What’s great about virtual reality is that you can get the full-body building experience in Minecraft given the blocky world consumes your entire field of view. The drawback is that you don’t have visual access to the real world without lifting the headset up enough to peek into reality or completely removing the device altogether. Microsoft has a fix for this problem, at least for Windows Mixed Reality headsets, with the latest Insider Preview builds of Windows 10.

Available in Build 17723 in the Fast Ring and Build 18204 for Skip Ahead participants, Flashlight simply opens a visual portal into the real world, so you can see what’s going on outside the virtual environment without fully breaking the experience. With the press of a button, a voice command or Start menu shortcut, you can see who’s running through your play area or to quickly scan the environment.

Each Windows Mixed Reality headset includes two built-in visible-light low-resolution cameras to determine your location in the physical environment, removing the need for external cameras/sensors as seen with the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Now when you click an assigned button on a controller, one camera provides a video feed of reality through an oval portal rendered within the virtual world. This view follows the controller as if you were shining a flashlight into reality.

Right now there are six Windows Mixed Reality headsets costing either $200 or $400, depending on the model (motion controllers included). They’re the “third” entry into the VR market with the Microsoft Store serving as the base distribution platform. The HTC Vive is based on Steam whereas the Oculus Rift has its proprietary Oculus Home. SteamVR for Windows Mixed Reality is currently in beta.

Outside the new Flashlight feature, the two new Windows Insider builds retire the XSS filter in Microsoft Edge and introduce new Group Policies and MDM settings for IT management. You will also find 157 new emoji stemming from Unicode 11. Microsoft even made a few tweaks to existing emoji and ninja cats.

Microsoft improved the update experience as well that uses a trained predictive model to determine the right time to restart your Windows 10 PC. According to the company, “we will not only check if you are currently using your device before we restart, but we will also try to predict if you had just left the device to grab a cup of coffee and return shortly after.”

Finally, the latest builds throw the Game bar into the Start menu while keeping the Win + G keyboard shortcut intact. If you’re running a kiosk, Microsoft improved the setup experience via a simplified assigned access configuration page. Additional improvements to time accuracy and traceability include Leap Second support, software timestamping, and a new precision time protocol.

Adventure Time and Minecraft have a long history. The heroes of the popular Cartoon Network animated show made appearances in Mojang’s building game in 2017, and now the favor is being returned with tonight’s episode of Adventure Time where the show’s cast is drawn in a block-y, Minecraft-like style.

The episode, titled “Diamonds and Lemons,” is airing tonight at 7pm ET and you can see favorite characters like Finn, Jake, Marceline, and Princess Bubblegum in all their brick glory. Like in Minecraft, the group can be seen building things in the Land of Ooo borrowing the core gameplay of Minecraft. The first clip for the episode was released last month.

Cartoon Network is also collaborating with Funko to make Adventure Time x Minecraft figures, so that’s an extra collaboration thrown into the mix. Funko recently announced a partnership with Epic Games to make figures based on Fortnite, so they’re well-versed in toys based on games.

Adventure Time meets Minecraft meets Funko Pops.
Adventure Time is a popular, long-running animated series on Cartoon Network starring the human Finn and his dog friend Jake as they explore the Land of Ooo and take on quests. It’s a very strange, fantasy series with a devout following thanks to the show’s mature storytelling and imaginative creations. There have been several video games based on Adventure Time, including a new Adventure Time game slated for 2018.

“Diamonds and Lemons” doesn’t have an official synopsis beyond the fact that it’s a Minecraft crossover, but you can see the episode in full when Adventure Time airs tonight at 7 pm ET. The episode will also be available on the Cartoon Network mobile app after airing.

Minecraft is a game loved by millions of people all around the world, but how is Microsoft’s nascent Minecraft server subscription service doing?

Minecraft is an unprecedented title in various ways, most recently pioneering some of the most pervasive cross-play systems in the industry. This is Minecraft Realms.

Minecraft Realms is an unprecedented feature in gaming that doesn’t really get enough praise. Through Realms, Minecraft can connect players from Windows 10 PC, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, VR platforms, Android, and iOS (and hey, even Windows 10 Mobile).

For a small fee, you and up to ten friends can play together on a shared dedicated world, crafting, adventuring, and building together. No other game has achieved anything this pervasive as of writing, although many are moving in that direction, most notably Fortnite, which allows Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC, and mobile cross-play. Of course, Minecraft is, of course, a completely different sort of game, which revolves around co-operative play in infinitely random worlds. The rentable Realms feature is still relatively new, however, and is missing a frustrating amount of features.

Minecraft Realms: What you’ll love

Minecraft Realms is a true game-changer for the legendary title, which Microsoft purchased for over 2 billion dollars. It allows friends across virtually every major gaming platform to connect together, sharing a persistent world that never goes away.

Minecraft Realms allows you to set up and administrate private worlds for a relatively low cost. The maximum cost is $7.99 per month, supporting up to 11 concurrent players per world. The amount of players that can be given access to a Realm is far higher, but only up to 11 players can be online at any one time. You can also pay $3.99 per month for up to three players, which might be better value for families or small groups of friends who want to play together.

Only the server owner needs to pay, and the others can connect for free, providing they own a compatible version of the game. There are two separate Realms versions, one for the classic PC edition, and one for the cross-platform Bedrock version.

The Bedrock edition allows players from iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, Windows 10 PC, VR, and Xbox One to connect and play together, and it all just works. This is how gaming should be.

Minecraft Realms can be modified offline, and then uploaded for the rest of the members to enjoy. You can add unique skins, behavior modifiers, and all sorts of other features using Minecraft’s Add-Ons platform. Setting up a Realm with the skins and other Add-Ons you want is as easy as double clicking a few files on Windows 10, and you can customize your own skins using tools as simple as Microsoft Paint. All of those skins and mods live in the cloud too, and work across any device that can connect to the Bedrock edition.

Minecraft Realms has great uptime compared to some other multiplayer platforms I’ve had experience with, powered by Microsoft Azure, and server latency is generally quite low. When it comes collaborative, creative fun that respects the devices you have access to, there are few platforms out there that offer equal value, compatibility, and fun. Still, Realms has a long way to go before it’s as robust and feature-rich as some of the other platforms out there.

Minecraft Realms: What you’ll hate

If you’re setting up a small server for a group of trusted friends of family Minecraft Realms’ Bedrock edition tools for administration will be more than adequate. However, if you want to run a larger Realm, incorporating friends of friends, perhaps followers from your Mixer or Twitch community, Realms really isn’t up to even a basic standard of administrative customizability.

Moderating trolls quickly and easily is needlessly difficult with Realms’ current implementation.

When you first create your Realm, you’re able to set build permissions either to “Member” or “Visitor.” Visitors can, as the name suggest, simply explore your realm. They’re unable to break blocks and actually, well, play the game however, which would be fine if you could promote individual visitors’ permissions. But, you can’t. Minecraft Realms only supports the ability for everyone to be a member, or everyone to be a visitor, which sucks if you’re planning to advertise your Realm publicly using the invite link. Any random friend-of-a-friend can jump in and screw up your builds, unless you’re carefully micromanaging access to your Realm. Moderating trolls quickly and easily is needlessly difficult with Realms’ current implementation, further compounded by the fact text chat logs don’t persist outside of the game.

Thankfully, the game does now support backups and rollbacks automatically, allowing you to reset your Realm status to an earlier time if someone does jump in and screw things up. There is no way to set a server message or inform people of what’s changed in-game, however. Instead, Realms creates an Xbox Club automatically which becomes a shared space to post clips, screenshots, or status updates. The problem is, almost nobody uses Clubs, because they’re clunky and slow to access across every Xbox app. The Clubs API is implemented within Minecraft itself, but it doesn’t work very well, and is frankly hard to read when it comes to simple text updates with yellow text on a green background (why oh why?).

It’s annoying that any server tweaks you might want to make have to be made by exporting your Realm, modifying files directly, and then re-uploading it. Other games with rentable servers, such as Conan Exiles, allow you to make server tweaks, issue bans, and that sort of thing from within the game using an admin password.

Considering that Realms runs on Microsoft Azure, often touted as the world’s greatest cloud platform, the 11-player concurrency limit seems a bit restrictive. Presumeably it’s a matter of cost, but it seems odd that Redmond doesn’t even offer the option of a higher-paid tier. Additionally, we’ve found that Realms can get laggy as player worlds get larger and more complex, particularly when you start throwing in redstone machine automation and beyond, but the majority of players probably won’t run into these sorts of problems.

Final Thoughts

Minecraft Realms is a vision of gaming on Microsoft’s “intelligent edge,” where the system you choose to play on no longer matters, thanks to the cloud. Microsoft’s experiments with Minecraft across mobile, consoles, and other systems will almost certainly extend to other games in the future, as Microsoft seeks to engage not millions of gamers, but billions.

The fact me and friends can play together in Minecraft using our phones, our portable Nintendo Switch consoles, high-powered Windows 10 PC gaming rigs, or our Xbox consoles, is truly wonderful. However, some of Xbox Live’s more neglected features, such as Xbox Clubs, and Xbox apps across different devices used to connect and communicate do a fair bit to hold Minecraft’s cross-platform aspirations back.

4 out of 5
Additionally, Realms suffers from a lack of moderation and administrative tools for Realm owners, which shows a startling lack of foresight from Mojang and Microsoft’s Realms team. Still, for small groups of trusted friends, Minecraft Realms represents awesome value, infinite amounts of fun, and rewarding creativity. It’ll be interesting to see how the platform grows in the future.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Role playing games (RPGs) are already known for requiring large amounts of time to complete them. Usually, most people wouldn’t give an RPG the time of day if it doesn’t exceed 20+ hours. But once in a millennium, gamers are graced with a game that exceeds all expectations by completely dominating their every moment. One such game was released in 2011 under the title The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Skyrim has managed to become one of those games people just can’t put down. It’s open ended structure, and non-stop flow of quests enthralled almost everyone who took the time to play it. To make matters even more dire, mods happen to be a thing on PC. If you look at Skyrim now with a few mods in effect, it becomes a totally different game. New areas, races, abilities and so much more have been created to expand upon the game Bethesda built all those moons ago.

This game still manages to draw hours of playtime out of fans with every new addition. Bethesda managed to build a beautiful huge world with a magnificent lore that has managed to create a truly amazing time sink. After trying it out for yourself, you may find out first-hand just why this game steals your hours, but you can be rest assured that you won’t regret it.

Minecraft

Minecraft is one of those games that exploded into popularity seemingly out of nowhere. This game that allows you to build almost anything you can imagine in a magical world has accrued millions of fans. It’s hard to look on YouTube and not trip over 100 videos of individuals playing this game. There is just something about the game that causes people to sink hours upon hours into its blocky goodness.

Maybe it’s the randomly generated open world that draws people in. Perhaps it’s the feeling of figuring out how to build that one thing that nobody else can build that keeps gamers coming back to scratch that itch. Or maybe it’s the fact that Minecraft can be played on almost every platform available. You have a PC, home console, handheld, or smart phone? Chances are if you do you have the ability to play this time consuming game.

Whether you’re sitting at your desk or on the porcelain throne, you can pour hours into building your castle for no real reason other than pure fun.

MOBAs

Multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBAs) are those games a large group of gamers just can’t quite put their finger on. It’s not that the fun component of the game is confusing, after all, everyone knows that competition is fun. And it’s not the characters that puzzle people. Some use heroes while others place you into the sandals of ancient deities in order to wreak havoc upon your opponents. It just might be that each match can be relatively short and the games are pretty repetitious.

But, since when did repetition mean that something can’t be fun and devour all of your precious hours? MOBAs may have a pretty set-in-stone formula but they can be highly addictive once you get the hang of them. Heck, even the Twinfinite team has found itself in the clutches of Smite as each match leads to the desire of more god vs. god mayhem. The game just grabs all of your attention with its simple to learn but difficult to master mechanics.

While many are still trying to figure just why MOBAs became such a time sink millions of others are currently devoting large portions of their days to this game phenomenon.

Simulations

Simulations are an odd bunch. That’s not to say that the games are bad in any way, mind you. They are often very detailed and provide realistic mechanics that you just can’t help but marvel at. The thing is that most popular simulations are pretty mundane things that you could possibly do in your real life, but that has never stopped anyone from pursuing one of the many sims available to gamers.

For instance, take a look at Euro Truck Simulator. You will spend tons of hours in this game just following the laws of the road. The beautiful farm land and architecture you may pass during your travels are just an added bonus to the endless driving you will do. If you take a look at The Sims you will notice a similar situation, all you do is live… literally. You get a job, you develop relationships, eat, sleep, and many other everyday activities.

There is just something about watching simple things unfold in the virtual world that creates one of the ultimate time sinks. Will you live to 100 years old in The Sims? Will you make it to your destination in Euro Truck Simulator? The only way to ever know is to pay in hours of your time.

MMOs

The massively multiplayer online game (MMO) is one of the original time sinks in gaming. Create your avatar, choose your path, and set off in huge worlds with tons of monsters to defeat. Join a clan to make new friends, or even make one yourself. Choose to become the strongest in the world or max out your level without ever harming a single soul. These games throw you into entirely new worlds where you can make a name for yourself.

Being able to accomplish amazing feats with friends and strangers alike is an amazing thing. Whether it’s slaying a powerful dragon, or just gathering tons of people to do silly things it’s easy to see the appeal of MMOs. Losing hours of time playing a game with people from all over the world is one of the best things gaming has to offer. MMOs might be a time sink, but they are definitely one that’s well worth the sacrifice.

Grand Theft Auto IV on PC

You may have looked at the title of this section and wondered why only the PC version of this huge franchise was singled out. Everyone knows that Grand Theft Auto is one of the best selling franchises in gaming and gamers on all platforms sink tons of time into any game in the series. And you’d be 100% correct in saying that Grand Theft Auto IV could be considered a time sink on any of the other platforms it was made available on. But none of the other versions have the replay value that the PC release has.

One thing this game has on PC that puts it above the rest is mod support. You can put almost anything into Grand Theft Auto IV on PC. Wanna play as a horse driving a Mercedes Benz? Go right ahead. How about as one of your favorite superheroes so you can fly around Liberty City ruining the lives of it’s many citizens? You can do it all at the expense of your productive hours.

Grand Theft Auto IV manages to transcend the addiction that surrounds the game on consoles by become an even greater time sink on PC. If you need someone to thank just look to the individuals who spend lots of time making super creative mods.

Are there any games that you find yourself spending tons of time playing? Feel free to share.

Can you tame a dolphin in Minecraft? This is a question that many players are asking right now with the most recent Oceans update. With such a vast underwater world to explore, there are so many new options for players to check out like dolphins. This has many wondering if you can tame them.

Considering that you can tame horses, dogs, and the like, it certainly wouldn’t be surprising to know you can tame a dolphin in Minecraft. But can you really do it? And how do you do it if so? We are going to answer that question and more in this guide.

Can You Tame and Ride a Dolphin in Minecraft?
So, can you tame a dolphin in Minecraft? The answer is, unfortunately, no. It is not possible (as of right now) to tame and ride the dolphins, which is unfortunate as it should definitely be an option. However, that isn’t the end of the story, thankfully.

While you can’t tame a dolphin in Minecraft, you can feed it some food and it will indeed do something great for you. Unfortunately, it won’t let you ride it right now. It will lead you to some buried treasure in a nearby shipwreck or ruins underwater. This is a great new feature.

But what do you feed the dolphin in order to do that? Well, you feed it a piece of raw cod and you’ll be good. Interestingly enough, one way to get a piece of raw cod is by killing a different dolphin. Sort of a morbid way to do it but it works. Unfortunately, there are no plans to make it possible to tame a dolphin in Minecraft but that could change in the near future. Especially if fans let Mojang know that is what they want in the game

We’ve seen some interesting petitions pop online as of late, from Marvel fans wanting James Gunn rehired for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 to getting “Weird Al” Yankovic to perform at an obscure music festival in Yellowknife. But it looks like Fortnite fans have their own little campaign going on, asking for one simple thing — to say thank you to the driver of the Battle Bus.

The petition, which can be found here, was put together by Kody Keddie and is asking Epic Games to “add the ability to thank the bus driver before jumping out of the battle bus in Fortnite.” Thus far, the petition has over 6,000 signatures.

“Since I was just a boy I have always loved jumping out of the battle bus”, the petition reads. “But all this time I have felt something was missing. And that thing is the ability to thank the driver of the battle bus, he or she is truly a great person and they provide us a great service, I think it is time we can truly appreciate thair (their) service, don’t you agree?”

As silly as this all sounds, some fans are dedicated to getting such a feature put into the game. One even went as far as to note, “I cannot sleep at night knowing that a bus driver is forced to drive that battle bus 24/7.” Another chimed in, “This battle bus driver has changed lives is all I’m saying.”

Epic Games hasn’t said a word about the petition yet, but, um, can’t players just go and thank him anyway? Just say “Thanks!” before diving out of the Battle Bus? Or maybe gesturing to them as they land on the ground with a dance of some sort? Why does there need to be an “official” way to thank them when they can pass on their praise as it stands?

Maybe some folks just need that “Press X to pay tribute,” like you did in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare all those years ago. Who knows, maybe Epic Games is giving it some consideration. Or maybe they’re just adding cooler things to the game, which we’re even more cool with.

If you’re interested in signing, head over here to see the petition.

Fortnite is available now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, mobile and PC.

(Hat tip to GamesRadar for the scoop!)

Minecraft isn’t only popular in Japan, it’s also popular on the Nintendo Switch.

Minecraft is the most downloaded game on Nintendo Switch in Japan during the first half of this year, according to lists Nintendo published today.

Here are the top five for package and download versions. Note that Nintendo did not release download figures.

5. Mario Tennis Ace

Released: June 22, 2018

4. Splatoon 2

July 21, 2017

3. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

April 28, 2017

2. Kirby Star Allies

March 16, 2018

1. Minecraft

June 21, 2018

And here are the top five download-only games.

5. Arcade Archives vs Super Mario Bros.

Released: December 22, 2017

4. Overcooked: Special Edition

October 12, 2017

3. Stardew Valley

January 11, 2018

2. Human Fall Flat

December 28, 2017

1. Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition

May 12, 2017

Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

Last month, it was confirmed that Red Bull was hosting a special Fortnite event hosted by streaming sensation Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, with teams coming together to prove their worth against the competition. Now that the event is concluded, it looks like it’s become a huge success.

The event, hosted by Blevins and Ben “DrLupo” Lupo, continued to find a huge streaming audience over the course of the evening, with 150,000 viewers tuning in throughout the evening (with the event running all the way through this morning), with at least 100,000 watching concurrently. (That’s not a huge surprise, considering Ninja’s massive following on Twitch.)

The event, which was held on the 99th floor of Chicago’s Willis Tower, brought together 200 of the best Fortnite players around, scoring points on a system that would eventually give the victory to Trevor “Funkbomb” Siegler and Nate “Nateehill” Hill, aka Team Exploit.

“This is our first big tournament and to win it is amazing,” said Nateehill. “We knew we were good and now we just have more confidence, we’re ready for the next one.”

Payouts were somewhat minimal, at just $1,125 each for the top winners, but that was mainly due to the rules applied by Epic Games when it comes to third party competitions. Still, the players were thrilled to take part. You can watch the awarding in the video below, posted by the ESPN Esports Twitter account.

On top of that, a secondary challenge, one in which players took on Ninja and Lupo directly, resulted in earning bonus points over the course of the evening. But Ninja explained that it was the interaction with the fans that truly made the evening something special.

“I wouldn’t have a career if it wasn’t for the Fortnite Community,” said Ninja. “I had so much fun playing with one of my best friends [DrLupo] tonight and meeting all my fans. There was some top talent in this tournament.”

So, with its success and huge audience, could Red Bull be returning to Fortnite territory soon? The company didn’t say anything just yet, but we’ll see what gets announced over the next few months.

Fortnite is available now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC and mobile devices.

For a while now, Telltale Games has been teasing the conclusion of Clementine’s story in The Walking Dead: The Final Season, which is set to debut in just a few weeks. However, just because this episodic series has a huge emphasis on closure doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the end of the story.

During a recent livestream over at IGN, Telltale creative director Kent Mudle was asked if this five-episode arc would truly wrap everything up. But…it doesn’t quite look that way.

“This season is the end of Clementine’s journey, and that’s as much as I’ll say on that,” he said.

So what does that mean? The trailers have indicated a finish of sorts, but it looks like it’s just Clementine’s wrap-up. There’s a good chance that, considering it’s beneficial for both parties, Telltale’s relationship with Skybound will continue for more stories.

But which direction could they take? Could we see more of Lee’s side of things before the initial season of The Walking Dead began? Could Michonne make a return? Could another character from AMC’s The Walking Dead make their debut? There are possibilities galore.

For the moment though, Telltale is focusing on finishing up Clementine’s tale, and rightfully so. These new screens tell quite a bit, and soon we’ll see even more gameplay from the Final Season.

Here are the game’s features in case you missed them:

Emotional, Gut-Wrenching Story – See Clementine’s journey through to the end. As she builds a new life, you will have to grapple with new types of choices and live with the consequences as AJ looks on, learning from your every move.
More Control, More Tension – A new over-the-shoulder camera system, greater freedom to explore detailed environments, and scenes with unscripted combat capture the fear of living in a world overrun by the undead and create the most engaging The Walking Dead game yet.
Striking New Visual Style – The all-new Graphic Black art style rips the ink from the pages of the Eisner Award-winning comic book series and brings the world of The Walking Dead to life like never before. Supports 4K resolution and high dynamic range on compatible devices.
The Walking Dead: The Final Season debuts on August 14 for PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox One. There’s a good chance we’ll see it on Nintendo Switch and mobile devices down the road as well.

In just a couple of days, fans everywhere will be able to enjoy the Mega Man X Legacy Collection in two different volumes, covering the entire spectrum of games that have come out over the years.

But could there be a new addition to the story? A new clue has emerged indicating that we could be seeing a new game in the Mega Man X saga.

Mega Man X Could Be Returning With a Ninth Adventure
By ROBERT WORKMAN – July 22, 2018

0
Mega Man X
In just a couple of days, fans everywhere will be able to enjoy the Mega Man X Legacy Collection in two different volumes, covering the entire spectrum of games that have come out over the years.

But could there be a new addition to the story? A new clue has emerged indicating that we could be seeing a new game in the Mega Man X saga.

Eurogamer recently reported on a soundtrack booklet that goes over history for each game in the Mega Man X saga. But after the listing for X8, it points out an interesting note — “The Story of X’s fight is not yet over.”

You can see the pic indicating this message in the tweet below, posted by a user named guu_tara.

View image on Twitter
View image on Twitter

guutara＠C94金曜ペ31a
@guu_tara
なぁこれ、ロックマンＸ9出るやつじゃん…………
コンポーザーさんのコメントも新しいＸで会いましょう的な感じだった……………神よ……

11:19 AM – Jul 18, 2018
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While this could just be an accident, Eurogamer notes that Capcom did this sort of thing before. Back when the 20th anniversary book for the Mega Man series came out years ago, it had a similar message teasing that the saga wasn’t yet complete. Just a few short weeks later, Mega Man 9 was officially revealed for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii and PC. (That game would later be included in Mega Man Legacy Collection 2.)

In addition, Destructoid dug up its own hint on the matter, explaining that it saw some concept art in Mega Man Legacy Collection that teased the announcement of Mega Man 11, which was finally confirmed late last year with a huge online announcement.

So what does this mean? Well, if Capcom were to make an announcement, it probably wouldn’t be this year. That’s because the company’s already hard at work on MM 11, which is set to release this October.

However, with Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1 + 2 coming in a couple of days, and Capcom’s penchant to revitalize its classic game library (just look at Resident Evil 2 Remake), you never know. It could have a surprise tease waiting for a 2019 release.

For now, though, if you want to enjoy the Legacy releases, you can check them out on July 24 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC.