Minecraft: Legos for Adults!

Now, I normally don't like to advertise for a product, even if I use/play it, but I feel this game is necessary for everyone to play at least once.

The game is called Minecraft, and right as this post is being written it is in the beta stage of the game.  You may own this game for a nominal fee, and let your imagination run free.  Honestly, most of my time on the computer is split up between playing this game, trolling Facebook and playing World of Warcraft.  (To be fair, I don't think WoW needs an endorsement from me.  If you want to play it, go give Blizzard your money.  I'm not going to give the hard sell for that addiction.)

Minecraft is a very innovative game due to its lack of a formal structure.  Really: this game has no goal in mind.  A random world of blocks (it's massive, from what I remember reading about) is made in a few seconds, and one can punch down a couple of trees and start building tools.  A monolith of obsidian blocks can be erected later on if it suits one's science fiction fancy.  There's exploration! There's mining!  There's crafting!  There's explosions!  All are in this wonderfully campy and original game.

By day, all of these activities are great and all.  But build some sort of shelter quick-like.  You must prepare for nightfall!  That's when creatures with no purpose but to murder you come out!  Specifically, watch out for creepers.  Nothing in this game has inspired ire and fear much like this hissing suicide bomber.  You've been warned.  Spiders and skeletons are annoying, but the very unhappy green shambling mounds are the worst scare anyone can have in these randomly generated worlds.

Now, all this aside, the game has quite a few fun and clever twists when building is involved.  Minecraft is so vast in creativity, there have been people who have created 16 bit ALUs and various other structures that mimic real life objects.  Since I have met my quota for links in my blog, whoever wants to can do some research into those incredible time sinks.  I myself am a fan of making floating towers, but that's just me.  I have created a whole complex in the sky for renewable resources and the delivery system to the ground is in development.

This game gets my stamp of approval, mainly because you can do anything you want in this blocky universe.  It's a callback to when Legos did the same thing for me.  Nostalgia is a wonderful thing, and Minecraft does that for me.