Microsoft: Minecraft mentors help teachers grok the game
A new version of Microsoft’s Minecraft for schools means teachers won’t have to struggle for expertise or inspiration using the game with their students.
The video game, which lets players explore its signature blocky 3D realm and build all kinds of fanciful structures, can be complicated. That’s especially true if you’re building interactive tutorials for students in Minecraft Education Edition.
Hand-picked mentors can now answer teacher questions or offer guidance for particular age groups or subjects, and now there’s a larger 60-person team offering blog posts, live streams and videos, Microsoft said Tuesday as it released the updated software.
Minecraft is immensely popular with kids outside schools. The Education Edition, which costs $5 per student, is designed to capitalize on that popularity to help teachers do their job. Its wide-open customization options means Minecraft can be adapted countless ways to help kids learn, not just veg out.
So far 75,000 students are using it, Microsoft said. Teachers can use pre-packaged Minecraft worlds for tasks like exploring ecology, showing the fictional worlds depicted in books, experimenting with construction and architecture, teaching physics and recreating historical moments.
Other changes in the new version:
- Higher skies — a 128-block height limit now is lifted to 256 blocks.
- A global pause ability so teachers can put an entire classroom’s Minecraft activities on hold.
- The addition of igloos and polar bears in snowy areas.
- An easier process to upload Minecraft worlds for better sharing.
CNET Magazine: Check out a sampling of the stories you’ll find in CNET’s newsstand edition, right here.
Life, disrupted: In Europe, millions of refugees are still searching for a safe place to settle. Tech should be part of the solution. But is it? CNET investigates.
Minecraft Newport: Yes, the whole of Newport mapped in Minecraft!
Imagine the whole of Newport in Minecraft. Now pinch yourself and come and see it – all 16 sq Km of it! Its creator, Christopher Gutteridge, is giving it away for all of you Mine-heads to see what you can do with it. Come and play.
The magical Minecraft creator Christopher Gutteridge has done it again.
Minecraft-fans/fanatics will remember when OnTheWight first brought you the news about Chris’ original adventure in converting parts of the Isle of Wight into Minecraft – when he made a Minecraft Ventnor a year and a half ago, August 2015.
The reaction was huge. Not only in terms of interest in the story, but also an enormous number of Minecraft fans of all ages crammed into Ventnor’s Minecraft Club when Chris spoke to the assembled throngs about how he did it.
Well, Chris has been flexing his programming and data skills again to take a crack at the Island’s capital – Newport.
16km Square!
Not content to do just part of the town, he’s gone and done a 16km square area! (4.3km x 3.7km for purists)
It all came about when OnTheWight was working with artist Jo Kori in the months when she was in preparation for her Quay Arts show that focuses on Newport Quay. Remembering Chris’ great Ventnor Minecraft experiment, we connected the two of them and he started to work him magic straight away – in fact, from memory, he created the Quay while we were speaking on the original phone call.
Using his programming skills he’s combined Lidar data (what’s this?) and information from OpenStreetmap to spit out Minecraft blocks to form Minecraft Newport.
During the half term holidays Christopher will also be holding a drop-in workshop at Quay Arts – so get involved.
Take it and make things!
The sheer scale of the results are impressive, but the idea is that now Chris has created the Minecraft map, enthusiasts can help fill in the detail to make it “more accurate or more historical or more futuristic”. Get creative – it’s up to you.
You’re invited to send in your screenshots or pop along to the drop-in event on Saturday 25th February where Chris will be talking about the project, and you can meet other enthusiasts and compare notes.
Where and when
For more details about how to share your creations and how Chris’ adventures in Minecraft, please visit: Project Newport Past, Present, Future
This free event takes place on Saturday 25 February between 1-4pm in the Seminar Room, Quay Arts, Little London, Newport.
For ages 8+. All children must be accompanied by an adult.
Adults more than welcome to join in!
Minecraft Newport: Yes, the whole of Newport mapped in Minecraft!
Minecraft-Like Lego Worlds Delayed For PS4, Xbox One, And PC
Lego Worlds, the Minecraft-style sandbox game that lets you build basically anything with virtual Lego bricks, will launch on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in March, Warner Bros. has announced.
An announcement today on the PlayStation Blog doesn’t mention a specific date, but the Xbox Store lists it for March 7. The game is currently available on PC through Steam Early Access; the final version is slated to launch on March 7. Today’s announcement confirms a delay, as Warner Bros. previously said Lego Worlds would launch for console and PC on February 21.
A Nintendo Switch version is in development, but a release date for it has not been announced.
A DLC pack called Lego Agents, featuring more characters, vehicles, and weapons inspired by the Lego Agents physical toys, will launch first on PS4. It will be exclusive to Sony’s system for 90 days.
Lego Worlds was released on PC in June 2015 with little fanfare. The sandbox game is made up entirely of Lego bricks, which players can manipulate to build almost anything they want. You can play solo or with friends through local co-op and online multiplayer.
GameSpot’s Lego Worlds Early Access review from June 2015 said, “It’s an absolute delight to explore and build even in the game’s current state, but there’s still plenty of room to grow.”
Lego Worlds is developed by Lego series developer Traveller’s Tales. It is priced at $30, but the Early Access version is available for $15.
Minecraft-Like Lego Worlds Delayed For PS4, Xbox One, And PC
‘Minecraft’ players design Elon Musk’s secret SpaceX Tunnel for him
Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and Tesla, may be working on a secret underground tunnel that runs from his office at SpaceX to the Los Angeles International Airport. He tweeted a picture earlier this month of what looks like the start of the tunnel along with the word “Minecraft,” and a group of Lithuanian Minecraft players saw it as a challenge.
The crew of players spent two days in Minecraft creating an imagining of the tunnel that runs from SpaceX to LAX and posted a timelapse of the project on YouTube. This was the same crew that built a proposal for a Tesla Gigafactory in Lithuania, which caught the attention of Tesla.
Maybe SpaceX will catch wind of this new Minecraft project and use it as inspiration for whatever secret projects it has going on.
‘Minecraft’ players design Elon Musk’s secret SpaceX Tunnel for him
Minecraft Player Spends 232 Hours Building Apple Campus 2
Apple’s spaceship-shaped campus in Cupertino, California has been under construction for several years and is one of the most expensive, ambitious buildings in the United States.
While Apple has been hard at work putting the finishing touches on the campus, which is slated to open later this year, Minecraft player Alex Westerlund has been building a Minecraft version of Apple’s second campus.
According to Westerlund, building the campus in Minecraft took him 232 hours over the course of a year. He used construction plans along with topographical maps to create an accurate rendition of the campus, down to the land it’s built on.
As can be seen in the video, the ring-shaped main building has been faithfully recreated, with its curved glass windows, massive doors, solar panels, window awnings, and more. Westerlund says the main building is “absolutely massive” at 469 blocks across, with every hill, path, and orchard placed according to construction plans.
The courtyard of the building includes trails, two cafes, a cafeteria patio, cherry trees, a fitness center, and a fountain, while the interior features atriums and a huge cafeteria built to match a publicly released rendering.
Apple’s real second campus is nearing completion. According to the latest drone video, construction crews are hard at work on landscaping and are wrapping up work on solar panels and a nearby research and development facility. The campus is expected to be finished in 2017, but exactly when employees will move in remains unclear.
Westerlund tells MacRumors that as Apple continues work on its campus, he’ll continue to flesh out his virtual version, putting in up to four hours of active building time per day.
Learning chemistry within Minecraft video game
- Date:
- February 15, 2017
- Source:
- University of Texas at Dallas
- Summary:
- Scientists are exploring whether teaching real-world science through a popular computer game may offer a more engaging and effective educational approach than traditional concepts of instruction. A group of 39 college students from diverse majors played an enhanced version of the popular video game “Minecraft” and learned chemistry in the process, despite being given no in-class science instruction.
- Share:
A University of Texas at Dallas team is exploring whether teaching real-world science through a popular computer game may offer a more engaging and effective educational approach than traditional concepts of instruction.
In an article recently published in Nature Chemistry, a UT Dallas team — including a materials scientist, two chemists and a game design expert — describes how a group of 39 college students from diverse majors played an enhanced version of the popular video game “Minecraft” and learned chemistry in the process, despite being given no in-class science instruction.
Dr. Walter Voit led the team that created “Polycraft World,” an adaptation or “mod” for “Minecraft” that allows players to incorporate the properties of chemical elements and compounds into game activities. Using the mod and instructions provided on a Wiki website, players can, for example, harvest and process natural rubber to make pogo sticks, or convert crude oil into a jetpack using distillation, chemical synthesis and manufacturing processes.
“Our goal was to demonstrate the various advantages of presenting educational content in a gaming format,” said Voit, a materials science and engineering professor in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. “An immersive, cooperative experience like that of ‘Polycraft World’ may represent the future of education.”
Crafting a Teaching Tool
Dr. Ron Smaldone, an assistant professor of chemistry, joined the project to give the mod its accuracy as a chemistry teaching tool. Dr. Christina Thompson, a chemistry lecturer, supervised the course in which the research was conducted, and joined Smaldone in mapping out assembly instructions for increasingly complex compounds. Voit spearheaded a team of programmers that spent a full year on development of the platform.
“Eventually, we got to the point where we said, ‘Hey, we can do something really neat with this,'” Voit said. “We could build a comprehensive world teaching people materials science.”
For Smaldone and Voit, much of the work was finding in-game objectives that provided a proportional difficulty-reward ratio — worth the trouble to build, but not too easy.
“If the game is too difficult, people will get frustrated. If it’s too easy, they lose interest,” Voit said. “If it’s just right? It’s addicting, it’s engaging, it’s compelling.”
Thompson and Smaldone produced more than 2,000 methods for building more than 100 different polymers from thousands of available chemicals.
“We’re taking skills ‘Minecraft’ gamers already have — building and assembling things — and applying them to scientific principles we’ve programmed,” Smaldone said.
Some of the “Polycraft World” gamers became surprisingly proficient in processes for which they had no prior instruction, Voit said.
“We’ve had complete non-chemists build factories to build polyether ether ketones, which are crazy hard to synthesize,” he said. “The demands of the one-hour-a-week class were limited, yet some students went all-out, consuming all this content we put in.”
Dr. Monica Evans, an associate dean for graduate programs and associate professor in the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication, is a co-author of the paper and leads the University’s game design program, which is ranked as one of the top programs in the country by The Princeton Review.
“It’s quite difficult to make a good video game, much less the rare good game that is also educational,” Evans said. “The ingenuity of the ‘Polycraft’ team is that they’ve harnessed the global popularity of an existing game, ‘Minecraft,’ and transformed it into something that is explicitly educational with a university-level subject.”
Classroom Instruction Not Included
Voit and Smaldone see “Polycraft World” as an early step on the road to a new format for learning without classroom instruction.
“The games that already exist mostly serve only as a companion to classroom learning,” Smaldone said. “The goal here is to make something that stands alone.”
A significant advantage of using such a tool comes in the volume of data it returns on student performance.
“We can measure what each player is doing at every time, how long it takes them to mix chemicals, if they’re tabbing back and forth to our Wiki, and so on,” Voit said. “It gives us all this extra information about how people learn. We can use that to improve teaching.”
Smaldone agrees: “With traditional teaching methods, I’d walk into a room of several hundred people, and walk out with the same knowledge of their learning methods,” he said. “With our method, it’s not just the students learning — it’s the teachers as well, monitoring these player interactions. Even in chemistry, this is a big innovation. Watching how they fail to solve a problem can guide you in how to teach better.”
Smaldone admits the concept must overcome doubts held by some that gaming cannot serve useful purposes.
“There’s a preconception among some that video games are an inherent evil,” he said. “Yet in a rudimentary form, we’ve made a group of non-chemistry students mildly proficient in understanding polymer chemistry. I have no doubt that if you scaled that up to more students, it would still work.”
Voit’s plans for the next version of “Polycraft World” will take it beyond teaching chemistry. Perhaps the most ambitious objectives revolve around economics.
“We’ve worked with several economists, and are developing a monetary system,” Voit said. “There will be governments and companies you can form. A government can mint and distribute currency, then accumulate goods to prop up that currency. We’ll see teams of people learning how to start companies or countries, how to control supply and demand, and how to sustain an economy.
“Learning about micro- and macroeconomics by actually doing it can impart a much richer understanding of what monetary policy looks like and why.”
Evans sees great potential for this project.
“It’s a pleasure to be part of such a unique, transformative project, particularly as it moves forward into the next few stages of development,” she said.
For Smaldone, the appeal of the project comes from both its uniqueness and potential to yield change.
“No one else is doing this to this level. That’s why I think we’ve gotten traction,” he said. “I think we have a chance to make an impact, even if only demonstrating how powerful it is to infiltrate a game with real, serious content. That’s a proof of concept that so far, at least in chemistry, no one has done.”
Talk to this self-learning AI chatbot one player built entirely inside of Minecraft
His name is Albert, and he just wants to be your friend.
Another day and we’re one step closer to the Minecraft singularity thanks to players building everything from Atari emulators to working cellphones. And now, thanks to the efforts of builder Onnowhere, Minecraft has its own self-learning chatbot. Forget playing with friends, AlbertAI is a chatty little AI you can talk to using a keyboard interface and learns to talk the more you do.
“I’ve always been interested in artificial intelligence, so naturally I really wanted to make one,” Onnowhere tells me. He’d been messing around in Python and Java, but was drawn to the challenge of building an AI inside of Minecraft. While the room in which you chat with Albert seems clean and simple, it really masks a massive physical computer that determines how he’ll respond to your dialogue.
The secret to this is Minecraft’s command blocks that dramatically expanded the potential for engineering and programming inside of Minecraft. With these blocks, players can execute simple console commands, which is what allows Albert’s responses appear in the chat window like any normal player. More impressive, however, is how Albert knows what to say.
The algorithm is complicated, but it relies on finding the frequencies of letters used in your messages as well as length and the total difference between letters to determine what the response should be. So if you say ‘Hello’ to Albert, he’ll scan his memory bank of responses for ones that closely match that syntax, and then respond. What’s impressive is that the more you speak to him the larger that memory bank grows and the more responses he develops.
That kind of programming already seems complex, but it becomes almost mind-boggling when it has to be done within a physical Minecraft world. For example, text input is stored in wool and clay blocks that are broken down to ‘interpret’ the value of each letter in your sentences. “There is an odd satisfaction one can get out of creating something despite limits,” Onnowhere says.
AlbertAI has been his pet project for almost a year, and while he had the basic concepts nailed down from previous chatbots he made in Java and Python, implementing them in Minecraft wasn’t easy. It only took him a day to build the basic foundation to calculate Albert’s responses, but he tells me that he quickly ran into hurdles. “I had a major issue with lag due to a method I was using to calculate things, and it took quite some time before I came to a solution that could fix it,” he says. “I’m glad it finally worked out though, as I almost didn’t release it due to how slow it ran.”
This is hardly Onnowhere’s most impressive project either. He’s also well known for recreating Redstonia, a city from Telltale’s Minecraft: Story Mode, inside of vanilla Minecraft. So he’s ported a Minecraft city from a non-Minecraft game back into Minecraft. If you’re interested in seeing if AlbertAI passes the Turing Test, you can download it here, and check out Onnowhere’s YouTube channel for more on his other Minecraft projects.
Talk to this self-learning AI chatbot one player built entirely inside of Minecraft
Minecraft rival video game LEGO Worlds pre-orders open on Xbox One
The highly anticipated world-building video game, LEGO Worlds, is now available to pre-order on Microsoft’s Xbox One console ahead of its March release. The game takes a cue from the Minecraft video game (which itself was inspired by LEGO) and allows players to create their own blocky virtual world full of popular LEGO playsets and gaming mechanics. Here’s the official game description:
EXPLORE. DISCOVER. CREATE. LEGO® Worlds is an open environment of procedurally-generated Worlds made entirely of LEGO bricks which you can freely manipulate and dynamically populate with LEGO models. Create anything you can imagine one brick at a time, or use large-scale landscaping tools to create vast mountain ranges and dot your world with tropical islands. Drop in prefabricated structures to build and customize any world to your liking. Explore using helicopters, dragons, motorbikes or even gorillas and unlock treasures that enhance your gameplay. Watch your creations come to life through characters and creatures that interact with you and each other in unexpected ways. In LEGO® Worlds, anything is possible!
Pre-order LEGO Worlds on Xbox One
LEGO Worlds will be one of many LEGO video games on the Xbox One with previously released titles covering popular franchises such as Star Wars, Harry Potter, and The Avengers. Do you enjoy play LEGO video games? Let us know which ones are your favorites in the comments below.
Minecraft rival video game LEGO Worlds pre-orders open on Xbox One
Deal: Xbox One S 500GB with Minecraft Bundle for $209.99
US gamers can now get the Xbox One S 500GB with Minecraft Favorites from online retailer NewEgg for only $209.99, after using code EMCRCBF29. The Xbox One S Minecraft Favorites Bundle (500GB) includes the Xbox One S 500GB console, an Xbox Wireless Controller, Minecraft: Xbox One Edition Favorites Pack, Minecraft Builder’s Pack, Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta, and a 14-day Xbox Live Gold trial.
Get full game downloads of Minecraft for Xbox One and Windows 10, plus thirteen fabulous, community-favorite content Packs, including Halo Mash-up and Festive Mash-up. Craft new Minecraft worlds together with friends on Xbox Live, the most advanced multiplayer network. And now with the new Xbox One S, you can even watch 4K Blu-ray™ movies, stream Netflix and Amazon Video in stunning 4K Ultra HD, and play a growing library of Xbox 360 games. With all the biggest blockbusters this year, there’s never been a better time to jump ahead with Xbox One.
This is a new system you will be receiving, you can grab it from here. Hurry though as the discount code is only good until February 16.
From trees to towers, this Minecraft model of Chicago is incredibly detailed
After spending four years building Chicago out of virtual blocks, an 18-year-old from the north suburbs unveiled an intricate Minecraft map of downtown on Saturday.
Ryan Zull, a New York University student who grew up in Deerfield, posted the model on Reddit under his username, Koodoo25. At a 1-to-2 scale, it’s among the most detailed models of the city ever made in Minecraft.
The model lets users navigate Chicago’s Loop and areas just north of and west of the river, including the Wrigley Building, Willis Tower, Trump Tower, Millennium Park and Jeanne Gang’s Aqua.
Minecraft, which was first released to the public in 2009 and bought by Microsoft in 2014, is one of the best-selling video games ever, according to Time. Minecraft is a sandbox video game, which means it has no rules and it’s up to gamers to create their own experiences. It allows users to build and explore worlds where they can compete or work alone or together.
Zull said he first started working on the model in July 2013, though the work wasn’t continuous, and the project sometimes sat untouched for as long as a year.
He’s not the first to publicly release a Minecraft model of Chicago — another Reddit user posted one in 2015. But Zull’s is more than twice as detailed as that model, by scale.
“I started by making Mies van der Rohe‘s Federal Plaza and eventually worked my way outwards from there,” Zull said in an email. “All the buildings and streets were created directly within Minecraft. … All the design is done by measuring dimensions of buildings and streets in Google Maps and fitting them into the Minecraft world as proportionately and accurately as possible.”
He unveiled his Chicago map on Reddit Saturday and quickly gathered acclaim. But Redditors were also instantly curious about the project’s future and were quick to request additions. One user asked if Navy Pier and Lincoln Park would be built, while another asked about CTA lines.
Zull said the model is a work in progress and that he plans on building all of downtown.
“There may be a few tiny details or dimensions a little bit off, but everything down to the placement of streetlights and trees was done to recreate what I saw in Google Maps Street View as accurately as I could,” he wrote on Reddit.
Minecraft players can download a playable version of the map themselves on Planet Minecraft. As of 4 p.m. Monday, 515 people had downloaded it.
From trees to towers, this Minecraft model of Chicago is incredibly detailed
Everything In Minecraft Becomes Candy With New Pocket Edition/Windows 10 Texture Pack
A new texture pack is available for Minecraft‘s mobile and Windows 10 versions.
The Candy Texture Pack introduces a “dentist-weepingly high amount of sugar into your game.” It does so by replacing all textures with sweet treats. Really. Take a look at the image below to get an idea for what to expect.
Already available for the console versions of Minecraft, the Candy Texture Pack costs $3. Itcomes to the mobile and Windows 10 versions through the 1.03 update; the update is free, but the texture pack is not.
As outlined on Minecraft’s website, this update also adds localization support for Dutch and makes a variety of bug figures. For example, it fixes a crash scenario when a player enters a mutated biome. The patch also makes it so bats spawn more often, because who doesn’t want that to happen?
Minecraft 1.03:
New Features:
- Added Candy texture pack
- Added Dutch localization
Tweaks:
- Fixed some spacing when truncating bolded text.
- Tweaked spawn point selection to be “smarter” (e.g. avoid lava).
- Tweaked the textures of flower/mushroom blocks.
- Assorted texture fixes.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed a crash when a server/Realm would first start.
- Fixed an issue causing servers to blink between online and offline status
- Fixed a Realms crash when a player exits
- Fixed a crash when using some items
- Fixed a server crash when a player entered a mutated biome
- Fixed an issue that caused pressure plates, buttons, and other Redstone items to become stuck
- Fixed an issue with hoppers not ticking the proper order
- Fixed an issue when destroying a door
- Fixed an issue with item duplication
- Fixed an issue allowing a player to incorrectly obtain End Gateway blocks
- Observer block’s arrows should now point in the direction of power
- Observer blocks will no longer be placed upside-down
- Fixed an issue where realms members that were not your friends were not being displayed
- Bats should spawn more often!
- Fixed an issue with End Gateway textures on mobile devices.
- Fixed an issue where buttons & other redstone devices could get locked when a redstone lamp activated.
- Fixed some rendering geometry which created weird results
Everything In Minecraft Becomes Candy With New Pocket Edition/Windows 10 Texture Pack
Villager Trading Coming to ‘Minecraft: Pocket Edition’ in the Next Patch
A few days ago, we wrote a story about the latest update to Minecraft: Pocket Edition [$6.99] that added only a new texture pack, and the commenter Klonis asked for trading to be implemented in the future. Well, apparently the developers listened to him because the new MCPE beta has gone live on Android, and it’s bringing villager trading to the game. For those who haven’t played the PC version of Minecraft and don’t know how villager trading works, when you initiate trade with one of the villagers, you get to a trade window that shows you what the villager is asking for and what he’s offering. For instance, one might give you an emerald if you give him ten leather and so on. Villagers have trades, so you’ll be getting different material depending on what they’re into.
In addition to trading, update 1.0.4 will add a new Add-On format that will automatically update all Add-Ons, which should make things simpler. In addition, the models for the Shulker and Ender Dragon will be editable, Husks will be taller than Zombies, and Baby Villagers will have larger, more adorable heads. If you’re on Android, you can join the beta, and as for iOS players, patience is the word.
Villager Trading Coming to ‘Minecraft: Pocket Edition’ in the Next Patch
There’s a brand new Pokémon game, and it’s built entirely within ‘Minecraft’ — take a look
“Minecraft” is an incredible game. It’s basically virtual Legos, and you can play it with dozens of friends. And sometimes, friends who play “Minecraft” together become people who create something magical in “Minecraft” together.
Such is the case with “Pokémon Cobalt and Amethyst,” a “60- to 80-hour” Pokémon game built entirely within “Minecraft.” For real! Just look at this:
YouTube
We’re talking about the good stuff: finding, battling, and capturing Pokémon — and then battling other Pokémon with the ones you’ve enslaved. There’s a full story, various locales to explore, and much more. Better yet, it’s entirely free! All you need is a copy of “Minecraft” on PC or Mac, and about 15 minutes.
There’s a brand new Pokémon game, and it’s built entirely within ‘Minecraft’ — take a look
Why ‘Minecraft’ is the most popular game in the world
“Minecraft” is this generation’s Super Mario. It’s an international phenomenon. Unless you’ve been living on the moon, you probably already know these things.
It’s on computers, phones, tablets, and game consoles. It’s at your local mall, occupying kiosks with plushies and T-shirts. There’s a semiannual convention (“MineCon”) and an education initiative that’s got it in schools (MinecraftEDU).
But why is it so popular? We’re talking about a game that looks like this:
Microsoft
Keep in mind that there are games coming out on modern video game consoles that look like this:
Quantic Dream
And what do you actually do in “Minecraft?” Build stuff? Perhaps you’ve seen some of the incredible worlds people have created from within “Minecraft,” like this one of King’s Landing from “Game of Thrones”:
YouTube
Not bad! So how does a world go from a flat, grassy meadow to a pixelated re-creation of Westeros’ capital city? The answer to that question is half of the reason people love “Minecraft”: creation. The castles above were built block-by-block.
Think of “Minecraft” as virtual LEGO. LEGO does.
It’s a system for fitting pieces together to create something — sometimes amazing somethings — from nothing. “Minecraft” provides endless building blocks and a blank canvas. It’s up to you to create something incredible, or silly, or referential, or whatever, using the tools it provides. The tools are blessedly user-friendly, as are the systems for employing those tools.
The most basic unit of measurement is a single block. This is a dirt block:
Microsoft
This is the literal and figurative building block of the game. You start with nothing but fists and a massive, unexplored world, ripe for creation. You walk forward; you punch the ground below you and it begins to crack. Why is it cracking? And suddenly, POP! Where the ground once was is now an empty, square space. It looks like this:
The word “minecraft” is a portmanteau of two verbs: to mine and to craft. Punching a dirt block and retrieving a dirt block to build with is the first verb — the mining. When you start “Minecraft,” it’s the first thing you should do.
Once you’ve retrieved enough blocks, the second thing you’ll need to do is craft: combine the resources you’ve mined to create more complex tools. “Mining” for wood (punching a tree) enables you to create basic tools. Those basic tools enable you to mine more complex resources, which enable you to create more complex items and tools.
It’s this highly satisfying cycle of mining resources and creating from those resources that draws in millions of players around the world. And that’s the most basic level of “Minecraft.”
The other side of “Minecraft,” sadly not encompassed in the game’s title, is exploration. Every time you start a new world in “Minecraft,” it’s unique. That is, levels are randomly generated based on a set of parameters. There are some constants:
- The levels always contain the same materials (dirt, trees, water, etc.)
- There is a day/night cycle
- At night, enemies appear and will attack you
- You can only dig so deep below the world’s surface before hitting bedrock
- The world that spawns always has stuff to discover, whether it’s crazy jungles or mountains or underground caves or whatever
Yes, there are enemies. You’ve almost certainly seen the iconic “Creeper” at your local Hot Topic. This guy (or lady?):
Microsoft
These green, exploding monsters are exclusive to the “Survival” mode of “Minecraft” — if you just want to create ad infinitum, there’s a “Creation” mode that enables exactly that. No day/night cycle. No enemies. No mining if you don’t want to mine. Just endless creation.
But be warned: If you don’t choose “Survival” mode, you’ll never experience the joy of discovering a labyrinthine cave network by accident, full of rare resources (diamonds!) and life-threatening lava. You’ll never know the thrill of narrowly escaping a mob of spiders, zombies, and Creepers into the ramshackle hut you’ve composed just in time to hide for the night. You’ll never know the heartbreak of a Creeper sneaking up and exploding the side of your carefully constructed homage to John Travolta’s face. Up your nose with a rubber hose, Creeper.
So forget all the hype. Forget the billions Microsoft spent buying “Minecraft” from its creator, Markus “Notch” Persson and his team at Mojang.
“Minecraft” is so incredibly successful and popular because it’s delightful. It’s relaxing. It’s joyful. It’s goofy. It’s an amazing interactive canvas to build anything you want.
Yeah, you’re “just punching blocks and placing them in different combinations.” And here’s a re-creation of Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous “Fallingwater” home:
You can play “Minecraft” online with friends, with strangers, or all by your lonesome. Some of the more complex worlds were created by whole teams of people working for months. Westeros wasn’t built in a day, you know!
Personally, I prefer the relaxing experience of playing it alone while listening to podcasts. The game’s music is a mix of soft, atmospheric melodies that can be easily kept at low volume, leaving me to concentrate on the project at hand.
Unlike so many other games, “Minecraft” enables an outlet for artistic expression — however shallow — that makes time spent in its worlds feel meaningful.
Minecraft adds textured terracotta blocks Concrete fact.
In its continued quest to add every building material known to mankind, Minecraft has finally found itself at terracotta.
Oh, and coloured concrete, which somewhat surprisingly is not in the game already.
Concrete is made by combining gravel and sand. Terracotta is baked by smelting hardened clay in your furnace. The 16 usual coloured dyes apply.
Minecraft’s latest PC snapshot update has added both.
Here’s how they look.
Woho! We’ve published the first Minecraft 1.12 snapshot – 17w06a! https://minecraft.net/en-us/article/minecraft-snapshot-17w06a …
@jeb_ @Dinnerbone been playing with the blocks and I already love them! each terracotta block has 4x (2×2) symmetrical patterns! THANK YOU!
pic.twitter.com/DcJTuTFyVk
Terracotta is notable for being perhaps the most textured construction block added to the game to date – look at those geometric colours, shapes and patterns, which come in four flavours. Who even needs texture packs now?
Everything In Minecraft Becomes Candy With New Pocket Edition/Windows 10 Texture Pack
A new texture pack is available for Minecraft‘s mobile and Windows 10 versions.
The Candy Texture Pack introduces a “dentist-weepingly high amount of sugar into your game.” It does so by replacing all textures with sweet treats. Really. Take a look at the image below to get an idea for what to expect.
Already available for the console versions of Minecraft, the Candy Texture Pack costs $3. Itcomes to the mobile and Windows 10 versions through the 1.03 update; the update is free, but the texture pack is not.
As outlined on Minecraft’s website, this update also adds localization support for Dutch and makes a variety of bug figures. For example, it fixes a crash scenario when a player enters a mutated biome. The patch also makes it so bats spawn more often, because who doesn’t want that to happen?
Minecraft 1.03:
New Features:
- Added Candy texture pack
- Added Dutch localization
Tweaks:
- Fixed some spacing when truncating bolded text.
- Tweaked spawn point selection to be “smarter” (e.g. avoid lava).
- Tweaked the textures of flower/mushroom blocks.
- Assorted texture fixes.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed a crash when a server/Realm would first start.
- Fixed an issue causing servers to blink between online and offline status
- Fixed a Realms crash when a player exits
- Fixed a crash when using some items
- Fixed a server crash when a player entered a mutated biome
- Fixed an issue that caused pressure plates, buttons, and other Redstone items to become stuck
- Fixed an issue with hoppers not ticking the proper order
- Fixed an issue when destroying a door
- Fixed an issue with item duplication
- Fixed an issue allowing a player to incorrectly obtain End Gateway blocks
- Observer block’s arrows should now point in the direction of power
- Observer blocks will no longer be placed upside-down
- Fixed an issue where realms members that were not your friends were not being displayed
- Bats should spawn more often!
- Fixed an issue with End Gateway textures on mobile devices.
- Fixed an issue where buttons & other redstone devices could get locked when a redstone lamp activated.
- Fixed some rendering geometry which created weird results
Everything In Minecraft Becomes Candy With New Pocket Edition/Windows 10 Texture Pack
Games that are going to blow everyone away in 2017
There’s no denying 2016 was a fantastic year for video games. Honestly, the gaming industry is spoiling us rotten, and we’re thrilled. Want to get hyped for the amazing games 2017 has in store? So do we.
Resident Evil 7 – January 24
For some, Resident Evil 4 marks the spot where the franchise fell off the map: parts 5 and 6 were its most unremarkable installments. But with a jaw-dropping debut at E3 2016 during Sony’s press conference, Resident Evil 7 rekindled gamers’ desires to find themselves dangerously low on ammo while desperately fleeing shambling horrors and grotesque mutations. This chapter welcomes a new main character to the series, and in its biggest change yet, the game will play entirely first-person. Capcom even promises full virtual reality support, allowing players to play the game from beginning to end in VR.
For Honor – February 14
Get ready for one bloody valentine. With so many alpha gameplay videos on YouTube, it’s easy to forget that For Honor has yet to be officially released. An online hack and slash game, For Honor pits factions of knights, vikings, and samurai against each other in a fight to the death. Developed by Ubisoft Montreal, it looks to bring together the best aspects of Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, War of the Vikings, and Samurai Warriors in one medieval fantasy setting. Closed beta starts in January (register here), with the official release slated for February 14, 2017.
Halo Wars 2 – February 21
Halo is one of the biggest video game franchises in history, and in 2017 it’ll return to its real-time strategy roots. It’s been a long time since the original Halo Wars hit shelves—Halo Wars 2 will drop almost exactly seven years after the release of its predecessor—but Total War developer Creative Assembly promises to make it worth the wait, putting the series in the capable hands of RTS masters.
Horizon Zero Dawn – February 28
Originality can sometimes feel like it comes at a premium in the game industry. That’s why it’s refreshing to see a game with as bonkers a premise as Horizon Zero Dawn: 1,000 years in the future, mankind has been reduced to a series of caveman-like tribal groups as the world has reverted back to a pre-historic landscape of lush greenery and dangerous wild animals…that are robots. Yep, a world where every animal is a robot. Unraveling that mystery should be as fun to as Horizon Zero Dawn’s gameplay looked in its E3 demo during Sony’s 2016 press conference. Guerrilla Games’ track record with the Killzone series proves they can create engaging gameplay, and they’re not slouching with the story, either, as they’ve brought on the writer of Fallout: New Vegas to pen the script.
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – March 3
It’s hard to blame Nintendo for keeping the Zelda franchise relatively unchanged for so long. If it works, don’t try to fix it; just add and modify and twist into new shapes to deliver new yet familiar experiences. It’s a different story for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which promises a more open and fully exportable world than any Zelda game before it and will be available on both WiiU and Switch. This latest entry shares more in common with Skyrim and Far Cry than traditional entries in the series. Dungeons can be explored in any order; the final boss fight could be fought, and won, at the start of the game, assuming players are crazy (and skilled) enough to pull it off. It’s a Zelda unlike any other: it hands you a controller and truly puts you in control
1 2 Switch – March 3
The first game presented at the Nintendo Switch Presentation 2017, 1 2 Switch is the spiritual successor to the underrated motion-controlled masterpiece WarioWare: Smooth Moves for Nintendo Wii. In a revolutionary twist on the concept of a video game, 1 2 Switch turns the screen into an accessory; players focus on each other’s eyes and faces. It’s a party game about reflexes, psyching your opponent out, and striking silly poses along the way. We can’t wait to try it. A Nintendo Switch launch title, 1 2 Switch hits shelves March 3, 2017.
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands – March 7
The Ghost Recon series is taking a cue from Metal Gear Solid 5 and Grand Theft Auto 5 by removing the idea of levels and setting the upcoming Ghost Recon Wildlands in an enormous open world rife with Bolivian drug cartel baddies who are eagerly anticipating being shot in the back of the head as they stand around guarding an abandoned warehouse. Wildlands features a robust single-player campaign that will have gamers exploring every square inch of terrain for dozens of hours. But the online multiplayer co-op is where the game promises to shine, as you and some buddies can go on raids and chase down escaping drug traffickers from the comfort of your own underwear
Mass Effect: Andromeda – March 21
Commander Shepard isn’t the only thing the Mass Effect series is leaving behind. It’s abandoning the Milky Way galaxy and setting up shop on the Citadel in our celestial neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy. All new planets. All new terrain. All new alien races. Actually, by definition, you will be playing the invading alien race of the series. Set centuries after the events of the original Mass Effect trilogy, the new series has you controlling a new protagonist, named Ryder, whose mission is to discover a new planet for the human race to call home.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole – March 31
Obsidian Entertainment’s South Park: The Stick of Truth surprised us in 2014. A mechanically sound RPG with a long campaign, enjoyable combat, hilarious writing, and fan service galore, Stick of Truth renewed gamers’ trust in the franchise. (If you played the mediocre South Park games for N64 and Playstation, you know all too well why they might have been skeptical.) A D&D parody, The Stick of Truth contained four classes (Fighter, Mage, Thief, and Jew), while the superhero-themed The Fractured But Whole features twelve (Brutalist, Blaster, Speedster, Elementalist, Gadgeteer, Mystic, Cyborg, Psychic, Assassin, Commander, Netherborn, and Karate Kid). By all accounts, The Fractured But Whole is going to be bigger and better than its predecessor.
Persona 5 – April 4
Rabid fans of the Persona series—is there are any other kind?—have waited eight excruciating years for the next official installment. The last to see release, Persona 4, came out in 2008 for the PlayStation 2. But 2017 will change all that with another turn-based RPG adventure for the PlayStation 4. In the new installment you’ll spend a year in the shoes of the new kid at Shujin High School as he and his fellow students use their “persona” powers, or manifestations of their psyche, to battle a shadowy group known only as the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.
Yooka-Laylee – April 11
Designers who worked on Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong Country have formed Playtonic Games to develop the upcoming Yooka-Laylee. Funded in 2015 by 80,000 Kickstarter backers, the game aspires to be a “collect-em-up for the modern era.” Note the hyphenated title. That’s no accident. It’s meant to make us nostalgic for the N64’s golden era—and it’s working. April 11 can’t arrive soon enough.
Injustice 2 – May 16
NetherRealm, the makers of Mortal Kombat, shocked the world with Injustice. Finally, we could live out childhood dreams of pitting Superman and Batman against one another in a fight to find out—once and for all—who would win. Or Superman vs. the Flash. Or Doomsday vs. Lex Luthor. Even better, the game was great. Injustice 2 will feature gameplay mechanics similar to the original, like the trait system and the game’s show-stopping super moves, while offering new twists, like a loot-dropping system that allows players to collect gear during fights that offer costume-specific upgrades altering play.
Outlast II – Q1 2017
Don’t call Outlast fun; it isn’t fun. It’s stressful, upsetting, haunting, and the best first-person survival horror game this side of Alien: Isolation over the last ten years. Inspired by the Amnesia series, first-time developer Red Barrels’ first game surpassed its forebears in virtually every way, capturing the horror of being trapped among the violently the insane in an asylum. Trading the deranged sanitarium for an upside-down cross-burning, backwoods religious cult, Outlast II should be another not-fun masterpiece of survival horror. It’s already piqued gamers’ interest in unexpected ways: for instance, the original teaser featured a creepy reversed audio clip of a preacher menacingly reading from the Bible.
Gwent – Early 2017
The Witcher 3 was an astounding game with another great game hidden deep inside, like a Russian nesting doll of video games. This hidden game, a card game called Gwent, was originally made by a couple of designers at CD Projekt Red in their spare time. It impressed the higher-ups and made it into The Witcher 3, where it became something of an obsession among diehard fans, who loved it so much that many made their own standalone versions. Now it’s becoming a standalone title in the style of Hearthstone, but with a twist—this release is a collectable card game with single-player campaigns.
Arms – Spring 2017
Announced by Kosuke Yabuki at the Nintendo Switch Presentation 2017, Arms looks like a mix of Wii Sports’ boxing, shooting, and WiiFit. The motion controls make use of the joycons’ gyroscopic technology. Expect to sweat as you dash and jump around, using jabs, hooks, and special attacks to beat your opponent to a pulp. And it’s all set in a bright, crisp art-style reminiscent of both Splatoon for the Wii U and Ready 2 Rumble: Boxing, a classic of the N64 era. Step into the arena in spring 2017
Tacoma – Spring 2017
Fullbright Company turned some heads after they departed Irrational Games and released Gone Home, a little game about 21-year-old girl who comes home from overseas and is greeted by an empty house she must explore to unravel the mystery of her sister’s coming-of-age story. The studio’s follow-up, Tacoma, takes place on a derelict space station 200,000 miles from Earth. As with Gone Home, players must explore the empty vessel to discover what happened to the crew. Players won’t encounter any actual people; instead, the ship has recorded the voices and movements of its crew members and replays them as holograms that the player must follow to unravel the ship’s mystery.
Tekken 7 – June 2
Technically, the latest installment of the Tekken series has already been out since February 2015…but only in Japan, where it had a limited arcade release. In 2017 it’ll finally reach western shores, and it’ll finally be playable on everything that can play video games, except the Wii U. According to its E3 2016 trailer, the seventh chapter of the long-running series will include a new addition to the roaster of classic Tekken characters: Street Fighter’s Akuma. Sadly, it’s rumored that he may be the only Street Fighter character making a cameo.
Splatoon 2 – Summer 2017
The segment on Splatoon 2 at the Nintendo Switch Presentation 2017 was one of our favorite highlights. Nintendo’s clever, family-friendly take on ruthless hardcore shooters, the squid ink-spattered Splatoon was a notable high-point of the Wii U’s short life span. New arenas, game modes, special weapons, and new types of inklings mean the turf war will be even crazier the second time around. The next one promises network play and local multiplayer, as well as multiple control schemes. Join the turf war this summer.
Cuphead – Mid-2017
Inspired by old Mickey Mouse cartoons, Cuphead in Don’t Deal with the Devil aspires to be a playable old-timey cartoon with side-scrolling, platforming, retro charm. In development for several years, it’s the brainchild of first-time indie developer Studio MDHR. Rumor has it the designers are putting their finishing touches on the co-op mode. No further delays are anticipated—which is good news for Disney and Rayman Legends fans alike.
Shenmue 3 – December
The long-awaited third installment in the Shenmue franchise will finally, mercifully be released in 2017. Yi Syzuki’s series, which began way back in the Dreamcast days, was years ahead of its time. Sadly, despite mounds of critical praise, it proved a commercial failure—which is why the gaming community was blown away when Sony announced during its 2015 E3 presser that a Kickstarter fundraiser had been started to gauge interest in a possible Shenmue 3. Within nine hours its $2 million goal had been surpassed; all in all, $6.6 million was raised, making it the most heavily funded game in Kickstarter history.
Super Mario Odyssey – Holiday 2017
We know a lot more than we once did about Super Mario Odyssey. The game takes place in strange worlds beyond the Mushroom Kingdom, including one similar to our own. Mario wears a sentient cap with googly eyes on it. He uses the cap to perform special jumps. In combat, he makes like Oddjob from the Bond movies–or Kung Lao from Mortal Kombat–and flings it at his enemies. He also flies around in a tugboat-spaceship because of course he does. The gameplay looks even smoother than Super Mario Galaxy’s. Look for Mario’s familiar face this holiday season.
Suda51’s Travis Touchdown game – Title and release date TBD
Suda51 is an oddball, but he makes compelling games. The No More Heroes games were blood-spattered reasons to get a Wii and a Wii U. Killer is Dead puts a purple-drenched, psychedelic spin on Seijun Suzuki’s already nonsensical–and just as brilliant–hit man movies. Whatever Suda51 is working on for Nintendo Switch, you can trust it will be both weird and worth a look.
Agents of Mayhem – TBD
Volition is taking a breaking from the wild and ridiculous Saints Row series to bring us…a Saints Row spinoff! Set sometime after the events of Saint’s Row: Gat out of Hell, Agents of Mayhem is an open world third-person action game that revolves around an anti-terrorist organization known as—you guessed it—Agents of Mayhem, who are trying to stop the evil terrorist organization Legion from destroying the world. Players can swap between one of three characters on the fly in the midst of battle. Perform a stun maneuver to freeze all enemies on the battlefield, and instantly swap in another character that can kill them all with a well-placed grenade. It may not be Saints Row, but for now it’ll do just fine.
New Megami Tensei game – Title and release date TBD
Atlus’s Megami Tensei series, and its multiple spin-off series–such as the Persona games about teenagers who fight demons–are a lot of fun. These turn-based JRPGs have amassed a devoted following for being a weirder, headier alternative to the Final Fantasy series. A Shin Megami Tensei is early in development for Nintendo Switch.
Crackdown 3 – TBD
Since we’re on the subject of Saints Row, why not mention a game similar in terms of tone and gameplay? By the time Crackdown 3 comes out, it’ll have been six years since its predecessor debuted. What has Ruffian Games been up to all this time? Well, truthfully, no one really knows. Not much has been revealed about Crackdown 3. But what we do know is exciting: it’ll feature an open world sandbox like the previous games in the series, for sure, and judging from the trailer shown off at Microsoft’s 2015 Gamescom presentation, gamers will be transported to a massively destructive city that you can level with your god-like powers.
Full Throttle – TBD
Wait, what’s a game from 1995 doing on this list of the most anticipated games of 2017? Well, it’s one of the greatest adventure games of all time, with some of the most memorable characters and a delightfully silly sense of humor—and more importantly, 2017 is the year Tim Shafer’s classic adventure Full Throttle gets a fully remastered re-release. If you missed the wildly original tale of a biker who refuses to believe his chopper can be replaced by a silly anti-gravitational bike, this is the perfect time to hop on and ride off into the sunset with one of the best games ever made.
Toshihiro Nagoshi’s Switch game – Title and release date TBD
We don’t know anything about this game, but we know a lot about the astonishing track record of Sega’s Toshihiro Nagoshi-san. Nagoshi-san created the celebrated Yakuza series as well as Binary Domain, the top-of-the-line anime-styled third-person shooter. Part design genius and part philosopher, he makes violent games with intentionally low body counts–unless you count the blown-apart robots.
Prey – TBD
The Prey series, if you can even call it that, has had a rough life. The original Prey, released in 2006, had been in development since 1995, and went through multiple massive overhauls before it finally arrived to fan acclaim. Its sequel went through something similar before eventually being canceled long after its public announcement. But now the minds behind Fallout and Elder Scrolls are putting their full force into a new iteration of the alien invasion epic. Bethesda envisions the new Prey not as a sequel or remake, but a complete reimagining of the franchise.
Elon Musk plays ‘Minecraft’ differently than you do
Since December, Elon Musk has been discussing plans to build a tunnel to help avoid LA traffic problems. It’s been hard to tell if he was serious about “The Boring Company,” but a few days ago Wired reported a test trench was already under construction somewhere in the vicinity of SpaceX’s headquarters. Musk tweeted that he would start digging on January 27th, and said during last weekend’s Hyperloop that the plan is to increase tunneling by “500 – 1000 percent.”Now, (apparently away from the president’s economic advisory council meeting) he’s posted this picture of a massive digging machine at work, simply titled “Minecraft.” So what are you doing with your weekend?
Minecraft pic.twitter.com/lU1YzJjLOZ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 4, 2017
Update: As Zilvinas points out, one other reason Musk could have Minecraft on the brain is this impressive pitch for a Gigafactory put together by Lithuanian fans.
What the cast of Resident Evil should really look like
The Resident Evil movies are undoubtedly gigantic hits at the box office, having raked in over $244 million since the premiere of the first film in 2002. While these movies are definitely a departure from the games that inspired them, we’re treated to the sight of some of our favorite characters on the big screen. Milla Jovovich’s Alice, the film-exclusive protagonist, might be the star of the show, but we can’t help but check out the other characters and see how they compare to their game counterparts. Let’s put the likes of Claire Redfield, Jill Valentine, and other Resident Evil mainstays under the scope, and check how faithfully they were brought to the silver screen.
Chris Redfield
Chris Redfield is one of most iconic characters in the Resident Evil series, and many fans know him for bashing in doors and the heads of bio-organic weapons — or B.O.W.s — in Resident Evil 5. His enormous, bulging muscles were his true weapons, but he still whipped out a firearm to get some real work done.
In the films, he’s played by Prison Break alum Wentworth Miller. who is probably not as jacked as Chris, but just as tough. While he doesn’t fully resemble the beloved BSAA agent, we can at least tell who he’s playing. His outfits, however, are far from what Chris Redfield wore in the video games. Instead of short sleeves with BSAA patches on them, he wears some kind of tactical field jacket. He’s got plenty of gear strapped onto his torso, but his all-grey ensemble just makes him look like a failed Ghostbuster, or an overzealous maintenance man. But that’s all we’ll say about that subject, lest we find ourselves on the receiving end of those guns.
Claire Redfield
Ali Larter breathes life into Claire Redfield, sister to Chris and heroine to Resident Evil fans everywhere. In the films, Claire doesn’t get her signature ponytail, but she does retain her vest. It’s a little more crimson than pink, but we think that’s for the best. We’re not sure where you can pick up vests that feature little sheathes for combat knives, but we’re going to assume it’s not a thing in real life.
Also noticeably absent are the gloves and Claire’s black, short-sleeved turtleneck. The end result is that Larter’s Claire looks and feels like more of a badass than the original Claire. Together, she and Wentworth Miller’s Chris make up a deadly pair of siblings that we’d love to have on the front lines against an army of zombies. And given that a ponytail can be easily grabbed by the undead and other monsters, maybe letting her hair down was a good, tactical decision.
Jill Valentine
Tube top? Check. Short, brunette hair in a bob cut? Check. Mini-skirt? Check. Sienna Guillory’s Jill Valentine seems to be the most accurate portrayal of a Resident Evil character in the movies. The former S.T.A.R.S. member probably shouldn’t keep so much skin exposed when there are zombies everywhere that are looking to bite and infect her, but we appreciate the risks she takes to looks good.
In Resident Evil: Retribution, she returns as a blonde, now the villain of the movie. She even looks the part of her superpowered, antagonist form from Resident Evil 5, complete with the device on her chest and the one-piece outfit. We’re glad that the fimmakers did their homework on this one.
Albert Wesker
As far as bad guys go, Albert Wesker is certainly one of the most arrogant. If his glowing, red eyes weren’t a dead giveaway that he’s evil, then maybe his frosted tips might. In Resident Evil:Afterlife, we see him played by actor Shawn Roberts. He’s got the sunglasses to hide his ocular peculiarities, and those tips definitely seem frosted, but something about him still feels a little … off. Perhaps it’s because Shawn Roberts was only in his mid-20s when he filmed the role and Wesker is supposed to be much older, but the one thing we couldn’t get past was his youthful, good looks.
Other than that, and the prominence of Roberts’ widow’s peak, the costuming was pretty spot on. Leather and bad guys go together, and Wesker is definitely the type to rock it in all-black
Leon Kennedy
Leon Kennedy may not be as brawny as Chris, but he’s still one of the coolest characters in the series. There are some stark differences between his appearance in Resident Evil 4 and actor Johann Urb’s character in Resident Evil: Retribution, but it’s probably difficult to find someone with bangs like Leon’s. In an interview with Collider, director Paul W.S. Anderson confirmed as much, saying, “You have no idea how difficult it is to find someone with Leon Kennedy’s hair. It is just not the easiest thing in the world. He has to be manly and has to have these long bangs.”
Urb doesn’t rock Leon’s signature leather jacket in the film, but he does have a nice, winter coat with a fur-lined hood. But, going by what Anderson said, getting the hair correct seemed to be the most important thing.
Ada Wong
Ada Wong’s acrobatic skills and penchant for gunplay have earned her a spot in every Resident Evil fan’s heart. We see her portrayed by actress Bingbing Li in Resident Evil: Retribution, wearing her signature red outfit. This is actually a fairly faithful representation of the character, from the hairstyle down to the yellow butterflies on her dress. We’re so impressed with how accurate the portrayal is, we could have sworn Ada stepped out of the game’s code and into the movie. She even performs that incredible disarm using a front handspring kick in the movie, adding to her cool factor.
Carlos Oliveira
Carlos Oliveira’s first video game appearance was in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, where he helps Jill Valentine escape the zombie-infested Raccoon City and the clutches of the Nemesis. In the films, he’s portrayed by Oded Fehr, who you might remember from The Mummy movies as Ardeth Bay. For some reason, Fehr just can’t escape the undead in any of their forms.
As you might be able to tell, there’s a stark contrast between the game character’s appearance and Fehr’s. Carlos is more youthful-looking with medium-length hair, whereas Fehr is more mature, with a shorter haircut. Even the costuming is different, with Oded’s Carlos featuring less pouches and straps, with more of a desert soldier look. We don’t really mind the departure from the original character’s look, but it’s just a little jarring when most of the other characters’ signature looks are so accurately depicted.
Barry Burton
Whenever we think of sandwiches, we think of the majestically-bearded Barry Burton. The character is famous for exploring the Spencer Mansion with Jill in the first Resident Evil game and saving her from becoming a Jill Sandwich. In Resident Evil: Retribution, the beard is brought to life by Kevin Durand, who wears a red vest similar to that of the original character design. There’s something about the heroes of Resident Evil and wearing red and vests, but we don’t judge.
While his costume features the same kind of leather straps and holster from the game, the biggest difference is that Kevin Durand’s face is a little more good-natured than Barry’s. The video game character looks a lot more hardened in later iterations of the series, but we respect the attention to detail on the outfits. It’s almost enough to make us forgive how nobody spoke of sandwiches. Almost.
Play a fan-made Pokémon game in Minecraft without modding
Minecraft users have been recreating Pokémon in the block-building game for years, but the latest attempt doesn’t require you to mod the game at all. All you need is the base, vanilla Minecraft version 1.8.8, and you’re ready to download the map and play it.
Pokémon Cobalt and Amethyst makes use of command blocks, which one of the developers, PureCharlie, says is similar to mods such as Single Player Commands and WorldEdit, but instead, they’re a mapmaker feature that are activated by redstone. You can see in the video above that battles play out similarly to the ones you’d find on Nintendo’s handheld adventures.
The Pokémon-themed Minecraft map has been in development for about a year and a half, and while it claims to recreate the original Pokémon game from 1996, it adds a new region, unique stories, and 136 new Pokémon, mixing creatures like Giratina and Arceus with the originals.
Cobalt and Amethyst is only available in singleplayer, so you won’t be able to travel or battle with any of your friends. Developer Phoenix SC claims the game will take 60 to 80 hours to complete and features “an antagonist threatening to release a legendary darkness that demands tribute.” You won’t be going up against Team Rocket, Magma, or any of the other classic gangs, either; instead, you’ll be working to take down the Suliqu region’s criminal organization called Team Tempest.
It’s great to see fan-made Pokémon content of this scale, but given the DMCA takedowns of projects like Pokémon Uranium, there’s a possibility that Nintendo will try to shut down Cobalt and Amethyst. If you listen to the video at the top of this article, it sounds as if they’ve borrowed some sound effects from Pokémon Red and Blue. PureCharlie says that if a takedown happens, they “can just go back and change the name,” but I’d think that borrowed assets would be the more damning part.
We’ve contacted PureCharlie for an interview and will report back as we receive more information about the map.
If you’re interested in playing Pokémon Cobalt and Amethyst for yourself, the video below from the developer details everything about how to download and play the Minecraft map—you can download the map here. But if you want to check out other Pokémon modifications to popular PC Games, take a look at these Pokémon that replace Ark: Survival Evolved’s dinosaurs.
Enter to win Flynn’s Log 1 in Paperback
Enter by Oct 31