So you’re thinking about getting a brand new Xbox One S console? If you’re a Minecraft player, we think you’ll be happy to meet the Xbox One S Minecraft Favorites Bundle. It has all you need to build, survive and explore with the latest Xbox hardware. We’ve included over 230 character skins, 3 texture packs and 7 Mash-up packs alongside the Minecraft: Xbox One Edition game so you can let your survival and creative skills run wild. If you play Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition, this is the perfect bundle to make the upgrade to Xbox One S. You can transfer your existing Xbox 360 worlds over to the Xbox One Edition, and enjoy building new ones that are up to 16 times bigger.
What exactly is inside this colorful and lively box you ask? The Xbox One S Minecraft Favorites Bundle includes:
Xbox One S console (500 GB) with built-in 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player, and 4K video streaming plus HDR for video and gaming – so you can experience richer, more luminous colors
New Xbox One S wireless controller with expanded range and Bluetooth support for Windows 10 PCs
Minecraft: Xbox One Edition download code, with enhanced performance and 16X bigger worlds compared to the Xbox 360 Edition
Minecraft: Xbox One Edition Favorites Pack download code, which features the Festive Mash-up Pack, Halo Mash-up, Fantasy Texture Pack, Natural Texture Pack, City Texture Pack, Battle & Beasts Skin Pack and Battle & Beasts 2 Skin Pack
Minecraft: Xbox One Edition Builder’s Pack download code, which includes Biome Settlers Skin Pack, Cartoon Texture Pack, Candy Texture Pack, Plastic Texture Pack, Pattern Texture Pack and the Greek Mythology Mash-up
Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta download code
14 day Xbox Live Gold trial membership
The bundle is available now at participating retailers in the United States and Canada, including Microsoft Stores and microsoftstore.com, for $299.99 USD or local equivalent, with the following markets becoming available shortly thereafter:
October 11, 2016: United Kingdom, Western Europe & Central Europe
November 1, 2016: Australia & New Zealand
Coming Soon: Asia & Latin America
Whether you’re crafting weapons to fend off dangerous mobs or placing blocks to build the grandest of castles, we’re looking forward to offering you an outstanding experience on Xbox
‘It is ‘Train to Busan’s’ preoccupation with morally complex characters that makes it enduring despite its narrative being contained within very confined spaces,’ writes Oggs Cruz
In Yeon Sang-ho’s Train to Busan, the titular mass transport vehicle serves as an apt and very literary setting for an exhilarating morality tale that pits humanity’s fragile virtues and delicate principles with a ferocious catastrophe.
Zombie infestation
The catastrophe here is a zombie infestation, one that has spread throughout Korea with disarming swiftness, crippling almost all of the country’s infrastructure, except for the train that fortuitously left the station at the right time, except that one infected straggler managed to stowaway.
Screengrab from YouTube/Zero Media
What starts out for workaholic fund manager Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) as an innocent trip to visit his ex-wife as a birthday gift for his daughter Soo-an (Kim Soo-an) turns out to be a struggle for survival when the zombies inside the train start multiplying, and the survivors start dwindling, becoming more and more desperate and vicious against each other. Along with the father and daughter duo is a collection of other passengers, all of whom also represent an entire spectrum of ethical competencies.
It is Train to Busan’s preoccupation with morally complex characters that makes it enduring despite its narrative being contained within very confined spaces.
Screengrab from YouTube/Zero Media
Yeon’s action set-ups are all thrilling, most especially the ones in the middle where the main characters are forced to get past several compartments to rescue their loved ones. However, the interactions among the characters, resulting from the diminishing of the chances for survival, raise the stakes even further, adding fuel to the immense emotions that are already part and parcel of the survival tale that relies so instinctively on very critical decisions.
Streamlined storytelling
Screengrab from YouTube/Zero Media
It is enough that the audience knows that the big and burly fighter (Ma Dong-seok) is an expectant father and that his wife (Jung Yu-mi) is dependent on his protection, that a high school athlete (Choi woo-shik) is also secretly in love with his number one fan (Ahh So-hee), that the two elderly sisters are differentiated by their capacity for kindness, and that a corporate official is unscrupulous when it is his life, which he deems more important than the rest, that is on the line.
Yeon doesn’t waste time peppering characters with unnecessary details.
Screengrab from YouTube/Zero Media
In fact, he introduces most of the characters in one judiciously plotted sequence that reveals enough just so that their respective fates in the midst of all the immediate danger become worth the time, stress and effort. As the movie speeds through all of its brilliantly designed perils, the characters develop personalities that are worth more than idle dialogue.
It is this very essential simplicity that turns Train to Busan into such a feat of streamlined storytelling, with character development going hand in hand with the ingeniously engineered succession of increased tension and urgency.
Championing hope
Even with all the cleverly trimmed characterizations, Train to Busan doesn’t lack the requisite heart to sustain interest despite the gritty showcase of humanity at its most ruthless and self-serving. The film is as much invested in humanity’s potential for kindness, compassion and devotion as it is in its capacity to abandon all forms of decency all in the name of survival.
Screengrab from YouTube/Zero Media
As it turns out, the film champions hope, with its ending focusing on the final and most crucial test on humanity that has seen itself both at its worst and its best during that eventful train ride to Busan. At the end of the day, it is love, expressed through the saddest of songs, that will separate us from all the world’s monsters. – Rappler.com
Lego “Minecraft” Skin Packs have been released coming with four complete minifigs that are reportedly skinned from head to toe. Additionally, Lego included accessories for each Skin Packs such as shovels, picks, swords, axes and bows.
Lego “Minecraft” Skin Packs also come with regular minifigs which can be reassembled by players as they please. The said minifigs are said to be lightly fused unlike Lego magnets which are reportedly frustratingly joined together.
Lego’s official online shop lists the Lego “Minecraft” Skin Packs on sale, but they can also be found in some brick-and-mortar stores soon. The Skin Packs sell at $14.99 each, which seem to be the cheapest price for a handful of “Minecraft” minifigs.
Meanwhile, apart from Lego “Minecraft” new Skin Packs, “Minecraft” on consoles just recently received a new update called content update 32 for the Xbox One and patch 1.35 for the PS4. The said “Minecraft” patch are focused on the new Battle Mode with a feature that ramps up the multiplayer component of the game. However, the game’s survival mode did not receive a refresh.
The last few patches of “Minecraft’s” Battle Mode that debuted this summer have also added new features and fixed bugs for the new mode. However, console developer 4J Studios has not done improvements and updates on the Survival Mode ever since Battle Mode launched in June. It has been established that the console version has always been delayed when it comes to update compared to its PC version.
The current delay is actually less than the previous update delays that brought huge changes to the game including ocean monuments for Mine “Minecraft” craft on consoles. In the meantime, reports claimed that 4J Studio is currently working on cool new features to be integrated to the game.
Lego “Minecraft” Skin Packs may not be the last Skin Packs to be released as “Minecraft” and Lego have proven to be a perfect match. This could mean that the franchise may probably add more Skin Packs in the future. Watch New LEGO “Minecraft” Skin Pack 1 & 2 plus DC here:
Your Lego Steve and Alex minifigs are great, but you’re pretty limited when it comes to faithful Lego clothing options. Fortunately the new Minecraft Skin Packs have arrived to address that little problem.
Sure, you could easily just pop Steve’s head onto one of the numerous extra torsos you have laying around, but that wouldn’t look very Minecraft-y, would it? There’s just too much non-pixelated printing on most minifigs… though Steve could probably get away with slipping on the video gamer’s or DJ’s t-shirts.
Now, though, Lego’s got some authentic options for you. They’ve put together a pair of skin packs, and they’re pretty much the minifig equivalent of the ones you’ve been buying for your digital Minecraft characters for years.
Each Lego Minecraft Skin Pack comes with four complete(ly pixelated) minifigs. They’re skinned head to toe, and Lego throws in an accessory for each, including shovels, picks, swords, axes, and bows. These are regular minifigs, too, so you’re free to take them apart and reassemble them as you please. They aren’t frustratingly fused like Lego’s magnets are.
The Skin Packs are on sale over on Lego’s official online shop, and you’ll probably be able to find them at your favorite brick(no pun intended)-and-mortar stores soon, too. They go for $14.99 each, which makes them the cheapest way you can pick up a handful of Minecraft minifigs to add to your collection by five bucks.
Minecraft and Lego have proved to be a perfect fit, so you can probably count on additional skin packs launching in the future. You know, until the franchise stops printing money.
Minecraft on consoles just got a new update, called content update 32 on Xbox One and patch 1.35 on PS4. Like the last few updates, the new Minecraft patch focuses solely on the new Battle Mode, an admittedly cool feature that ramps up the game’s multiplayer component. But also like the last few updates, it leaves survival mode basically untouched. We still haven’t gotten any of the new stuff from the Combat Update that came to PC in the first quarter. The wait goes on.
Minecraft: Console EditionPhoto: Microsoft
Battle Mode debuted on the consoles this summer and the last few patches have entirely focused on adding new features and fixing bugs for the new mode. Here’s the PS4 changelog, which is almost identical on the other platforms:
Change log for Patch 1.35 – September 9th 2016
Remove vote-to-kick function in Mini Games. The host can kick players only in the Lobby.
Disable small, floating and oddly shaped skins in public Tumble games.
Fix for Battle mini game showdown playing Tumble mini game showdown sound.
Fixed a bug where last player to die in Tumble would get stuck respawning.
Fix for being able to unlock Hunger Pain achievement by killing yourself while starving.
Fix for crash if a client wins the match and then quits the game.
Ever since Battle mode launched in late June, console developer 4J Studios hasn’t done much with Survival Mode, even though the PC version keeps trucking ahead with cool new features. Battle has definitely been the focus.
And, truth is, that’s okay. The console version has always lagged a good bit behind the PC version and the current delay is far less than we had for the update that changed the world and ocean monuments coming to consoles. And in the meantime, 4J Studio is actually developing cool new features we wouldn’t have otherwise.
We’ll get the Combat Update on consoles eventually. We just have to be patient, and in the meantime enjoy Battle mode. Multiplayer, competitive Minecraft on consoles! Hard to argue too much with that.
Totoro was a brilliant 1988 anime film created by Studio Ghibli and is a charming coming of age tale. Dealing with a family that has recently moved to the Japanese countryside, they encounter somewhat mystical and entirely benevolent creatures. There’s also a giant catbus, so there’s also that to consider.
The movie was also both a critical and commercial hit and the titular character of Totoro now adorns Studio Ghibli’s cinematic titles as a consequence.
Considering the nature of the movie, Totoro hasn’t had much in the way of video game game adaptations over the years. Minecraft then just feels like a wonderful fit for this, as it is ideally suited for a more sandbox feel and just allows you to wander around a world and explore it at your own leisure.
This recreation is also part of a much bigger fan based project called Ghibli World undertaken by Alan Becker and friends, which also features other recreations from equally famous Studio Ghibli films within Minecraft.
The trailer for this new Totoro recreation (shown below) displays how much effort has gone into this endeavor, as it’s clear that the Minecraft version of the world is surprisingly close to the film’s. Right down to Totoro waiting at the bus stop (shown above).
The more observant of you will also notice that this recreation is not using the standard Minecraft texture pack, instead it is using Sonic Ether’s Unbelievable Shaders and they do do rather lovely job too.
If you are at all interested in seeing the world of Totoro in Minecraft for yourself then the server address is “mc.sourceblockmc.com”.
