Minecraft patch 1.6 out today!

The 1.6 patch actually came out today, what a lovely suprise! When I wrote about it just a few days ago we didn't even have an estimated release date, and now it's suddently staring us in the face. You can read the post here if you want to know more about the patch, but I also took the liberty of copying the patch notes for you to look at. If you want to see all the bug fixes you can find them here. There is ALOT of them!

New features:

+ Added Nether support to multiplayer
+ The client will ask minecraft.net if the current login is valid. If the server says “no”, a warning message appears in the client. You can still play the game even if this happens.
+ Added craftable maps

+ Added tall grass in some biomes
+ Mushrooms now spreads (very) slowly
+ Added server property view-distance. Sets the radius of terrain updates (in chunks) to send to the players. Range 3-15, default 10.
+ Added dead shrubs in deserts
+ Added allow-nether (set to true or false) in server.properties
+ Blocks destroyed by other players in multiplayer now shows the breaking block particle effect
+ Doors make sound for other players in multiplayer
+ The record player now supports more than 15 different songs (you can’t get the records yet, though)
+ Added hatches

+ Activated dispensers make sounds and trigger particles in multiplayer
+ Players stuck in walls will slide towards the nearest gap if there is one

Changes:

* Disabled Advanced OpenGL until we can fix some bugs with it
* It’s no longer possible to build solid blocks on the top layer of the maps (sorry!)
* Made booster tracks speedier
* Severely nerfed fire so it spread slower, and doesn’t spread infinitely
* Seeds are now found in tall grass, using a hoe on the ground no longer works
* Compressed network traffic more agressively
* Blocks that don’t change appearance when the data changes don’t send block updates when their data changes now
* Arrows shot by players can now be picked up by all players
* Nothing riding anything or being ridden by anything can enter portals

Weekend game bargain: Shogun 2

Steam has a 33% offer on Total war: Shogun 2 starting today and ending monday at 10am PST (6pm GMT). It costs only 33,49€ and you can find it here.

Ubisoft game bargain week: thursday

It is "ubisoft week" on steam this week and that means lots of cool bargains. Every day there is a new deal that only lasts 24 hours so you have to be quick on your toes is you are interrested. Remember that steam uses pacific time zone, so the deal of f.eks wednesday will not be from midnight to midnight in other places in the world. I will convert the time to GMT also which is used in western europe.

Today on steam you get 75% off all far cry games. That means 2,50€ for far cry(1), 7,50€ for far cry 2 and for both games together only 9,99€.

Midweek game bargain: Dungeons

Steam has a 50% offer on Dungeons this week. Usually it costs 44,99€, but today it's only 22,49€. The offer ends thursday at 4pm pst (thursday 0.00am gmt).

Minecraft patch 1.6

This will be the largest patch yet, and all you miners have alot to look forward to. Because this will include the thing everyone have been waiting for, a functional nether portal on multiplayer servers! Yes, we will be able to go to minecratf hell together. And there are more fun coming our way with this patch, it will also include:

• more achievements
• functional pistons
• maps and mapping tools 
• more underwater content 
• online sync for statistics and achievements 
• and of course bug fixes

The release date is as of now set to "not soon" so there will probably be more content announced. "Not soon" sounds like a long time, but I think we can be optimistic about it and say that the only reason he has set that "date" is because he is playing it safe and dont want to dissapoint us, but I'm betting it will be out at the start of july at the latest! If I'm wrong I will give away a minecraft key! Remember that this is a very small company so a giveaway will probably be happening heh.  I am an achievement whore so I'm hoping for lots and lots of achieves, also underwater content sounds interresting altough we have no idea what it will be yet, I'm guessing more animals and maybe some plants. That might not sound so interresting but it would mean that we will be able to make more stuff. Lets hope he makes is easier to find cocoa beans aswell! 

Playstation news

Some psp blockbuster games is getting an HD facelift. The games will be customized and developed specifically for the ps3 and will become available as blu-ray games. You will be able to share the same save data on both the psp version of the game and the ps3 remastered version. That means you can play the game at home on your ps3 and then continue where you left of on the go with your psp. Some games will get 3D and add-on content. The first one's will of course come out in the japanese marked, and it has been announced that the first title will be Monster hunter portable 3.

Then a quick update relating the PSN: Sony has stated that they have had no reports of customer identity theft
since the hack last month, but it has cost them over 171 million dollars.

Portal 2 achievement guide - part 1

I am just about done with my achievements in portal 2, so why not share some guidans for those of you that might need help. Of course I wont do the ones you get for completing tests and the game etc. In this first part I'll do all the achievements you can get in Chapter 2, chamber 6. So if you want to do all of these at the same time read all three before you begin, this is important! Good luck.

Final transmission
The first thing you have to do here is when you are at the end of the room, press the button and catch the radio that comes flying. Then you make portals so you get over to the starting place, and then make portals like shown in the picture below, then just fling your self on the aerial faith plates. Where you will end up is in a secret room, the radio will change it's transmission and then you are done.

Drop box
This is one of the easiest. You simply have to drop a cube on a button without touching the cube, so all you do is place a portal under a cube and over a button. When you come to the end of the room and press the button to release the garbage and again press is to get the box, put a portal on the first plate it hits and one over the big button.

Pturretdactyl

Here you have to use an aerial faith plate to launch a turret. Simply catch the turret who comes flying with the junk (to catch both the radio and the turret it might be easier to place portals where you do in drop box so everything lands on the button). Go and fetch it and make your way back to the starting place to use that faith plate, or you can try to drop it on the one that is right beside you by the button.

weekend game bargain: RIFT

On Steam this weekend you get 33% off if you buy RIFT. The game usually costs 49,99€, but this weekend it only costs 33,49€, and that's quite a nice price for a brand new mmorgp! (Massively multiplayer roleplaying game for those who didn't know).

RIFT is the new big mmo and has actually been very successfull, and of course I have to compare it to wow and say that this might be the mmo that has come closest to wow's success of all the one's that has come out since 2004 when wow exploded. Now enough of that, wow will always be my favorite, but if you wan't a break from wow or are thinking on buying this game I recommend you do it this weekend. 

Check it out here.

Goodies and skins for Minecraft fans

T-shirt from think geek.

T-shirt from think geek.

T-shirt from The Jinx store. 

Foam pickaxe from think geek.

Caracter skins from minecraftskins.com

Pretty cool Minecraft online skin editor, you can customize your own Minecraft 

skin to your liking quickly and easily, check it out here.

And if you don't already have the game, I suggest you head on over to minecraft.net and get started on doin' some crafting of the mines.

Psn update and other game news

First of all I want to say congrats to all my fellow Norwegians, for it is may 17th, our national day! Or constitution day if you may. The weekend and monday have been slow on the game front and really buisy for me, well I've had a LAN at my apartment, so good-buisy. I've discovered some cool new games which I'm gonna write about very soon, mostly free and otherwise cheap games. I like to review casual cheap games that you might not have heard about, since the internet is flooded with information on the big ones. But anyway, I have collected some news from the week so far for you.

• First off: the PSN is back up! Not in all countries as we speak, but they are working on it one by one, so be prepared! The date was originally may 31, so this is a nice suprise from Sony.

• Ubisoft is in the process of making movies from some of their games. Splinter cell, assassins creed and ghost recon are still the only three games they are talking about, but more may come. It will be big projects and Ubisoft will be keeping sure that everything will be true to the games.

• Lots of short Modern warfare 3 teasers went up this weekend, every one of them for different countries, you can find them all on youtube of course, but here is the one for america.

 The last part is in russian, and means "One. Eliminate enemy hopes for victory."  (Correct me if I'm wrong russians).

Blogger bug

So the last two days blogger has been down and I haven't been able to even log in. The last three posts and the poll I put out the days before that has also been deleted and not even saved, so sorry for the lack of action and sorry for blogger's incompetent workers! Blogger says they are working on restoring the deleted posts right now since this have happened to absolutely everyone that uses blogger. So we'll see and hope they are able, if not I'll send an angry post and fix it myself!  No matter what I will be back soon!

Diablo 3 news

The wait is finally over, well atleast very soon. Blizzard announced this week that the diablo 3 beta will be coming this fall. No news yet on whether it'll be an open or closed beta, but atleast it's a sign that the release is not that far away. When it comes to the actual release of the game no date has been announced yet, but blizzard president Mike Morhaime says that a 2011 release is something they are hoping for. Even though we know blizzard loves to postpone releases and tease us over and over again, they usually announce their release dates very short before it actually happens ,so the release is probably going to come as a blow to the face just when we aren't looking. I'm actually going to believe blizz this time and say that the game will come out sometime between christmas this year and february next year. What do you think? Are you as optimistic as me?

Sumotori game review

Sumotori is a casual ragdoll fighting game, and it is one of the best small fighting games I have ever played! You play as a sumo-wrestler ragdoll and have to fight other ragdolls. The game starts with you and your opponent(s) touching your hands to the floor like in real sumo-wrestling, and off you go to punch the opponent to the ground. The loser is the first one to hit the ground, but you can still play the same game as long as you want. The special and best thing about this game is how the "dolls" move, i'ts like trying to control a drunk, blind and crazy man with loose limbs and springs on his feet. The juddering wrestlers move so unsteadily that even the slightest jerk is enough to send them into uncontrollable death spins. You’re basically your own worst enemy – one missed push and you’ve condemned your poor robotic wrestler to smacking his face into the ground, tangling his limbs up with the other fighters, having his adversaries pile on top of him and technically ending the match. But that’s when the fun begins.

A very common situation.

It is for 1-2 players but if you add computers you can play up to 4 at a time. You only have two attacks which are push, and push with one hand. And you move with the arrows, while the down arrow is jump, so no walking backwards. You can choose between lots of arenas and mods, for example the seesaw arena from the picture above, and mods like football, labyrinths, slides and tons more made by players, or you can build one yourself. I recommend this game to everyone, you will laugh your ass off untill your stomach aces. 

You can download the demo for free or buy it for only 4.50 USD here.

A demonstration from the default arena.

Portal 2 Secret: turret song

So I was playing around in portal 2 collecting achievements, and just for fun I fried the turret that is caged in course 16 with the laser, and to my suprise the cage opened and decided to check out if there was anything in there. I hear a song and underneath me I see four turrets singing a lovely song. I had to find a video of it and show you, it's the cutest turrets I've seen. Maybe you have seen it but for you who havent, enjoy!

PSN update

Sony is saying that they are busy improving the security of the playstation network and that it will be up by may 31. But sony is still planning to restore online gameplay before that date. As a welcome package to the european users they have now revealed that in addition to a year of identity theft protection and a month of playstation plus, european users will get a choice of two playstation games, and two psp games, but which games are not yet revealed. Us and the rest of the world will probably get something similar, but we will have to see. Sony promised last week that the online gameplay would be up by the end of that week, but nothing happened, so can we really trust them this time? It is a long time to wait but I have my doubts.

Assassins creed release date

Ubisoft finally revealed the release date of Assassins creed revelations last week, and it seems this will be yet another game we can spend our christmas playing. In revelations Ezio Auditore will travel to Constantinople, in the footsteps of Altair, in order to further unravel the mystery between the Templars and the Assassins. It brings back the multiplayer experience first introduced in Assassin's Creed Brotherhood with "more modes, more maps and more characters" according to the official announcement. Revelations will be the final chapter of the Ezio trilogy.  It will be out this november, wich I think is a perfect time for game releases! We desperately need alot of games in the winter ( atleast here in scandinavia!) The only thing the winter is good for is that it gives us more time to play (and it kills all the bugs). It really is a good country to be a gamer in, lol.  

Four rather special teasers was released a short time ago, if you want to check it out i recently wrote a post on it where you can see the fourth teaser aswell. Check it out here.

Brink launch is near

I'm excited, and can't wait to play it! Because I don't want spoilers I haven't read too much about it, but the things I actually have read and seen it seems awesome! I'm a spoiler hater but usually I can't resist. So here is a trailer that gives you just enough info and feeling of the game to make you excited but not spoiled. Enjoy!

The wonderful Yogscast

The weekend is usually very slow on the news front, so I will give you a special treat. If you haven't yet heard of them listen up! The Yogscast is Simon and Lewis, or Honeydew and Xephos who makes Youtube videos and podcasts. Theire popularity sky rockeded at the start of this year and now they are loved by the whole world. they started last year by just doing videos of them playing games, giving advise and just fooling around, then they discovered minecraft  and made a "how to survive your first day" video and it got so popular that they continued playing. That might not sound so interresting but the reason is, they are just amasingly funny and whimsical. Theire minecraft adventure suddently got very very interresting and exciting and actually kinda scary.Ever since the hundreds of thousands fans have been sitting pinned to the screen following the adventure. They are on a big quest and have met many characters on the way that we have all fell in love with, or grown to hate. where they last left of they have stumbled into a war between pirates, but managed to sink the enemy ship, which  ended with a big unforseen twist.

 The "shadow of israphel" (which the series are called) is now on its third series so those of you that have not seen it have alot to look forward to! Deaths, twists, scary and touching moments, heroes, badies and most of all you will be laughing your ass of the whole way through. They also play Portal 2 and many other games which are equally fun. Here are a Trailer of the show, its SO good!

You can find theire youtube channel here. Homepage here, And the podcast on itunes here.

Portal 2 review from the master himself

Enjoy!

Wii price cut confirmed

The rumors are now confirmed, the wii will fall to the price of 150$ on May 15. This new deal will feature mario kart wii and a wii wheel accessory. Nintendo will also release a new greatest hits line of wii games, called nintendo selects. The first games will be Zelda: twilight princess, animal crossing, mario super sluggers and wii sports, which will each cost 20$. So all of this will cost less than a 3Ds. (not really a good marketing moove for the slow selling handheld though).

Dead island

Yes it's another zombie game, but this one looks like no other zombie game out there. It looks absolutely amaising, and I really cant wait for the release! I love Zombies, they are my absolutely favorite bad guys in both games and movies (next to robots!), so that makes me kinda picky, and I have a feeling this game will deliver a whole new experience for all zombie lovers. The release date is August 1, 2011, so cross your fingers for it not beeing delayed. It will be out on Pc, Ps3 and Xbox 360. Developer is Techland, it is fps action and will also have 4-player coop (yay!).  Here is the first announcement trailer everybody is so in love with. It reminds me so much of Lost, beautiful Lost.

 Ps: I will be updating the hell out of the "upcoming games" calendar this weekend!

This weeks game bargains: update

Mass effect day at Steam! 

Today (friday) there are big price cuts on mass effect 1, 2 and the deluxe edition. Mass effect 1 has a discount of of amasing 75%! That means only 3,75€ which is insane! Both masse effect 2 and the deluxe edition has a discount of 50%, that means 9,99€ for the second game and 14,99€ for the deluxe.

Deluxe edition includes:

• Collector Armor and Assault Rifle - Two bonus in-game items: advanced regeneration armor and a powerful enemy-shredding assault rifle.
• Incisor Rifle - Bonus in-game weapon. Firing three shots with each pull of the trigger, the Incisor Rifle is designed to decimate shields.
• Original Soundtrack - The Mass Effect 2 original soundtrack features 12 pieces spanning the entire Mass Effect 2 experience.
• Digital Art Book* - The art book contains 48 pages of stunning full color artwork including captions from the Mass Effect 2 team.
• Digital Mass Effect Redemption #1 comic* - Redemption follows Liara T’Soni’s dangerous mission to find Commander Shepard.
• Documentary Video* - Featuring behind-the-scenes and making-of videos, the Mass Effect 2 documentary takes a look at how the game was made.

* These items are only available in English

Mass effect 3 delayed

The highly anticipated third addition to the sci-fi game is not going to keep us up at night this christmay after all, the game is now said to be released sometime at the start of 2012. Casey Hudson, executive producer for the series, writes: "Mass Effect 3 will be released in the first three months of 2012. The development team is laser focused on making sure Mass Effect 3 is the biggest, boldest and best game in the series, ensuring that it exceeds everyone's expectations."

Small update: I'm keeping my old url!

After I wrote the last post I realised that the url I was thinking of changing to was way too long and confusing. I decided not to change it, after all it has always been my blog name and I am quite fond of it. It would also make it harder for you guys, and we dont want that do we. The new header is staying though, I love it already! (It is made in paint btw, the old one too. I always choose paint for the simpler designs)

New header and url!

I finally decided on a blog name, it's simple and not very creative, but that's exactly what I wanted so I'm happy with it. The new name is going to be: Ingabi's gaming blog. So the url will be: ingabisgamingblog.blogspot.com. I will change it later today. Even though its longer it shouldnt be difficult to remember. And I would really like to hear your opinions on both the header and the name! :)

This weeks game bargains

There are a lot of bargains on games almost every week and I usually keep myself updated on them in case I see something I like, so I thought that must be something you would like to know about! And I recomend you buy them through steam, just because steam is the easyest way to keep track of your games, friends and find new games. Look at me talking when I'm sure most of you already know this. Because I live in europe I only see the euro currency, but for those of you who use other currency's it is converted so it is no difference in the prices.  So on too the important bit:

Hydrophobia: prophecy: If you pre-purchase you get 15% euro off. that means it now costs 8,49 euro. The game releases may 9th so better hurry! I know I'm getting it! You can buy it on steam here.

Plants vs zombies: You get 66% euro off today! That means it only costs 3,40 euro now. the offer ends at thursday 4pm pst ( 7.30 friday morning gmt+1) You really dont want to miss this, cus this game is friggin' awesome! you also get two plants vs zombies inspired hats in team fortress 2. You can buy it on steam here.

I will update soon, I just wanted to get this out as soon as possible! :D

[poll] What is your favorite game genre?

So on the game platform poll there was not so many who voted, but there was a few and I'm happy with that. And the pc won! I decided too keep it going and change the question maybe once a week, just because it's fun. I just set up a new one, hope you like it and vote.

ps: thanks to all you americans for beeing my most loyal readers, even beating my own country (to be fare it is a rather small country). anyway I love you!
pps: I love the rest of you too ;)

The mystic assassin's creed teaser

So I'm quite fond of assassin's creed even though the two games I've played I only made it a few hours in, the stories are great and I had a good time, but suddently I just forgot about it. When that happens it's quite hard to continue again. But now that a new game is releasing it's like I have a new chance, if you know what I mean? Might sound weird, but I can't explain it any better. The new teasers makes it even more exciting, the only hints we get is some arabic words, in the first trailer people have translated it to "Altair son of Alahd" and in the second one it is translated to "Altar son of none" and has the mayan calender flashing in the background. There are more hidden stuff in all four of them but its kinda confusing. It kinda reminds me of something out of lost (Oh how I miss lost). I'm looking forward to finding out more but mostly to playing the game of course. The game will come out some time in 2012 but wee will find out more on this years E3. Here is the fourth teaser for you, are you excited? Maybe some of you who have played more than me can get more out of it?

The Playstation network welcomes you back

Sony has announced at a recent conference that most services will be up for the Psn this week with the exeption of the playstation store. You will get a free month of Psn plus, and current Psn members will get an additional month for free. Some extra free downloadable content will also be given out, but it's not revealed what it will be yet. Other good news is that with the Psn down, the american government had time to get up from the couch and catch Osama Bin Laden!

The Sony PSN bosses Kazuo Hirai, Shinji Hasejima and Shiro Kambe apologised deeply for the stress and inconvenience this has brought upon PSN customers by keeping their heads bowed for seven seconds. 

New Portal 2 content: update

Valve announced this friday that new test chambers, leaderboards, single and multiplayer challenge modes and more will be available this summer, all at the price of free! The "expansion" will be named "Portal 2 DLC number 1", which of course means there is more to come. And I am guessing there will be a new event when it releases, similar, but smaller to the one that took place at the Portal 2 release. I took part in that event and wrote a post about it which you can read here if you missed it, and of course if you are interrested.

Of orcs and men

Of orcs and men is a new fantasy rpg where you play an orc, fighting against humans. Your goal as a warrior veteran is to kill the one man responsible for all of this bloodshed, the one who has exhorted the humans to fight the green-skinned people: the Emperor himself. On the mission you get a goblin companion who fights by your side with completely different fighting skills than you. The Orc is a strong warrior and the Goblin is a silent assasin, but since this is a rpg you can choose which abilities you want them to have.

Of orcs and men will release in the spring of 2012 on Pc, Ps3 and Xbox 360. Produced by Cyanide, and published by Focus Home Interactive.