Minecraft Dungeons will take players to various locations that, of course, sport that signature Minecraft block art style from canyons to swamps and the expected mines. In these various places, players will hunt down new loot like weapons and items to take down hordes of enemy mobs, including some new creatures never seen before.

You will have the option of playing Minecraft Dungeons by yourself and taking on the countless enemies alone or teaming up with up to three other friends for a full team of four players. According to the official announcement, the levels that you will explore with your team will be widely varied as you journey to save all of the villagers and take down the poorly named Arch-Illager.

Minecraft Dungeons will take players to various locations that, of course, sport that signature Minecraft block art style from canyons to swamps and the expected mines. In these various places, players will hunt down new loot like weapons and items to take down hordes of enemy mobs, including some new creatures never seen before.

You will have the option of playing Minecraft Dungeons by yourself and taking on the countless enemies alone or teaming up with up to three other friends for a full team of four players. According to the official announcement, the levels that you will explore with your team will be widely varied as you journey to save all of the villagers and take down the poorly named Arch-Illager.

Minecraft Dungeons is being developed by Mojang itself, though, the team behind it is a smaller dedicated team based in Stockholm, Sweden. The official announcement came with a reveal trailer, which you can view above. Unfortunately, the announcement trailer doesn’t seem to show any actual gameplay so it remains to be seen if the title will play from the traditional third-person/first-person viewpoint or go for the traditional isometric perspective.

However, it does seem from the initial trailer that there will be some sort of class system that players will choose from. We see the traditional sword-wielding fighter as well as a heavy duty hammer-wielding character and some sort of wizard. Minecraft Dungeons is the latest spin-off game in the series, joining Story Mode from the now-closed developer Telltale Games.

The final Minecraft update for Wii U, Xbox 360, PS3, and PlayStation Vita will release this week. It is a bittersweet moment for all players as 4J Studios is ending all support for those last-generation platforms. The update will arrive today, December 18, for some platforms and tomorrow, December 19, for other platforms. All of the other platforms are also receiving the update, too.

The final Minecraft update for those systems is The Nightmare Before Christmas update. The update brings spooky goodies like a Nightmare Before Christmas mash-up pack, fixes for various crashes as you would expect, and more. In addition, it also brings the end of support for those platforms. However, 4J Studios gave no word on online support so we expect the servers to remain online for the time being.

If you haven’t upgraded your Minecraft game from those older platforms to their newer counterparts, now is a great time. This is especially true given that the same update will be also released on PC, Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch this week. If you’re wondering what the exact update versions are for those older platforms, we’ve got those as well.

For Xbox 360 players, it is known as Title Update 73. On Wii U, it is known as Title Update 42. Finally, on PS3 and PlayStation Vita, it is known as version 1.82. Interestingly enough, there was no information given on future support for the Nintendo 3DS version of Minecraft. That version was released after all four of the ill-fated versions so it remains to be seen what will happen to it.

On a more bittersweet note, 4J Studios also tweeted out a photo of the studio packing up all of their PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, and PlayStation Vita development kits. Now that support for those versions is done, it seems there is no need for the kits anymore.

Last gen Minecraft players will soon be a thing of the past as PS3, Vita and much of the last generation of consoles will start lagging behind. The release of Minecraft onto consoles was a shaky one due to its already large community on PC. Mojong, however, pushed forward and released it on all major consoles in the last generation.

It proved to be enough of a success to warrant them releasing it to the current, as well. However, the world of technology is always changing. This has led to the last generation of console slowly fizzling out of the mainstream.

Microsoft, the parent company of Mojong, announced earlier this year that the now-released Update Aquatic was going to be their last big effort to bring the older generation up-to-date. According to a blog post by Minecraft staff, the older generation consoles make up very little of their user-base and they are not going to put resources in a small number, even if they want to.

Although we’d love to keep bringing new content to all our players forever, the older generation of consoles now make up less than 5% of our active players, so we’ve made the difficult decision to focus our efforts to support players where they play Minecraft the most and where we plan to add new features . . .

This doesn’t mean you can’t play it, it just means that no new conntent will be added.

What do you think? Is it sad to see this go or do you just not care because of all the consoles it’s on?

Creative mode, to launch on 6 December, will let gamers construct and play in their own environments without fear of attack

Keith Stuart

@keefstuart
Wed 5 Dec 2018 16.29 GMT Last modified on Wed 5 Dec 2018 16.31 GMT
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Fortnite Creative mode
Fable of the reconstruction … Fortnite Creative mode. Photograph: Epic Games
The hit video game Fortnite is to get a Creative mode, allowing players to design and play on their own islands.

In a major addition to the title, the new mode lets players fly freely around the environment, placing scenic elements, then designing their own mini-games to play with friends.

Developer Epic Games is launching the new option, named Fortnite Creative, on 6 December.

Best known for its free online multiplayer mode, Battle Royale, in which 100 players land on an island and shoot each other until only one remains, Fortnite has become one of the most successful video games of the last decade. With more than 200 million players worldwide, the game makes around $300m a month for its developer, most of that from in-game purchases of skins and emotes.

Set to be available from the main Fortnite menu in addition to the current modes, Save the World and Battle Royale, Creative gives players a choice of island shapes, before giving them access to their own private landscape; using a simple drag and drop interface, they can populate the landscape with a variety of pre-made buildings and scenic objects. It’s then possible to set up a range of mini-games, such as deathmatch shoot-outs and obstacle courses, to play with friends who have been invited on to the player’s server.

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Player-made worlds can be saved to memory and shared with friends. A hub at the outset will also provide access to selected worlds built by other members of the community.

The mode provides an extension to the popular Battle Royale Playground option, which allowed players to land on an island with friends and mess about, making their own objectives. It is similar to the creative mode in the block-building game Minecraft, in which players can similarly create their own buildings and landscapes without worrying about being attacked. It may well answer criticism from some parents that Fortnite concentrates too heavily on killing other players.

For the first week, only those players who purchase a Season Seven Battlepass will have access to the new mode; from 13 December, it will be free for all.

Since the launch of Fortnite Battle Royale in September 2017, developer Epic Games has regularly updated the game, adding new modes and scenic features for every three-month “season”. Creative mode is the biggest change in the past year, and is likely to be highly popular with the game’s vast YouTuber and Twitch streamer community.

Minecraft has received one last-minute hotfix update for the PS4. Here’s what new and fixed in this update.

4J Studios has released a brand new update for Minecraft PlayStation 4 edition. Last week, they released the holiday update on PS4 and other legacy platforms and announced that they were cutting all support for them going into the new year. They have now followed up the holiday update with a small hotfix that is available to download now on the PS4.

Minecraft-Feature-1024×576

Minecraft update version 1.84 patch notes can be viewed in full below. They fix a critical crash with the game.

Minecraft Update Version 1.84 Patch Notes For PS4
Change log for Patch 1.84 – December 21st 2018

Fix for a crash that would could occur when loading a world or exploring an existing world.
Fix for Salmon, Pufferfish or Tropical Fish dropping Cod when killed.
That’s it for the patch notes. Minecraft PlayStation 4 Edition along with the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch will continue to get support from 4J Studios heading into the new year. The legacy systems like the PS Vita, PS3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii U are not going to get any future updates.

Minecraft is available now on a variety of devices including the PS4, PS3, PS Vita, Nintendo Switch, PC, Smartphones, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. It is one of the most popular games worldwide and has sold through millions of copies.

Sad news today if you own Minecraft on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, or Wii U, as the most recent update for the game will be the last. 4J Studios, the company the developed the game for consoles way back when it was released a few years ago, announced that The Nightmare Before Christmas Mash-up Pack they released on Tuesday will be the last update for the game, as they’ve packed up all their dev kits and posted a tweet letting owners know they were done.

View image on Twitter
View image on Twitter

4J Studios
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@4JStudios
As we pack up our Xbox 360, PS3, PSVita and WiiU development kits, we’re getting all nostalgic 😢
Please share some of your best memories over the past six and a half years of Minecraft on these consoles!

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6:29 PM – Dec 18, 2018
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The company made no mention about the servers or the upkeep or management moving forward, which for us means they will probably keep maintaining them as long as there’s a large enough audience still playing the game on those consoles to justify it. So, on the one hand, you’re getting no more updates for that version of Minecraft, but on the other hand, it’s not going away for now.

Since May 2012, when the Xbox 360 version first released, console players have been exploring the ever-expanding world of Minecraft.

And what a six (and a half) years it’s been. Minecraft on console opened up the sandbox game to millions more players who didn’t have access to a PC.

But console-versions porter 4J Studios has now implemented the final update for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360 and Wii U versions of the game. It’s the end of an era.

Sort of. You can still play the game, same as always. The studio took to Twitter to announce that The Nightmare Before Christmas Mash-up Pack will be the final content update for last-gen devices. It will roll in either today or tomorrow.

Another tweet, and your replies that proceeded to hit us right in the feels, asked fans to “share some of your best memories over the past six and a half years of Minecraft on these consoles!”

From making portraits of your kids to reminiscing on the game’s original tutorials, here’s a few notable replies:

Bring part of the games development was….nice 😥 Still remember the reveal at e3 and people going crazy. At least I did 😀
– Kaplan (@Kappische) December 19, 2018

My favorite creative world on my 360 with portraits of my 5 sons, pirate cove and red stone testing base. pic.twitter.com/d2TINlLUJd
– B.F.S.R. (@mobilescreen) December 18, 2018

The iconic dispenser glitch, when we had no creative that thing was a hero :eyes::joy:
– Scott (ECKOSOLDIER) (@eckoxsoldier) December 18, 2018

Some of your best old tutorials there was the best and the classics and i am proud of how far this game has came thanks to @4JStudios @Mojang pic.twitter.com/VH74FnM4f9
– SHAD0WDEM0NYourGamer (@reecejohnston7) December 18, 2018

Console edition wasn’t the first or the last version I played but it’s my favorite and I have so many good memories. Playing with past friends, minigames like glide, getting up early for updates on TUesdays, working on my survival world, building this 64×64 cauldron pixel art pic.twitter.com/qYhLQUtgWV
– Kacee (@CowzerOwzer7) December 18, 2018
In total, there’s been 73 updates for Minecraft on Xbox 360 since its launch, with over 21 million players picking it up on that console alone.

In the summer, Microsoft announced that Minecraft had over 91 million active monthly users – crazy numbers. I suppose it is the second most sold/played game ever. Behind only Tetris, no less.

It will be interesting to see how, if it all, the final last-gen update affects the game’s player base. But remember, it’s not going anywhere. It’s simply found its final state. Which, still, is pretty sad

What do you think about this news? Do you play Minecraft on old consoles? Will you be sad to see those last-gen updates end? What’s your favourite memory? Let us know.

Now may be the time to jump back into Minecraft as new rounds of free content and deals are launched for the holidays. Players can now obtain the new adventure map Catastrophic Pandamonium for free from the Minecraft Marketplace which showcases the newest update features including pandas, cat designs, scaffolding, the latest mob, and more.

Also available now are new Holiday Bundles that offer discounts and deals on many items in the Minecraft Marketplace. Finally, on December 25th, players can get a free Winter Gifts Bundle that includes free maps, skins, and worlds, so don’t forget to sign in for all of this content.

All offers expire January 4th at 10:00 AM PST and are only available on these versions of Minecraft–Xbox One, Windows 10 Edition, iOS, Android, and Nintendo Switch.

Though my ten-year-old’s obsession with Minecraft first took hold three years ago—back when Minecraft was all the rage—I have to hand it to him. He’s sticking with it, despite the imperialist hegemony of Fortnite. What’s more, he’s not a fan of the newer game. “Too much violence,” he says, despite his affection for Nerf guns and laser tag.

The Minecraft connection began when some of my friends came by with an iPad and a teenager. “While we catch up,” my friends said, “Henry [their kid] can show Gus [my kid] all the stuff he’s building in Minecraft.”

It sounded innocent enough—not like the kind of thing that would destroy the very fabric of our family.

“Hey dad,” Gus asked the next day. “Can I download an app? It’s only $4.99.”

Coincidentally, his aunt had just sent him an iTunes gift card, so who was I to say no?

Five minutes later, he was laughing at the iPad. I felt good. For once I had done the right thing. I had allowed him his freedom. Little did I know that would be the last normal conversation my son and I would share before I lost him forever, literally down a mineshaft.

Hours later, he remained unmoved on the couch, still chuckling at the device.

“What are you watching now?” I asked.

“Still playing Minecraft!” he shouted over the din in his earbuds.

I choked on my coffee. What would my wife do when she caught wind of this? We had not discussed whether or not downloading Minecraft was okay.

I began formulating my arguments. My first line of defense would be to deny culpability: “I didn’t know what he was downloading!” No good. What parent lets his kid download something without knowing what it is?

Better to play the nostalgia card. “Let’s not overreact here,” I’d mansplain. “Don’t forget—you had an Atari 2600 growing up. And when I was seven, I had some weird triangular Coleco thing. I spent my childhood days rotating a giant knob in order to hit a green square with a rectangle. And I turned out fine!”

As is often encouraged in parenting books that I’ve read the jackets of while waiting for my family at the mall, it’s best to show some interest in your children’s activities. So I took a seat next to Gus on the sofa.

“Wow!” I said, “Looks cool. Kind of pixellated and retro-y. Yet futuristic.”

“Want to see my house?” Gus said. “That’s my bed…”

A bed? In a video game? How raunchy does this game get?

“Why do you need a bed?”

“Duh. So I can sleep.”

This explained nothing.

“Do you have to make the bed? Wash the sheets?”

“Of course not, dad!”

That’s when I realized something. Even though this was his first solo game of Minecraft, he seemed to know everything about it.

“Gus,” I asked, not wishing to appear dumber than I already did. “Didn’t you just download Minecraft this morning? How do you know all this stuff?”

“Reading, dad! They have books in the library. Plus, we play it at Noah’s.”

I breathed a big sigh of relief. The fault was not entirely mine! I could pin the rap on the Damaskes—a family so adorable nobody could ever stay mad at them for anything.

“So, what’s your score?” I asked him.

“There is no score.”

“How do you know who’s winning?”

“Nobody wins in creative. You just play.”

“How many lives do you have left?”

“I said I’m in creative!”

“What does that even mean?”

“It means you just build stuff!”

“How many blocks do you get?”

“As many as you want. Want to play?” he asked.

Truth be told, I did want to play. But I held back. Because, like a professional gambler or an obsessive collector (my grandfather and father, respectively), I had stopped playing video games after I flunked out of med school thanks to Prince of Persia (Mac version, 1993).

Friends with similarly addicted children have tried to be reassuring. “It’s not as bad as other games,” they say. “It’s social, at least. Sort of. And… creative!”

Our house is now full of Minecraft paraphernalia—books, Legos, night lights, swords, and stuffed animals. One stuffed animal just looks like a giant green erection, testicles and all. Thousands of years from now, the plastic action figures will be dug up by future archaeologists who will rack their brains trying to unravel their significance.

It’s overwhelming—and I haven’t even mentioned the videos.

One morning, Gus was using the iPad when a new voice filled the room—an Englishman’s voice. I got a creepy feeling.

The horror…
Enlarge / The horror…
“Guys?” I asked from the kitchen, “Are you, like, playing Minecraft over the Internet?”

“I’m watching a video.”

“A video… of Minecraft?”

“Yeah, this guy’s awesome! His name is DanTDM.”

Actually, DanTDM is apparently so awesome that if you type “Da” in the YouTube Search Bar what you see first is “DanTDM.” I clicked, a sinking feeling rising from my bowels, and read:

“The Diamond Minecart. 1,706 videos. 9,251,825 subscribers.”

“Holy f**k!” I said reflexively. “Minecraft | 5 Secrets About DanTDM!! has 21 MILLION views! How the hell did he get 21 million views?”

“By being awesome, that’s how!”

“Sorry, I just. I can’t. I don’t. I’m not sure how to process this.”

I looked back on everything I’d done and suddenly realized my life was nothing more than a series of thwarted efforts: getting thrown out of medical school, moving to LA, getting laid off by the National Lampoon, then moving back to Boston and finding six years of digital comedy wiped clean from the website, as if it never existed. When all I ever had to do was play video games!

So here’s the big question: is my boy technically “addicted” to Minecraft? Let’s look at the risk factors, as enumerated by Medical News Today.

1. Person takes the substance and cannot stop. Things have gotten so bad that our only effective punishment is withdrawal of Minecraft. Such threats result in everything that occurs with addiction: “moodiness, bad temper, poor focus, a feeling of being depressed and empty, frustration, anger, bitterness and resentment.”

2. Symptoms of insomnia accompany withdrawal. On weekends, Gus wakes up before sunrise to play Minecraft or watch Minecraft videos.

3. Addiction continues despite health problem. Gus’s thumb is blistered and sore as a result of playing. Nevertheless, he chooses to suffer.

4. Social and/or recreational sacrifices accompany addiction. The other night Gus stated he would much rather stay home by himself playing Minecraft than see his sister perform at their school—though this should come as no surprise to anyone.

5. User diligently maintains a good supply. Gus is hyper-vigilant about plugging the iPad in at night to ensure it will be fully charged come morning.

6. User takes risks to acquire substance. The boy frequently steals the iPad, without asking, to sneak in a game of Minecraft.

7. User needs substance to deal with problems. Gus’ happiness is directly proportional to the time spent playing Minecraft.

8. Obsession with substance. It’s all he talks about. He literally counts down the minutes to the time he’s finally allowed to play: “Ten minutes till Minecraft!”

9. User seeks solitude and acts in secrecy. On more than one occasion, Gus has hidden beneath a blanket, secretly indulging in Minecraft. Given a choice, I feel confident he would much rather hang out with Minecraft than with either one of his parents (though, again, this should come as no surprise to anybody).

10. User denies having a problem. Far from being a problem, Gus sees Minecraft as a solution. Perhaps the solution… to boredom, interpersonal relationships, you name it.

In fact, Gus is better equipped to survive in the Minecraft world than in the real one. Which leads me to my latest theory: some sort of higher power is behind all this—some alien presence or non-physical entity who is totally in charge and who knows exactly what’s going on. And these virtual worlds are training camps for the youth, preparing them for the day when the planet becomes uninhabitable. When this time comes, the physical world will be replaced by a virtual one… and everyone will live in individual Life Pods™, where all our basic biological needs will be taken care of: nutrients and water and oxygen in, waste and CO2 out.

Immobility will be the trade-off for immortality. These kids will be the last generation to inhabit the Earth—since no one will be able to have actual sex—but they will live forever, together in their addictive virtual kingdom, just like in Minecraft creative.

Following an announcement earlier this year, Microsoft and Mojang have followed through on bad news for owners of Minecraft on older game systems. Yesterday marked the end of development on the popular game’s “legacy” branch.

That means if you still play Minecraft on the game’s first-ever console port platform, the Xbox 360, this week’s 1.83 patch is the last one you can expect to ever receive. The same goes for owners of the game on PlayStation 3, Wii U, and PlayStation Vita.

Most of the game’s modern versions, ranging from iOS and Android to PC and “current-gen” consoles, were unified in a shared-codebase manner by primary developer Mojang earlier this year. This version originated from a “Pocket Edition” codebase and later became known as the “Bedrock” edition. The aforementioned legacy platforms, on the other hand, remained in the development hands of independent Scottish studio 4J. Microsoft’s relationship with 4J began in the Xbox 360 era with ports of classic Rare games Banjo-Kazooie and Perfect Dark (which were ported from their original N64 versions, owing to Microsoft’s current ownership of those franchises).

4J confirmed the final-patch news on Tuesday morning by posting an image of its older-console development kits unplugged and arranged against a wall. “As we pack up our Xbox 360, PS3, PS Vita, and Wii U development kits, we’re getting all nostalgic,” the tweet read.

This patch includes the same new “mob” characters that can randomly appear in Bedrock versions of the game (including cats and pandas) along with other bug fixes. Thus, this appears to be the last time anyone can expect feature parity between current-gen and last-gen versions of Minecraft.

4J has not announced whether it will continue supporting the Minecraft franchise as a developer, and neither the studio nor Microsoft immediately replied to requests for clarification. Sources indicated to Ars Technica that 4J’s relationship with Minecraft will continue but did not elaborate.

This is the second major branch of the game to be shut down by Microsoft, following the shuttering of its Windows Phone and Windows Mobile versions in 2017.
We can estimate up to 4.5 million Minecraft players will be left in the cold by this update, based on information provided by Mojang’s original announcement. At that time, the developer indicated that “less than 5 percent” of players play on these platforms, and the game is currently up to roughly 91 million monthly players.

Minecraft’s original early access period included a “buy it once, own it forever” promise, and that persists, thanks to back-end work at Mojang’s site to support the game’s original buyers between 2009-11… but only if they redeemed a permanent voucher for a version on Windows 10. Buyers of the game’s Xbox 360 version originally had a free-upgrade path to claiming the game’s license for use on Xbox One, but that temporary upgrade offer has since expired. And the current-gen version supports cross-play on nearly every platform imaginable, save one.

Gamevice, the makers of industry-leading mobile controllers, announced today that a special Gamevice Minecraft Bundle for iPhone is now available for $89.95 on Amazon.com and select retail stores in North America. The Gamevice Minecraft Bundle includes a special edition carrying case and a code to download Minecraft on iOS. Gamevice enhances the Minecraft mobile gaming experience, bringing console control to your mobile device. The Gamevice controller creates seamless cross platform gameplay between iOS, PC and consoles, as it enhances the experience on your iPhone.

“Minecraft is one of the greatest games of all time and playing Minecraft with Gamevice puts mobile players on equal ground with PC and console players. said Phillip Hyun, CEO, Gamevice. “Gamevice offers low latency and precision control, delivering a console quality experience to more than one thousand different games including Mojang’s masterpiece.”

The Gamevice Minecraft Bundle is available for iPhone X, iPhone 8/8 Plus, iPhone 7/7 Plus, iPhone 6s/6s Plus, and iPhone 6/6 Plus and is now available for $89.95 on, Amazon.com and select retail stores in North America.

Gamevice gives players latency-free control over their mobile experience, along with console precision, highly responsive buttons and joysticks in a comfortable and ergonomic design. Gamevice is an all-in-one entertainment hub that works as a controller for more than 1,000 mobile games, DJI’s Spark drone, and Sphero’s SPRK+ and Star Wars Droids, and is now available at Gamevice.com or select retailers.

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The developers of Minecraft are planning a refresh of the textures in Minecraft, and have just released version 3.3 for those who wish to try it. The new textures give the game a slightly more natural look, thanks to its lead designer Jasper Boerstra.

Minecraft textures are getting a refresh to give it a more natural look.

While the post doesn’t tell us what all is changed with version 3.3, the textures are available to download for anyone running the Java edition of Minecraft. Mojang also plans to release the textures on the Minecraft Marketplace for anyone running the Bedrock edition.

Minecraft’s new textures are available on the Java Edition now, with Bedrock Edition coming soon.

For those unfamiliar, the Java Edition is the original edition of Minecraft, playable on any computer running Windows, macOS, or Linux with Java installed. Microsoft later released the Bedrock Edition for Windows 10, Xbox One, and even the Nintendo Switch, which bring cross-platform multiplayer to Minecraft players on Android and iOS.

Boerstra says that the new textures will eventually replace the default ones in Minecraft, while the older version 2 textures will still be available for free for those who might feel a bit nostalgic. If you’re interested in trying the new ones, Mojang has written step-by-step instructions on how to download and apply them in the Java Edition.

With a host of innovations launched this year, it’s an exciting time for Taiwan, a country known for efficiency and production. The opening of Amazon’s latest innovation center in Taipei this past August, combined with the country’s tech-savvy spirit, have created an invigorating atmosphere for product designers and manufacturers.

Some of the best new innovations in information and communications technologies will be showcased at CES 2019 through the efforts of Taiwan Excellence. CES attendees visiting the booth — LVCC, South Hall 1 #20636 — will see the latest advancements in smart transportation, smart home, smart healthcare, and gaming.

Highlights of the Taiwan Excellence Pavilion
When it comes to mobile gaming, the ROG phone gets all the glory. Developed by multinational Taiwanese company ASUS, the ROG phone takes gaming performance to the next level. Incorporating the world’s fastest 2.96GHz speed-binned Qualcomm® SDM845, and an innovative GameCool vapor-chamber cooling system, the ROG Phone gives you the edge you need for total domination.

And then there’s the MSI Optix Gaming Monitor. Want to check your ammo, health, or power stats? No problem. This monitor is housed in a beautiful 27” curved VA display for maximum viewing pleasure, with built-in RGB LED’s on the front and support of SteelSeries GameSense.

Ever seen an “underwater drone”? You can with the Seadragon XLR. It’s an ROV system that utilizes interchangeable, modular components residing on a single, intelligent network. It provides a flexibility that sets the Mission Specialist ROV series apart from current technology in the Remotely Operated Vehicle industry.

Need amplified listening and noise reduction to identify subtle heartbeat abnormalities? This new Digital Stethoscope provides detailed sound recordings, amplifications, and visuals. The POCT Analyzer includes an embedded mobile device that transmits data to the cloud and point-of-care facilities enabling advanced data management.

See what Taiwan ICT Industry has in store for 2019
And before CES begins, Taiwan Excellence will host a press conference — “The Future is Smart: Taiwan Innovations for 2019 & Beyond” — at the Mandalay Bay South Convention Center, Level 2, Lagoon K, in Las Vegas from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, January 7th, 2019. The event provides early access to some of Taiwan’s most innovative companies’ spokespeople and their products, as well as the opportunity to hear from senior officials from TAITRA. Media representatives are encouraged to register in advance or to request for one-on-one media interviews here.

Four Taiwan Excellence award-winner companies will present the latest technology and products — from high-tech retailing to IoT smart devices.

Cyberlink will introduce “FaceMe — the world’s top cross-platform AI facial recognition engine”
ELECLEAN will present “Directly turn water into sanitizer — the world’s first green disinfectant generator”
Innolux will share “New Display, New Retail,” an electronic shelf display
Thunder Tiger Corporation will showcase its underwater drone, the Seadragon XLR underwater ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle)
Each product showcased at CES is a recipient of the Taiwan Excellence Award. This Award was established in 1992 by Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs to recognize and honor both innovation and value among Taiwanese products. It recognizes exceptional products for their robust performance in the following areas: R&D, design, quality, and international marketing. The award winners epitomize Taiwan’s unique ability in using innovation to create added value in the design and manufacture of cutting-edge products.

Whether you’re in Taiwan, the U.S., or anywhere else in the world, Taiwanese representatives are always looking for smart, driven companies that seek partnerships and alliances to forge new growth opportunities.

The government of Taiwan is supporting the country’s new innovative ecosystem by encouraging entrepreneurship and startups, assisting universities and researchers to secure funding, building relationships with R&D innovation circles globally, and building a culture of innovation among children with programs like those found at Hsinchu Science Park or kids’ innovation contests at the new Taiwan Design Center.

Taiwan Excellence will showcase this leadership at CES, January 8-11, 2019, bringing the country’s latest innovations to the booth for leaders in the tech and electronics space to see and interact with. Attendees can visit Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall 1, #20636. Learn more here.

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The Minecraft Marketplace continues to draw in more people than ever with free content. That led to yet another huge spikes in downloads for the month to 2,255,888. That’s up from 1,351,438 in September. While many people are downloading the free promotional worlds and experiences, that should get people used to the idea of using the store. And creators could see even more sales in the future as a result.

As with September, a lot of the free content in October came from The Minecraft Team’s MineCon Earth fan event. That’s where the developer introduced its Grid Runners mode. It’s also where Jigarbov launched the free MineCon Earth version of Abstraction. On top of those, The Minecraft Team also launched the Purple Parrot Party Palace, which is also free.

So the download numbers continue to climb for the Marketplace. We’ll have to see if that increases spending.

Top 10 most downloaded
Click to view slideshow.
Grid Runners — Noxcrew
Abstraction: MINECON EARTH — Jigarbov Productions
Purple Parrot Party Place – Minecraft
City Mash-Up — Everbloom Studios
Horror House — CubeCraft Games
Aquatic Life — Cyclone Designs
Immersion: Chicago — Shapescape
Millionare Mansions — Noxcrew
City Life — PixelHeads
Zombie Apocalypse — PixelHeads
Top 10 highest grossing
Click to view slideshow.
City Mash-Up — Everbloom Studios
Immersion: Chicago — Shapescape
Aquatic Life — Cyclone Designs
Millionaire Mansions — Noxcrew
City Life — PixelHeads
Zombie Apocalypse — PixelHeads
CampCraft — Blockworks
Farms – Shapescape
Mine Zoo – Cyclone Designs
Pirates of the Caribbean — Minecraft
See you again soon.

The Minecraft Team officially has broken the seal on wide-scale use of its Minecraft Marketplace. Downloads for November were 4,566,013. That’s double the 2,255,888 downloads from October. Once again, free content was a major driver for that growth. But that huge influx of players to the store could spill over into real purchases — especially considering what is launching in Minecraft just in time for the year-end holidays.

Beginning today, December 20, The Minecraft Team is launching the Season of Giving event. Only it is Microsoft, Mojang, and its creator partners doing the giving. As part of this celebration, you will get a bunch of in-game content for free.

Holiday events are turning into a bigger tradition in video games. A big reason for that is that developers that run games as services want to engage with players who are spending Christmas playing on their new consoles, laptops, smartphones, and TVs. For years now, mobile games have capitalized on that by releasing content just in time for December 25. And now Minecraft and Fortnite are doing the same on console and PC.

Did you say free?
The Season of Giving freebies include a new adventure map from the creation team Gamemode One called Catastrophic Pandamonium. While that might sound like a disaster, I encourage you to notice the puns. CATastrophic PANDAmonium is indeed a showcase for the cat and panda animal creatures that got an update (cats) or debuted (pandas) in the latest patch.

But Catastrophic Pandamonium isn’t the only gift The Minecraft Team has in store for you. You can also get special discounts as part of a holiday deals promotion that is running through January 3.

Above: Gifts are only available for a limited time.

Image Credit: The Minecraft Team
Finally, on Christmas Day, the Minecraft Marketplace is getting a free Winter Gifts Bundle with plenty of extra goods.

Top 10 most downloaded
5. Abstraction: Minecon Earth 5. Abstraction: Minecon Earth
Inspiration Island by Minecraft: “Visit Inspiration Island, a floating theme park world filled with creative challenges. Whether you are new to Creative Mode or just need a little extra inspiration, a visit here sets you on the path to craft your own groundbreaking worlds.”
Purple Parrot Party Place by Minecraft: “A celebration of all things purple parrot party and palace! Master the mechanics of fireworks, armor stands, jukeboxes, and banners. Traverse a jungle island to find a massive parrot temple.”
Legacy Skin Pack by Minecraft: “Get cracking with these starter skins and old favorites brought over from Minecraft editions of yore.”
Grid Runners by Noxcrew: “Take on Noxcrew’s Grid Runners: a minigame map made up of classic Minecraft challenges where you can craft, mine and jump your way to victory. Compete against the clock for the fastest times and team up with all of your friends to find out who is the ultimate Minecraft champion! This is a free map, created exclusively for Minecon Earth 2018.”
ABSTRACTION: Minecon Earth by Jigarbov Productions: “Featuring the logos that were just begging to be played on, MINECON EARTH has floating landmasses with a surprising amount of hidden secrets and challenges.”
Luxury Life by PixelHeads: “Luxury Life is a world where you role-play life as a billionaire. Cruise the streets in a sports car or any of the 10 other vehicles, explore luxurious mansions and decorate with furniture!”
Aquatic Life by Cyclone Designs: “Get ready for a realistic aquarium experience with Aquatic Life! Dive into large tanks and swim with whale sharks! Discover dangerous shark species and hop on a boat and feed the Piranhas!”
Anime Day School by Sil3ntWxlf and TeamVisionary: “Experience going to school in style with Anime Day School.”
City Mash-Up by Everbloom Studios: “With over 1,000 hand-detailed rooms, there are stories, secrets, and mini-games around every corner. Build with the city’s full texture pack in your own worlds or take on any role you can imagine!”
Haunted Swamp Survival by Everbloom Studios: “Gnarly trees, a ghastly maze, and an abandoned mansion; these are just some of the things you’ll find as you explore this mysterious survival spawn.”
Top 10 highest grossing
5. Immersion Chicago 5. Immersion Chicago
City Mash-Up by Everbloom Studios: “With over 1,000 hand-detailed rooms, there are stories, secrets, and mini-games around every corner. Build with the city’s full texture pack in your own worlds or take on any role you can imagine!”
Luxury Life by PixelHeads: “Luxury Life is a world where you role-play life as a billionaire. Cruise the streets in a sports car or any of the 10 other vehicles, explore luxurious mansions and decorate with furniture!”
Aquatic Life by Cyclone Designs: “Get ready for a realistic aquarium experience with Aquatic Life! Dive into large tanks and swim with whale sharks! Discover dangerous shark species and hop on a boat and feed the Piranhas!”
CampCraft by Blockworks: “A vast wilderness awaits you and your friends in CampCraft. Discover forest animals, ride camper vans, toast marshmallows, sit around the campfire and set up your own camp!”
Immersion: Chicago: “Immerse yourself in Chicago, the windy city. Visit the river with your friends, race through the streets and roleplay your daily life.”
Movie Star by Noxcrew: “Direct and star in your very own films with Noxcrew’s Movie Star Creative Toolbox! With dozens of scripts and pre-built scenes, this map is great for roleplay and learning to build.”
City Life by PixelHeads: “Cruise through the big city in City Life! Chase down a bandit in your police car, save the day as a firefighter or take your dog for a walk.”
Super Cute Texture Pack by Minecraft: “The Super Cute Texture Pack lets you create a cheerful world full of the cutest and cuddliest mobs! Bouncing bunnies, ultra-adorable unicorns, brilliant bumblebees and, er, burgers? Yes, burgers! This texture pack comes with 15 skins.”
Cruise Ship Roleplay by Everbloom Studios: “Welcome aboard! You’re the Assistant General Manager on this voyage across the sea. And it’s your job to lend a helping all around the ship, so our guests have the ultimate vacation!”
Zombie Apocalypse by PixelHeads: “Explore a run-down, overgrown city taken over by cyborg zombies. To survive, you must scavenge for food and weapons, and fight off the zombies!”

Microsoft’s challenge requires AI agents to cooperate in a virtual universe

Playtime: Microsoft researchers hope that after collaborating with other AIs in a virtual game, it will be easier for AIs to learn to work with humans in the real world.
If artificial intelligence (AI) agents are to become real players in society, using their machine abilities to complement our human strengths, they must first become players in the video game of Minecraft. And to prove themselves in Minecraft, they must work together to capture animals in a maze, build towers of blocks, and hunt for treasure while fighting off skeletons.

That, anyway, is the premise of a competition organized by Microsoft, Queen Mary University of London, and crowdAI (a platform for data-science challenges). Next month, the organizers will announce the winner—the team that created an AI that could best observe its Minecraft environment, determine which of three missions it had to accomplish, and then collaborate with another AI agent to carry out that mission.

By emphasizing adaptability and cooperation, the organizers aimed to encourage research on AI agents that could one day interact with humans to accomplish tasks in the real world. And while an AI that can truly match the intellectual capacity of a human is still the stuff of science fiction, researchers could take meaningful steps toward that goal of artificial general intelligence (AGI) in Minecraft.

The Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning in MalmO (MARLO) competition is an offshoot from Project Malmo, begun in 2015 by AI researcher Katja Hofmann at Microsoft Research Cambridge, in England. Although much exciting AI research has involved AIs mastering strategy games like chess and Go, Hofmann was looking for a game that would allow an AI to learn a broader range of skills.

“The moment we started talking about Minecraft, it was obvious that this was a perfect environment for AI research,” she says. “It’s a world that people join with no predefined goal.” Project Malmo is a platform built on top of Minecraft in which researchers can perform many different kinds of AI experiments, yet also compare their results in a standardized way.

In the inaugural MARLO challenge, in 2017, AI agents were asked to carry out a single mission: catching a pig. For the 2018 competition, the organizers made it harder by designing three different missions that all require collaboration. The AI competitors had to learn how to identify another AI agent in the environment, and then find a way to work together toward their common goal.

An AI agent that could hypothesize about the goals of another agent would have a rudimentary form of what psychologists call “theory of mind,” the human capacity to attribute mental states and intentions to other people. Hofmann hopes that AI agents will eventually hone this ability by collaborating with human players in Minecraft. “Then the algorithms could learn to collaborate with humans,” she says, “and learn what humans want.”

The AIs at play in the MARLO competition were trained via reinforcement learning, in which an AI learns through an intense course of trial and error. Each team’s AI began by making random movements and observing their effects on the game. The competition environment had rewards built into the game, so the AI received points for certain achievements. Eventually, the AI figured out the actions that caused it to acquire points—and that resulted in a captured chicken or found treasure. While the reinforcement-learning algorithms did most of the work in these training sessions, each MARLO team had its own strategy to speed up or improve the learning.

Minecraft is just one of many complex video games now being used by AI researchers, says Igor Mordatch, who leads multiagent research at OpenAI, a nonprofit research organization based in San Francisco. OpenAI hasn’t focused on Minecraft, instead creating AI agents that can play the multiplayer video game Dota2.

“We’re building toward a good ecosystem of environments and benchmarks for reinforcement learning,” says Mordatch. “But there is a challenge now: How do we ensure that the AI is learning something useful in these games?”

Hofmann says the AI agents that succeed in Minecraft can likely succeed in other video games as well. It’s easy to imagine that AI could power the nonplayer characters in games, perhaps giving these characters the ability to interact naturally and cooperate with human players.

One competitor in the MARLO challenge sees even more practical applications for his entry. Donghun Lee, a researcher at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, in South Korea, focused on getting his AI agent to communicate effectively and express its intentions. He says this ability will feed directly into his IoT research. The proliferation of smart devices poses communication problems, Lee says, as many networked devices now need to work in tandem.

“It’s not an easy job to manipulate all these devices at once in a cloud,” he says. But with multiagent reinforcement learning, he says, the IoT devices could figure out how to work together.

This article appears in the January 2019 print issue as “Why AIs Are Chasing Chickens in Minecraft.”

The holidays are upon us once again, and you have some last-minute shopping to do. What better present is there to offer your loved ones than the gift of Minecraft. Not outdated, unmoddable console-Minecraft, but glorious PC Minecraft. It just so happens that a Tom’s Guide forum user asked our help in finding the best cheap laptop for Mojang’s popular world-building game.

Help_Me_LTP_legion

christinahoward24 writes, “Any recommendations for a cheap laptop or tablet that will mainly be used for playing Minecraft, Roblox, and watching YouTube. It’s a Christmas gift for a kid. I was thinking about a Chromebook, but I read that you can’t play Minecraft on a Chromebook.”

Don’t worry, Christina, we got you covered. While Minecraft isn’t graphically demanding, it devours RAM faster than Google Chrome does, so that’ll be one of the main factors when choosing the right laptop. Also, you’ll want to check out our top cheap gaming mice, since you can’t game on a touchpad alone.

Minecraft System Requirements
Mojang’s Minecraft: Java Edition system requirements are listed on its website as such:

CPU: Intel Core i3-3210 3.2 GHz / AMD A8-7600 APU 3.1 GHz or equivalent.
RAM: 2GB.
GPU (Integrated): Intel HD Graphics 4000 (Ivy Bridge) or AMD Radeon R5 series (Kaveri line) with OpenGL 4.4.
GPU (Discrete): Nvidia GeForce 400 Series or AMD Radeon HD 7000 series with OpenGL 4.4.
Storage: At least 1GB for game core, maps and other files.
Windows 7 and up / macOS: Any 64-bit OS X using 10.9 Maverick or newer / Linux: Any modern 64-bit distributions from 2014 onward.
Internet connectivity is required for downloading Minecraft files, afterward offline play is possible.
You may want to take these requirements with a grain of salt, mostly because this covers basic Minecraft, and that’s about it. Popular mods, such as SkyFactory or All the Mods, are known to gobble up tons of RAM.

Acer Aspire E 15: Best Value for Playability
If you’re going for the bare minimum, then the Acer Aspire E 15 will be more than sufficient, as it comes equipped with an Intel Core i3-8130U processor, 6GB of RAM, 1TB HDD and an Intel HD 620 GPU, all for $354.

acer aspire e15-673

The Aspire E 15 scored 7,468 on the Geekbench 4 overall performance test and 63,817 on the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited graphics benchmark, which means it can perform some decent multitasking as well as run basic Minecraft.

acer-aspire-e15-performance

Its 15.6-inch, 1080p display is rather dull, however, as it reproduced only 62.3 percent of the sRGB color gamut and reached a maximum brightness of 227 nits. However, when we put the Aspire E 15 up against the Laptop Mag Battery Test, it lasted a solid 8 hours and 48 minutes.

acer-aspire-e-15-keyboardThe Aspire E 15’s keyboard is a bit shallow with only 1.1 millimeters in key travel, but they felt surprisingly springy in our testing. We typically recommend key travel in the 1.5 to 2.0 mm range.

Acer Spin 3 (Core i5 – 2018): Best Battery Life
A step up from the Aspire E 15 is the Spin 3, which is armed with an Intel Core i5-8250U CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and an Intel UHD 620 GPU, resulting in faster speeds all around for just $599.

acer-spin-3-lede

The Spin 3 nailed 12,172 on Geekbench 4 and 61,440 on 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited, which gives it more power than the Aspire E 15 to chug some of those heavier Minecraft mods.

Its 14-inch, 1080p panel is smaller than the Aspire, but it’s also slightly nicer to look at, covering 68 percent of the sRGB color gamut and achieving 237 nits of brightness. On top of that, the Spin 3 held out for an impressive 9 hours and 12 minutes on our battery test.

Unfortunately, the Spin 3’s keyboard is too shallow and not tactile enough to be comfortable, as its keys measured at only 1.2 millimeters.

Lenovo Legion Y530: Best Keyboard and Graphics
The Legion Y530 that we tested costs $899 and is outfitted with an Intel Core i5-8300H processor, 8GB of RAM, a 1TB 5400-rpm HDD, a 128GB SSD and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GPU, which hit 13,866 on Geekbench 4 and 163,266 on 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited.

lenovo-legion-y530-perform

To meet your specific needs, we recommend getting the $849 configuration that comes with an Intel Core i5-8300H CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB 5400-rpm HDD and a GTX 1050 GPU, making it more than capable of running a full-modded-out Minecraft (aka: the true way to play).

legion-y530-ports

Its 15.6-inch, 1080p display isn’t as colorful as we would have liked, reproducing only 80 percent of the sRGB color spectrum and averaging a decent 266 nits of brightness. Being a gaming laptop, the Legion Y530 lasted only 4 hours and 44 minutes on our battery test.

The Legion Y530’s keyboard is incredibly comfortable to type on, with its solid 2.0 millimeters of key travel, but it still doesn’t have that tactile feedback you’d expect from a regular gaming keyboard.

Bottom Line
If you’re on a tight budget, then the Acer Aspire E 15 ($354) will do fine in handling Minecraft’s basic game and a few choice mods, as well as everyday YouTube viewing.

However, you may want to consider getting the Acer Spin 3 ($599) due to its increased RAM and performance, as the laptop will be able to handle even more mods in-game, which is how most people play nowadays. On top of that, you get 2-in-1 capabilities, so there are plenty of reasons for a growing artist to use this as well.

If you suspect that the person you’re shopping for wants to get more into gaming beyond Minecraft, we recommend getting the Lenovo Legion Y530 ($849). It’s capable of juggling demanding games at lower settings, and due to its 16GB of RAM, it can play Minecraft with more mods than you can imagine (the right way).

We hope that this helped narrow down your choices. Let us know which you decide to go with!

Credit: Laptop Mag

MINECRAFT: Story Mode is a Netflix show where viewers can control their own ending. So how exactly can you play Minecraft: Story Mode on Netflix?

Minecraft: Story Mode is the final product released from developer TellTale Games before closing down. Streaming service Netflix teased Minecraft: Story Mode with this statement: “Take control of an adventure set in the Minecraft universe. The future of the world is at stake, and your decisions shape the story – so choose wisely!”

How to play Minecraft Story Mode on your TV:
Take control of an adventure set in the Minecraft universe

Netflix

Minecraft: Story Mode allows viewers to decide how the story progresses across its five episodes.

The first three are already out, meaning you can stream them at your leisure now.

Minecraft: Story Mode is not to be confused with the popular game, because character’s cannot be controlled.

The series begins with an explanation as to how the stories work.

Viewers choosing a male or female version of the protagonist, Jesse.

They then begin an adventure to by using with your crafting skills and your friends.

Minecraft: Story Mode can be streamed on TVs, consoles and iOS devices via Netflix.

You will need to use the official app from Google Play to watch Minecraft: Story Mode with an Android device.

Minecraft: Story Mode is rated PEGI 12, meaning it is targeted for family friendly audiences.

The Netflix show was created by Telltale Games, in collaboration with Minecraft creators, Mojang.

Minecraft: Story Mode features the voices of Patton Oswalt, Martha Plimpton and Corey Feldman.

Released in 2011, Minecraft is a sandbox video game, meaning players have the ability to create, modify, or destroy their environment.

Minecraft allows players to build with a variety of different blocks in a 3D procedurally generated world, requiring creativity from players.

Other activities in the game include exploration, resource gathering, crafting, and combat.

Multiple gameplay modes are available, including survival mode, creative mode, adventure mode and hardcore mode.

King Orm of Atlantis is one of the most important Aquaman villains. Here’s everything you need to know about Ocean Master.

The oceans will boil with brotherly hatred when the Aquaman movie hits theatres. The war between Arthur Curry and his conniving brother Orm, the Ocean Master, for the Throne of Atlantis has long been a staple of the legend of Aquaman. It’s a Shakespearean struggle that is perfect for the big screen.

We already covered the history of one undersea baddie in Black Manta, so let’s take a look at the other film villain, King Orm, the Ocean Master. We’ve said it before, prior to the Silver Age, Aquaman never really had an A-list rogues gallery, but that all changed with the arrival of Ocean Master. So let’s take a look at this homicidal, regicidal, fratricidal madman, the would be king… Orm, the Ocean Master!

The Early Days
Ocean Master first appeared in Aquaman #29 (1966) and was created by Bob Haney and Nick Cardy, the same legendary creators that dreamt up Black Manta. In this classic tale, the cover blurb asks, “Aquaman a coward?” as Haney and Cardy unfold the Sea King’s first battle with Black Manta. Over the course of the debut, Aquaman keeps running (swimming) away from Ocean Master every time the new baddie rears his finny head. Aqualad looks on aghast as the always brave Aquaman tucks his gills, pees himself a little, and flees from the freshly debuted Ocean Master again and again. In his first appearance Ocean Master tries to blackmail the world’s navies by trapping a ship in an iceberg and implanting a whale with a device that causes disaster wherever the whale goes. Wait, really? Whoah. I love you, comics.

Anyway, as Ocean Master bedevils the world with his killer icebergs and dickhead whales, it is revealed that the villain is actually his half-brother Orm! Gasp! Aquaman tells a shocked Aqualad that the Sea King’s human father remarried after his Atlantean wife, Aquaman’s mom, died. The two humans had a son together and, for some reason, named him Orm. Orm longed for the sea, and when he was hit in the head with a rock, he contracted amnesia and went mad. Still longing for the sea, Orm built himself a high-tech suit and set plans into motion to become an underwater dictator and all around shitheel.

From robbery to visions of monarchy, after his first appearance, Ocean Master decided he would use his technological mastery to take the throne of Atlantis from his brother. In these subsequent battles in the Silver Age, Ocean Master had no memory of his past, but Aquaman knew, making each battle with Orm a personal struggle. Finally, after being possessed by Deadman, Ocean Master regained his memory, and much to his regal brother’s horror, Orm still desired to usurp and destroy Aquaman.

The Revised Origin
In writer Peter David’s early ’90s absolutely must read run on Aquaman, King Arthur of Atlantis discovers that Tom Curry was not actually his father. Instead, David revealed that Aquaman was the son of an Atlantaen wizard named Atlan. Atlan, the ol’ sea smoothie, got around and had another son with an Inuit woman. So in the post-Crisis era of the DCU, Orm and Arthur were still siblings and Orm was still a fratricidal dick.

The post-Crisis Ocean Master was much more front and center in the DC Universe. In 1995’s Underworld Unleashed event, Ocean Master sells his soul to the devil Neron in return for a power boosting trident. Orm also joins Lex Luthor’s Injustice Gang in the pages of Justice League. This team of evildoers was all considered each of the “Big Seven” Justice League’s perfect foes. This shunted Orm to the big time of DC villainy where he has remained ever since.

The most important post-Crisis Orm revelation (Ormvelation?) came in The Atlantis Chronicles (1990). In this mini-series (which has some of the best fantasy world building this side of Tolkien), it is revealed that the idea of brothers struggling for the throne of Atlantis has been a constant in Atlantaen history. This reveal gives the battle between Orm and Arthur a grand and epic feel. They are each filling the role of an ancient underwater struggle which is all sorts of tragic.New 52
When the DC Universe rebooted in 2011 with the New 52 so did the origin of Orm (Ormigin?). In the new DC continuity, the future Ocean Master was the son of Aquaman’s mother and a member of the Atlantis Elite Guard. When his parents died, Orm found himself as King of Atlantis…until his half-brother Arthur arrived from the surface to take back the throne. This whole bit of high fantasy awesomeness was the brainchild of writer Geoff Johns and it’s no coincidence that this is the one inspiring the Aquaman movie version, where Patrick Wilson will wear the stylish Ocean Master helmet.

Throne of Atlantis
Orm’s next major appearance was in the modern classic Throne of Atlantis. In this tale, a surface vessel unwittingly attacks Atlantis. In retaliation, Ocean Master tries to attack Boston and comes face to face with the Justice League. Not knowing the details of the surface attack on Atlantis, Aquaman sides with his brother against the League. During the struggle, Orm tries to flood Boston which if you think about it, would have prevented the Red Sox from winning two World Series and kept the Patriots out of the Super Bowl, so maybe this isn’t such a terrible idea. Anyway, by story’s end, Ocean Master is arrested and Aquaman retakes the throne.

Ocean Daddy
Ocean Master escapes prison in the 2013 Forever Evil storyline, but in a delicious twist, instead of reverting to his evil ways, Ocean Master meets and settles down with a single mother named Erin. Orm becomes a father to Erin’s son Tommy, but during the events of the 2018 Mera, Queen of Atlantis mini-series by Dan Abnett (it’s a hidden gem, kids, check it out), Orm is drawn back to the depths to become Ocean Master once again.

As for his powers, Orm’s abilities change with the ages of the character. During the Silver Age, Ocean Master uses high tech weapons to challenge Aquaman. In the post-Crisis DCU, Orm was also powerless until his deal with Neron which gave him the ability to manipulate magical energy through his demonic trident. In the New 52 continuity, Orm has the same powers as Aquaman (minus the talking to fish stuff). The modern Orm uses his trident to control lightning and his crown to summon tsunamis and control water. Pretty badass.

But it is his place as Aquaman’s brother that makes Ocean Master so great. Orm could have been a hero, an adventuring king, but instead, he is a bitter recluse always in his brother’s shadow. And that’s the kind of characterization that makes for great drama.

We regret to inform you that musical supervillain Mr. Worldwide has now extended his domain to the very bottom of our planet’s oceans, as Warner Bros. unleashed the soundtrack for next week’s soaked superhero flick Aquaman onto the internet last night. Despite competition from crooner Skylar Grey and the film’s composer, Rupert Gregson-Williams, one track has quickly risen (possibly stomach-side up) to the top of the pile: Pitbull’s “Ocean To Ocean.” Or, as it will now always be known, “The one where Pitbull raps over ‘Africa’ by Toto.”

At two entries, “Least essential ‘Africa’ cover of 2018” turned out to be a staggeringly packed field this year, but we’ll be damned if the Miami unpleasant sound machine doesn’t just kind of go for it, rapping generically about his role as a modern Great Gatsby, a sentiment that has an impressively equal amount of nothing to do with Aquaman and “Africa.” Truly, we are all boats beating on against the current, borne back ceaselessly into a past where we had not yet heard Pitbull scream “Ayooooo!” over the hook of the best Toto song that doesn’t happen to be “Rosanna.” (Don’t at us.)

Here’s the most annoying thing, though: It’s still fucking catchy, because “Africa” is an extremely catchy song. (Also, Rhea does a perfectly fine job of singing the chorus.) And unlike, say, Weezer’s bafflingly popular cover of the song, which was inspired by a tweet, and sounded like it, Pitbull does at least make the song his own, in much the same way that a tidal wave might whilst approaching a small, undefended coastal town.