Microsoft, Minecraft, and Libations – Live Stream and Giveaway!

Microsoft, Minecraft, and Libations – Live Stream and Giveaway!

Tonight we’re kicking off our official premiere of Microsoft, Minecraft, and Libations, our new show where we sit back, talk about Microsoft while playing Minecraft, and, well, having a few drinks!

If you missed our earlier announcement for the full context you can find that here to learn more about the format and plans.

For now, all you need to do is watch the live stream above or head to our Beam channel at Beam.pro/windowscentral where you can jump in on the live chat.

We’ll occasionally field some questions from the audience, so it’s best to sign up for Beam. Plus, doing so will help enter you in our contest to win an exclusive Windows Central Xbox One controller made by Controller Chaos and designed by @GeordieTommy_.

You can find the rest of the contest entry tasks below:

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

For those curious, we’re aiming for a 90-minute air time, but honestly, we have no idea how long it will go. So grab a drink and join in on the fun to find out!

Microsoft, Minecraft, and Libations – Live Stream and Giveaway!

‘Minecraft’ Latest News & Update: ‘Minecraft’ Update 1.33 Is Now Available For PS4, PS3 and PS Vita

‘Minecraft’ Latest News & Update: ‘Minecraft’ Update 1.33 Is Now Available For PS4, PS3 and PS Vita

“Minecraft” update 1.33 is now available on PlayStation 4, PS3, and PlayStation Vita in Japan and Europe. The update 1.33 is also expected to hit North America.

Tumble Mini Game is the second mini game released for “Minecraft’s” Console Editions. As the mini game is inspired by Spleef, it includes two variants, the first one is, a player can throw snowballs, while the other is equipping the players with shovels, based on the report of PlayStation LifeStyle.

Each fight in the Tumble Mini Game is a best of three and takes place on a series of semi-randomized maps, where each player will be given several layers of differing materials and hazards.

Aside from Tumble Mini Game, the patch notes for “Minecraft” update on PlayStation platforms include Battle Map Pack 3, six new trophies in the Battle mini game, as well as the re-enabled of the previous Birthday and Minecon skin packs for “Minecraft” gamers who had them.

The previous Birthday and Minecon skin packs and the changes that have been made to Battle Mini Game are connected to chest refilling logic. In which it make things harder for “Minecraft” gamers camping beside chests, as it was required to make some balancing changes to items spawning in chests, according Neuro Gadget.

However, as “Minecraft” can also be enjoyed on Windows 10 PC and this version will have a new update that will be available this fall. The game will be getting Ocean Monuments, which are rare locations of the sandbox video game, but a treasure chamber will be discovered and it includes the Elder Guardian boss battle.

The update will also come along with the Wither boss, which can be summoned and if a player will defeat it, they will have the opportunity to have the highly-valuable Nether Stars that can be utilized to craft beacons.

‘Minecraft’ Latest News & Update: ‘Minecraft’ Update 1.33 Is Now Available For PS4, PS3 and PS Vita

‘Minecraft: Pocket Edition’ Update Adds Hi-Res Natural Texture Pack, 0.16 Android Beta is Almost Here

‘Minecraft: Pocket Edition’ Update Adds Hi-Res Natural Texture Pack, 0.16 Android Beta is Almost Here

While today’s Minecraft: Pocket Edition [$6.99] update isn’t nowhere as huge as the upcoming 0.16 Boss Update one we wrote about a few days ago, 0.15.7 has added one important new feature: a new texture pack. According to the update blog announcement, this one is mostly about Oculus Rift, but what the rest of us are getting is the Natural texture pack, which lets you enjoy higher-res textures and more realistic sheep faces (108 more pixels ready to haunt your dreams). The texture pack really makes a huge difference in the way the game looks, and although it won’t be to everyone’s liking (texture packs never are), if you wanted your Minecraft to look sharper, this is the texture pack for you.

Minecraft

If you want to check it out, go to the in-game store to see screenshots. The pack costs $2.99, which is a good price considering how much it changes the game’s look. In addition to the new texture pack, Mojang also put out a call for Android users to help the developers test the 0.16 update, so if you can and want to help test it, go here to sign up. As for the Boss Update release date, the developers have only said that it’s coming “soon-ish,” so we’ll see when that will be. But for now, go stare into those hi-res sheep eyes.

‘Minecraft: Pocket Edition’ Update Adds Hi-Res Natural Texture Pack, 0.16 Android Beta is Almost Here

71,000 Minecraft World Map accounts leaked online after ‘hack’

71,000 Minecraft World Map accounts leaked online after ‘hack’

Some 71,000 user accounts and IP addresses have been leaked from Minecraft fan website Minecraft World Map.

The dumps, reported by Australian security researcher Troy Hunt, include email addresses, IP address data, usernames, and passwords for popular site Minecraft World Map.

Login passwords were salted and hashed, and further details were not disclosed.

More than half of the breached accounts were already breached and listed in Hunt’s Haveibeenpwned breach credential repository.

The hack, which occurred in January this year, appears to have gone unreported.

“In approximately January 2016, the Minecraft World Map site designed for sharing maps created for the game was hacked and over 71k user accounts were exposed,” Hunt wrote on the breach site.

“The data included usernames, email and IP addresses, along with salted and hashed passwords.”

The site is popular with Minecraft gamers who use the web property to share their in-game developed worlds. Users should reset affected passwords reused on other sites.

Password best practice is subject to debate. If advice from boffins at Microsoft and Google is followed, passwords should be pronounceable, rather than set to the typically-recommended jumble of numbers, special characters, and letters, which are difficult for users to recall.

It is okay for users to reuse passwords on sites they do not care for, Microsoft academics have said, provided they set strong logins for critical sites.

Britain’s GCHQ spy agency also weighed in on the password best practice debate, advising admins to stop punishing users with regular password resets, which is said to lead to weaker combinations being set over time.

Docker’s security lead, Diogo Mónica, (@diogomonica) said that debate on password choice and complexity is off the mark, and should instead focus on convincing users to run password managers to set unique jumbled credentials for all sites. ®

71,000 Minecraft World Map accounts leaked online after ‘hack’

Someone Designed a ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ World in Minecraft

Someone Designed a ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ World in Minecraft

The village from My Neighbor Totoro finds new life as an incredibly detailed Minecraft map, transporting builders the quiet post-war Japan that Hayao Miyazaki so brilliantly imagines in his 1988 animated classic. Minecraft creator Alan Becker weaves clips from the film in with his renderings of the Kusakabe house, Totoro’s den, and the Catbus, showing off how spot-on his Minecraft builds truly are.

Fans can actually explore the Miyazaki-inspired world that Becker built, since he’s provided the server address in the video’s description. Becker is also working on incredibly detailed builds of Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle, all of which are connected in a larger complex Becker calls Ghibli World. Fans who remember the Studio Ghibli World theme park concept an artist designed last year will be excited at the prospect of a unified Ghibliverse that’s actually going to happen.

Becker’s pure ingenuity sets his Minecraft builds apart from others’ creations. He uses the game’s modular mechanics to make Miyazaki’s magical elements real: just listen to the way he uses rising water to make the bathhouse from Spirited Away undergo its day-to-night transformation in this video. Becker’s demonstration of the film isn’t as polished as My Neighbor Totoro quite yet, but based on his progress, Ghibli fans have a lot to be excited about.

Someone Designed a ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ World in Minecraft

Boss Battles Are Coming To Minecraft This Fall

Boss Battles Are Coming To Minecraft This Fall

Hot on the heels of the Friendly Update for Minecraft back in June, Microsoft has announced that fans of the title can expect to take on large scale bosses in Minecraft soon enough.

Fans of Minecraft will be able to experience Ocean Monuments, as well as bosses in what is simply branded Boss Update. The announcement was made via Microsoft and will add the Elder Guardian and The Wither bosses to the title. The Boss Update will also bring the first set of slash commands to the title which will allow players  to utilize quick commands without going to through the menu. Share your inventory, swap between Survival and Creative modes, summon a mob or change the time of day were some examples of slash commands that will be available at launch. There will be over twenty slash commands when the update launches later this fall.

The upcoming update is set to release this fall on Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition, Pocket Edition and Gear VR Edition. The update will be completely free and add to already exciting world of Minecraft. Microsoft has also teased that fans should expect more in the coming weeks with Minecon looming just around the corner.

Boss Battles Are Coming To Minecraft This Fall