VR....

Getting a Rift S was good; It still is good but I've left the headset idle for the guts of probably a year. It feels longer. But this week I'd gotten the itch to play VR games. Specifically Beat Saber; And for more than just a few minutes.

There's an element of delay to gaming in VR due to my setup and 'game space'. In playing it I'm again realizing I've only got 90% of the room(my 'home office' is the smallest of rooms in the house) that I need to fully or more accurately comfortably use the headset, to stand and reach out.... Never mind dodge left and right. That's not to say that VR is unplayable; Beat Saber is the only VR game that I really need to stand and be active with. Which I've been doing a lot of the last week. Another game (VR or not) that I've left sit idle... Too many games and not enough time.

Also VR is not the easiest of platforms to get decent footage of; Then again given the music involved capturing Beat Saber would probably get hit with copyright left right and center(pun intended).

While games like Beat Saber are the epitome of why the platform is needed some games piggyback with VR. Minecraft has been getting a lot of great updates. Being on the Java version, buying the Xbox version and getting the Windows version free with the Java edition is a lot to 'keep up on', never mind the actual in game content. But Minecraft in VR is something I've wanted to see and something that's always proved tricky to really work. There seems to have been enough time and changes that checking it out in VR now is 'easy'. And after playing for a few minutes it isn't a preferred option for me. It does look great and after getting used to the controls it is playable. It's also a game where the movement gave me moments of disorientation. I think due to the eye level of the characters viewpoint in game and the ground level being so close, so similar, I guess that was a form of motion sickness. Just a few moments of dizziness/disorientation more than any actual puke moments.... 

A version of the game I'm glad I got to see and experience but not one I can spent time in.

On the other end of the spectrum House of the Dying Sun again amazes me. It's simulation-y enough to be a wow factor while 'casual' enough to get into and still have fun. Even if your doing it on the hardest difficulty and your being blow up.

A game that I'd never had a problem playing in VR, but one that has received numerous updates for VR and controller support. Always nice to see from devs.

One of the things I really like in the game is that you control a host pilot in game. While I don't know the lore(if there is any).... But when you bank and turn sharply, you hear the pilots breath and strain efforts with the g-forces as you control him in controlling the craft. A moment like that as you look over your shoulder eye tracking a target bringing the ship to bear is a unique VR experience. An immersive one. This game does it so well.

It's also a game that has a great VR cockpit(I gush again). Not that I'm a sim cockpit aficionado. I guess my point here is that the non VR version is great and the implementation of VR makes it even better, not just a gimmick.

The more things change the more they stay the same. Sometimes you get into some games and all you wanna do it shoot stuff. Casual is casual.... One such VR game I picked up 'back in the day' was Gunjack (waffle here and here). Fun is fun, so no wonder I was back at it as well.

Minecraft(Xbox)....

It's been a while since I last looked at Minecraft on Xbox. In retrospect my blog post last time was more dismissive then the game deserved. So I've recently restarted playing it and continued on from that old 'save'. What I said in that post is still true. After playing it again now it's still a lot like other cross platform titles; The same but that bit different. I say that a lot about games I see across PC and Xbox. Hard to explain but the 'little' differences make it a familiar new experience and not in a Déjà vu kind of way. Besides that, moods change as do perspectives. I appreciate it more now. 

My PC save and restarting there would feel more like work due to having done so much there already(years of building on a save since the games early day's when it was 'free'). Doing it on a new platform feels refreshing. So a new start on a new platform with no pre-existing baggage at all is appealing. A distraction that has sunk hours of time. Gaming, it's all personal perspective.

It's odd to me to see the monetization/market space and it's 'currency'. Maybe that's me and my Java edition superiority complex. I'd known things were like that on Xbox but seeing it myself ....... I didn't think it was so extensive. Given it's not a 'main' version of a game for me I'll not be doing anything with that side of it.

What has proved to be a strong motivator to gameplay is getting achievements. It's 'nice' to 'just' play and get the achi popup...... Sense of achievement for the achievement...... Aiming for some that are 'out of the way' also add to the mix. Others are too much work and not even aimed for.

The stats on achievements like in other games, have me pondering the playerbase.

Some are explainable. People love bunny rabbits so they aren't going to go out of their way find never mind kill, cook and eat one in game. There are plenty of other 'options' for that. 8.6% have had bunny, I get it.

Farming and breeding animals is a more 'specialist' activity, 17.2% have bred cows. I get it.

Visit 17 Biomes. 38%. Not everyone can visit everywhere... I get it. 

Stopping starvation with Rotten Flesh. Just like the bunnies but in reverse.7.9%. I get it(I only did it for the achievement).

I even get the 4.9% making charcoal and 6.1% crafting and using a flower pot. Not everyone is going to want those things.

What I don't get are some of these....

Make a crafting bench..55.9%. Who plays Minecraft and not make a workbench!

Make a cobble furnace... 46% ........................?

Made a wooden pickaxe... 54.5 % ........................? Really ?

Make a wooden sword... 52.5%  ........................?

Only 63% have punched a tree to get a wooden block....  that IS Minecraft.!!?!?!??!?

BUT 

Only 67% opened the inventory...............Sixty Seven Percent.................. What ?!?!?!?

Given the range of versions and modes I'm sure the stats are skewed. Playing Multiplayer only and/or creative mode. Still it's 'interesting' to see and mull/comprehend the stats.

My save on Xbox is a good lil'adventure. Yes I've been burned by lava, blown up by creepers, slapped about by Slenderman, speared by drowned, looted villages and gotten lost. Noting like the motivation of creating a new compass in the wilderness as motivation(and all the tools needed to do so). Survival mode at it's best. But getting back to home sweet home where things are plentiful and safe is always a good feeling......... Then gearing up for a new expedition.

Things have changed a bit since I captured these screenies but they give a good snapshot of my save..... 

A Netherbrick eternal flame.... That I use for waste disposal.....

Bit'o'farmin....

Decent all in one house....

House come animal shed at the back....

In retrospect, is it odd to have a potential bbq area next to the animals....

Horse and donkey stabled on the opposite side....

While I did craft a Golem he has since wandered off or been destroyed.....MIA

Fencing off a portal I created helps with 'interacting' with any Pigmen that wander through.

Behind that is an early build, observation platform. Nothing like a birds eye view to see whats about.

A ladder up and down is good but a trapdoor down to water is handier.

As for inside the house, all mod cons.... Nothing fancy but all practical. The only thing I need to try and get is a bit of an enchanting addition.

The blacksmiths table is hidden in the corner. A lot of things like that around.

Minecraft....

A lil'bit'o'minecraft here, a lil'bit'o'minecraft there and the next thing you know your so far away from known territory that you decide to become overlord of a small village.

Rocket propelled Elytra wings are a blessing and a curse. Either way they have a lot to answer for.

One trip to find more pig portals, sorry Ruined Portals; saw me landing on a mountain with a village at it's base. Loot and pillage awaited. They don't need crafting tables, furnaces, blast furnaces, hay-bales, wood or 36 lanterns...... Neither do I, but a trip needs plundered loot!

Long story short and plunder aside I took interest in a village building. I've seen plenty of it's kind in the past but I really liked this version in this location.

Going a stage further I wanted to know what it was made out of (white terracotta and oak everything else); And how it was put together. So some deconstruction was needed. Not only to see the reverse engineering design but to re-purpose the same blocks. Waste not want not.

What villager, I don't see any villager!

Doing my own take on the same design gave a building that was slightly taller, wider and longer than the original villager version. Fun to do and handy enough to put up that I created one for a bit of a home at the end of two long stretches of rail. Not the exact same build, there is not definitive plan or layout but interesting to see what developed from a 'kind of like' template-ish design.

I'm a sucker for some aesthetic details so chairs a table inside and out. Not practical but gives a better 'feel'.

The bottom house has this internal floor layout(not bad for a pitstop/layover):

Pondering....

.... Just Pondering.

Minecraft....

Yea after talking up that I'd try No Man's Sky again, it hasn't happened. It was a half hearted attempt at motivation. Minecraft most definitely has won out.

The main problem with having a long term save is that when new content is brought out I need to travel further and further to see it(noted).

So when bamboo was introduced I got to see it as I adventured. However when pandas were released I needed to travel further and see newer bamboo generated biome's to in turn see the Pandas spawn. Same has happened for Bee's.

This kind of a save is a blessing and a curse.

There's nothing more frustrating than blasting off into the unknown via cape and fireworks traveling faster and further ....... Only to land at a village to find it looted and recalling that you were indeed here before at some stage in the past; Left wondering how on earth did I get this far by boat before.

I used to enjoy really long sea voyages dropping torches on shorelines every now and again to give some sort of navigation route. While I usually go along a line via a compass in hand it's still easy to get turned around, go in circles and get lost in Minecraft. Adventure and exploration doesn't follow a compass line. Which can all be fine in itself, but then trying to get back to a safe 'HQ' with a haul of stuff, distractions are usually bad. These day's my bases of operation are large and linked by rail. I don't want for anything. Adventure is the main motivation. So more travel needs to be done for further and for longer to see new things.... Adventure awaits.

Once I find an area that's in the middle of new content I usually set up a mini home of sorts. Then start linking if back to my rail network as resources accumulate(Portals proved to dangerously inconsistent in this world for use as shortcuts). For the most part the effort has been worth it.

Speaking of new content and portals; the latest is both. Ruined portals.

I've ventured and discovered a good few, they are supposed to be rare enough but I've been tripping over them, cursed by the ones I've found being in so close a proximity to each other that they all lead to the same underworld portal. Somewhat annoying.

Minecraft is Minecraft, creativity and adventures. Adventures overground, underground and in the nether(pork filled or not). The new additions are worth checking out and add a lot to the game. The new armour and weapon look great. Stats wise they are on par with with diamond versions but with an added anti-knock-back stat. So better?!? .... yea kind of. Plus they've a great black knight look to them.

As for other in game shenanigans.... It's a great game to 'just' be in. It's a 'one more thing' kind of game you loose yourself in. Blink and it's been an hour or two(or three or four).

Some times there's a need to park a pig.

There's something in those trees....