by Stone Marshall | Jan 6, 2019 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
4J Studios has released Minecraft update version 1.83 for PS4 today. Here are the full patch notes that are available for this update.
Minecraft on PS4 usually lags behind the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch version. It still gets strong post-launch support from the developer 4J Studios. The new update to Minecraft for the PS4 is out now and it seems to add the new content packs that were released on other platforms. This includes the Holiday update, and The Nightmare before Christmas Mash-Up Pack.
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The full patch notes for Minecraft update version 1.83 can be seen below. They are mainly for the PS4 version.
Minecraft Update Version 1.83 Patch Notes For PS4
Added The Nightmare before Christmas Mash-Up Pack.
Added the Holiday Update.
Added six new Trophies to acquire.
Added Cats, a new(ish) mob that spawns in villages and can be tamed with tasty fish. Cats scare off Phantoms, so if you don’t like to sleep much they’re the perfect pet!
Added Pandas, cuddly bears that love to eat Bamboo and have surprisingly complex genetics.
Lazy Pandas like to lie about just eating Bamboo all day.
Weak Pandas sneeze gross slime, and have less health than other Pandas.
Worried Pandas are scared of thunderstorms and other mobs.
Aggressive Pandas hit harder, and fight for their friends.
Playful Pandas enjoy rolling around and having fun!
Brown Pandas are exceptionally rare, and have unique looks.
Added Bamboo plants, that can be used to construct Scaffolding or feed Pandas.
Added Scaffolding blocks, a new way to quickly build and climb buildings. Check the How to Play page for more info!
Ocelots no longer turn into Cats, but you can still earn their trust in the usual way.
Added white, black, blue, and brown Dyes.
Fix for Crash that would occur while near areas with Snow.
Fix for Barrier block in the Tutorial level.
Fix for Crash that would occur when TNT blew up a Fence post and Shulker Box.
Minecraft is available now for the PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, PS3, Xbox 360, PS Vita, Nintendo Wii U and Smartphones.
by Stone Marshall | Jan 6, 2019 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
Minecraft: Java Edition players might be the first to get their hands on the the version 3 textures refresh, but Bedrock Edition users are getting an even better surprise today, pandas. The new creature, first introduced at Microsoft’s Xbox E3 event, loves bamboo (also new) and is highly protective of its cubs.
And with the introduction of bamboo, also comes scaffolding, a block that allows users to move up and down more safely than ladders and stairs. Cats have also been redesigned, and new experimental crossbow enchantments have been added as well for players to try.
Cats have been redesigned in Minecraft
The 1.8 update is available on every application store that Mojang officially distributes to, including those linked down below. Microsoft is also now allowing players on the Xbox One to subscribe to Minecraft Realms for the same $3-99-$7.99 per month as other platforms, so that they can more effortlessly keep the service active.
by Stone Marshall | Jan 5, 2019 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
Mojang continues to celebrate the season, with the free Minecraft Winter Gifts Bundle now available to download on the Minecraft Marketplace.
This contains 13 packs from community creators, which are the Winter Wonders Skin Pack (Minecraft), Hollydale (Blockworks), Snowball Warriors (Pathway Studios), Christmas Jumpers (57Digital), My Snowy Journey Skin Pack (Toya), Lucky Present Survival (Jigarbov Productions), Ginger and Alaska (Visula), Snowstorm Simulator (Snowstorm Simulator), Norse Mythology Bonus Skins (Minecraft), Santa’s Gift Hunt (Polymaps), Ugly Jumper Contest (Razzleberries), The Lost Civilisation (Blockception) and Ready Sleddy Go! (Noxcrew).
“Starting today until 3rd January 2019, you can download the Winter Gifts Bundle from the Minecraft Marketplace. This completely free bundle is stuffed with worlds, skins, texture packs and more, all from your favourite community creators!” Mojang explains.
“Don’t forget to check out Catastrophic Pandamonium while you’re visiting the Marketplace. Catastrophic Pandamonium is a fantastic and free new adventure map starring cats and pandas, so head over to the Minecraft Marketplace to check out both of these great gifts. Happy holidays!”
by Stone Marshall | Jan 5, 2019 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
The immersive game-based platform is being used to help students develop 21st century skills, writes Balqis Lim
MOHAMMAD Aliff Othman begins to choke up as he talks about his students’ development.
That’s how passionate this 29-year-old teacher is in making a difference in the children’s life.
A Geography subject teacher, Aliff uses Minecraft: Education Edition in his classroom to explain certain topics during a lesson.
He says that instead of “chalk and talk”, Minecraft is very good to engage students in class. It also boosts the students creativity and enhances their 21st century skills, he adds.
Minecraft, developed in 2011 by a Swedish company Mojang, is a game that allows players to build with a variety of different blocks in a 3D procedurally-generated world.
After acquiring Mojang in 2014, Microsoft also bought over MinecraftEdu that was developed by TeacherGaming, and launched a new version of Minecraft in 2016 that’s dedicated to learning. It’s called Minecraft: Education Edition.
MINECRAFT IN MALAYSIA
MRSM Tun Mohammad Fuad Stephens in Sandakan, Sabah was the first school in the country to adopt the Minecraft: Education Edition.
Aliff, who was teaching at the school, first learned about Minecraft: Education Edition last year while attending a Microsoft Education Exchange event.
On returning to Malaysia, he gathered some students to try it out.
“As I am not a gamer, I had my students teach me the technical parts of playing it.
“These students were the naughty ones but instead of punishing them, I gave them this task,” says Aliff, who is now a certified Minecraft Global Trainer.
Students using Minecraft in class.
At the first Minecraft workshop held recently, he was invited as an instructor.
The workshop was a joint effort by Microsoft Malaysia, National STEM Centre and Digital Classroom, a teacher community. A total of 70 teachers from different schools and backgrounds participated in it.
MINECRAFT IMPACT
Since Aliff started using Minecraft in classroom, he says a learn-with-each-other environment was also created.
“Today, teachers are no longer “kings” in the classroom who know everything. The students learn from their peers. The teachers too learn from their students.
“I truly believe in this outcome. Most importantly, the teacher-student relationship is now strong.
“Besides enhancing creativity and skillset, Minecraft makes the learning more powerful as the students feel like they ‘own’ the learning,” says Aliff.
Students with their AR creation.
Meanwhile, a science teacher at SMK Jenjarom, Selangor, Abd Rahman Ali Bashah, sees Minecraft as having big potential in developing the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills.
He plans to form a team with his students when school reopens next year.
“In STEM, we encourage students to create something based on a real situation. It’s a hands-on approach. For example, students can design a building or a bridge to solve problems.
“These lessons blend concepts from science and engineering through creativity and critical thinking,” says Rahman.
A creation by one of Aliff’s students.
For Aliff, the students’ engagement in class is more important than merely good grades.
“Yes, getting A in exams is important but how meaningful is the grade? Via the STEM and Minecraft approach, I can see that my students’ engagement in class has increased. They are now bolder in taking risks.
“They are not afraid to try new things now and they also have better understanding of the subjects,” says Aliff.
The Microsoft Showcase School now has teachers using Minecraft in their lesson activities.
About 2,000 Minecraft licences have been acquired by not only MRSM Tun Mohammad Fuad Stephens but also other MRSM schools nationwide.
STUDENTS PERSPECTIVE
Students who have tried out Minecraft say it an exciting and engaging learning platform.
Form Five student Amirul Hafiz Zulazli from MRSM Transkrian in Penang enjoys playing the game but he has only tried the original Minecraft game and not the educational version.
“We don’t have it at school because our teachers think it’s just a game and hardly educational.
“But I think otherwise. This game is a great way for people to explore their creativity. I hope our teachers will allow Minecraft to be used as a learning tool in our lessons,” he says.
Nor Sofea Alyea Mohd Shairani, 11, concurs.
“I started playing Minecraft since early this year and I believe the game helped me in my Science subject.
“A lot of thinking and planning need to be applied into designing my virtual world. The canvas is so vast and limitless. I also collaborate with my friends to construct the buildings,” she says.
Minecraft is used as a hands-on activity to relate to certain topics.
According to Aliff, deploying Minecraft is not an easy task. It’s a long process which needs the support from school, he adds.
He laments that teachers nowadays are still preoccupied with grades and sceptical about Minecraft as a teaching tool.
“Minecraft is not about getting As in exams. It’s for the development of students. It’s not something that can be measured. Anyone can teach but experience itself cannot be taught unless we give students the space and opportunity to try and explore it themselves. That is more valuable than any ‘A’,” says Aliff.
“If teachers are afraid about the students getting attached to the game, they can treat it as a reward when the students behave well in class,” he adds.
MINISTRY’S PARTICIPATION
Anita Adnan, the teacher engagement manager at Microsoft Malaysia’s Education Segment, says Minecraft: Education Edition is an open world game that promotes creativity, collaboration and problem-solving in an immersive environment.
This sets it apart from other games and the only limit is the children’s imagination, she says.
“Children today are very digital literate. Using books and giving them homework are not enough. Teachers need to catch up with current trends and technology.
“Minecraft can also be embedded in ICT programmes or curriculum, suggests Anita.
Aliff teaching a group of educators at the Minecraft workshop.
The collaboration with the National STEM Centre will see Microsoft having a more structured plan where they will help 2,000 schools to try out Minecraft.
National STEM Centre head unit Dr Ihsan Ismail says the collaboration is aimed at creating awareness about Minecraft in public schools.
“With Minecraft, we hope to instill students’ interest in maths and science. Although a proper module has not been finalised, there is a possibility that Minecraft will be used as one learning tool.
“At this early stage, we want to encourage teachers and students to use it so that the ministry can monitor and evaluate its impact. If the outcome is positive, we may extend it to all,” he says.
by Stone Marshall | Jan 4, 2019 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
Netflix’s Minecraft: Story mode, an interactive TV reworking of Telltale Games’ episodic Minecraft adventure, is now available to stream in full. It marks the last Telltale project to be completed in-house, prior to the studio’s closure.
When Telltale announced that it had laid off the vast majority of staff earlier this year, it noted that “a small group of 25 employees [would be] staying on to fulfil the company’s obligations to its board and partners.” Netflix later confirmed that, while its Stranger Things project with Telltale was dead, Minecraft: Story Mode was “still moving forward as planned” at the studio.
That work is evidently complete, and, following the release of an initial batch of episodes last week, the full five-episode run of Minecraft: Story Mode is now available to Netflix subscribers. Netflix’s version of Story Mode pares the game’s first season back somewhat, focussing on key cinematic sequences and more binary choices compared to the originals.
If you’ve not yet experienced Story Mode, it’s worth a look, even if you’ve only a passing interest in Minecraft. It’s a warm, witty (and obviously family friendly) tale of everyday heroes battling against an ancient evil, full of likeable characters and rollicking adventure – not bad at all considering its almost story-free source material.
With Minecraft: Story Mode now complete, that just leaves Telltale’s final season of The Walking Dead to go – although remaining work on this project is now being handled by an external developer. Massive redundancies at Telltale left the season’s future uncertain, despite several episodes already having been released at the time.
Since then, however, Skybound – founded by Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead comic series – has stepped in to complete the game. Release dates for the two remaining episodes, which are being developed by at least some of the original team, are due soon.
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by Stone Marshall | Jan 4, 2019 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
Minecraft port developer 4J Studios has announced they’re no longer updating the legacy console versions of the sandbox game.
The game will no longer get updates on the PlayStation 3, PS Vita, Xbox 360, and Wii U. The long-running sandbox game will continue to get updates on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and Nintendo Switch.
The last update for the game on those platforms, The Nightmare Before Christmas Mash-up Pack, just dropped this week. It remains unclear if further updates are coming to the game’s Nintendo 3DS port, which Other Ocean Interactive ported.
