Cell phones are slowly being integrated into the schooling system in South Africa.

Educational technologist at Educor, Bilal Kathrada says cellphones should be used as a learning tool instead of banning them out of the classroom as that will only get learners to find clever ways to bend the rules.

The popular game, Minecraft is now being used as an educational tool.

Tracy Heath of Brescia House School in Johannesburg explains how the game Minecraft is being used to improve learning in the classroom.

Read: ‘Don’t ban cellphones in schools, rather teach kids how to use them to learn’

Also Read: ‘Don’t ban cellphones in schools, rather teach kids how to use them to learn’

Most kids play it and they love it. And with this generation, we need to take what they love and turn into an educational experience.

— Tracy Heath, PS Senior Management Team and ICT teacher
So Microsoft bought the game and we run it as part of our educational system… They’ve turned the game into an educational app.

— Tracy Heath, PS Senior Management Team and ICT teacher
Most people will tell you that if you are playing a game and you having fun, there is part of your brain that gets stimulated which is active and not passive. You are not just sitting and getting stuff to you, you are engaging with the material.

— Tracy Heath, PS Senior Management Team and ICT teacher

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Kamehameha Schools has partnered with Microsoft on educational opportunities geared toward computer science.

One of the ways they’re doing it is through the popular video game, Minecraft.

The video game is being used as an educational tool for students to learn more about Native Hawaiian Issues.

Copyright 2018 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.

Sombra is a unique hero in Overwatch, a double agent that has her own agenda and is a total wiz at hacking. With Overwatch continuing to prove it’s a force to be reckoned with in the gaming community, it’s no wonder that there are so many phenomenal cosplays of this particular character. This one, however, has got to be one of our favorites.

This particular cosplayer is from Korea. Pion Kim is no stranger to bringing characters to life in stunning detail, but her take on the sleek hacker is just too good not to share.

SLIDE 1 of 5
“SOMBRA ONLINE”

SLIDE 2 of 5
“EVERYTHING CAN BE HACKED, AND EVERYONE”

SLIDE 3 of 5
“SEE YOU LATER”

SLIDE 4 of 5
“LOOKING FOR ME?”

SLIDE 5 of 5
MORE ON THE CHARACTER:
Sombra is known for taking information and using it against those in power. She came from the ashes of a tortured past, left orphaned following the Omnic Crisis. Though her country was destroyed, she picked herself up and taught herself skills that could help her survive and thrive.

After being taken in by the Los Muertos gang, she aided in rebuilding Mexico – though her means were dubious to some. After her security came into question, Blizzard mentioned “She later reemerged as Sombra, upgraded and determined to find out the truth behind the conspiracy she had uncovered. Sombra launched an even more audacious string of hacks, and her exploits earned her no shortage of admirers, including Talon. She joined the organization’s ranks and is believed to have contributed to its massive cyberattacks against corporations with strong ties to their governments. These efforts incited a popular revolution in Mexico against LumériCo and breached the security of Volskaya Industries, the manufacturing arm of Russia’s anti-omnic defense.”

Overwatch is now available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

This past week, we’ve been learning small tid-bits about who won that coveted trophy at the Golden Joystick Awards this year, including how Fortnite beat out Red Dead Redemption 2 for the ‘Ultimate Game of the Year’ award. A huge surprise to be sure, but we still didn’t know the final tally of winners. At least until now.

The biggest highlight was FromSoftware’s Hidetake Miyazaki winning the Lifetime Achievement Award. Miyazaki mentioned in a recent press statement, “To receive such a prestigious award from the Golden Joysticks fills me with great surprise and a sense of great honour. I am tremendously grateful to everyone who has played, enjoyed and appreciated our games. Rather than myself, this award goes to the many people who have built these games with me, and shared their passion with me over the years.”

God of War and Fortnite seemed to be the two biggest contenders, with Overwatch taking home the gold for esports game of the year.

For the full winner list:

Best Storytelling: God of War
Best Competitive Game: Fortnite Battle Royale
Best Cooperative Game: Monster Hunter: World
Best Visual Design: God of War
Best Indie Game: Dead Cells
Best Audio: God of War
Still Playing Award: World of Tanks
Best Performer: Bryan Dechart, Detroit: Become Human
Esports Game of the Year: Overwatch
Best VR Game: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR
Studio of the Year: SIE Santa Monica Studio
Best New Streamer / Broadcaster: Bryan Dechart and Amelia Rose Blaire
Mobile Game of the Year: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile
PC Game of the Year: Subnautica
PlayStation Game of the Year: God of War
Xbox Game of the Year: Forza Horizon 4
Nintendo Game of the Year: Octopath Traveler
Breakthrough Award: Unknown Worlds
Most Wanted Game: Cyberpunk 2077
Critics Choice Award: Red Dead Redemption 2
Lifetime Achievement Award: Hidetaka Miyazaki
Outstanding Contribution: Xbox Adaptive Controller
Ultimate Game of the Year: Fortnite Battle Royale
What do you think about the winners listed? Do you feel like the right games one, or do you feel like a particular title got the shaft? Join in on the conversation in the comment section below! You can also watch the Golden Joystick Awards 2018 on the Golden Joystick Awards Twitch Channel, broadcast live from London from 3pm GMT / 7am PST / 10 am EST.

The “Fix PUBG” campaign kicked off earlier this year as part of the promise from Bluehole Inc to their fans for complete transparency and dedication to making the game better. For months, the title seemed to be in a glitchy limbo and only really started to emerge as a full title once other games in the genre started to gain traction (Fortnite, now Blackout). After months of data compilation and constant tweaks, the team has their results and what that means for the future of the game.

For those unfamiliar with the campaign, here was the goal: ‘At the start of the campaign, the most important elements we had in mind are as listed below. We have worked on increasing the quality of PUBG based on largely these four topics. We will go over the state of each category as well as what we still plan to improve upon.”

Provide the best gameplay experience possible through client and server performance optimization
Ensure fair gameplay with more efficient anti-cheat solutions using all available means
Smarter and faster matchmaking through improved matchmaking logic
Fix bugs that degrade the experience while applying long-requested QOL improvements
With a focus on optimization, a close eye on pings, lag, and peaks was crucial. Bluehole explains, “To explain a little more in detail, we have optimized level streaming and decreased the burden that comes with level loading while moving. Compared to before, the average time to load 1 level has dropped significantly from 14.4 seconds to 5.6 seconds. Our work on optimizing “Physics Creation” is still ongoing and we plan to apply those fixes after running a final test around the end of December.

“By optimizing game effects, we have reduced the load caused when multiple effects are activated at the same time. We have also begun optimizing frame rate drop issues on specific effects such as smoke. Environmental effects, vehicle destruction effects, hit effects and smoke effects have been improved and we are planning to add improvements on weapon related logic and effects as well.”

Server performance has also seen a huge increase in quality by mitigating desync and making grand changes to how matchmaking works on a basic level. Speaking of which, the team also revealed their plans for this feature as well:

Provide a stable gaming environment by matching players with similar Ping.
Provide a fair gaming environment by matching users with a similar skill level (in relation to MMR, not Rank).
Set-up for players using the same language to be placed on the same team.
Ensure large-scale play with 100 players to maximize the fun of the Battle Royale experience.
Minimize wait times as best as possible while fulfilling the above requirements.
As mentioned earlier in our previous coverage, anti-cheat still remains a priority and that includes going hard on hardware bans. “We are constantly banning unauthorized programs by analyzing and utilizing data from various logs. In addition, we are developing our own anti-cheat solution to prevent the use of unauthorized programs. We expect to have something to share on this in the near future.”

You can read the full amount of changes, tweaks, and goals concerning PC, consoles, and bug fixes right here in their latest developer update: https://steamcommunity.com/games/578080/announcements/detail/2486445930579204546

Though many of us are currently busy with Fallout 76, the team working hard on Fallout 4: New Vegas continue to make impressive headway towards completion. This total conversion mod that brings Fallout: New Vegas into Fallout 4 and the team behind this venture have just provided an update on progress as far scripting, common assets, and more goes.

According to the F4NW team’s latest Facebook blog post, “The level design team has carried on full steam ahead with their work on the environs of the greater Mojave Wasteland. As our work spreads outwards, efforts have been continuing on many of the industrial facilities around the world. These areas provide a unique stylistic challenge in their vast difference from the factories and warehouses found in Fallout 4, and as such working on several such locations simultaneously allows us to better pool the talents of our level designers so as to create a more cohesive feel to the environments found in F4NV.”

They added, “[Our] assets team has also continued in their ongoing quest to populate the Mojave’s environments with smaller common assets. With our level design team’s efforts continued to be directed towards more mundane environments currently, this allows the addition of assets to happen alongside work on those locations, ultimately saving us time in the future by avoiding unnecessary second passes on locations to adjust newly added assets in relation to the placeholders that may have been used previously – these placeholders, while infinitely helpful for helping to get environments mapped out and in a semi-finalized state for passes by our quest team, require a secondary pass once the asset they represent is added to the game. Since the placeholders often have dimensions distinct from the asset they’re meant to represent, tweaking their placement or alignment is almost always needed.”

The questing and scripting team is also hard at work, though the biggest is expanding upon what New Vegas had to offer and making it even bigger using the Fallout 4 engine. “Headway has been made in expanding our implementation of Fallout: New Vegas systems in the Fallout 4 Creation Engine, which allows us both to continue to implement legacy assets and gameplay mechanics in a more comprehensive manner, but also allows us to add upon these systems in meaningful ways to give players more gameplay options in F4NV.”

For those that might be new to this project, the team has been working hard on this project for years now working side by side with fans and Bethesda themselves to make sure this project is accurate, legal, and the perfect blend that fans have been hoping for.

Each week the creative team offers unique insights into their progress towards completion, and you can bet that radioactive butt of yours that we’ve got you covered! This is a project that we are very passionate about as well and we absolutely love all of the amazing updates from the team.

The incredibly ambitious fan project Fallout 4: New Vegas blends the best of both worlds into one passionate gaming venture. We’ve been following our friends on this endeavor for awhile now, and their ambitious fan-project continues to impress with each new update. The team has done a fantastic job at keeping those interested in this ambitious project tuned into its progress, and you can learn even more by visiting their official website linked below!

To learn more about the project that has been years in the making, check out their previous updates over on their site right here!

Like Fallout and modding? Did we just become best friends? Feel free to follow the author of this story over on Twitter @DirtyEffinHippy for both and full-on fangirl!

Admit it, you’ve been singing Country Roads since the very first reveal trailer of Fallout 76. Their remake of a classic has been stuck in everyone’s heads, and for good reason! The smooth melody is the perfect companion to the juxtaposition 76 offers, so why not have it in the game itself? Well, now you can thanks to this Fallout 76 mod!

The mod itself is pretty simple. According to its creator, “This mod Replaces the music in the main menu with “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by Bill Danoff as performed live at Georgetown University GEMA Rocks 2010.”

They added for those looking for the John Denver or the commissioned version, “In the optional files you can find the covers by John Denver as well as COPILOT that was commissioned by Bethesda and can be heard in game on the Appalachia radio.”

To check out how to install the mod (pretty easy), check out the listing on Nexus Mods right here. It even has Country Roads memes, which – I mean, bonus!

As for the game itself, Fallout 76 is available now on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. Though official mods are still not available, that hasn’t stopped players from making their own – as PC players so often do. Interested in learning more about the online Wasteland? We’ve got you covered:

“As of right now, I’m loving the hell out of it. Would I have loved a Fallout 5? Absolutely, but Fallout 76 is charming and it really is a fresh perspective on a franchise that didn’t necessarily need it, but it’s welcome nonetheless,” reads our review in-progress.

“I understand why many might not find it their particular cup of tea, but I’ve noticed a lot of naysayers haven’t given it a chance. The world “online” has become almost scary with all of the talk cheaters, hackers, and griefers. Many see “online” as a series jumping ship, but that’s not the case here. I feel like if you’re a fan of Fallout, this will surprise you by how much it feels familiar. Play by yourself, play solo, just play it your way knowing it’s not a Fallout 5, but something else entirely.”

We like Overwatch, we like hilarious cat videos … put the two together and we just had the happiest heart attack known to man! For those that may not know, Ashe is the latest hero now available in the Blizzard FPS but it was her Ultimate, B.O.B, that stole the show with his glorious robotic mustache. And yes – he still has it in cat form and oh my god, we’re only squealing a little bit, I promise.

Not only is the video too precious for words, but it’s made even better when you know that B.O.B was actually a joke to start with and only made it into the game officially after pushing hard for his presence.

We sat down with Overwatch lead writer Michael Chu during the BlizzCon celebration earlier this month to talk about B.O.B following the immediate fan reaction towards our new mustachio’d friend. Chu mentioned that they had been tinkering with his idea for awhile but it quickly became apparent that he needed to be in the game in a more official capacity the longer the team deliberated about him.

Chu mentioned that B.O.B quickly became “an essential part of the fantasy of the character” and because of that, the creative team went “above and beyond” to make him a doable reality for the FPS experience.

It was important to make him stand on his own though and not just be a random addition, which makes his purpose as Ashe’s Ultimate attack even better. The best part is though he is part of another hero, he easily has his own personality and offers something special to each match.

Now seeing that same style and deliberation in cat form is just … for people that have no words, we’re writing a lot of them. Still, it’s precious, it’s perfect, and now I demand an event where all of the heroes are cats for some reason. Just … one week, give this to me – please, Jeff Kaplan.

As for the game itself in the way it’s supposed to be played, Overwatch is now available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. Still no Nintendo Switch yet, but we’re keeping hope alive.

Microsoft and Mojang released a new Minecraft trailer on Saturday that showed off new pandas and cats that are coming soon in an update.

The “Cats & Pandas: A Minecraft Fable of Friendship” trailer above shared the background of cats and pandas in Minecraft, two types of animals that have a surprising amount of lore and history with each other. Saying that the two species were competing in a napping contest that went awry, they eventually worked out their differences and were able to meet in Minecraft.
What all this means for Minecraft players is that they’ll soon be able to find cats and pandas in their games after the update is released. Found within the jungle, the pandas are usually laying around eating bamboo, Mojang’s description of the Minecraft trailer said. Players can feed bamboo to these animals and can even build them an enclosure to keep them near camps and houses.

“A nap-off gone wrong leaves cat and panda relations in shambles. After many failed attempts at peace, the two sides find common ground,” the Minecraft trailer explained. “When they’re not sneezing or snacking on bamboo, pandas can be found rolling around the jungle.”

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Cats, not to be confused with the ocelots, will also be added in the upcoming update. These animals will chase around other mobs that are nearby and will also bring players gifts occasionally.

“Cats are curious but kind, chasing other mobs and bringing ‘gifts’ to their masters. And of course, both lounge and laze as they please. Revamped cats and precious pandas are coming to Minecraft soon!”

If the cats and pandas additions sound familiar, it might be because players have already heard about them or experimented with the new content themselves through past betas that previewed the new animals. Back in October, Mojang shared an article on the Minecraft site that previewed the cats and pandas and what all they’d be able to do in Minecraft. It also encouraged players on the Xbox One and PC devices to give the new content a try through the game’s beta program, so some players have already been testing the content for a while.

All the new cats and pandas and their accompanying content will be added in an update seeon, though neither Mojang nor Microsoft revealed a release date for the update.

A mysterious game that seems to be a free trial of Minecraft: Pocket Edition has cropped up in the Play Store, but it does not seem to actually be available as of this writing. The app in question only allows access to survival mode and is time-limited. It also has no multiplayer capabilities. Essentially, this means that people get to try out the core Minecraft experience in any way that they want, but marathon play sessions, saving, and many other methods of reaching endgame content are out of the question. Additionally, you can’t create a world in this trial game and then transfer it to the real deal. The app description on Google Play does not seem to say exactly how long the trial lasts, so once or if it becomes available, it may be an interesting way for people to figure out if they want to pay the entry fee to spend more time in Minecraft’s blocky world.
Background: While a trial version of Minecraft does make a lot of sense in a way, there are a few things about this whole business that one can’t help but wonder about. For starters, this is Minecraft. It’s one of the biggest things in the gaming world, and has been for quite some time. It also has tons of clones in the Play Store. Surely, if somebody wanted to play Minecraft, they would know that they do. Second, the app is listed in the Play Store, but is not available right now, it seems. Android Headlines staff in the United States and Croatia tried to grab the download, and it was unavailable across all attempted devices. The trial may be for an extremely limited market space where Minecraft may be having less of an easy time than others, or it could be that the demo simply isn’t fully ready yet. Whatever the case, if you are on the fence about Minecraft for whatever reason, you may want to keep an eye on the Play Store listing linked below. The $6.99 entry fee for Minecraft: Pocket Edition may seem steep, but if you’re into the sort of thing that Minecraft offers, which is a sandbox of sorts with large worlds and multiplayer support, it may well be worth using this app to check the game out and see if you really want to commit to that purchase.
Impact: There’s pretty much no way that this development could negatively affect Minecraft’s bottom line. It is a bit strange that it’s on the Play Store and seemingly not fully available to all, but there are a number of possible reasons for that. Though the iconic experience has likely already attracted most of its player base for now, growth can come in the form of new gamers aging into Minecraft’s target base, or players who have not had any previous experience with the game getting access to it. Expect to see the number of people playing Minecraft on Android surge if and when this app becomes available.