Brick Labs

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William from GoRobotics is offering a contest. You need to post a comment, follow a couple of Twitter users, and then retweet a tweet.

For each of those, you get entered into a drawing to win some cool prizes. Each prize includes a book (courtesy of No Starch Press). Other great prizes provided by: SolarBotics, Pololu, Super Droid Robots, and Zagros Robotics.

GoRobotics Giveaway Contest

And, if you are interested in following me on Twitter, you can find me here: http://twitter.com/edburdo

I think they are still having Beta pains. Pretty laggy today. Got booted out once, and having troubles getting back in now.

Also, Universe doesn’t tolerate dual-screen very well. My 2nd screen displays whatever Windows is doing, but it’s easy to move the mouse outside the Universe window… and then a click causes the game to lose focus, which doesn’t halt the gameplay (for obvious MMO type reasons).

Also, here is a list of all the LEGO Universe postings I’ve done… http://brick-labs.com/tag/lego-universe/

UPDATE: Still can’t get in. Not sure if it’s me, or everyone. I hung while loading a zone, and now can’t get past the “submitting username” screen.

Also, if you want to post something on Twitter, use: #LEGOUniverse

OK, the private beta went out yesterday. The first beta period ended at 9 PM EST. Next game period is on Saturday, and then again on Sunday. Both the weekend times don’t work for me, so it will probably be a bit before I can play again (next Thursday I believe).

First Impressions:

1) Nice graphics. Reminds me of the other LEGO games (Indiana Jones, Star Wars, etc), but not quite as much detail in the landscape. However, that’s common of some MMOs.

2) Game Play – Decent. Seems to us fairly standard controls (WASD keys, right-click mouse to look around, etc).

3) Content – Hard to say, since I’ve only played a grand total of 1:42 minutes. But for the starting area, it’s nice. You start learning how things work pretty quick.

All in all… I liked it. There are some things that could be done better. Some sort of Quest journal, and quest beacons would be nice. So I can locate whoever I need to talk to. Ability to run around a bit faster… character seemed to move too slow for my tastes.

And a better chat system. You get almost the entire UI for the screen, but the chat box is in the lower right, it’s opaque, and to me, seemed a bit clunky. It was also hard to tell in the chat window what was “System” messages, and what was other players.

I just got my invite. WOOHOO!!!

Anyone else get in?

Fay Rhodes has done some excellent work with both her books regarding building LEGO NXT Animals.
The first book, is the Zoo Book. You can buy it at Amazon.

Here is a Rabbit from the Zoo Book:

Next up, is another book from Fay Rhodes. Robots Alive! Endangered Species

Here is a frog from the Endangered Species book:

Both books are great. They are all built from LEGO NXT kits, with some extra parts. You can see the Endangered Species parts list (pdf download), and the Zoo Book parts list to see what other pieces you need.

OK. It’s Christmas time… and that means… time for making a list right?

I have two Christmas requests this year.

1) An Amazon Kindle DX.

2) Amazon Gift Certificates. Any amount… $5 is great…

3) A LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 (8547) (ok, so I can’t count)

So… what’s on YOUR wishlist?