If you always wanted Nintendo to make a 3D Mario game using some of the best technology in the games industry, you’re going to want to watch this video.
YouTube user aryoksini has uploaded a video of the iconic plumber running on Epic’s Unreal Engine 4.
“All the environment assets were taken from the Unreal marketplace, all the character actions were scripted using blueprints only, all animations were re-created from scratch as well as the PBR ready textures,” aryoksini said in the video’s description.
It’s pretty cool to see Mario running around environments that look as sharp as the best looking PC games out there, but Mario, of course, is more than just his looks. You’d have to make those environments fun to play before you’ll get a proper game, and don’t expect anyone to take up that task anytime soon.
Recently, a Super Mario 64 fan project that made the game playable in your browser was, unsurprisingly, been shut down by Nintendo. Any projects that use Nintendo’s IP without permission will inevitably be taken down as well.
New DLC based on ancient Greek mythology is now available for the versions of Minecraft.
Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4 owners can now buy a $4 bundle that comes with 39 Greek mythology character skins (see the list below). There is also a custom texture set, new UI, and even an original soundtrack from composer Gareth Coker, who most recently did the music for Ori and the Blind Forest.
“Build a pantheon fit for the gods, trap the Minotaur in an elaborate maze, or set sail for adventures across the sea–the world is your square oyster!” Mojang said.
Mojang’s COO, Vu Bui, has claimed that there could well be a possibility of Minecraft coming onto Nintendo consoles in the near future, stating that their flagship game should be available “for all players.”
The possibility of Minecraft coming to Nintendo was seemingly squashed by Microsoft’s purchase of the company in 2014 for a fee of $2.5billion. Reason being, we’re pretty sure that Microsoft would love to have some of Nintendo’s best-selling content such as the Super Mario franchise, but Nintendo is keen to keep that exclusive to themselves.
On the other hand, it would seem Mojang’s COO is looking at the future of Minecraft on a much broader scale. During a recent interview with MCV at Minecon 2015, Mr Bui said the following:
“If I had my way, we’d be on everything,” Bui stated in the interview. “We want to continue to be available to all players, and that means being on new platforms because everyone uses something different. I’ve never heard a reason why we haven’t ended up on Wii U or 3DS. It just hasn’t happened yet.”
However exciting this might sound, Nintendo has previously warned that they would not favour the arrival of Minecraft unless it never got in the way of their first-party titles, such as “Super Mario Maker.”
This interview might not confirm the arrival of Minecraft to Nintendo consoles, although it does ensure all gamers that this idea is seemingly still on the table.
On a side note, we previously reported that Minecraft is trying to work its way into the education market and during this interview Mr Bui seemed confident with these developing plans.
“I don’t really see a limit for Minecraft in Education. I want to enable people to use Minecraft to enhance education, because people are already doing that. What we want is to inspire it to go further. I guess we’d eventually run out of schools to go into, but there is really no limit” he added.
I half suspect that the British Geological Survey’s continued Minecraft experiments are just an excuse to play Minecraft in work. “It’s educational,” they probably tell their bosses, before closing their latest 3D model and loading in to a Dropper map.
A year after creating the entirety of Britain and its geographical features in Minecraft, the BGS is back with a new project. They’ve now created 3D geological models of three sites across Britain: West Thurrock, York and Ingleborough.
“They show how the geology rises and falls, overlaps and folds at different depths,” explains BGS’s press release. “You are now able to see the rocks beneath north London, the soils that were deposited by ancient glaciers in York and how the ground is dissected by faults beneath the hilly slopes of Ingleborough.”
The three maps use a variety of tinted glass blocks to see the exact composition of different geological units under the surface.
Your level of interest probably depends on how much you care about a) Minecraft, or b) geology. Still, I do think Minecraft’s continued use as an informative or educational tool is neat. You can download the maps from this page on the BGS site.
If your children are always jabbering on about creepers, spiders, spawning and mining for redstone, chances are good that they’re among the more than 100 million registered users of Minecraft, a player-directed computer game in which you build a world out of pixel-like cubes.
Minecraft brings you into an open-ended world of adventure and creation, in which every day lasts 20 minutes. You mine, forage or hunt for resources such as wood, iron, gold, and seeds, which you keep in your inventory and use to create buildings, make vehicles or other objects, grow crops and clothe or feed your game character. You can play in five modes: creative, survival, hardcore, adventure and spectator.
Kids are drawn to Minecraft because of the power they possess to shape this universe, and to interact with friends and strangers through online servers and modifications to the game — called “mods” — that they can download. Since an early version of the game was released in 2009, Minecraft has sold about 54 million copies across all platforms and launched an entire industry of third-party servers that allow multiplayer games, fan sites and YouTube channels. Microsoft purchased the Danish company that developed Minecraft, Mojang, for $2.5 billion in 2014.
“My daughter has devoted all her screen time to Minecraft,” says Rebecca Blouin, 42, mom of Gretchen, 11. “She stopped watching television three years ago.”
Gretchen and her brother Thomas, 8, can spend hours creating their own worlds, visiting servers and watching YouTube videos of other people playing Minecraft. Blouin prefers the creativity that the game unlocks to more passive video games or television, and loves that Gretchen has started talking about a career as a graphic designer and wants to learn computer programming.
Experts and parents of other Minecraft -obsessed kids agree that the game can be used to inspire, educate and build skills that can help children in school and their future professions. The logical next steps might be to explore software development, engineering, architecture, interior design, video editing, graphic design or even entrepreneurship. But the repeated process of gathering resources, planning a new creation and executing the project can apply to almost every career field.
“Minecraft is a very different game than almost everything else out there,” says Joel Levin, the co-founder of TeacherGaming, a gaming company partially founded by teachers whose officially supported MinecraftEdu is designed for classroom use. “When kids are playing Minecraft, they’re confronted with an almost endless number of challenges and goals, and most of it is self-directed.”
Cynthia Liu, Los Angeles-based founder of K-12 News Network, does her best to channel her 11-year old son’s interest into creative directions, playing alongside him and asking questions to understand what he’s doing. His interest in third-party servers, which make money from players visiting their worlds, led him to write a 30-page business plan for his own server, part of a fourth-grade school project. He also wrote and published an e-book to explain Minecraft basics to kids and their parents.
It’s not advisable that you let your kids play Minecraft unsupervised and consider it educational. They may join a violent-themed server and spend their time trying to “kill” total strangers — many of them adults. In most of these player-versus-player worlds, a live chat overlays the screen and is often laced with profanity as well as racist and sexist comments.
As with many dangers to our kids, the best defense includes open lines of communication supported by regular spot checks. Discuss appropriate and safe online behavior with your children as well as the difference between passive and active play.
Monitoring your children’s Minecraft usage will also give you an opening to encourage them to develop 21st century skills like coding, video editing and design — or even to find ways to be a creator rather than just a consumer in the Minecraft realm.
So if you have a child who adores Minecraft, it’s OK to encourage and embrace their interest. It just might pay dividends later in the real world.
‘Minecraft’ is one of the most popular games on the planet. Microsoft spent $US2.5 billion on it back in September and it has millions of fans.
This is our first new ‘Minecraft’ game, and it is quite a departure from what fans know, here is what Telltale games says about the new iteration of its game:
Minecraft: Story Mode is an adventure game, by Telltale Games, set in a Minecraft world. It is a five-part episodic series that will take you to the Nether, the Farlands, the End, and beyond! You will drive how the story flows through the decisions you make: what you say to people (and how you say it), and what you choose to do in moments of thrilling action.
Players will control protagonist Jesse throughout the season, as portrayed by actor Patton Oswalt. Jesse and his group of friends revere the legendary Order of the Stone; four adventurers who slayed an Ender Dragon. The Order is the very best at what they do: Warrior, Redstone Engineer, Griefer, and Architect. While at EnderCon, Jesse and his friends discover that something is wrong… something dreadful. Terror is unleashed, and they must set out on a journey to find The Order of the Stone if they are to save their world from oblivion.
Available to download soon for PC, Mac, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, compatible iOS devices, and Android.
