A dad from Canada with a love of Minecraft is attempting the Longest videogame marathon on Minecraft to help inspire people with autism.
Stuart Duncan, 41, from Ontario in Canada is aiming to beat the current record of 35 hours 40 minutes and 2 seconds set between 1-2 June 2016.
His attempt began at 12am EDT (5am BST) on Monday 2 April, World Autism Awareness Day, “to show the world that autistics are capable and equal and should not be targeted to the extent that they are”.
Stuart, who is autistic himself, started his own Minecraft server – Autcraft – and 2018 is his fifth year of doing a 24-hour live stream to ‘educate people about autism, about autistic children and about the struggles they face in playing online'.
“My attempt at breaking the world record is to show the world that yes, autistics play Minecraft too but that we're capable of great things… things that no one else can do. I will accomplish this goal and people will see that having autism is nothing to be ashamed of, they can still do great things.”
The dad-of-two also wants to highlight: “[That] autistic people are bullied at a hugely disproportionate rate compared to people without autism. That having one Minecraft server out of millions where autistic people can feel safe simply isn't enough. That people with autism aren't the anti-social, lacking empathy, troubled and disabled kids that so many people still think we are.
“But more importantly, I'm doing this to remind autistic people everywhere that we're just as capable of being the very best in the world as anyone else, given the proper support and the right opportunities.”
With the PlayStation 3 pretty much on its way out, that means it’s only a matter of time before devoted games for the system pretty much close down their services. Gran Turismo 6 came to a close earlier this year, and, now, it’s time for Bandai Namco’s Ace Combat Infinity to land on the runway.
The game, which launched as a free-to-play title for the PS3 back in 2014, gathered a pretty good community of would-be pilots enjoying the unfriendly skies, making it a suitable hit for Bandai Namco. But, with Ace Combat 7 looming on the horizon, the team appears ready to move on to the next big thing.
So, the servers came to a close yesterday, with pilots getting together for one last hurrah, taking part in a few dogfights before the servers came down. But it didn’t go quietly, as the development team decided to deliver some final thoughts on Twitter:
The team noted the following:
“It’s the end. Thanks and gratitude to everyone are overflowing. I have nothing to say. In the long period from the start to the end of development, as we experienced the sky, there were many encounters and partings among the team. There are friends who are trying hard somewhere else right now.”
“As long as there are people wishing to fly in the sky, the pilots gathered in Ace Combat Infinity will find a formation somewhere. We wish to end the service while hoping that day will come.”
“Thanks to what we were able to realize with Ace Combat Infinity, and what our players through us, through awareness, reflection and joy, the team learned many important things.”
“Thanks to the staff working on the closure today. I’m grateful. Thanks to everyone who has been flying to this day. You have my gratitude. That is all. Ace Combat Infinity, dismissed! Thank you very much! (Kono)”
And the team noted that, with the closure of Infinity, they noted that this isn’t a “goodbye,” but rather a “see you again!” Now it’s just a matter of seeing when that’ll happen.
Ace Combat 7 will release sometime this year for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi recently arrived on Blu-Ray and DVD, giving millions of fans the chance to watch it all over again. But that’s not the only place where you can celebrate your love for Star Wars.
Mojang has announced that it has released a new Star Wars Sequel Skin Pack for Minecraft, which is available through various digital storefronts for the low price of $2.99. You can find more details on its availability over at the Minecraft Marketplace.
The developer worked very closely with both Lucasfilm and Disney to capture that Star Wars essence in the skin pack, which features various characters from both The Last Jedi and the 2015 release The Force Awakens. This includes older Han Solo, General Leia Organa, Poe Dameron, Kylo Ren, Finn, Rey, older Luke Skywalker and Supreme Leader Snoke. This is just the beginning, as a number of characters from both films are available.
This is the latest skin pack to be introduced to the world of Minecraft, as we’ve seen countless ones offered over the years, from The Simpsons to Doctor Who to various Marvel properties.
The Minecraft Marketplace makes it easy to shop for these skins, so you can change up your game on the fly and see what they do for you. This helps extend the replay value of the game tremendously, enabling Mojang to support its millions and millions of fans, who keep coming back for more.
There’s a possibility that this release could lead to other skin packs coming over the course of the year, though the developer hasn’t said a word about what could be coming next. So, for the time being, just enjoy the Star Wars pack that’s currently available, and relive those great memories from both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi – if you’re not doing that from watching the movies, that is.
Check out the trailer above, which features a number of the skins in action, and then get to building in Minecraft for various platforms, including Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii U, as well as a plethora of mobile devices and tablets.
Minecraft now has the option for you to test “experimental features” within the game's main client.
We're talking about “Minecraft” here, AKA the game's Bedrock Edition – the newer cross-platform version currently available on Xbox One, PC and smartphones.
Android, PC and Xbox One users can now toggle the option to enable new features which are still in beta testing. Right now, that includes elements from the game's upcoming aquatic update like the new Drowned mobs (think: underwater zombies), a trident weapon, new enchantments and more blocks.
Microsoft had cautioned that, as a beta, things may go wrong (so backup your save). The game does create a separate world file (with ‘EX' at the beginning of the name) to enable you to return to your prior save state should anything go badly wrong.
It's sort of like the Minecraft Java Edition's snapshots, which let you update your game client in small increments to receive new features as soon as they're coded. The latest of these includes some of the same aquatic features.
The following story includes some major spoilers for the Ready Player One movie that are necessary to discuss its more adult moments.
Ready Player One is a movie full of fun pop culture and exciting video game action, but does that mean that it's ok for kids? While the vast majority of the film is likely to be perfectly fine for the vast majority of the audience, every kid is a little bit different and there are certainly a handful of moments that parents will likely want to consider before deciding if Ready Player One is ok for their kids.
The first point to discuss regarding Ready Player One is the language. The film is PG-13 and that rating allows for a certain level of profanity which the script fully takes advantage of. The use of “shit” and “asshole” is fairly free and frequent, in the way that it is used by teenagers in most movies. The PG-13 rating does also allow for the use of a single F-bomb, and it does get used. Near the end of the movie when a nameless bad guy character is confronted by a particular horror movie character who scares him into using the word.
And speaking of horror movie characters, there is a prolonged sequence in Ready Player One that is dedicated to a particularly popular horror movie of the 1980s. While the Ready Player One certainly holds on to its own PG-13 rating, the horror movie in question was originally rated-R. As such, there are some horror movie elements that might be a little too much for very young kids, even though they are toned down from the original for the most part. The movie in question also contains a scene with a naked woman. In Ready Player One, the scene is shot in such a way to prevent the camera from seeing anything that would make it a rated-R movie, though it is still clear in the film that the woman is naked.
As far as violence goes, while there s a lot of it, it's almost all of the video game variety. When one avatar gets killed by another, they explode into coins and items, rather than blood and guts, which can be collected by another character. It's actually specifically referenced by the creator of the OASIS in the film that he didn't want to include more blood in the game. It's also made clear in the movie that death within the game doesn't hurt anybody in reality, though many characters wear special suits that allow them to feel real pain when their character is hurt in the game.
The other thing the special suit does is allow characters to feel other sensations on their body. Everywhere. This leads to a particularly intimate dance sequence between two characters where a woman rubs up against a guy's groin. What the viewer sees is the suit light up at the crotch and the guy wearing it get a look of pleasure on his face.
All things considered, Ready Player One will likely be fine for most kids. Though, obviously, every kid is different, so depending on yours, there are some potential red flags here to consider.
“Black Panther” breakout Letitia Wright plays Shuri, the genius little sister of Chadwick Boseman’s King T’Challa. But who is Shuri?
The character was introduced in the 2005 comic “Black Panther Vol. 4 #2,” and she goes on to become Queen of Wakanda and take on the mantle of the Black Panther herself. She’s also Disney’s newest princess, which Wright said is “a wonderful thing.”
“I liked her because she was different,” Wright said. “She wasn’t a stereotypical character, she’s a well-rounded human being…a fun character, smart, super-intelligent, super amazing.”
Before “Black Panther,” Wright starred in the “Black Mirror” season 4 episode “Black Museum,” as well as the series “Humans,” on which she played Renie, a synthie.
Boseman was present for Wright’s audition, of which he said, “What she has — you can’t teach that.”
In an earlier interview with VarietyWright revealed that she actually met the creator of Shuri, Reginald Hudlin, shortly after the world premiere of “Black Panther.”
“He said it was perfect,” Wright explained. “And I said, ‘I hope I can continue to grow more with Shuri, if that’s where the future takes us with Marvel.’ Shuri’s young now, but when she grows into an adult, she’s kind of savage. She’s one of the coolest leaders in the comic books.”
