Although there really isn’t anything for me to do at school, I have a load of games I can finally enjoy at home now. I have been playing League of Legends, which is a DotA-inspired massively multiplayer game with a bunch of my school friends for the past four maybe three months, and I can say I’m pretty good at it :) I’m level 30 and played a few odd matches of ranked. I main Caitlyn, if anyone was wondering, but I enjoy playing a bunch of other heroes too including Jarvan IV, Katarina, Akali, and the infamous Tryndamere. League of Legends is quite a fun experience but I have been playing less of it recently since I just got a few major-title games which I am eager to play.

Caitlyn, the Sheriff of Piltover (League of Legends)

I bought Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 after my exam week and I played through both the campaigns and some of the multiplayer on each one. Although I haven’t delved too deep into the multiplayer sections of either game, I can say it was enjoyable on both games. I really liked both of the games’ campaigns and storylines and they were generally comparable and on equal levels of delivering a quality experience, but I felt that Battlefield 3′s campaign was a step ahead of Call of Duty’s. It was amazing, to say the least. The visuals, the story and the gameplay were absolutely stunning. The ending was a major revelations of the overall plot of the game and it literally made me say “wow”.

Battlefield 3.

Anyway, I got Skyrim. At first I wasn’t so interested in the game, but after hearing a lot of my friends talking about their dragon-slaying and chicken-stealing experiences (which the latter got my one of my friends a large bounty on his head, long story), I finally wanted to see the game for myself. I don’t usually play RPG games, but my past experience of the few that I have played were actually quite good and enjoyable. In Skyrim the world is beautiful and the gameplay is fluid and fun. The freedom and the scale of the world are probably the best things about it, because you can do anything you want basically in the massive canvas of landscape on which the game is set on. The game overall is pretty awesome and extremely addictive, since I’ve been playing 3+ hours of it every day. Fus ro dah! :D

The world of Skyrim.

I also bought a few games on Steam recently with the Autumn and Halloween sales including Crysis + Crysis: Warhead, Magicka, Grand Theft Auto IV Pack. I’m thinking of getting Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. I also had some games which I got a few months ago including Counter-Strike Source, Team Fortress 2 before it was free and Bad Company 2 (which I bought on PC even though I had the Xbox 360 version of it, simply because it was $5 :P). I had been playing a bit of some creative Minecraft server which I was hosting before my exams where my friends and I tried to build the CBD section of a modern city (sounds like Epicity 1 and 2, I know) and we got bored. But it still looked cool! :D I may play some more Minecraft later, with the 1.0 official release when I have some free time where I’m not playing Skyrim or my other new games :).

By the way, here’s a link to a pretty funny Skyrim comic strip about Shouts.
http://www.gamevain.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Skyrim-Communicating-with-Dragons.jpg
It’s not that funny unless you’ve played Skyrim :)

Joseph was afraid when he saw that the other man had a gun in his hand. The young man pointed the gun at him and the middle-aged man tried to reason with him, begging for his life. “Please don’t kill me!” Joseph pleaded. The young man was on the brink of insanity in his bewildered state. “I have to do this, otherwise I will die!” the young man yelled. Panicking and shouting, he moved his finger to pull the trigger on his gun.

A figure jumped in front of the gun pointed at the terrified middle-aged man, emerging from the shadow of the night as the young man fired the bullet. The person who had saved Joseph fell limp to the ground. The young man realised what he had just done and was speechless. Joseph was shocked, but went to help the man who had saved his life. He pulled out a phone and dialled for the ambulance. The young man sat down and started to cry, still holding the gun in his hands.

The stranger who saved Joseph was another young man. He was shot in the chest and he lay on the ground, slowly dying. “My name is Thomas Henderson,” he gasped. “Tell my family I love them.” The pavement was washed red with the man’s blood. Joseph desperately tried to save the man. “I’m sorry,” the young man cried. “What have I done?” He slowly held up the gun and aimed it to his own head. “I am William, and I deserve to die for what I have done.” He shut his eyes.

“Don’t do it!” James said, grunting in pain while he clutched his chest. “It won’t solve anything!” “I have nothing to live for!” the young man responded, opening his eyes. “Please don’t do it, don’t let my death be in vain.” The dying man begged. The young man looked into his eyes and threw the gun away. He put his hand into his hands.

An ambulance and police cars stopped around the corner of the alleyway and police officers took the young man away. The ambulance crew quickly took Joseph and Thomas into the ambulance van. “I’m sorry!” William yelled back as he was dragged away by officers. “I will never forget you, Thomas Henderson! I’m sorry for what I have done!”

Joseph was extremely worried about the man who saved his life. He was grateful for what he had done, but he was afraid of the condition the man was in. He feared for Thomas’ life. When they arrived at the hospital, Thomas was wheeled away by doctors straight away and Joseph was treated for shock by paramedics. As the two were being separated, Joseph thanked Thomas and said goodbye. “Thank you Mr Henderson for saving me, and farewell,” he said with a tone of sorrow. He knew he wouldn’t see Thomas again. “You are my hero, and a hero of society”.

After the initial surgery which lasted a few hours, James was taken to intensive care. The doctors had told him he was going to die soon and it was inevitable. As he lay on the bed in his near-death state, James thought about everything in his life and the things he wanted to do. He became drowsy and he knew that after this sleep he would never wake up once more.  A single tear slid down his face.

When James drifted into subconsciousness, he could feel that he was approaching death’s gates. He accepted it and let himself go on. But a single figure appeared on the road to death, blocking the way forward. That figure was William. He greeted James, miserably. “I am sorry for doing this to you, James Henderson,” he said with remorse and regret in his voice. “I am sorry for taking your life.” James responded, “Better me than you. But thank you for apologising. How did you end up here?”

William smiled sadly. “I saved someone else’s life by giving my own,” he responded. “Just like what you did for the other man and me. I wanted to do something right for once in my life.” James sighed. “We are heroes of the people we have saved and also heroes of our own lives. We have done everything we can in our lives for them.” James said. “I think it is time for us to go,” William said to James. He nodded and stood next to each other.

As the two walked toward the exit of life, Joseph walked toward the exit of the hospital.

The sun was rising.

Just felt like making a post on this day. Rest assured, I will have more content out soon and I will try very hard to become more active with my posts in the future :D Good night!

First, I bring you the most exciting and shocking news; the great city of Epicity, abandoned and left in ruins. The thirty or so players that had ever walked that land and the land itself don’t exist anymore. All our valiant efforts and hardworking progress collapsed and forgotten.

But fear no more! My friends and I have started a completely new server. A fresh world, a land of opportunity. Untouched resource deposits. An endless world.

A new world.

We wanted another city. This time, bigger and better.

NEW EPICITY was to be the city’s unofficial name at the beginning, but then it caught on so much with the other players we didn’t really want to change it. New Epicity was a complete redesign of the old city. We started from the beginning again. But this time, the players on the server didn’t have to be forced to help our efforts – there was no “communist” system like in the old city regulations. The only builders of the central metropolis were Xannoxide (Mike) and myself (Zenergyx3/Stan). The other players were free to do anything outside of the city area, as long as it didnt involve stacking single blocks to the top of the map (which frankly, a lot of people do).

This led to a consistent, higher quality work being carried out and shown throughout the city. Of course, without the manpower to gather such unwieldy amounts of resources, we just spawned the blocks, because after all, it was a creative exercise. It is quite difficult gathering the resources, and then attempting to build huge projects, with only two people.

King Creeper v2. Better than ever.

As of now, the current structures in the city are as in order of completion; the New Epicity Town Hall, the luxury casino-styled hotel, the New Epicity State Library, and the bank, which along with the hotel, have yet to be named. The harbour that will stretch across hundreds of metres is being constructed and the final touches on an airbourne battle-cruiser are being added. This new city is going for a very modern look and feel, with all the architecture thought out clearly and the structured built with precision and perfection. Modern, but also innovative. A working elevator has been installed in the hotel with the help of a plugin, and the city centre has been rigged all around with a wireless redstone-powered note block sequence which plays a MIDI file. There is a nature reserve or a zen garden in the bottom level of the library, which has a massive waterfall flowing from the top level of the library coming down into it. The bank will have redstone protected vaults and the actual function of a bank – depositing and withdrawing cash. This will be explained in the coming paragraphs.

An overview of the current city square.

The city is still a major work in progress, and we’re improving every aspect of it, constantly. We plan to build a hospital (healing cuboid region, pay to use), a government building (where we keep all our plans and progress), a proper casino (may actually work, redstone powered), apartment buildings, a lot of skyscrapers and office complexes, and even more shops, exchanging a particular good for a sum of money, for the main streets.

You may be wondering as to how the “money” is going to work. Well, the New Epicity server will be implementing iConomy and a NPC shop plugin soon, so players can be able to buy and sell goods. The bank will let you exchange, say, diamonds and gold for the money which is used as a debit card (depositing), but it will also you let you exchange it back to the real, physical thing (withdrawing). NPCs and this economy system will be implemented pretty much everywhere in the city, in order to achieve a more convincing city, with life and an actual function to it.

Front view of the bank.

Most of the remaining players, outside of the city, have gathered in one specific area, where they will be creating a town. They are playing legitimately, but then they have about 8 players to get the materials and to build a small civilization. I am hoping that these players will build a very interesting and cool town, so eventually the two civilizations may be firmly established, with a subway and travel system leading between the towns, and to have shops and NPCs walking the streets of their town as well.

Hopefully, if server is successful and with the city construction being a consistent process, adding more high quality and interesting work to the city, New Epicity will be a remarkable and a very developed city in the midst of other interesting and fascinating creations.

The airship is a very striking sight, especially when seen at night.

Also, for those of you wondering, the texture pack is a custom texture pack made by Michael and I called Innovatex Pack. I will be releasing more details of this in the future.

A hail of bullets followed the red car as it accelerated along the overpass, shattering the glass, tearing through the metal alloy and shredding the leather seating. A momentary second of no gunfire was followed by a hatch in the roof of the Mercedes to open. The man in the red car looked at his rear-view mirror. A figure with a balaclava drew out a rocket launcher as he positioned himself half outside of the hatch. The figure hesitated for a brief second as he aimed, and then fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the red sports car. The man inside the car swerved aggressively to the right, and his car drove off the bridge just as the RPG detonated, metres from where he was at before, ripping a hole in the road of the bridge. In the final moments before the car plummeted into the icy water, the man took in a memory of a scene he would never forget – the blueness of the river, the bright colours of the warehouses on the shores, blanketed by the gray skies stretching to the horizon.

A black Mercedes pulled up next to the edge of the bridge. Two men in black suits stepped out and watched the red car sink to the depths of the river. After a moment of calm, the two shadowy figures entered the car again and packed up their weapons, satisfied with their work. The car turned around in a semicircle and drove back the way they came.

A man wearing a leather jacket and cargo pants emerged from the river and started swimming towards the shore.

Written by me, about Cressida Campbell’s artwork “Through The Windscreen”.

Epicity – A grand city in Minecraft that my friends and I have been working on. Although my friend Michael and I did most of the construction, my other friends have been gathering resources and have been a huge help to the overall development of the metropolis.

Starting off in a typical survival multiplayer world (SMP) hosted on my server, the server players took off in their own adventures with no central objective for all players to help in. Upon construction of what would be the first structure in the entirety of Epicity, the hotel named Aquaris Sunrise, my friend who was in an alliance with me on the server called Michael was thinking of building a town or a city; a central place everyone could go to do practically anything they wanted and build all sorts of things as in long it was going to be allowed by the governor (me :D).

So we cleared out the land near and around the hotel and convert the natural hills into a suitable place to start a new civilization. Following this was the construction of the town square; the King Creeper fountain, which was followed suit with the establishment of a cafe, an office complex, the city high court, and a comic book store (don’t ask me why on the last one, I didn’t do it :S). New buildings sprouted up with great progress including the first skyscraper for Minecorp (a mining company on the server), a bakery with no bread, and a bank, which later had a 6-digit combination lock vault. A library was made, a museum that showcased all the types of things in Minecraft, a football field and the town hall. A police HQ building was created, complete with a conference room, offices, and a firing range to test your skills with a bow and arrow.

A fully automated redstone  train station named Central Station was established where you could select your destination with the click of a button which changed all of the tracks into the correct arrangement, and when you were ready to depart you pressed another button to send the cart from the cart loading dispenser into the boarding zone. If the player decided to not go on and that they wanted to return the cart, simply standing on a pressure plate and the redstone mechanics would do the rest of the work for you. It was a self sustainable method of transportation with great speed and efficiency.

A lot of progress was made and many things have been created since the days gone by. Buildings have gone through redecoration and reconstruction, the Central Station was abandoned and taken down due to consistency problems and a new subway station with carts arriving at regular intervals has been built to replace the old method of transportation over large distances. Many mining shafts have been established and many have been closed down due to the depletion of resources. Forests have been cut down and forest have been replanted in order to revive wood supplies and to keep the environment looking nice and natural.

The city was no longer just one area; there was the central district, the residential district where all the houses for the players were, the shopping district with many places one could buy things,the agricultural district where a multistory farm has been built, the port which features docks, several ships, a boathouse and a variety of seaside shops. There was also the rougher part of Epicity, outside of the main borders where the military outpost or barracks resides, and a huge 20×20 excavation site which has been dug down to bedrock to obtain cobble for the following construction plan;

Last night we started one of the biggest team projects for a single structure on a lot of Minecraft servers: mapping and starting to build a 5-thick city wall surrounding the city to prevent mobs from getting in city and to ensure that the residents can build and develop in peace. The wall, as it will be limiting the amount of construction and expansions we can make, will be redesigned or remade around the areas suitable for development. A cactus wall is built to ensure the extermination of all enemies near the wall and so that spiders don’t climb up the walls vertically (they can do that now :c). Dispenser turrets probably will be added too at main checkpoints and at gates into the city.

Epicity is making great progress in all fields of development at a very rapid pace, whether it be mining or gathering wood, clearing area for construction, building new things for the city, or organizing how the city is set out. We had ideas to make a gaming district where everything was fun and play, including various stadiums for football, spleef, a swimming centre, a PvP (player versus player) arena, and a zombie defense arena. There will also be casinos and a big theme park; which we won’t reveal to you yet. We also plan to have a city CBD (central business district) sometime sooner or later on a different continent where the land is untainted by human activity and with fresh resources, but these are plans to be and so they may be changed at any time in the future.

For now, I shall go back to playing with my friends and hopefully finish this city wall today. Minecraft is a very fun game with lots of potential.

After all, what is a game if you don’t find it fun?

A simple and effective signature created by me. The stock is called “First Snow” by taenaron from deviantART.
Click the image to enlarge it to what it’s supposed to look.