The second episode of the second season of Minecraft Story Mode will premiere August 15th, developer Telltale announced today. It will be available digitally for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, Mac, iOS and Android.
Titled “Giant Consequences,” episode two will follow main character Jesse to an “icy unknown,” after the events of the first episode introduced them to a foe with the capabilities of ending entire cities. The episode will continue Telltale's new “Crowd Play” feature, which allows others to help a player make decisions during the game's narrative.
Alongside the new episode, Telltale announced today that the first season of Minecraft would be coming in its entirety to the Nintendo Switch. The Complete Edition will be available digitally or physically on August 22nd and will have all five regular episodes, as well as three bonus episodes originally only available in the ‘Adventure Pass' add-on series. A retail version of the first season was released for other consoles last December.
Season two is expected to get a similar full release later this fall.
Minecraft Story Mode is a joint venture between Telltale and Mojang that tells a story within the Minecraft Universe. Since its original launch in 2015, Story Mode has received mixed reviews from critics, who have praised the game's humor and criticized its technical issues.
An announcement went out today for a new beta for Minecraft. Known as the “Better Together” update, it is an attempt at unifying all of the various versions of Minecraft so that players can play together in-game, create, co-operate or compete together on massive servers, and access whatever swish skins and Marketplace adventure maps they own on any of their compatible devices.
The pay-off is that you get an early glimpse of the cool stuff we have lined up, like fireworks, parrots, armor stands, the recipe book, new game rules and – stealing the show entirely – the amazing, the one and only, the ultimate COARSE DIRT.
New features include:
Stained Glass
Fireworks (with Elytra boost!)
Parrots
Banners
Armor stands
Jukebox and music discs
Recipe Book
Book and Quill
Ravines
COARSE DIRT – O to the M G
New world start options: Starting Map, Bonus Chest, Trust Players
New game rules: TNT Explodes, Natural Regeneration
Added ‘/tickingarea' command to create areas that still update when no players are there
Player permissions
Zombie Villager spawn egg
In-game host options
New loading screens with funny and helpful tips
How to Play screen
Remix 3D and structure blocks
Split-screen (Console only)
World conversion
Here are the instructions for how to enter the beta.
Xbox One / Windows 10
You will need to own the digital version of the game. For the beta, disc owners are not supported – sorry!
Joining the Minecraft Beta on Windows 10 or Xbox One:
1. Go to the Store app on Xbox One or a Windows 10 PC.
2. Search for the Xbox Insider Hub app.
3. Download and install Xbox Insider Hub.
4. Launch the Xbox Insider Hub.
5. Navigate to Insider content > Minecraft Beta.
6. Select Join.
7. Have fun and find bugs!
Android
Head over here for a breakdown of how to access betas on Android.
The beta is live for the Android and Windows 10 versions, and will shortly roll out for the Xbox One version. There is no announced beta date for the other seven versions, nor is there a firm release date for the official release of “Better Together.”
Playful Corporation’s Creativerse is something like a free-to-play Minecraft. There is a premium version of the game, but we’ll talk mostly about the base game. Because that’s going to be the big draw: it’s a free game that allows you to build out of 64-bit blocks, however the characters and many of the structures have more realistic versions.
So if you want to enjoy Minecraft, but you don’t want to pay for it, well. Here’s your chance. And it’s a pretty damn good one. The game’s controls are pretty intuitive, and most of the objects you need you can find by digging or from the plant and animal life around you. Much like the game it’s based on, you don’t have too much interaction with NPCs or anything in the way of quests, but that’s kind of the beauty of both games.
They are each as simple as they appear, and there’s something kind of refreshingly honest about that.
One of the only major flaws I can find in Creativerse are that it becomes a little bit, well, redundant after a while. And that, perhaps, the base materials are too easy to come by. The crafting mechanism is more complex than Minecraft‘s and takes quite a deal longer, which gives you more appreciation for crafting, but also gets to be a bit of a time sink.
There isn’t a whole lot of variety in many of the blocs that are available in the free version, which can be a source of irritation. And because you have to do things by yourself, it can get to be a bit of a grind. But if you don’t mind grinding for materials, that’s perfect, because you’ll be doing it a lot.
Honestly, if you just want to build things, I have to say I prefer Creativerse over Minecraft. Because first, Creativerse does not make my eyes want to shriek with fury over the graphics, and second, because it’s free.
Like in Minecraft, there are multiple worlds you can explore, but you don’t exactly play with other players. And the lack of the social aspect can be a drawback for a lot of people.
I absolutely recommend you play the free version of the game, before considering if you want to keep playing with limited blocks before deciding if you want to go with the pro version, which nets you different block varieties, more backpack space, a flashlight, and the glider, which makes travel infinitely easier.
While I don’t have too many serious complaints about the game, I also don’t have anything to really rave about. It’s a solid game, and definitely an enjoyable way to spend a weekend, but there’s nothing here that makes this game a “must play” unless you don’t own Minecraft already. As someone who has never been too dedicated to Minecraft, I find that I prefer Creativerse, but I also can’t make this game into something it isn’t.
It’s a F2P Minecraft clone and so has all the limitations of being a Minecraft clone.
Dota 2 is notorious for having a steep learning curve and a community that's not always welcoming to newcomers. Recently, however, developer Valve released an update that is designed to help beginners have a better and more encouraging experience learning the game.
The update's biggest change is to the matchmaking system. The previous system didn't attempt to avoid certain discouraging situations, such as those where beginners would be matched with players who don't react well to playing with newcomers. In the update, Valve tweaked the system to make sure that it matches newcomers with players that have consistently high behavior scores.
“It is especially important for a new player to have a good social experience while they are first trying to learn the game,” Valve explained in a blog post. “The matchmaking system will now ensure that new players will play with and against appropriately skilled players that also have a track record of good behavior.”
The second change Valve made was to character selection. Now, beginners will be restricted to just 20 heroes until they've completed 25 games. Valve has curated the group of heroes to include only those characters who “are very successful in helping new players learn and enjoy the game,” the studio stated.
In other Dota 2 news, The International is coming up next week and features a massive prize pool. If you're not familiar with Dota 2, or even just starting out playing, Valve holds a Newcomer Stream of the tournament that is hosted by commentators who explain the way the game works.
Star Citizen‘s much-anticipated Alpha 3.0 update isn't coming out on time. Developer Cloud Imperium Games announced recently that it discovered some “stability issues” in the latest build, and thus the team needs more time to get it ready “for prime time.”
“This week, we entered the optimisation, polish, and bug fixing phase for the 3.0 feature set. As there have been so many features and content implemented, we've encountered some stability issues that we want to address before going to a wider test audience,” the developer said in a post on its website (via Eurogamer).”
“The ongoing work on the new Patcher system (that will save you from having to completely re-download each build) and some new bugs with CopyBuild3 (our internal version of the patcher) have also slowed us down. Because of this we have pushed back the Evocati and subsequent date ranges to reflect the additional time needed to get Star Citizen Alpha 3.0 ready for prime time.”
According to Eurogamer, the Alpha 3.0 update was originally scheduled to come out at the end of August and now it's due at the start of September, so it's a small delay.
Will “Soulcrusher” Leverett, Star Citizen's director of player relations, said in a follow-up post. “Working on 3.0 has certainly introduced variables and challenges that we could never have anticipated, and these just do not always cater to a tidy date on a calendar,” Leverett said.
Leverett added: “There's certainly no malice behind it, and anyone who makes that claim is providing an uninformed opinion. Ask any project manager or developer who worked on sophisticated software or has been involved on a complex project with lots of dependencies and moving parts. They'll gladly share how challenging a task of estimates can be.”
The developer added that all of Cloud Imperium Games is “working feverishly” to finish the Alpha 3.0 update, adding that this version of 3.0 will be “something bigger, something pretty groundbreaking, something magnificent.”
Star Citizen's Alpha 3.0 update adds an “entirely explorable solar system” and adds the first tools and systems that players can use to create outpost and communities. Those are just a few of the new features–you can read this blog post to learn more.
Star Citizen is the most successful crowdfunded project of any kind in history. By the latest count, the game has raised more than $155.6 million in funding.
If you're an EA or Origin Access member, today's a good day: Titanfall 2 just went live in EA's Vault as a free download for subscribers. It's available on Xbox One through EA Access and on PC through Origin Access. Each service is $5/£4/€4 per month, and subscribing gets you access to the Vault, a collection of games.
EA generally adds games to the Vault about 6-9 months after release, a pattern the company continued with Titanfall 2. EA is also adding Battlefield 1 to EA/Origin Access sometime soon, although it hasn't announced an exact date.
There are dozens more games in the Vault for you to play, as well. A subscription lets you download the games in full, much like Xbox Live Games With Gold; you can see a list of EA/Origin Access games here. In addition, you get exclusive discounts and, frequently, access to brand-new games a few days before their full release.
