Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Asia has announced two “PS Vita Minecraft Special Edition Bundles” for Japan. Both are due out on December 6 for 27,000 yen each (plus tax).
Each bundle includes:
Minecraft-themed PS Vita hardware (in one of two designs)
A copy of Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition
Minecraft-themed PS Vita original pouch
Minecraft PS Vita original theme
Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition DLC set (x 13)
Code.org runs a program called Hour of Code, which aims to make computer programming more accessible and fun for students across the nation. The core of the program are coding tutorials disguised as bite-sized games. Unlike most games, students must input a string of commands beforehand, then watch as their character does what they told them to do — and find success, hopefully. Students learn how to think in terms of programming, making the program invaluable in grabbing the attention of young girls and minority students who might otherwise stay away from learning about programming.
While anyone can learn from an Hour of Code tutorial, they’re made mostly for kids. And, as we know, kids love Minecraft. Yesterday, Microsoft and Code.org released a brand new Minecraft-themed tutorial. It’s not the first one — they already have one Minecraft tutorial that had kids play the game using programming commands. This new tutorial puts kids into the role of the developer — step by step, Minecraft Hour of Code Designer introduces basic commands that game developers use to spawn creatures into games and tell them how to act. At the end, kids have enough tools to develop their own mini-Minecraft level.
Hour of Code was founded on the idea that an hour of coding practice can help get kids interested in and prepared for a career in programming. The tutorials don’t always take an hour, but they usually allow for some kind of free play at the end to let kids be creative, as the Minecraft Designer tutorial does by letting kids build their own levels. All of the tutorials can be found on Code.org for free, and can easily be understood and accessed by teachers who want to introduce coding to their students.
This is only the latest way Microsoft has used Minecraft to help teachers and students. The company released Minecraft: Education Edition to teachers in June of this year, which can be used to teach lessons in a broader base of subjects. Read more at http://www.chipchick.com/2016/11/microsoft-minecraft-designer.html#EMDPe9kjdUhtcEA2.99
Microsoft wants kids playing Minecraft in class, and it’s hoping that schools will not just let them, but support them. It’s launching a version of Minecraft today called Minecraft: Education Edition that includes some classroom tools and a way to roll out accounts to every student in a class or district.
The app has been in development since last January, when Microsoft purchased a mod working toward the same goal. The educational tools went into a beta period this summer, with Microsoft hoping to have a full release ready by the time school started. It missed that date by a couple months, but the game is now ready to go on both Windows 10 and macOS.
Despite the new name, Education Edition isn’t dramatically different from regular Minecraft. It’s pretty much the same game, just with some tools that’ll make things easier for teachers — there’s a way to see where all their students are on a map, give students different resources, and teleport people to specific locations. There are also a few new in-game items,
including a camera and a chalkboard.
Microsoft’s hope is that Minecraft can keep kids engaged while teachers use it to explore other subjects. Educators will have to build out worlds that connect with whatever they’re teaching, be it a setting in a book or a historic structure. In one example on the game’s website, an enormous blocky model of the human eye has been made, meant for students to venture inside of to see how it works.
Worlds and lesson plans will be collected on Education Edition’s website, but Microsoft isn’t going to be making these on its own. It’ll be up to teachers to create instructive worlds, and therein could be the problem. Creating a Minecraft world is a time-consuming process — and that’s true even for people who are familiar with Minecraft. Getting teachers to create lesson after lesson just isn’t practical.
That means the success of Education Edition lies in large part on the broader community of educators. If there aren’t enough teachers out there who want to make and share worlds and lesson plans for Minecraft, it’s going to be hard to get a lot of people using it.
The game is available to schools starting today, for $5 per student for a year’s subscription.
If you still haven’t taken Minecraft: Story Mode for a spin, your patience (or stubbornness) is being rewarded in the form of some gratis gaming. For a limited time, you can get your hands on the first chapter free of charge.
Telltale announced this week that they have made the first chapter of Minecraft: Story Mode 100 percent free across multiple platforms, including the Xbox Marketplace, iOS, Google Play, the Amazon Appstore, and the PlayStation Network. Pretty much anywhere you can play the game (and there are certainly a large number), you can get in on the action for no initial investment.
To make this news even better, Telltale has announced that, after you give the first chapter a go, you can get the rest of the episodic series at a discounted rate. So not only can you play for a couple of hours with no commitment, you can keep right on trucking for a fraction of the original asking price.
There are a few options when it comes to purchasing the full game, including the Season Pass, Adventure Pass, Season Pass Deluxe and The Complete Adventure across various platforms. There’s also the physical game disc, which can be purchased at retail. No matter which route you go, you’ll find that Minecraft: Story Mode has seen a reduced rate, though we’d argue that publishers are getting a bit carried away with all of these different packages.
In total, Minecraft: Story Mode comes in at eight episodes. That’s five episodes from the core game, plus the additional three episodes from the Adventure Pass. That’s a break in the norm for Telltale, who tend to keep their episodic games, including The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Tales From the Borderlands, Batman and the like, to about five episodes.
Starting next Tuesday, Oct. 25, Minecraft: Story Mode — The Complete Adventure will be available at retail for $29.99. That’s a pretty nice price point for all of that blocky goodness. This physical version of the game will be available for the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. A PC launch is planned for the near future.
If you’re new to Telltale games, they don’t really venture below “fantastic” in the quality department these days, and reviews for Minecraft: Story Mode show that it does a good job of keeping that tradition alive. It’s got a solid cast, too, featuring Patton Oswalt, Catherine Taber, Ashley Johnson, Corey Feldman, John Hodgman, Paul Reubens, Sean Astin and more.
For those of you who have already plowed through everything Telltale’s Minecraft has to offer, we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Not that people should need extra convincing to try a free chapter, but is this something folks might want to move to the top of their “to do” list?
Believe it or not, some people aren’t that bothered about Minecraft.
Mojang’s blockbuster building game drops players into huge, randomly-generated worlds and then leaves them to it. There are no tutorials to guide you, no narrative to provide context and no clearly defined goals – there’s the whole Ender Dragon thing, but it’s not exactly signposted.
But figuring out the rules of the land and making discoveries is part of Minecraft’s appeal, and that level of freedom is part of what makes it so popular.
Dragon Quest Builders, on the other hand, feels much more like a traditional video game. Sure, you’re able to dig up the land, build homes and craft items, but there’s also a proper story, lots of missions and even the odd screen-filling boss battle.
It may never topple the behemoth that Minecraft, but here’s 5 ways Dragon Quest Builders beats Mojang’s blockbuster.
1. Dragon Quest Builders Teaches you the Basics
The first thing you’ll notice about Dragon Quest Builders is that it actually explains what it is you have to do, how to dig up the land, build homes, attract villagers, fight enemies and generally be creative.
The tutorials actually feel a little restrictive at first, as players wade through scrolls of text just to dig up some blocks and find out how to escape the chamber you awaken in.
But as the game goes on and the missions start to rack up, the tutorials start to feel less intrusive and a more natural – not to mention incredibly useful – part of the game. They’re well implemented and ensure you don’t miss anything the game has to offer.
2. Dragon Quest Builders Has a Proper Story
Dragon Quest Builders is set in the land of Alefgard, which as fans will tell you, is where the original Dragon Quest takes place. A shell of its former self and populated by monsters, the hero awakens with the power to rebuild the world and defeat evil.
While that doesn’t sound particularly inspired, it’s actually all based on the parallel ending of Dragon Quest, where the hero accepts the Dragonlord’s suggestion that each character rules half of the world. Of course, it was all a ruse, and the world has gone to pot by the time you start things off.
It’s a fantastic way of tying together old and new, making great use of the Dragon Quest mythology to entice fans.
3. Dragon Quest Builders Has More Structure
As much as we love Minecraft, it’s definitely lacking a little structure. The same can’t be said for Dragon Quest Builders, which is fit to burst with fighting, side-quests and missions to keep players busy.
It starts off with simple requests to build homes, retrieve items and attract new villagers, but pretty soon you’re fending off waves of enemies and even fighting bosses.
But just because it’s a more structured experience, you still have the freedom to carry out tasks as you see fit, and build your village in your image.
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A great story of a young boy and a lost creature is the base for the highly anticipated The Last Guardian out in 2016
4. Dragon Quest Builders Has Better Combat
Minecraft’s enemies certainly have their charms – the Creepers are just that – but Dragon Quest Builders takes combat to another level.
There are giant birds, stone Golems and of course, huge Dragons. Combat is a big part of Dragon Quest Builders, and why it feels like more of a traditional gaming experience.
Oh yeah, and there’s Slimes to contend with, too, so that’s a plus!
5. Dragon Quest Builders Has Better Visuals
Minecraft’s visuals are simple and effective, but Dragon Quest Builders’ graphics are even more colourful and stylish, hearkening back to the 8-bit era, which makes sense given the connection to the original game.
The only downside is the camera, which because of the third-person perspective, doesn’t do you many favours when you’re stuck indoors.
“Minecraft” fans will be happy to receive fresh new content that comes with the latest update, Content Update 33, which is now live. The update can now be downloaded for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. The game update pretty much featured additional content in the form of new enchantment, new blocks, a new mob and more.
As stated in the patch notes from 4J Studios, three new items have been added to “Minecraft” for console, namely: Beetroot, Beetroot Seeds, and Beetroot Soup. Players can also augment items through FrostWalker and Mending enchantments. Terrain generation features have also been added, introducing Fossils and Igloos.
The polar bear is now the new mob; sounds for the polar bear, squid, snowman, cow, horse, item frames, witch, paintings and leash knots have also been added. One of the most noteworthy additions is the Chinese Mythology Mash-up pack, which costs $4.99. This new “Minecraft” content is inspired by Chinese legends and myths and will take players to a new world where dragons exist. The full patch notes for “Minecraft” Content Update 33 can be found here.
Meanwhile, the Exploration Update for PC has also been released. As noted by Kotaku, the “shulker box” is one of the most interesting additions found in this latest “Minecraft” update. The shulker box serves as a storage space for anything players want to keep – and this is something that “Minecraft” fans have wanted for so long. When not in use for survival, the shulker box can be used as a decorative item.
Also, a big addition making its way to “Minecraft” is the Woodland Mansion, a dungeon that players will rarely find in wooded locations. The mansion is populated with spell-casting mobs known as Illagers, who also have the abilities to summon villains, and attack players. Also new to this update is the existence of llamas. These guys can be used to transport items or become a caravan during travels.
image: http://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Minecraft-Vita-Model-Ann-JP_11-14-16_002-280×157.jpg
Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Asia has announced two “PS Vita Minecraft Special Edition Bundles” for Japan. Both are due out on December 6 for 27,000 yen each (plus tax). 
