Gaming: Minecraft 360

For the past couple of weeks, I've been playing the heck out of Minecraft 360, made for the xBox 360 console. It's...  addictive.  The game has all of the stuff I like in a game: collecting and building.  I can farm a bit too, and even fish.

http://www.amazon.com/Minecraft-Xbox-360/dp/B00BU3ZLJQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384559341&sr=8-1&keywords=minecraft+360

There's a mode that lets you turn off the monster mobs: peaceful.  But you can later load the file with monsters coming out at night.

I think the greatest challenge is in creating your "dream home".  It's sort of like the Sims, except you make the stuff you put in your "dream home"/fortress/ palace/whatever.  I believe the disc I bought is version 1.8.2, which adds some new things to the game, like the ability to make nether bricks out of netherrack.  Basically, you can make more stuff in this version, and use those materials to build your creations.  This version also has the creative mode.

What I love is that even though you can play in multiplayer, this game also lets you play solo or split-screen with someone on another controller on the same console.  It's very flexible.  And like I said, addictive.

One of the things that's fun about this game: creating a new world using different "seeds".  I've tried names of my friends, myself, and even some of the in-game phrases that pop up.  One of the phrases I've tried that made a nice-looking world with good resource groupings: "Flashing Letters!".  And yes, it has to be typed just like that, except for the quotation marks.

One of my friends' names generated a world with a mountain that was very intriguing.  From one side, the mountain looked like a frog or toad.  From the other side, it looked like a cat sitting.  In front of the mystical mountain was a hill, and if you went to the front of the hill, it had three roundish holes in the front.  I'd love to take pictures to show you, but the camera didn't do a good job the last time I tried.