Favourite computer games of all time. [2]

{{{{ Wonder if it will be on pc this time!!! I am not shelling out for a console that's half the power of my pc just for 1 game }}}

So far it's been announced for PS4 and xbox one - no mention of PC in the announcement. Sorry

P.C elitist!

{{{{Damn right! First time in my life I've had a vaguely top end pc I'm going to bloody wallow in it all I can! }}}

Well... enjoy all those games.....

{{{Gaming is a fine diversion- and nice for the first time ever in my life to be able to just bung it all on ultra and not even have to think about frame rates- but mainly I needed the power for video editing, graphic design style stuff and other processor or graphic heavy applications }}}

Fair enough. I don't do anything processor heavy much any more so game choice is more important these days. Not that I play lots of different ones right now.

Anyone interested in seeing some of the world's in Destiny? Can get some game footage to show off some of the world design which is often pretty spectacular!

{{{Definitely Lance- Ive heard the landscapes and settings are pretty stunning in places}}

I hope they keep releasing more trailers and game info in the months before release as they did with the first game, really looking forward to this one

In other news: A Skyrim version of Monopoly has been announced, looks fun
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/official-skyrim-monopoly-set-coming-in-2017/1100-6444684/

{{{latest big Elite Dangerous update out today- The GuardiaNS-lots of new stuff, fighters you can launch fROm the main ship, geological activity on planet surfaces, fancy new space-stations and lots of other stuff promised besides   }}}

{{{{Been mucking about with Skyrim special edition and put together a little vid of my modded version (currently 121 mods active), it just footage from the opening section of the game up to going to Whiterun as thats as far as I've played. But none of the mods change the new lighting or weather which is basically what I put this together to showcase some of. Set to a nice cover of Age of oppression, the Storm cloak rebel song.
Anyhow, hope you enjoy it. }}}

{{Made a new vid now with over 150 mods attached! Similar locations and time to first one for comparison. And now including weather and lighting mods too. Given its only been a week since release the effort by the modding community to convert their work over to the new version has been admirable. I take my hat off to you lads and lassies. Sterling work there. }}}

{{Pretty pictures time- think visually at least got Skyrim just about where I want it....for now}}}}

Spoiler:

{{{{ Me playing Elite Dangerous Horizons- I'm out in deep space, well deepish- ok that's a relative term- what I mean is I am outside the bubble of known inhabited space- Ive basically left or neck of the galaxy and headed in the general direction of the centre of the Milky Way. But obviously given the size of space though I am far from civilised places (that humans know of at least!) I have yet to even cross the width of just our spiral arm of the Milky Way (or anything like it!).
I have also discovered that pioneering explorers of the future will rely on nebula- at least I do- as you can see them far away and you can zoom out relatively far on your scanners and map ect and they still show up being generally quite big, even the small ones. They are the landmarks of space, spacemarks if you will.
So in this vid exploring is what I am doing. (I make money off scanning systems, and if anywhere catches my eye, detailed surface scans from close up of planets and selling the info if I make it back!)

At the start you will see the red nebula out my ship window that I am aiming for, and it will show up a few more times in the background as I get closer to it until I eventually reach the only star inside of it (and then only just on the edge of the nebula, as its quite small as nebula go).

I also sight-see a bit along the way, as whats the point of going all the way out there exploring if you dont explore!

Things to note- I cut all all but the first jump between stars as they are all the same basically you are just jumping between systems. The landing on planets bits are sped up, sometimes quite dramatically, as obviously landing on a planet takes a few minutes or so depending on the planet. The music is the games ambient soundtrack.

On the game front note the physics if that's your thing! The hud directly ahead will display the distance to an object in light seconds, below that is the time it will take to get there at the current speed. Speed can be effected by proximity to large bodies- so for example in the shot where I fly by the ringed planet the speed notably drops despite no change to the ship thrust, as I get closer to the planet and increases again as I leave it behind and leave its gravity well.
You might also note the Milky Way is brighter, this is not just because I am in space and there is no atmosphere to obscure things, but also simply because I am closer to it than Earth is and not only is it therefore brighter its possible to make out thousands more individual stars.

And do please watch in HD if possible and full screen.

Lastly an observation- given all the possibilities offered by the Milky Way, our planet is in a very boring region of space to evolve in, visually speaking! }}}}

Far out! I like how cinematic some of the shots are. You should splice some of those into classic sci-fi films.

that um, "companion mod".... is she free friday night?

I like how cinematic some of the shots are.- Halfwise

{{There are some very stunning places to see out there- even in a mathematically modeled copy of the real thing (I just spent some time on a planet with rings- the view was stunning) It is out on mac too I believe.}}}





{{As for Sophia- the really worrying thing is you spend hours with her in game, and she is a rather engaging, humorous companion! }}}

Eldo's Minecraft Hogwarts (WIP 11-27-16)

https://imgur.com/a/TZn9B

Just took a few screenshots to showcase the now mostly complete exterior of the castle. Only a few portions have a finished interior. The basements/dungeons are also only partially excavated so far. I don't recall if I've posted any pictures of the interior of the Great Hall; that was the first part I did before I was sure if I'd try the rest of the castle.

Jesus H Christ Eldo. That's impressive!

How long has it taken?

Thanks Lance! I've been working on this on and off since late July. More off than on recently, but it's all started to blend together. This was my third attempt at building a Hogwarts model in Minecraft and the first one that got past the Great Hall. There's a lot more that I think would be cool to do but I dunno if or when I'll get around to it.

I've relied mainly on the scale model from the WB Studio Tour for guidance, as well as a purportedly official blueprint of the castle that I found online (not showing details of the interior, but mostly consistent with the model), but there are lots of inconsistencies between the films and it's not always clear where or how interior sets are supposed to fit into the castle. I've taken some cues from the books to fill in the gaps but I've tried to stick with the film version for the most part since that's more recognizable and (relatively) well-defined.

Cripes! Is there any interior work done? Floors and stairs and all that?

That's still very much a work in progress for most of the castle. I've recently finished the fairly tedious process of replacing all the grass blocks on the ground level with stone, sealing off the rafters in most of the castle, adding windows and torches along the walls at regular intervals, and delineating where all the floor divisions will be. However, there are only a few portions of the castle where the interior could really be called finished.



Entrance Hall, including the steps that Hermione walks down before the Yule Ball in Goblet of Fire (that scene was one of my main references for the Hall, along with the Educational Decrees montage in Order of the Phoenix and a brief shot of Draco when he sees Katie Bell is back in Half-Blood Prince). I'm probably going to put the House hourglasses in here, even though they're in the Great Hall in at least some of the movies, since they're gonna have to be bulky and somewhat unseemly. due to the nature of Minecraft blocks. This is one of the few areas where I didn't add a flat ceiling beneath the roof since it's depicted as a very high room.





Views of the Great Hall from the House tables and from Dumbledore's seat. Decked out in Ravenclaw colors for personal reasons. In the films there's this really complex timber roof structure based on medieval churches, but it sort of fades into translucency the further up it goes, so that you can see the enchanted sky. I knew early on that I wanted a glass roof to mimic this effect, but I decided to include the lowermost opaque level of the roof timbers (or my simplified version of it anyway) as well. I think the effect at night is really nice.



Torches in Minecraft have to be attached to another block, so originally I had these (representing the floating candles) on fenceposts, but that made it harder to see through them to the sky above. Baingil clued me in to the existence of invisible blocks, and while I had to temporarily turn off the WorldEdit mod to use them (meaning no copy and paste) I think it made a significant difference.



The basements are located beneath this part of the castle, though there isn't that much too them. There are two stairwells leading to it, one straight ahead in this image and one behind where I was standing. To the left in this image leads to the Hufflepuff common room (though I haven't built much of it yet) and to the right is the kitchens.



Fortunately I don't think any bats ended up in the frame for this screenshot. Similar to my Needlehole Stadium build, they started spawning before I added sufficient lighting to the kitchen. This room is the same size as the great hall above and the four tables are positioned exactly beneath the House tables, as per the book's description (Goblet of Fire IIRC).

There are a few other areas that are more unfinished but but further along than most of the castle.



Ravenclaw common room.



Hospital wing.

The gatehouse isn't based on anything other than the studio model, but it was more of a pain to built than most of the castle since it's on an angle. That said, I thought it turned out quite well.



You can see the stairwells leading to the lower levels of the gatehouse here.



This room is directly over the road as it passes beneath; the trap doors are murder holes.

This is really cool, Eldo - I expect to see the "Minecraft Illustrated" edition of the books in time for next Christmas