PixlBit

. . . with more Defense Grid 2 and Minecraft. Can I ever get away from these games to play something else? I hope so because I'm just about to get the last achievement in Defense Grid 2. And Minecaft? Well, something new always comes to me about how to play that game. I almost feel like I should banish it temporarily to get other games finished. Anyways, here's how it all went down. 

Started out with Defense Grid 2 because Mark suggested co-op. We played the maps he didn't have gold medals on and then I figured out where to look in the menus to get the exact number of gold medals the game was recording. I still don't know exactly how it counts them. I tried various modes and skill levels to see what affected the number. It seems like you have to play different modes for each map on any skill level; however, if you play the same mode on several different skill levels, it only counts as one medal. It still doesn't make sense to me though because I counted 101 medals at one point as shown on the menu screens, all of which I played on only one skill level, and the game only counted 84. I finally got fed up, so I just started playing modes I hadn't played before on the earliest maps, on the easiest skill level, just to get them done fast. I did them all at 3X speed too which will make you pay attention. It still took a long time. I have about 95 gold medals now.

One of the modes I played turned out to be interesting. In it your towers are only active when your cursor is over them or they are near those orbs you have to protect. This makes you build clusters of towers and move between them to activate them at the right time. Kind of neat. It made me play the game very differently and I came up with some new strategies. 

Finally I couldn't bear to play another level and stopped before getting the 100 medal achievement. Next weekend I'll finish it. 

Then I thought of a Minecraft challenge Mark and I could do. I set up a starter chest on a new map with Fortune III pick-axes and Looting III swords. The challenge was to see who could find diamonds first. We both spawned in, grabbed the gear, and dug like crazy. Mark won at 20 minutes. I got mine at 40 minutes. I discovered this challenge was actually a good starting method for regular play because, along the way to looking for diamonds, I found a lot of just about everything else. 

We then kept going because, why not? We found a village, set up a base, found lava, made obsidian, and opened the Nether portal. Man was it hard to find the Fortress in The Nether though. Sometimes that thing is well hidden in there. But, we found it, got our blaze powder and got out to throw some Eyes of Endor and find the Stronghold. At stopping time, we had found the Stronghold but, after a lengthy search, still hadn't found the library or End Gate. Sometimes those places are well hidden in the Stronghold, like in a buried portion of the place. It's fun to search for these things. I never get tired of it. Especially since it's a little different on each randomly generated map. 

And that's it. I'm working at something the rest of the week, so it's no more gamecation. But I've set aside Sundays as game days, so there'll be more action then. A report shall follow.

Bye there!