Yesterday we got the house started, so today – I figured we could go ahead and put a roof on it.  It might be a little stereotypical to put in a skylight (seems like everybody does it).  However, I jump on the band wagon and do the same. Let me know your thoughts on how the house is shaping up and remember to subscribe on YouTube if you want to see more Minecraft shenanigans from me!

Yes, more Minecraft wallpaper!  I kind of wish the game would allow you to live on a planet like this – it reminds me of a mix of Minecraft and Super Mario Galaxy as a mater of fact. 

This Minecraft World wallpaper can be download over at wallchan.com.

You start the game off with your axe and pick, and you’ll need to chop away at the trees or the earth to create your first little home.  As you explore, you will find more items you can craft with – mix together and make new objects with.  You can then keep digging deep under ground and find elaborate dungeons, and enormous bosses.

Check out the Terraira trailer here:

To wrap things up, I think Terraria does a great job at doing some of the same things Minecraft does – but in it’s own unique way. Calling it a Minecraft clone or a 2D Minecraft does not do it justice as the game has much more going on for it past the mining and digging.  I am excited to see how the game will develop more in the future, and wish the creators the best of luck with it.

Want to give it a shot? Head over to Terraria.org!

The 3DS System Itself

The first thing you’ll notice, if you have had one of the other variations of the DS systems before is this one is a little ‘bit heavy in comparison.  It is nothing mind-blowing or anything, but it is a little noticeable.  I also keep wanting to pull the stylus out of the side, even though now it has been relocated to the back of the 3DS.  The buttons and controls feel really solid, not cheap at all.  Some people have said that the fact that it is a little ‘bit bigger than the regular DS Lite is an issue, but for me it wasn’t really noticeable.

The 3DS System Software Basics

Playing around with some of the basic applications and the system itself was almost as much fun as playing the games.  I am sure eventually the novelty of running around the house taking 3D pictures of things might wear off, but right now it’s just really cool.  I’ve also thought about using the 3DS as my defacto MP3 player too.  It does have all the functionality there – but not sure yet if I want to carry it in my pocket with me everywhere I go.  Right now it is more of a really expensive baby I am taking really good care of.

Here is a quick rundown of the built-in software:

• Nintendo 3DS Camera  – Not a replacement for your expensive digital camera, but it is fun to take both 2D an 3D pictures.  There are also a lot of interesting photo effects you an add too.
• Nintendo 3DS Sound – Your standard sound recorder and player.  Comes with a few audio effects you can add too – just in case you wanted to listen to yourself in a tunnel while talking into an electric fan.
• Mii Maker – Creating a Mii from your photo is really the draw with this application.  You also have a few more items to choose from in comparison to the Wii Miis, however facial hair is still rather wonky looking.
• AR Games – A great example of what the 3DS is really capable of.  I haven’t gotten around to playing with all the cards and features, but this one is great to use when you want to show the 3DS off to a friend.
• Face Raiders – I thought this would be stupid and I was surprised by how fun it was.  You pretty much turn around with the 3DS, shooting flying faces you input into the game.
• Activity Log – Here you can check to see how long you have played each game and some other interesting stats.  I really haven’t played with the 3DS long enough to get much to show up here.

I am sure over the next few days and weeks I’ll have more to say about the 3DS, as I get a chance to play with it longer.  Overall, I can sum up the experience like this.  It was the same sort of wow factor I had when I played the Wii for the first time.  You are kind of in awe of the technology – and then realize, they the games are pretty fun too.

Want to take a look at what HTML5 can do? Not only is it able to give us slicker user interfaces and more tools when it comes to setting up websites, it can also be used to develop really awesome Tetris clones.  Ok, Torus might be a little ‘bit more than your average Tetris clone because it sports a nifty 3D interface.

You use your left, right, up and down keys to spin the blocks around the ring the Tetris blocks are on.  The goal is to make a complete ring of blocks (all the way around) to clear them out.  Well, I don’t really need to explain how to play Tetris to you, do I? Just think of it as a game of Tetris where you are building a cup – rather than just filling up a big wall. 

Go check out and play Torus for yourself.  You will need Firefox 4, or another HTML5 capable browser installed before you can play it – but if you do it is well worth wasting some time on.

Minecraft, simply put, is a game where you go around building things for fun. If you want to go out and build a 400 foot monument to yourself, go for it.  If you want to go dig a house out of a mountain, you can do that too.  From what I have seen there really is no right or wrong way to play the game. You pretty much sit down, figure out your goal and do it.

At the core of the game, you gather resources to make things.  For example, when you start out – you can go punch a tree down.  Yes, this is as awesome as it sounds. You can then gather the pieces of wood to craft something else. You might make a crafting table, so then you can create a pick axe.  With the pick axe, you can start mining for coal to make your torches.  Then you can build a shovel to dig faster in the dirt.  Before you know it, you will have an entire fort built for yourself with animals randomly spawning in your second floor (as you can see from the picture above). 

You can download this amazing little game and play it again and again for only about $20 or so (technically, If you pre-purchase now during beta, you pay  €14.95!)  My entire Sunday was lost in Minecraft and I am sure more productivity will go down the drain soon.  How else will I finish my 200 foot tall stone badger monument?

Here are my favorite wallpapers from the past year.  My hope is that you might browse through these awesome digital creations and find one that you might want to switch to today.

Mortal Kombat HD Wallpaper Going Green (Lantern) Wallpaper Distraction Free Christmas Wallpaper More Mario Wallpaper Amazing Train Wallpaper Old Wooden Wallpaper Castle Crasher 3D Wallpaper Portal on Your Desktop Space Invaders HD Wallpaper Old School Atari Wallpaper 9 Favorite Mega Man Wallpapers

Ghostbusters Wallpaper More NES Box Art Wallpaper NES Box Art Wallpaper – Take 2 NES Box Art Wallpaper Bring Ms Pac Man to Your Desktop 8-Bit Mashup Wallpaper Wallpapers Organize Desktop Icon Clutter Deviant 1920 x 1200 Wallpaper Super Wallpaper (for Any Man) I’m Batman (the Wallpaper) 3 More Masterful Zelda Wallpapers Zelda’s Master Sword Wallpaper

Hope you enjoyed all of these great digital downloads.  If you have found or created an amazing wallpaper you would like to see me feature on Mitchelaneous.com, be sure to drop me a message and let me know.

8-Bit Mashup Wallpaper

So a black mage, Mario, Kirby and Mega Man walk into a bar (and stop me if you have heard this one) and happen to make some really cool wallpaper in world 1-1 of Super Mario Bros. OK, maybe I need to work on the punch line but while we are talking about great wallpaper, I wanted to share this with you.

Super Wallpaper (for Any Man)

How could I share Batman wallpaper with you, without tossing in some Superman wallpaper into the mix too?  Filed under a random Google image search, this background is actually pretty nice in comparison with some of the dull Superman backgrounds you can find out there.  Worthy of any super desktop, no matter if you are from Earth or Krypton.

Over 70 Fun Instant Sound Effects

The instant sound effect web sites are always fun, but I think Instants took it to a whole new level.  This web site has over 70 sound effect buttons you can play with to annoy your coworkers or keep handy for a special occasion.

Wallpapers Organize Desktop Icon Clutter

Looking for a very simple way to organize your mess of icons on your desktop?  Look no further than this very slick and simple wallpaper I ran across a few weeks ago.

Find the Perfect User Name

Need an easier way to find the perfect user name?  When looking for a user name, you want one that has not been taken before, and is available via all the popular social networks – and maybe even as a domain name.  If you are in search of a helping hand in your search, NameChecklist is the place to check first.

20 Best Multimedia Plugins for WordPress

WordPress is a great publishing platform to use when you want to circulate your own collection of video or images on the Web.  Thanks to a few great plugins, you can take your dull text-based blog and really snaz it up with some great internet imagery.  Want to great a photo gallery?  Want to plug YouTube into your web site?  I have collected twenty of the best multimedia plugins for you to use with your own WordPress powered web site.

3 Best WordPress Cheat Sheets

Working with WordPress is almost like learning a new language.  Not only do you need to learn some of the basic fundamentals of PHP, but you also need to learn what WordPress tags go where, and what they do. Since nobody has the time to do that these days, I thought it would be about time to break out my WordPress cheat sheet collection.

3 More Masterful Zelda Wallpapers

The search continues for some of the best Legend of Zelda wallpapers out there on the Web.  Having shared two with you already, I figured I would bundle these three find together and share them with you too.

Fat Princess: Fat Roles DLC Review

Ready to battle as giants, ninjas and pirates?  The PlayStation Network game Fat Princess finally got its first slice of downloadable content, and I do have to say it has made the game a whole lot more fun.   Fat Princess: Fat Roles is out and is a lot of fun.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Fat Princess

I have spent a lot of my free time the last few months playing Fat Princess, a PlayStation Network game for the PlayStation 3.  Over time, you come to lean a few things you should do – and a few things you probably shouldn’t do, to keep the experience enjoyable.

Hope you enjoyed this list and you keep enjoying Mitchelaneous throughout 2010, 2011 and beyond! Thank you for your support!

While looking for more group-based games for the Wii, I stumbled upon Wii Party.  As long as you don’t set your expectations too high – this is a great group-based game for the Wii.  Like the Mario Party games before it, it is meant to be played with a large group of people rather than by yourself, and will take you through several types of games to play – with a few mini games thrown in for good measure.

Now, you can play this game by yourself – and it does have a few modes that support solo player mode.  However, playing against the computer just is not nearly as fun as playing with a friend. 

With over 80 mini games and several different game modes – you are sure to find some games that are your favorites and some you consider to be duds.  Thus far, my favorite of the different game modes has to be Spot the Sneak – where one player secretly gets an advantage over the other players in a series of mini games.  Then after each round, everybody has to try to guess who the "sneak" was. 

Wii Party is a great game to pull out and play this upcoming holiday weekend.  It is simple enough for everybody in the family to play, and as long as you keep in mind it is a simple party game and nothing more, you will have a great time playing it.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow didn’t have to work too hard to beat the last free roaming 3D Castlevania adventure I remember, Castlevania 64.  This most recent reboot of the Castlevania series far surpasses that mess, and actually delivers a really awesome game.  Now, some Castlevania traditionalist might miss the old look and feel of the other Castlevania games, but I like the fact they are trying a different approach.

Konami has not totally abandoned the heart and soul of Castlevania though – because you still have plenty of vampires, werewolves and other things that bump in the night.  The game is Gabriel Belmont who is a knight in the Brotherhood of Light.  This was the second big winning factor for me that they actually had somebody with the last name Belmont in the game – and he’s a great action character.  Unlike some of the other Castlevania protagonists, he doesn’t look like a Japanese school girl.

As you progress, you can upgrade your attacks and combos.  The game’s puzzles are also tricky, but not so difficult you want to throw the controller through the TV.

Overall, if you are looking for a great game and you are a fan of Castlevania, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is well worth checking into.  It looks great, plays great and has voice overs from Patrick Stewart.  What more could you ask for?