by Stone Marshall | Sep 1, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
Fortnite just got a whole lot more groovy with tonight's store update, which has added a brand-new set of gear, dubbed Flower Power.
Headlining the store update and Flower Power gear is two new outfits that find themselves dropping onto an island from a bus to murder people following a bad trip during day three of Woodstock. Accompanying the two new outfits is also a new tie-dye glider and an equally trippy harvesting tool.
The new outfits — dubbed “Far Out Man” and “Dreamflower” — are of Epic (purple) rarity, meaning they will cost a healthy 1,500 V-Bucks, each. Meanwhile, the new “Tie-Dye Flyer” glider and “Drumbeat” harvesting tool are Rare (blue) and Uncommon (green) rarity, respectively. The former costs 800 V-Bucks, while the latter comes in at 500.
In other words, if you want to channel your inner peace llama by obtaining the whole set, you will need to feed the corporate man 4,300 V-Bucks.
Speaking of Llamas, the new Llama Bell emote is back, so if you made the mistake of missing it the first time, don't make the same mistake again.
Below, you can check out the new items, as well as every other item available in tonight's store update:
By Saturday Fortnite store update standards, I must say this is a pretty good one, at least if you appreciate the new items, which I do. Unlike many outfits and items this season and last season, the Flower Power set reminds me of early Fortnite, which was less flashy, less clean, and more basic and silly.
Fortnite is available for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, Xbox One, and mobile devices. For more news, media, and information on the game, be sure to check out our previous coverage of the title that covers it extensively by clicking here.
As always, hit the comments section and let us know your thoughts and hot-takes. Planning on picking up any of these new items? I know I am, much to the displeasure of my wallet and good conscious. Curse you, Fortnite.
by Stone Marshall | Sep 1, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
Minecraft, despite having been out for almost a decade now, continues to prove that the creatively driven title has a lot of life left it. The community is strong and never ceases to amaze with their amazing creations in-game. From epic crossovers, to just incredible innovation – the sky is the limit for these block creators and this recent Reddit post proves just that.
The building mechanics in this game are really limitless. For those that bypass the Survival mode and go right into the Creative one, it is a nice outlet for letting that inner artist shine. With the easy to use building mechanics and the incredibly soothing soundtrack, it's really no wonder that so many still tank an impressive amount of hours into this game.
Posts like this always make me incredibly happy because you can just imagine the level of pride the creators are feeling with it. I can't even seem to build a one-level house with four solid walls, so seeing entire realities coming to life is absolutely astounding to me.
Now that the “Build It Together” update is live, it's even easier to create entire worlds. Excited to squad up with friends and family? Here's what you can experience together with this expansive update:
“Explore randomly generated worlds and build amazing things from the simplest of homes to the grandest of castles. Play in creative mode with unlimited resources or mine deep into the world in survival mode, crafting weapons and armor to fend off the dangerous mobs.”
Minecraft Marketplace
For the first time, skins, textures, and worlds designed by the community are available in the store. Buy once and enjoy across Xbox, Windows 10 and mobile devices!* (and soon, the Switch)
Endless exploration
Create and explore your very own world where the only limit is what you can imagine.
Build almost anything
Crafting has never been faster, easier or more fun!
Co-op play
Play with up to four players in split screen for free, or invite hundreds of friends to a massive gameplay server or your own private Realm!
by Stone Marshall | Aug 31, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
Minefaire: The Ultimate Minecraft Experience event is coming to the Schaumburg Convention Center Saturday, Sept. 8 and Sunday, Sept. 9.
Between 12,000 to 15,000 attendees are expected to attend the event involving one of the most popular video games.
Minefaire is the brain child of two fathers who realized they needed to bridge the gap between children who love Minecraft, and parents who may not fully understand the game and its educational aspects.
“Minecraft was the ‘go-to' activity for my four kids before dinner, and I realized how much the game was teaching them about topics like agriculture, history, geology and architecture — all without their feeling like they were being ‘taught,'” says Minefaire Co-Founder Gabe Young. “Kids at Minefaire get to grab their parents by the hand and say, ‘Look what I'm doing.' As parents, we then have the chance to better understand our children and guide them.”
Minecraft is a virtual game where you build new worlds, block by block, by mining the resources you find and crafting them into structures that might include staircases, mazes and amusement parks. For more information or to purchase tickets, go to Minefaire.com.
by Stone Marshall | Aug 31, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
Minecraft is a worldwide sensation which has sold millions upon millions of copies to date. The game is available on everything from desktops to mobile phones. A few years ago, Microsoft purchased the game from its creators and has since greatly expanded its scope. However, when it comes to games, the company has always struggled in the Japanese market. With Minecraft though, it seems like that's changing.
According to a report in Nintendo Life, Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition sold 25,948 copies last week. So far, it's sold over 212,170 units to date. Minecraft on Nintendo Switch beat games like Splatoon 2 and Mario Tennis Aces.
A few weeks ago, Minecraft on Nintendo Switch was updated to the “Bedrock” edition. This allows players to access a lot of new features and play with gamers on other platforms like Xbox One and Windows 10. If you already bought the old version on Nintendo Switch, you can download it for free. Sony still doesn't support cross-play so the Bedrock version isn't available on PlayStation 4.
Hopefully Microsoft's success with Minecraft will result in more visibility for the company in the country. If you look at console sales figures, the Xbox One only sells a dozen or so units each week. Maybe if there were more Microsoft experiences like Minecraft that appealed to Japanese gamers, it would be a boost for the company's console ambitions.
by Stone Marshall | Aug 30, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
Director and co-writer Rob McElhenney is no longer working on Warner Bros.’s film adaptation of “Minecraft,” according to The Wrap.
The “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” star was picked to direct the film in 2015, but now it’s not happening, he recently told The Wrap. Warner reportedly asked the writer/director duo of Adam and Aaron Nee to write a new script. “Wonder Woman” scribe Jason Fuchs wrote the previous draft with McElhenney. The Nee brothers are best known for “The Last Romantic” (2006) and “Band of Robbers” (2015). They’re also directing the upcoming “Masters of the Universe” film.
McElhenney is the second director to leave the project. Originally, “Night at the Museum” director Shawn Levy and writers Kieran Mulroney and Michele Mulroney were brought in to work on the film, but they left in 2014 after reportedly presenting new ideas to the studio that didn’t mesh with what Mojang was looking for. Levy is now supposedly working on the upcoming “Uncharted” film starring Tom Holland as a young Nathan Drake.
The “Minecraft” film’s release date will be pushed back because of the shakeup, The Wrap reports. It was originally scheduled to come out on May 24, 2019.
“Minecraft” is a sandbox building game created by Markus Persson and later developed by Swedish developer Mojang. It launched in 2011 and is now the second best-selling video game of all time behind “Tetris,” with over 144 million copies sold across multiple platforms. Persson sold Mojang and “Minecraft” to Microsoft in 2014 for $2.5 billion.
Steve Carell is expected to star in the movie. Warner Bros. acquired the film rights to the franchise from Mojang. Roy Lee is producing it through his Vertigo Entertainment production company with Jill Messick.
by Stone Marshall | Aug 30, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
Building a great franchise, one block at a time
The first time I picked up the controller to play Minecraft I immediately wanted to set it down again. I was visiting my brother's family and it was my nephew's game du jour. Minecraft had never looked that appealing to me up to then, but I wanted the spend as much quality time with my nephew as I could. It's like when I visit my parents and sit through five hours of Wahlburgers.
It only took about 20 minutes for him to notice I wasn't having any fun. While he was off constructing a voxel McMansion with incredible deft and speed, I was still trying to figure out how to build a house that'd keep me safe overnight. Spoiler alert: I wasn't able to. After my second time dying, we finally switched over Injustice, a game I could actually hold my own at because I'm super cheap with Batgirl.
Minecraft just never crossed my radar until then and after that moment I resided myself to the fact I'd probably never get into the genre. And that was absolutely true until Dragon Quest Builders walked into my life.
The game was announced in what would be a lull for franchise fans in the West. After a particularly bountiful Wii/DS era, the Dragon Quest well dried up at the beginning of our current generation. We didn't get X, we didn't get any of the new Dragon Quest Monsters titles, and that Theatrhythm title never made it to our shores. We did get Dragon Quest Heroes, but neither it nor its sequel really did anything for me beyond showing me how frickin' gorgeous a Musou game can look.
I first experienced Dragon Quest Builders on my Vita with its demo. Going into it, I didn't expect much more than Minecraft with a Dragon Quest dressing. I didn't anticipate the thoughtfully created worlds, the amusing characters, the stunning look of everything, or the gameplay loop of quick missions that only take a few minutes to complete but eat up hours of your time when a case of “just one more mission” starts to kick in. I destroyed that demo and ate up a fine chunk of the final release when I finally had the money to pick it up.
This is how Minecraft clicked for me. The open-ended nature of the title is clearly enough for many, many people, but I couldn't get into it without a little direction. I do know how to make my own fun in games, yes, and I enjoyed watching videos of the cat fountain as much as the next, but something about a lack of clear goals and progress were a barrier for me.
Dragon Quest Builders annihilated that barrier. Across all four chapters of the game, I transformed from a man who couldn't see the fun in just assembling a crappy looking house to a guy who just had to create an entire village to perfection. Make that several villages. DQB got me excited about large-scale landscaping and city planning in ways I hadn't been since SimCity 2000, but in a more personal manner. The absolute joy I found in crafting an entire town and castle allowed me to find the fun in regular Minecraft when I downloaded in on the 3DS and other games that use the formula, such as Harvest Moon: Skytree Village.
For as much time as I put into Builders on my Vita, I've doubled it on the Switch. The port is perfection and as of this writing, it stands as the title I've put the most time into on the console. My experience rebuilding Alefgard has not only captivated me into falling for a new spin-off of a franchise I adore, but of an entire genre I once thought beyond my appreciation. It's funny how one exceptionally made game can do that to a person. I look forward to Dragon Quest Builders 2 and any other franchise looking to branch out into new, do-it-yourself worlds.
