Five Reasons to Download Minecraft

Minecraft. Maybe you’ve heard of it? If you have and relish it as I do, I salute you.

If you haven’t or maybe you’re just wondering what all the buzz is about, I’m hoping this little post will shed some light on what’s possibly the biggest indie success of all time.

Before I get started, I’ll cover just a little bit about what Minecraft is.

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When to Buy a Used Xbox

Several of the most popular posts on this site deals with correcting various problems gamers encounter with their Xbox. If you’re handy, you may have fixed your Xbox yourself (that’s great!), but many people would rather not deal with the hassle. Of course, that’s not the only reason why you’d be in the market for an Xbox, so let’s take a look at why you may want to consider buying a used Xbox.

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What to do with your Broken Xbox 360

Over the past few months I’ve written about my Xbox 360. I first wrote about how the Unreadable Disc Error popped up, and later how I fixed the error on my 360. It was a long, frustrating road. However, since I spent I lot of time with my Xbox while it wasn’t working at 100% capacity, I learned to enjoy it in many other ways.

I know we all love to hate Microsoft, but there really are many different ways to enjoy your Xbox 360. Of course, the most obvious way is to play those wonderful, $60 discs of gaming joy. But there’s so much more you can do, even with a busted DVD drive.

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How to Fix the Unreadable Disc Error – Xbox 360

A few months ago, I wrote about my disgust with Microsoft because of an unreadable disc error on my Xbox 360. The error, I discovered, was due to a busted DVD drive. Microsoft wanted $100 to repair my Xbox, and I came really close to just paying the fee and sending it in. Guys, I’m really glad I decided to take a look at it myself. The repair was so simple that I had my Xbox up and running in about thirty minutes.

There are tons of really good tutorials and videos on the web that explain how to disassemble your Xbox, so I’m not going to break things down to that level. It’s my hope that approaching the problem from a broad overview will remove some of the fear and uncertainty that surrounds cracking your Xbox 360 open. If you’re not yet ready to repair your DVD drive, check out the different ways you can use your broken Xbox 360. Read more

Child’s Play 2008

Child’s Play is a charity started up by Penny Arcade and powered by gamers. It has been raising money and collecting toys for hospitals around the world since 2003. The charity accepts donations year round, but rolls out a toy drive only during the months of November and December.

Since November is here and the Child’s Play site is being updated with information and a new toy drive, I’d like to help by trying to get the word out. Read more

Nintendo Doesn’t Care if You Hack and Cheat

You might have noticed that I was frustrated to find how much hacking and cheating is going on in Nintendo Wii games, particularly, Mario Kart Wii. Well, I decided to send an email to Nintendo to see what kind of response I would get.

I’ll admit that I wrote a somewhat angry email to Nintendo. But, Nintendo responded to my complaint in a timely manner. I suspect that their response was somewhat canned, but that only makes it worse. If this is a canned answer, this is how Nintendo really feels about people hacking their games and ruining other people’s online experience. Read more

Mario Kart Wii – Cheating, Hacks, and Disappointment

I’ve been a huge Nintendo fan for nearly 20 years. I’ve owned every Nintendo console and countless games. So, you shouldn’t be surprised that I (finally) picked up Mario Kart Wii. I even picked up an extra wheel for my wife and the occasional friend to play along.

I played for most of the night of my purchase. The next day, a friend came over and we ended up playing for a solid two hours. It wasn’t until we gave the online play a go that we started to see something funny going on with the game. Read more

Unreadable Disc Error – Xbox 360 DVD Drive

Last Wednesday, I decided I would play some GTA IV before the wife got home. So turned on the Xbox, popped in the disc, and got to it. About 20 minutes into my session, I began to hear a horrible noise coming from the DVD drive. After a few seconds of growling, a Xbox blade came across the screen saying the disc was unreadable.

Cursing under my breath, I got up from the couch to give the Xbox and game a close look. Of course, the disc was fine. I put in another game just to be sure, and got the “unreadable disc” error once again. I inserted a movie we had watched over the weekend. No dice. Read more