Minecraft will enable you to hang out with some cool people from a galaxy far, far away thanks to its new Star Wars Sequel skin pack. This downloadable content is available now on the Minecraft Marketplace for 490 ($3) or platform specific stores like the Nintendo eShop. It is available now.
Microsoft worked with Disney and Luscafilm to produce this skin pack, which enables players to customize characters to look like the heroes and villains of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. You can play as old Han Solo, General Leia Organa, Poe Dameron, and even Supreme Leader Snoke. Every other major character from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi are also included in the bundle of cosmetics.
This skin pack is available for every device that runs an official version of Minecraft.
DLC is one of the biggest ways that Microsoft and Mojang are keeping Minecraft’s revenues up. This is especially important on Minecraft’s Bedrock platforms, which are devices like smartphones, Xbox One, and Windows 10 PCs that run a universal version of the game that all hook into the Minecraft Marketplace.
That in-game store features extra content from The Minecraft Team, but it also is the home of externally developed worlds, skin packs, and more from the community. The Minecraft Marketplace creators are earning a living selling virtual items and maps for the block-building game, and Microsoft gets a cut of those revenues.
By introducing something like new Star Wars-related skins, it could get more people into the Marketplace and spending money on content beyond stormtroopers and Benicio del Toro’s DJ.
Artificial intelligence doesn’t compare favorably to humans when it comes to problem solving. Ask any eight year old child to place a few blocks on a grid in Minecraft and they’ll almost certainly be bored by the task. A computer, on the other hand, doesn’t grasp such difficult concepts so easily.
Stephan Alaniz, a researcher with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Technische Universitat Berlin, yesterday published a white paper titled “Deep Reinforcement Learning with Model Learning and Monte Carlo Tree Search in Minecraft.” In his paper the scientist explains his efforts to create a superior method for training an AI to perform simple tasks based on visual input.
If we’re ever going to have robots that can live and work among humans seamlessly without damaging us or our property they’re going to have to understand how to interact with the environment using visual context. One of the most popular ways to train AI for this task is using video games with simple controls.
We can judge an AI’s effectiveness at completing specific tasks in a structured environment, like Minecraft, by comparing it to human efforts.
Watching the above video, it’s apparent that AI – even one that’s shown to be more effective than other agents trained to perform similar tasks – isn’t very good at doing simple things yet. But developing cutting-edge technology takes time — though advances in machine learning techniques are happening at a terrifying pace.
Future research will drive training times down, effectiveness up, and generate new ideas for algorithms that further blur the lines between artificial and human intelligence.
But for now, it’s interesting enough to watch an AI process hundreds of different moves as it tries to figure out a simple block placing challenge in Minecraft. It might be worth remembering, in the future, how simple these things were when they began learning.
Bandai Namco has released another trailer for Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, which shows off just a bit of the praise the game has received. The trailer showcases some of the scores and positive remarks reviewers have lavished upon it, supercut with some of the gorgeous fotage from the game.
Ni no Kuni II follows young Evan’s journey to reunite and reclaim his kingdom as well as the involvement of character Roland in the grand scheme of things. We’ve seen several different looks at combat, as well as other glimpses of the great-looking game thus far, but this trailer is all about trying to get you to want to embark on the journey with Evan, Roland, and company.
Our own Alex Gibson rated the game a 5/5:
“This second adventure has been worth the long wait in every respect, and I’m already salivating over the prospect of what the future holds for the series. Until then, though, I’m contented to remain at Evermore, immersing myself in the delight of building my very own Revenant Kingdom.”
If you’re interested in seeing what’s going on in the sprawling sequel to the Studio
We’ve known that CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher himself, Geralt of Rivia, is coming to Soulcalibur VI, for a while. But we haven’t really gotten a chance to see his moves in the fighting game broken down just yet. That’s all changing as of today, with a more in-depth look at things. CD Projekt RED’s Borys Pugacz-Muraszkiewicz took to a new video clip to show off Geralt’s moves, with a fighting style that shows off his “scalpel-like” moves in combat.
“Our role was making sure that Geralt in Soulcalibur VI moves, feels and plays like Geralt from The Witcher 3,” says Pugacz-Muraszkiewicz. “However since movement, timing, play-perspective and general responsiveness are very different in the fighting game, we had to go back to the drawing board and reinvent the way Geralt behaves in certain situations.”
Soulcalibur VI is coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC by way of Steam this year, including Geralt and your favorite characters from the series. There’s a lot to look forward to if you’ve been following the venerable fighting game since its inception. You can watch the Witcher himself in action in the clip below, along with additional insights into what makes him such a formidable opponent. Looking for a new main to go to when you delve into Soulcalibur when it launches? You may have just found him.
Funcom’s upcoming post-apocalyptic RPG Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is receiving a ton of attention. Judging by the recent gameplay trailer, that attention is well-deserved.
Exploration is the name of the game in Mutant Year Zero; according to the trailer, it will feature plenty of open areas for players to explore at their leisure. Players can snoop around, scour the game world for items to use or trade, complete missions, recruit new teammates, and fight all sorts of enemies. Moreover, as players explore the world, they will discover much-needed levity in just how detached the game’s post-apocalyptic world is from the modern one. Even though Mutant Year Zero is full of mutants and robots, characters believe a picture of a cartoonish moose portrays a demon and confuse a boombox for a literal bomb. It’s the kind of humor that’s tailor-made for post-apocalyptic RPGs and is extremely prevalent in games like Fallout.
Mutant Year Zero, while it seemingly will focus on an expansive world and narrative, will feature an equally-robust combat system. Stealth will play a vital role; if the player initiates combat from outside an enemy’s detection radius, he or she will have a chance to finish the battle before the enemy even knows what happened. That assumes, of course, players use stealth-oriented weapons such as silenced pistols and crossbows; noisy weapons like shotguns and grenades are almost guaranteed to draw unwanted attention. Moreover, before fighting enemies, players will be able to strategically position characters to effectively take out separated enemies and ambush the rest. In some cases, players can even turn an enemy’s superweapon against its would-be masters.
When Mutant Year Zero’s combat starts in earnest, it uses the same turn-based system as XCOM and Harebrained Scheme’s Shadowrun games. Players will be encouraged to fight tactically, seek cover whenever possible, and use special abilities to gain the upper hand. Some abilities, such as standing guard and firing on moving enemies, will be standard for this game genre, while others, namely mutations, are slightly more unorthodox. Yes, a game called “Mutant Year Zero” features mutations.
Each time a character levels up, he or she gains access to new mutations that can be swapped around while out of combat. Some need to be activated, such as stone-like skin that makes characters more resistant to damage, while others are passive, like being short to easily hide behind low cover. Moreover, players will be actively encouraged to change mutations, as some are more situational than others; bunkers with low ceiling will render wings useless, while robots will practically be begging to be targeted with the ability to disable electronics.
Weapons will also be a key feature in Mutant Year Zero. Players will be able to find them in the game world and upgrade them at their home base. Like abilities, weapon upgrades will contain a mix of standard and unconventional enhancements. Weapons can be improved to hit harder and more accurately, and they can also be upgraded with ammunition that lights enemies on fire or knocks them back.
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden’s gameplay trailer shows plenty of promise. Any gamer who has played Shadowrun Returns, Dragonfall, or Hong Kong will likely feel right at home. We at Twinfinite will continue to cover this game, which should release later this year.
