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.
Mojang is now rolling out the new cross-platform compatibility, enabling gamers across different platforms to play the game together. The first iteration of the Better Together update is currently available for Xbox, mobile, and Windows 10 gamers. There are still quite a few kinks that Mojang has to work out, but you can most certainly play together across multiple devices.
Over on the official Minecraft website, the developers rolled out the changelog and the roadmap for what's on the docket for the Better Together update. For now, it's possible for Windows 10 gamers who own a copy of Minecraft, Xbox One gamers, iOS and Android users to play together across the various platforms. Sadly the Nintendo Switch version of cross-platform compatibility is not up and running just yet.
What is up and running is the ability to use the new marketplace to download and experience creations made across other devices for your copy of Minecraft. Additionally, Play Anywhere support is enabled, so you can log into the game on your Xbox One, build up an amazing world, shut down the game on the Xbox One and log into your account on your mobile phone to pick up building that amazing where you left off. This sort of feature means that you can take Minecraft anywhere with you no matter where you go or what platform you play on.
Speaking of creations, Mojang have implemented new platforms for armor stands, parrots, fireworks, stained glass, and all new recipes for players to learn and master.
The Switch version will require a bit more time than the other versions. The developers don't exactly say what the hold up is or why it will take longer, but it's noted on the blog page that it takes a lot of work to make it happen. Hilariously enough, there's a depiction of how Mojang made cross-platform play possible using actual Minecraft machinima to showcase the launch of the Better Together update. You can check out the launch trailer below, which is quite hilarious.
As you can see, the team ended up blowing up the restrictions that held each console and mobile platform on its own separate hoist, and then used the retractable arms to bring all the consoles together.
You might notice that none of Sony's PlayStation branded platforms are there, and it's because Sony opted out of any form of cross-platform play between Nintendo's Switch and Microsoft's Xbox consoles.
While it's unlikely that the PS4 will ever join the fray at this point, it will be pretty cool seeing Nintendo Switch and iOS users playing together, as well as Xbox One and Android users and every other mixture of the four in between.
The Better Together update is available right now. Those who own Minecraft on disc for the Xbox One will have to wait a bit longer for the update to arrive, and Switch owners will also be on a delay but the update will arrive soon enough.
Dir: Matthew Vaughn, 140 mins, starring: Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Channing Tatum, Halle Berry, Pedro Pascal, Julianne Moore, Jeff Bridges
Matthew Vaughn loves his gadgets. Spy sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle is full of them. X-ray spectacles, umbrellas that act as weapon shields, “alpha gel” that miraculously preserves characters you think have been shot dead, London taxis with technology that puts Apollo skyrockets to shame, robotic attack dogs and prosthetic arms are all thrown into the mix. In James Bond movies, Q provides 007 with one or two gizmos. The problem here is that the film is absolutely bulging with them. There is a new toy or piece of hardware or software for every new scene.
Vaughn also has a fetishistic obsession with tailoring: with the suits, ties, watches, boots and shoes the male characters in particular wear. The preoccupation with style gets in the way of the storytelling. He has a formidable cast here including several Oscar winners (Julianne Moore, Colin Firth and Jeff Bridges) but all of them are only allowed to give the most cartoonish of performances.
You can’t fault the stunts. As an action movie, The Golden Circle passes muster. It is packed with explosions, chases and visual spectacle. It is often quite witty too in its own tongue-in-cheek and macabre fashion. The evil villainess Poppy Adams (Moore) likes to put her enemies through the mincing machine and turn them into hamburgers. She has kidnapped Sir Elton John (played by himself) and is keeping him in captivity deep in the jungle, where she has built her own compound in the shape of an old American shopping mall. (It has cinemas, fast-food joints and lots of fluorescent lighting.)
Sir Elton doesn’t get much in the way of meaty dialogue but we do see him at the piano from time to time and when one of the heroes asks for tickets to a concert, he replies in magnificently camp fashion: “Darling, if you save the world, you can have a backstage pass!”
The British filmmakers are keen to show off their patriotic credentials. That much is obvious from the car chase/fight sequence which opens the movie. We’re plunged straight into the action. Eggsy, the youngster from the council estate who was turned Pygmalion-style into a super-suave spy in the first film, is caught up in a vicious fight with his nemesis Charlie Hesketh (Edward Holcroft), in the back of a black cab. Vaughn stages the scene as if it is the chariot race in Ben-Hur but set in Piccadilly and around Hyde Park Corner rather than in a Roman amphitheatre. Vaughn and his collaborators are doing their part for the export drive. It’s hard not to admire the shameless way that even at the most fraught moments, the filmmakers manage to showcase the best of British.
Eggsy (again engagingly played by Taron Egerton) remains remarkably cheerful in the face of setbacks which would floor a lesser spy. He is advised early on that there is “no room for emotion” when you’re working as a Kingsman agent. Whether a pet dog dies, a best friend is killed, he is covered in sewage or his beloved but skittish Scandinavian princess girlfriend (Hanna Alstrom) threatens to leave him, he always keeps calm and carries on.
There are continual and often very disorienting switches in location. After the explosive London-set opening, we’re quickly whisked away to Kentucky where a sister organisation to Kingsman called Statesman is run from a bourbon distillery. Kingsman’s most cerebral operative Merlin (Mark Strong) is very sniffy about the local brew, much preferring single malt from his native Scotland.
Statesman is presided over by the gun-waving Tequila (Channing Tatum in Magic Mike groove), the stetson-wearing patriarch Champagne (Jeff Bridges), the brilliant analyst Ginger Ale (an underused Halle Berry), who would far rather be an agent in the field, and the whip-cracking Whiskey (Pedro Pascal, from Game Of Thrones and Narcos).
From Kentucky, we’re taken back to Britain for an excruciating Ab Fab-like sequence set, for no very good reason, at the Glastonbury Festival. Eggsy has to seduce It Girl Clara (Poppy Delevigne) in order to plant a tracking device deep within her. Other random stop-offs include the Alps (an excuse for a dizzying cable car scene and a few nods in the direction of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service) and Cambodia, where drug baroness Poppy is hiding out. She comes up with a ludicrous idea for holding the world to ransom by contaminating drug supplies. Anybody who touches the wrong kind of cannabis or cocaine comes out in blue splotches, becomes manic, paralysed and then dies. Poppy is the only one who has the antidote.
To anyone who saw the first film, the presence of Colin Firth’s Harry is disconcerting. It feels like cheating on a Bobby Ewing-like scale to bring him back from the dead. As first encountered here, he has lost much of his memory and has a strange obsession with butterflies – but he’s still as dapper as ever.
Just as in the original movie, the filmmakers are absolutely relentless. When one action set-piece falls flat, they’ll follow it immediately with another to distract us. Some of the visual gags (Keith Allen upside down in a sausage machine) are very funny. Others are laddish and crass in the extreme but there is never a moment to pause or reflect on what is actually going on or why. Lasting for well over two hours, this is a gilded hamster wheel of a movie. Enormous energy is expended but it still feels at the end as if the filmmakers are going around in exactly the same circles as at the beginning.
NINTENDO Switch fans can expect a big new streaming app soon, as Inside is pencilled in for a Nintendo release.
Nintendo Switch fans have been given the news they've been waiting for, as Netflix is FINALLY ready for Nintendo's console.The Nintendo Switch hasn't been short of high quality games since launch, but it is lacking apps.
But according to a new report by Go Nintendo, the Netflix app is “locked and loaded”, which means a release should follow shortly.
It should pave the way for more entertainment apps like Amazon Prime Video and Spotify.
It's also the perfect fit for Switch, letting owners watch videos on the go.
A release date is yet to be revealed, with Nintendo seemingly yet to give the app its approval.
Nintendo Switch Arcade Cabinet: The new essential for classic titles
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Microsoft has managed to get the Halo franchise on Nintendo Switch… but there's a catch.Master Chief will appear as part of the Halo Mash Up Pack in the Nintendo Switch version of Minecraft.
It's all thanks to the Better Together Update, which enables cross-platform play between Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows 10, Android, iOS and more.
This includes DLC like the Halo Mash Up Pack, which is currently available on Xbox One and Xbox 360.
Microsoft addressed cross-platform DLC in a recent Better Together blog post, admitting that while it is open to the idea, some content packs would require permission from different platform holders.
Presumably this means there's still a question mark over the Mario Mash Up Pack appearing on other consoles.
Nintendo showcases the variety of games offered on switch
Nintendo Switch fans have been given even more good games news, as Playdead seemingly confirms plans to bring Inside to Switch.
Inside – which received 5-stars from Express Online – is said to be coming to Nintendo Switch and iOS devices.That's according to game designer Arnt Jensen, who reportedly shared the news with Famitsu.
It's unclear how far into development the game is, and there's currently no word on a release date.
Inside is from the team behind indie hit Limbo, which appeared on platforms including Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4, PS3, iOS, Android, PC and more.
