason the screenshots are bad is because they were taken off YouTube videos on my iPod)
