Fancy construction sets are nice, but there’s plenty of building to do in Minecraft proper. The first wave of Minecraft Adventure Figures from Jinx are the perfect way to just hang out at your desk with Steve and the gang.
Available this month at Walmart, Target and collectible retailers like Gamestop (they also dabble in video games), Minecraft Adventure Figures are a series of six lovingly-crafted vinyl statues celebrating the life and death of Steve, Alex and their various enemies.
I’m not normally one for toys that don’t actually do anything, but there’s something about the design of these that implies action without actually imparting any. The slight curve to the characters’ bodies, the sway of their blocky arms. They are ready for adventure, even if that adventure never comes.
The initial assortment includes Diamond Steve, Enchanted Alex (aka Hawkeye), Zombie, Zombie Pigman, Skeleton (or jack-o-lantern with Skeleton friend) and, of course, a Creeper. They run $9.99 apiece and surprise—they are sold in window boxes, so you don’t have to worry about doubles.
Check out some shots of the Minecraft Adventure Figures in relative action in the slideshow below.
You can’t go wrong with good old Diamond Steve. While staying true to texture, the Minecraft adventure figures give the characters’ bodies a slight curve, adding a sense of momentum to the stationary toys. He is charging towards a thing, and that thing is probably adventure.
Turkey scans the waiting room of the parent-teacher conference for any conversations that look ripe for some anti-Minecraft agenda. In the corner, near the pyramid of alphabet blocks, Poland and Belgium are discussing the recent failures of the school's soccer team over Beanie Weenies and paper cups of Hawaiian Punch. As Turkey moves closer, it becomes apparent that Poland's refreshment contains a hint of vodka.
“I dunno, I think we could use a good goalkeeper. You think Spain's kid would be interested?” Poland's question is punctuated by sips and masked winces.
“I'm sure my little one would love the opportunity!” interjects Turkey, “There'll be plenty of free time once we get that insipid Minecraft out of the house. My partner and I, we like to call ourselves the ‘Family and Social Policies Ministry', decided that there's just too much violence in the game! You can murder those poor blocky animals any time you wish. Just yesterday I saw my child slaughtering a pig in his ‘farm'. It was horrifying!”
Belgium, on the verge of slipping another toothpick-speared Beanie Weenie into his mouth, blinks and begins to slowly lower the item back onto his plate.
Poland is the first to respond. “Wow, that's pretty harsh, even for you. Think your kid's gonna hold a grudge?”
“Of course not! We thought the tears would never end when we took away 4chan and Richard Dawkins' website, but those dried up soon enough. Just to be safe, we even removed access to any Wikipedia articles related to genitalia. You know, my partner and I tried to take away the Youtube, but, between you and me, we like to lift the ban every now and then and sneak on there together late at night.”
Poland takes one last gulp from the spiked punch and sighs, hoping it's next in line for conferences.
Microsoft and Mojang have made good on the promise from E3 2017 that Minecraftwould become a cross-platform gaming experience. With the “Better Together” update, players from mobile, Xbox One, and Windows 10 platforms can all play together. It should also be noted that while the Nintendo Switch version is still in development (with a “soon” release date at best) it will be cross-platform compatible upon its release.
Being able to play with your friends regardless of platform is a great step in the right direction for gamers as a whole and adds value to whichever edition players get theirs hands on. That being said, Sony opted out of being a part of this togetherness, meaning neither the PlayStation 3 nor PS4 versions will be compatible. Whether or not the comments in the video about the universe not exploding and everything being better together are meant at Sony directly will probably never be answered.
Xbox One is the only console that this update will take effect on, currently. Further, it should be noted that at the time of writing this that there has been a bit of word of lag-related issues in the community when playing on servers. While this is not ideal, Mojang and 4J Studios have been known to keep a steady stream of updates flowing, meaning that anything that needs ironing out post-update will probably be tended to.
Minecraft has launched across nearly every platform since its 2009 debut on PC, spanning Android, iPhone, X1, X360, PS3, PS4, Windows 10 and a future port to Nintendo Switch. The game features both local co-op and online across the platforms via split-screen and internet, respectively.
If you have any questions about what features or versions of the game are supported, Mojang put together an FAQ on the minecraft.net website.
Minecraft does an outstanding job of incorporating the co-op that we here at Co-Optimus are so fond of; you can read our review here (short version: we gave it a 5 out of 5, it’s amazing.) meaning that this update is just frosting on the cake. Will you be playing together with your friends, or has the lure of caves, monsters and diamonds wore off of you? Let us know in the comments below, and for all things co-op, stick with your friends here at Co-Optimus.com.
Microsoft has announced a new update for the building and exploration game Minecraft. The new update will introduce several new features to the game.
The new update will introduce 4K graphics rendering, crossplay support and “massive servers”. When the new update hits, players will be able to play together regardless of which device the player plays the game on, if they are playing on special designated servers.
The new graphics update will bring 4K resolution rendering to the Xbox One version of the game. The PC version of the game already supported 4K resolution rendering. Both the PC and Xbox One versions of the game will also be able to make use of updated 4K resolution textures.
The Minecraft “Super Duper Graphics Pack” update launches this fall for PC, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS and several virtual reality devices. The PlayStation 4 version will not support crossplay multiplayer functionality.
While the rollout of the Minecraft Better Together Update is being promoted as, well, and update to Minecraft: Xbox One Edition, it is actually a completely new Minecraft video game that is replacing the Xbox One Edition version and being sold separately (though current owners of the Xbox One Edition do get the new version for free).
While browsing the Store on the Xbox One, the listing for Minecraft: Xbox One Edition can still be found and its Game Hub still functions but it can no longer be purchased. Meanwhile, a new listing for the new version of the game, simply called Minecraft, is now discoverable and has its own new Game Hub. It’s unclear why such a shift was made though one reason could be that it makes it easier to discern which Xbox Live friends are playing which version when online. If someone is playing Minecraft: Xbox One Edition, they would be unable to join a multiplayer game on Minecraft for example.
What do you think? Do you like this fresh start for Minecraft players? Sign-off in the comments below.
Sure, the latest update for Minecraft is a notable one for introducing cross-play to the wildly popular game–that's all well and good. But it's the bug fixes located in the patch notes that I think are the real highlight.
The latest instance of “patch notes that are much funnier than they have any right to be” comes with this week's Better Together update for Minecraft. There are a wide range of new features and tweaks, including the aforementioned cross-play support, but it also fixes so many bug fixes that developer Mojang decided not to share them all. Luckily, it did include a few.
Among them: This patch “stop[s] llamas from creepily turning their heads to stare at you while riding them.” Not being a hardcore Minecraft player, this is something I was admittedly unaware of–you can seemingly see it in the image above, which comes from this YouTube video by Aiden Art. Suffice it to say, it's something I will forever regret not being able to experience myself.
