As I stroll through the internet, you get bored, and decide to stroll through the interwebs for something entertaining and to be very honest, addicting.  Something to take your mind off of the daily stresses of life, and suck you into another world altogether.  Well these are some of the many examples of  “Games to get addicted to!”

Our first game actually was introduced to me thanks to Camera Guy (and yes, he tries to follow me with the camera all the time…).   It’s an independent project from Mojang Specifications, and is not so much a game with a goal as it’s really supposed to be one of exploration and survival.  Minecraft is relatively simple choice for a game.  From the name itself, you can deduce that it’s about mining and crafting things.  Sure enough, that’s the game in a nutshell.  But what it offers is to be beheld in it’s true glory.  Minecraft is ADDICTING!  So addicting, in fact, that it’s actually taken away from my World of Warcraft time for the last month and a half!

What’s so addicting about it, you might ask?  Well for starters, you mine stone and minerals from the world that’s generated when you first start the game.  You take materials that you mine, chop, dig, or hunt for using only your wits, your searching skills, and a LOT of the time, just plain luck!  And you also have to deal with the natural rotation of your world (in other words, night and day!).

But it’s not truly fun and exciting if there’s no danger, right?  That’s why the game features dangers that can lurk around every hill or cavern you find!  From lava and water dangers, to dangerous creatures such as spiders and zombies!  Yes that’s right, zombies.  Oh, and exploding cactus thingies, too…   But c’mon, what if you don’t want to deal with spiders and zombies?  Maybe you just want to casually mine without all the dangers?  Well that’s fine, since the game’s difficulty can be changed from peaceful (no creatures) to hard, so you can choose what kind of game you want on a whim!

But what about the crafting part of Minecraft?  It’s quite robust, actually, and the game allow you to create all sorts of objects, like mine carts, ladders, body armor, even a shiny gold watch!  The possibiliites are quite vast, and what you can do with them is totally dependent on what your imagination can do with it!  You can even start forest fires… (Note: aniRAGE accepts NO responsibility for your pyromaniacal tendencies.)

So what do the graphics look like, you may ask?  Well the game’s graphics have an awesome 8-bit feel to them, as all the items are arranged in blocks, and it makes for simplistic, yet satisfyingly fun gameplay so there’s no issue of perfect placement to worry about.  Just set it and the game helps you out in the process.  The game is also very friendly with mods, as the game allows texture  and graphics addons, allowing for more detailed textures, including HD textures as well.  Even the game is still in the alpha testing phase, the game is fully operational.  You can even edit the look of your character as well!

So you’ve read this thinking “hmm, where do I get this?  How can I get my awesome hands on this game?  Well simply goto the Minecraft website and play it online or from your desktop (it runs on Java Platform, so no install needed.).  Now there’s a free “creative” version to try out some of the features, but it doesn’t come close to the full version which you would have to pay for (and it’s only 9 Euros too), but it does give you access to all future versions of the game for no extra charge.  So all in all, the value if you pay for it during the alpha is HUGE!

And as for those addons and other information?  Well there’s a wide variety of community website dedicated to the game, the best of which is the Minepedia, which has recipes, textures and more!

So go!  Get the game, join me, Camera Guy, and now our most recent victim of the addiction, Sibby!

Until next time!

Kirby