Minecraft - PC, Mac, Linux

Regular readers will know I love Dwarf Fortress. Its free-form gameplay and insane levels of complexity make for a quite brilliant and absorbing game.

But there is a new obsession in my life - a game which takes elements from Dwarf Fortress, throws in a bit of Rogue and adds a generous glug of 3D Dot Game Heroes - and it’s called Minecraft.

You begin the game plonked in the middle of a vast randomly generated world and you are then completely free to do what you want. Every item in the world must be created from scratch, but you better be quick, because when night falls, the nasties come out to play.

You start by chopping down trees to get wood, which in turn can be used to make planks and tools. It’s vital to find coal as soon as possible which can then be combined with sticks to make torches. When night falls, evil zombies and other nocturnal creatures will keep well away from the bright lights.

A crafting bench, storage boxes and a furnace are next on the list, while combining sticks and stones makes more robust weapons and tools.

While exploring during daylight hours, animals can be farmed for food and skins - the latter are used to craft armour. But when the light gradually starts to disappear, you’ll want to get home quickly to avoid the prowling mobs.

Finding your way back to your base and closing the door on the inky blackness is always a welcome relief. And when you hear the zombies moaning outside your door, you’ll be glad you are safe and sound.

I’m currently in a great place, and the pictures here are all my own. Some of them show my fledgling mountainside home - complete with natural lava flow - while the others show a zombie burning in the morning sun, snow on the hills and the inside of a natural cave.

By mining deeper and deeper, you can find gold and diamond, which again are used to craft armour and robust weapons.

To make windows, you need to build a furnace, chop some wood, then add sand. As you can see, I've used glass around the entrance as well as using it to create the windows in the rock face.

The work I've done here took me the best part of four hours, but I'm quite pleased with the results. Long way to go, though.

The game is currently is alpha testing and it costs around £8 to buy. A free browser based version can be played, although it lacks many of the features of the paid-for version, while you can't save your progress.

New content is poured in every week and there are huge plans for the game as the months and years go by.

Over the past few weeks, snow, boats, cacti and cows have been added - so who knows what will appear later today.

For more info about the game, visit the official website. And if you want to dig even deeper into the game, the Minecraft Wiki is essential reading.

3D Dot Game Heroes - PS3 - review

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto must be feeling pretty good about himself.

3D Dot Game Heroes plays like an old school Zelda adventure, except this game by FROM Software drags 8-bit visuals into the 21st century, giving the game a unique and stylised appearance.

The game isn't afraid to wear its Zelda influence proudly on its sleeve. In fact, there are so many nods to the Nintendo series that it's easy to forget 3D Dot Game Heroes really has nothing to do with Link and his quest to save the land of Hyrule.

A mysterious ancient sword and boomerang make their appearance early in the game, while the inclusion of a bow, arrows, sling shot, bombs, health-giving fairies and chickens to chase around, makes you wonder quite how the developer managed to get away with it.

However, 3D Dot Game Heroes is more than a mere pastiche, with FROM Software throwing in a few of its own ideas, including nods to several of their previous games.

It doesn't take itself too seriously either, which is a good thing when you consider the story is whimsical fantasy nonsense, including genre staples such as a captured princess and a dark force spreading across the land.

Even thrusting a sword towards a group of enemies results in the unexpected, with the blade extending dozens of feet forward if fully powered up.

Gameplay is simple, with weapons mapped to two face buttons, while a third button is used to dash. Simplicity, though, is what the game is all about, and it's refreshing to play something that is intuitive and easy to pick up and play.

The old school design choice extends further than the game's looks - trekking through miles of wilderness between key locations is the norm and it can be annoying, especially as enemies re-spawn at every available opportunity. Die, and you'll be unceremoniously dumped back at the location of your last save.

While the camera angle can be changed when exploring the wilds, a fixed option takes over when exploring the game's dungeons. This is fine, but the dungeons are generally bland and fail to match Zelda's thought-provoking conundrums. The dungeon's bosses are also a mixed bunch, lacking spark and imagination for the most part.

But he real star of the show is the visuals. Featuring gorgeous blocky 3D characters, quaint Lego-like villages, sparkling rivers, a lovely depth of field filter, and more than enough charm to keep pulling the player through the 20 hour adventure, there's nothing quite like 3D Dot Game Heroes currently on the market.

FROM Software have even created a robust character design suite, and you can easily spend hours creating your own unique blocky character.

There are also more than 60 pre-set models to choose from, and each one can be picked when starting from a previous save.

Default hero Frum will be most people's first choice, but with a range of diverse characters to control - including a vampire, ninja, samurai and football player - it's worth checking them all out to see their animations.

The rousing musical score adds to the Zelda feel, with cracking 8-bit-style tunes ripping off older soundtracks to create a bright and breezy score which is a retro gamer's delight.

So forget about the stuffiness of other role-playing games and embrace this return to the golden days of simplistic adventures.

3D Dot Game Heroes may have flaws, but it's an absolute joy to play and Zelda fans should definitely take a look.

3D Dot Game Heroes - PS3

My review copy of 3D Dot Game Heroes arrived this morning. The review code doesn't contain trophies, but I can't say I'm that bothered.

Anyway, I've only had time to put around an hour in so far, but it's such a charming game, I thought I would share some in-game snaps. Yes, that's right, you can pause the game at any moment and take a picture.

As you can see, I chose default hero Flum to play, although there are more than 60 pre-set characters you can play as, including a Dwarf, Ninja, Samurai and there's even a racing car to drive around in. There's also a full character editor, so I'll have a mess around with that later. As the game is a love letter to Nintendo's Zelda series, it would be foolish not to create a chunky Link to play as.

Enjoy the snaps, and I'll post more later.

3D Dot Game Heroes: Update - PS3

3D Dot Games Heroes is less than a month away from release and with every new screenshot, it's hard not to be excited.

The story is fantasy fluff with a curious twist. In the Kingdom of Dotnia, six wise sages kept watch over six orbs which contained the power of God. However, when a demonic overlord attempted to lay waste to the kingdom, a hero took up the challenge and defeated him.

After the epic battle between good and evil, Dotnia became a tourist attraction, but eventually people stopped visiting. The King then had a brainwave that would hopefully entice visitors back - transforming the flat, 2D gameworld into glorious blocky 3D.

However, with the land now full of monsters, this course of action didn't go according to plan, so it's up to your character to explore the kingdom and find out what went wrong.

There's obviously more than a passing nod to Zelda, with similar gameplay elements and weapons, including a boomerang - which is used to hit far off switches - and bows. Even the game's music has a Zelda flavour.

It's still not clear how long the game will last, but with four character classes to choose from - hero, prince, scholar and - unusually - the lead character from the classic underground adventure Spelunker, plenty of items to find and an optional hard difficulty level, hopes remain high that 3D Dot Game Heroes will be a lengthy quest.

There's even a character editor packed in so you can throw your own blocky character into the action.

3D Dot Heroes is released in Japan on November 5. Check out the official site - complete with wonderful music HERE



Images courtesy of FROM Software.

3D Dot Game Heroes - PS3

FROM Software, the team who brought us the excellent Demon's Souls on PS3, have unveiled their latest title, and it looks wonderful.

Details are still sketchy, but we do know some parts of the story. Following the defeat of an evil demon, the king of the land has decided he's had enough of his flat, 2D realm and has transformed it into eye-popping blocky 3D.

The game is scheduled to launch in Japan in November, and I'll definitely be keeping a close eye on this magnificent looking title.

Here are some screens, and remember to check out the official Japanese website