So I’ve been in a bit of a cocoon as of late … and not like the kind floating in a swimming pool waiting for Wilford Brimley and Steve Guttenburg to find them … no, I’ve been trapped in a game.

Almost 20 years ago, back in 1993 a little game called Doom was unleashed upon the world.  I was among the many who became enraptured with the then groundbreaking graphics.  With the freedom of movement allowed in this virtual world.  With the visceral thrill of being hunted by unknown enemies.  It’s amazing to think that after all of these years I could be trapped by a game which for all intents and purposes looks and acts just about the same.

Minecraft.

Sure you may not be fighting off hordes of hell spawned creatures, but amazingly this game manages to recreate that same sense of freedom and even terror.  At it’s heart Minecraft is nothing more than an exercise in digging up cubes of various materials.  What makes it special is that each world you generate in this game randomly places these cubes into otherworldly landscapes.  Despite the high end graphics, the engine manages to create sweeping vistas which HAVE made me stop and stare in awe.  It then throws in monsters.  Which only come out in the dark.  Hence the terror.

So what you end up doing is frantically building yourself some means of shelter from these terrors as the sun creeps across the sky.  For once the sun goes down, the bad guys come out.  The addictive hook is that you only spend your first few minutes in true terror.  Once you’ve started to amass a collection of materials, you can build yourself better tools.  And better structures.  And better devices.  And with each new discovery comes the wave of inspiration of “what can I do with THIS?”

I’ve tried to tell everyone I can about this game.  At work.  Friends.  Family.  I’ve been playing it on the train back and forth from work.  It has occupied a LOT of my waking moments.  Quite frankly it’s worth much more than the ten dollars which it’s SINGLE creator is asking for it.  That’s right.  One person created this.  And by selling it at $10, he’s raked in … around $5 million dollars.  Step back and think about that for a second.

Oh, the wife and kids?  Yeah, I guess they’re great.  I’ve only been paying attention to them when I haven’t been playing Minecraft.  I guess the wife got a new job, the boy is walking and babbling and the girl is learning to use the potty.  I’m only guessing because I’m catching glimpses of them as I take a game break. 

Currently down in LA … the E3 convetion is running … for those not in the know, that’s the Electronic Entertainment Expo … basically the biggest video game trade show … period …  There’s been a lot of announcements this week … but really?  For me there were three games which stood out …

A new game starring Jack Black called Brutal Legend.  While this isn’t a NEW announcement, it’s apparently the talk of the show.

A sequel of sorts … Rock Band: The Beatles.  I MAY pick up the disc so I can play with the kids when they’re older … but just check out the trailer …

And a Star Wars based MMO … now I’ll join the internet chorus and ask why the three prequels couldn’t have been done like this?

So the guys over at Penny Arcade and PvP have hooked up with Wizards of the Coast … (was that enough obscure references for you?) … and they’ve been playing a D&D 4th Edition campagain … so in English …  a bunch of webcomic artists hooked up and played some Dungeons and Dragons … and recorded it … and released the recordings as a podcast … oh, and Wil Wheaton was there too …

So for those of you who may not know what exactly D&D is … it’s from back in the late 70′s … and it’s a pen and paper game, where it’s basically an interactive story using nothing more than your IMAGINATION as a canvas … freaky eh?  Back in high school me and the boys used to be big into playing all kinds of Role Playing Games … not neccessarily D&D but the same idea …

Soooo … listening to these guys has given me the urge to pull out my dice and play a campaing or two again … the problem is that to play these things is a HUGE time sink … unless you can find someone to run a game for you, who will then shoulder the majority of organizing things … you can’t just kinda pick up and play D&D like you would an XBox … you need TIME … and I don’t … HAVE that …

Anyone wanna DM?  Please?

Hey everybody … yeah I know … once again I’ve been slacking off in the blog writing department so I’ll try and make up for it here with a big ol SUPER blog post … just picture a cape fluttering behind me in the wind or something …

Yes it’s the New Year which means it’s once again time to look at one’s self in the mirror and try to figure out how many pounds you can lose … and yes, even I fall prey to this line of thinking … I can’t recall if I mentioned it back in November or not, but the friend squad chipped in and picked up Wii Fit for me for the b-day … well, they said they were going to buy me one once they found a copy … well that copy was found and Wii Fit is now in our house!

What does this mean?  Well it means that I am now attempting such Yoga poses as ‘The Warrior’ and ‘Tree’ while a generic character on screen tells me that my balance seems a little shaky … I don’t think you need to worry about me too much unless you hear me moaning a lack of Lululemon apparel for men …

We Carders had ourselves a nice little merry Xmas … the real tree we bought only fell over two or three times so I’d chalk that up as a win … Brianna was cute as hell in just about every picture we snapped of her … i’ll get around to posting some of those soon enough … the whole family made out pretty well in terms of Santa delivered treats … i won’t go into a specific list but there were many smiles under the tree this year …

So what am i vowing to take care of this coming year?  Well … aside from installing a yearning for ladies yoga wear … I guess I’ll once again vow to cut out sweets and to keep excersizing … I’ve actually done the Wii Fit thing 5 days in a row thus far!

Oh yeah … and I was excited and then VERY dissapointed with my Miami Dolphins … yay for the turnaround season … boo for the four or five picks which Pennington threw in the playoff game …

Next story?  My 35th birthday …

My wonderful wife arranged a surprise party for me last weekend to celebrate my 35th … although she would tell you that I ruined the surprise by constantly trying to guess what she was up to.  Apparently I’m never going to have another surpise party … ever …

So … the party itself … Shari managed to arrange for the gang to get together at Playdium out in Mississauga for some electronic fun.  She even managed to convince Sean and Tina Hart to some in from Windsor!  Which they passed off as being in town for something else and spent the previous night at our place.  With me being none the wiser!  You can click on the pic above for some of the shots or click on this link …

So to my wonderful wife and fantastic friends, I say thank you for coming out and having some fun with yours truly!  I had a great time!

(Except of course I’m soooo old now that I felt Playdium was too damned loud.  I blamed the damned kids of course.  Shook my cane at them and everything …)

Alright … so clearly some things have been happening and I just haven’t been talking about them … so I’ll tackle these in order of importance … least important to most … first up?  My brand new Wii …

So there was a charity event at work, raising money for the United Way.  Someone came up with the brilliant idea of having a three pronged Wii competition.  Three games, three winners.  The games were selected as Wii Golf, The Price is Right … and Guitar Hero.  Well the volunteer committee went out looking for helpers to run this thing … and someone told them I liked games … imagine that!

So I helped out with the running of the events … but I also got to keep an eye on people trying to win the Guitar Hero comp.  What ended up happening was a big ‘mine’s bigger than yours’ kind of attitude where several of us kept one upping one another.  We were playing the same song at the same diffculty so there was some measure of control.  I ended up pulling off a 100% just to put a punctuation on the contest.  Epic win … Me …

On a slightly related note Microsoft released their new XBox experience for the 360 … part of which includes a new avatar system.  Which is what you’re seeing smiling down upon my site in the title bar.  That’s dynamic so as I change outfits that avatar will change as well.  Have I mentioned lately that I’m really enjoying PHP?

It’s not like I’ve been busy or anything!  No … I live an incredibly BORING life … I mean, it’s not like a won a Wii in a charity Guitar Hero contest … or celebrated my 35th birthday … or found out that Brianna is now ready to make the switch to solid foods and doesn’t need to be woken up to feed anymore …

Clearly if ANY of those things had happened I would have written something very witty and insightful in this very space …

Clearly …

So I’m always passing along articles I find to my darling wife … specifically ones which deal with other gamers and how they deal with their significant others and their love of games …

So after I passed along that one article across to Shari … she responded by saying that it’s not my choice in hobbies that she doesn’t get … it’s that she’d rather see me doing something else with my time … and that she wanted to know when someone wrote an article about World of Warcraft vs housework …

Does anyone know if they HAVE a vaccuming sim game out there?  Maybe I should write one …

And Microsoft wrapped up their press conference a couple of hours ago … so what did they announce?  Well they’re overhauling the blade navigation system and introducing Avatars … which basically means that they’re taking one part of the PS3 and one part of the Wii and putting them together … result?  I’m not too sure just yet … my first impression upon seeing it was that it looked a LOT like Vista and it’s Aero design … which I wasn’t overly fond of … I did regress my desktop from Vista to XP after all …

They talked a lot about new social games … Guitar Hero World Tour, Rockband 2, SceneIt … they also mentioned a couple of the big blockbuster titles coming out … like Gears 2 … so really all in all?  I was left with a bit of a ‘meh’ …

About the only thing which was worthwhile was the announcement of a partnership with Netflix … which would be a really cool service to be able to stream … however I hope that they actually make that available outside of the US … because when they make announcements like partnerships with NBC, it’s only good in the States … sigh …

Little Baby B is doing fine … she’s getting over a really bad diaper rash … it’s had her up at really odd hours and has thrown her mom and me for a loop … but we’re getting through it …