For a beautiful few years, you have near-complete control over what your child plays. You decide what’s allowed and when, what to play together, which gems from the past to share with an excited five-year-old. Then a little more time passes, and suddenly the situation is completely different.

There comes a point where kids are more bothered about playing with their friends than playing with you, which – though natural and healthy, and sometimes actually quite a relief if you’ve ever spent painful hours trying to beat annoying bosses for them- can also be a little bit heartbreaking. When my teen stepson was about six, I got so bored of watching him play the same few levels of various Spider-Man games over and over again that I introduced him to Minecraft, and we had a truly cherishable few months exploring the game together and building weird treehouses and underground vaults and pretending to be scared of the zombies.

Then his wee friends got in on the action, and before too long he wasn’t interested in playing with me any more. A little later, he started getting good enough at Spider-Man that Dad didn’t have to sit there beside him to help through the hard bits. He’d come home full of enthusiasm for ropey-ass YouTube-legend games like Five Nights at Freddy’s that had spread around school like wildfire. He was forming his own individual relationship with video games, totally independent from us. And now, years down the line, he has completely different tastes.

My partner and I both have jobs involving video games. The house is full of them, and we have a pretty eclectic gaming diet. We both get a kick out of digging out lesser-known games with some shining distinction: a surreal story, an interesting art style, an extremely clever mechanic. I love huge role-playing games you can sink into for 100 hours; he likes to jump between several games at once, sampling what each has to offer. Our predilections come together on things like Yakuza and the Souls series and diverge on Nintendo (he doesn’t get it) and survival horror (I am a huge wuss), and neither of us really bothers with online play. Despite all of this, we have somehow managed to bring up a Gamer Boy who almost exclusively plays multiplayer shooters and recently refused to try Assassin’s Creed because “it’s in third-person”. I mean, what do you say to that? It’s like refusing to watch a Ghibli film because “it’s animated”.

Your children are not carbon copies of you, of course, and expecting them to be anything like you is the source of a lot of needless familial stress. But it’s fascinating that despite sharing a passion for video games, the teen and I can find so little common ground these days. For a while we had Destiny, but where I was perfectly happy to play it at the weekend for a month or so every time a new expansion came out, he spent hours pretty much every day rolling the dice for the best guns and gear and becoming a juggernaut in the Crucible. His current dual obsessions are Counter-Strike and Fortnite, both of which make me feel about 3000 years old. (Am I out of touch? No… it’s the children who are wrong.)

It’s rewarding too, though, to see your kids forging their own path. I feel the same way when I watch my stepson dominate a round of Fortnite as I probably would if he were amazing at rugby: slightly baffled, but nonetheless proud.

Streamer, programmer, and speedrunner SethBling is always cooking up fascinating new gaming feats: a machine learning Mario Kart AI, an SNES cartridge that runs mods, an Atari emulator that runs inside Minecraft. His latest creation is a 2D version of Minecraft that runs inside a Minecraft chest.

SethBling showed how it works in a video uploaded over the weekend. In Minecraft, he opens a large chest whose 6×9 inventory space has been converted into a 2D area populated by item icons that can be broken down and crafted into stuff, just like in the main game.

He can move his avatar, represented by a tunic and head, left or right by clicking on a block in that direction. When he runs up against a block of rock or wood he can break it apart and acquire the materials. In an inventory screen within the chest screen, he can even combine those materials into new items, like a wooden pickaxe.

SethBling’s Minecraft within Minecraft even has a little house with a bed inside for when contemplating the nature of simulations within simulations proves too exhausting.

SethBling replicated the “real” Minecraft world within the chest using a special /loot command, which can be downloaded as an add-on to the game. This lets the player control the Armor Stand item from the chest screen and interact with the world outside the chest as if the Armor Stand were the player. Everything around the Armor Stand is rendered inside the inventory screen, and anything SethBling breaks apart or changes in the chest happens in whatever part of the world the Armor Stand currently is.

“It’s honestly a very limited system, but it’s enough to look really cool,” SethBling said in his video. “There’s no mobs or anything although that would be cool to add.” SethBling has also added fully-functioning portals and even an internet browser to the game, so sticking a few enemies in his latest Minecraft simulacrum seems like something he could handle.

Over two years ago, Minecraft’s 1.9 patch introduced what Mojang called the Combat Update – a broad set of changes intended to deepen the game’s fighting experience. Even that revamp has never been perfect, and both the Bedrock edition and the original Java version have their own flaws. Now, the developers are testing a major set of new changes that will unify the combat system in both.

“The combat mechanics in Java Edition have been a controversial topic ever since the 1.9 update,” chief creative officer Jens ‘Jeb’ Bergensten says (via Windows Central). We want the mechanics to be the same across all editions, but simply porting Java to Bedrock or vice versa is not taking us forward. We want to find a system that is flexible and works well across all input devices.”

In the test version of the combat revamp, attacks are faster across the board, and you can simply hold down the button to keep swinging. When you stop attacking, an attack timer starts charging up – at 200%, you perform a special attack (with examples like “crits, sweeping, and knockback”) which offers longer reach.

Weapons are now differentiated by different amounts of reach, and faster weapons will now leave shorter invulnerability timers on enemies. Additionally, shields will no longer have a warm-up delay, and can activate while crouching.

All these changes are available for player testing, and you can find instructions to get the beta going on Reddit.

The beta’s been out long enough for player feedback to roll in, and Bergenstein has responded to some of the most common points of concern. Auto-attack will likely be disabled by default for mouse and keyboard users, but the bigger concern is how to balance mobs against the needs of PvP combat – an issue the team hasn’t fully ironed out yet.

Two of YouTube’s biggest stars Felix ‘PewDiePie’ Kjellberg and James Charles are linking up for KEEMSTAR’s new Monday Minecraft competition that pits some of the biggest content creators around against each other.

While James Charles had a rather unceremonious start to his Twitch career, no one can keep YouTube’s premier makeup guru down and is firing up his channel again to compete in the event.

Meanwhile PewDiePie is again streaming on his platform of choice Dlive as the two popular creators try to make their way through the brackets of KEEMSTAR’s latest event featuring Minecraft.

“I bet this is a friendship and stream that you didn’t see coming.”

To join up on the surprise collaboration, viewers can join either the sisters or the bros by visiting either other their live feeds.

Fans of PewDiePie will be familiar with his antics that can be caught exclusively on DLive, but those who want to tune into James Charles can find him on his Twitch channel: JCharlesBeauty.

The duo are up against 18 other teams vying for the chance to move onto the next round of the Minecraft Monday’s hotly contested bracket.

Minecraft Monday turns educational

Throughout the stream, the pair seemed to have plenty of chemistry as PewDiePie decided to teach James Charles a few things about playing Minecraft. 

Whether it was James learning how to “helicopter” or them talking about why they named their duo “dick and balls,” there was plenty of hilarious antics from start to finish. 

What are the rules in Monday Minecraft?

Keemstar laid out all that entrants need to know in order to assert their dominance in the Monday Minecraft set of rules.

For every Elimination a team gets +10 on their score, meanwhile a Victory Royale nets a squad +30 to their total. Moreover, the “top two teams” get +20 score while the “top three teams” get +10 score to their name.

Just surviving a game will get someone +2 score, but “whenever a team is eliminated all other remaining teams earn +2 score.”

KEEMSTAR TWITTERThe two YouTubers are doing their best to meme their way to the top of Monday Minecraft.

While teams are obviously working together, the scores for Placements, Surviving, and Victory Royales are evenly split between the members of the team unless someone dies. In that case, the scores will be “awarded to the surviving teammate” to “reflect individual contribution.”

There is NO cross-teaming, feeding, mods or resource packs that grant unfair advantages allowed in Monday Minecraft.

While trash talk is definitely allowed, players must “still conduct [themselves] respectfully.” And Keemstar added a note about Clout chase, saying players shouldn’t be a “sore loser” insted just HAVE FUN!

The hilarity is at an all time high as PewDiePie is screaming memes at the top of his lungs, while the new streamer Charles does the best he can while trying to navigate Minecraft and the technical difficulties of live streaming.

A subset of Pokemon fans are complaining because Game Freak has the audacity to re-use animations in Pokemon Sword & Shield. A portion of the Pokemon fanbase has been very vocal in their dislike that Pokemon Sword & Shield won’t be compatible with every Pokemon currently in the franchise. While past games have allowed players to transfer all of their older Pokemon into the game, Game Freak made the decision to limit the number of Pokemon species to an unspecified number due to the need to animate over 900 Pokemon models and close to a thousand different Pokemon moves in a higher fidelity than what was needed in Nintendo 3DS Pokemon games.

Since the announcement was made, a group of Pokemon fans have turned on the main series game developers Game Freak, claiming that their decision was made out of laziness and greed. To prove their point, fans have occasionally posted videos showing side-by-side comparisons of Pokemon Sword & Shield clips with clips from past games that appear to show Pokemon having the same idle animations and battle animations. Other “fans” have made the claim that Pokemon Coliseum, a game containing a fraction of the Pokemon and released over 15 years ago, actually looks better than Pokemon Sword & Shield.

While some of the disappointment is understandable, there’s a couple of erroneous narratives that are in need of correcting. Game Freak director Junichi Masuda stated that the decision was made to focus on higher fidelity animations for the Nintendo Switch, not that they were crafting all new Pokemon models and animations. While it’s clear that Game Freak is re-using some animations and models, increasing the fidelity isn’t an instant process, as explained in this threadby game designer Miodrag Kovachevic. And while there’s plenty of evidence that Pokemon Sword & Shield will use some new animations, Game Freak director Junichi Masuda noted in a previous interview that they attempted to bring over many of the older models and animations, but the higher fidelity rate led to some models needing to be completely re-made.

In addition, a narrative about Game Freak being “stingy” or “cheap” by not hiring enough developers to work on Pokemon Sword & Shield ignores the economic and business reality that it often takes months to properly on-board a new employee to the point that they can contribute to a high-profile project. Plus, finding skilled developers (like any skilled job) can be a long process, one that can’t be fixed in a matter of weeks or even months. There’s an argument to be made that Game Freak should have hired more developers if they wanted to include all 800 Pokemon, but that decision would had to occur years ago to make an impact on Pokemon Sword & Shield.1COMMENTS

At the end of the day, Game Freak and Nintendo have the right to design and release a Pokemon game with as many Pokemon as they want, and Pokemon fans have the right not to buy it if they feel it doesn’t live up to its standards. However, trying to craft a narrative using a few seconds of video seems disingenuous and doesn’t really help the discourse of the game or the toxicity of the fanbase at all.

Pokemon Sword & Shield will be released on November 19th.

Talks of a new video game based on the popular Evil Dead franchise have been swirling around the Internet for some time, with Bruce Campbell himself confirming such a thing is indeed on the way. Unfortunately, he hasn’t spilled any specifics about the inbound title, but word has been circulating that it is going to be a VR experience. That said, Campbell has spoken once again on the Evil Dead game, only this time he made sure to clarify that whatever it is, it definitely is not going to be available on a virtual reality headset.

Taking to Twitter, Campbell revealed that the Evil Dead game is currently in development for PCand consoles. Of course, he didn’t specify which consoles, but one can imagine it will at least arrive on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. “Hey, groovy gamers, this is a swell time to clarify some incorrect info that might be out there (including from me!): the upcoming Evil Dead video game is being developed for consoles and PC, not VR,” he said. “Sorry for any confusion. Game on!”View image on Twitter

Bruce Campbell✔@GroovyBruce

Hey, groovy gamers, this is a swell time to clarify some incorrect info that might be out there (including from me!): the upcoming Evil Dead video game is being developed for consoles and PC, not VR. Sorry for any confusion. Game on! #MyBoomstickIsTooBigForVR #EvilDeadTheGame4,8481:44 AM – Jul 2, 20191,298 people are talking about thisTwitter Ads info and privacy

As can be seen in the tweet above, Campbell then claimed his boomstick is too big for VR and he also may have revealed the title. Evil Dead The Game wouldn’t be the most groundbreaking title in existence, but it certainly would get the job done. Then again, that is entirely speculation at this point and only time will tell if it is indeed the title.2COMMENTS

Speaking of time, according to Campbell’s comments from earlier this year, we will be seeing the arrival of the Evil Dead game within the next year. “We’ll see more Evil Dead, that’s for sure,” said Campbell. “There is an Evil Dead video game out. A fully immersive video game probably within a year. I’m not sure about the day. There will be variations of that. There won’t be the original Ash anymore. That guy is done.”

Toy Story 4 has officially been released into theaters, with fans of all ages going to see it on the big screen alongside fellow fans with popcorn and candy galore. With the nostalgia out in full force at the movies, gamers will be able to get in on the action in one of the most popular games to exist. How they will be able to do this is through the new Toy Story mash-up that has arrived for Minecraft, and with everyone’s favorite characters all included, it is sure to be a great time for fans.

As noted on the Minecraft website, “Woody, Bo Peep, Buzz Lightyear, and some of the other charismatic characters you know and love have taken a detour to the world of Minecraft! All-new characters from Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story4, Duke Caboom and Ducky & Bunny are also joining the adventure!”

“Explore some of the places you love (Andy’s bedroom!) and maybe are a little afraid of (I still have nightmares about Sid’s bedroom), from the teeny perspective of the toys,” Mojang’s Kelsey Howard said. “Yes, you are indeed tiny, which means you’ll have to climb, jump, and solve puzzles to find your way through an enormous, yet familiar world!”View image on Twitter

Minecraft✔@Minecraft

TO INFINITY AND… right into Minecraft? Explore the big world of Disney’s Toy Story as one of the toys themselves! Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and many others – all in the Toy Story Mash-up pack, now on Minecraft Marketplace!

↣ http://redsto.ne/toystory  ↢2,8501:00 AM – Jun 26, 2019491 people are talking about thisTwitter Ads info and privacy

For those looking to get in on the Toy Story action in Minecraft, the new mash-up is currently available in the Minecraft Marketplace for 1,340 Minecoins. While there, you will also find mash-ups along the likes of Steven Universe, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and much more.1

As for Minecraft itself, the massively popular game is available on PC, PlayStation 3 and 4, Xbox 360 and One, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices. For more information on the title, check out some of our previous coverage.

What do you think about all of this? Are you excited to check out the new Toy Story mash-up for Minecraft? What other popular movies or television shows would you love to see make their way to the game? Sound off in the comment section below, or feel free to hit me up over on Twitter @anarkE7!

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Exciting news, Pokemon fans — A Wild Podcast Has Appeared, the official Pokemon podcast of ComicBook.com, is here! Check it out by clicking here or listen below.

On today’s episode, we talk about some changes and surprises possibly coming to Pokemon GO (including Team Rocket?!), PokeFusions are back and just as horrifying as ever, and Christian got hands on with Pokemon Sword & Shield! Make sure to subscribe now to never miss an episode!

The latest mashup pack for Minecraft is out now, and it brings Toy Story to the popular sandbox game.

The Toy Story Mash-Up pack adds a number of character skins from the Pixar franchise, including classics like Woody, Buzz, and Bo Peep, as well as new ones from Toy Story 4 such as Keanu Reeves’ Duke Caboom and Ducky & Bunny.

Some of the new locations in the Toy Story Mash-Up Pack include Andy’s bright and colorful bedroom and Sid’s spooky bedroom of horrors. Everything is scaled down to be seen from the perspective of a toy. That puts a new spin on Minecraft as you’ll need to jump and climb around.

The Toy Story Mash-Up Pack is available now on Xbox and PC for $8 USD. Click through the images in the gallery above to get a closer look at the new character skins.

Toy Story is just the latest mega-franchise to come to Minecraft with a Mash-Up Pack. Some of the other notable ones include The Simpsons, Pirates of the Caribbean, Nightmare Before Christmas, and Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Minecraft remains immensely popular, and Microsoft continues to expand the franchise with new extensions. While Minecraft 2 may not be happening, a new game called Minecraft Dungeons is on the way. Additionally, a Pokemon Go-style AR game called Minecraft Earth is in development as well.

While everyone can’t stop talking about Apex Legends and Fortnite, Minecraftcontinues to be one of the most played games in the world. Microsoft revealed today that the block-building phenomenon still has more than 91 million monthly active players. For comparison, Epic Games said Fortnite has 78 million monthly active players back in September.

Minecraft has ascended into a gaming institution like Pokémon. And now, Microsoft is adding Minecraft to Xbox Game Pass. For $10 per month, you can get Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Crackdown 3, and — beginning April 4 — Minecraft.

“Since its launch in 2009, the Minecraft community has remained one of the most active and passionate in gaming, attracting over 91 million players [each month] of all ages from virtually every country in the world,” Xbox Game Pass marketing boss Parimal Deshpande said. “Those joining through Xbox Game Pass will enter a vibrant, global community that plays across 20 unique platforms like Windows 10, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and mobile.”

More people for Minecraft Marketplace

Minecraft is not free-to-play, but it still seems ubiquitous. But by adding Minecraft to Game Pass, Microsoft could amplify that effect. And it is simultaneously boosting Games while exposing more people to Minecraft’s in-game store.

“Xbox Game Pass players will also gain access to an ever-expanding array of content for purchase via the in-game Minecraft Marketplace,” said Deshpande. “[The Marketplace] contains over 1,000 pieces of content from 60 distinct creators.”

The Minecraft Marketplace is a major focus for Micorosft. It treats it more as an ongoing service. That’s why it’s available everywhere and supports cross-play. And enabling community creators to build and sell content is a part of that. This ensures the game continues to make revenue and players have an abundance of fresh content beyond The Minecraft Team’s frequent updates.

And now Game Pass players can hop into Minecraft without spending any extra money, and they may end up spending cash in the Marketplace instead.

The Minecraft Marketplace once again had a huge month. Fans showed up for 3,320,063 free and premium downloads through the in-game store. That’s down from 4.56 million in January and 10.8 million in December. But year-over-year, downloads increased 791 percent from 372,509 downloads.

That huge growth has come due in part to the attention that Microsoft and The Minecraft Team are giving the service. The developer has added features like search and real-money prices. And the team has also worked to regularly deliver free content to keep people coming back.

All of that has paid off, and now the Minecraft Marketplace’s future seems very bright.

Let’s get to the charts.

Top 10 most downloaded

Click to view slideshow.

1. Legacy Skin Pack by Minecraft

“Get cracking with these starter skins and old favorites brought over from Minecraft editions of yore. Widen your wardrobe, turn out in a tux, or rock it as a croc.”

2. Purple Parrot Party Palace by Minecraft

“A celebration of all things purple parrot party and palace. Master the mechanics of fireworks, armor stands, jukeboxes, and banners. Traverse a jungle island to find a massive parrot temple. Part tutorial and part adventure, this map will make your parrot dance.”

3. Grid Runners by Noxcrew

“Take on Noxcrew’s Grid Runners: a mini-game map made of classic Minecraft challenges where you can craft, mine, and jump your way to victory. Compete against the clock for the fastest times and team up with all of your friends to find out who is the ultimate Minecraft champion. This is a free map created exclusively for Minecon Earth 2018.”

4. Abstraction: Minecon Earth by Jigarbov Productions

“Featuring the logos that were just begging to be played on, MineCon Earth has floating landmasses with a surprising amount of hidden secrets and challenges.”

5. Pet Shop by Pixelheads

“Welcome to Pet Shop. Choose between 17 lovely pets. Explore a town and earn coins by collecting poop or by catching stray animals. Play fetch with dogs, trim a poodle, or take a snake for a walk. Cats, hamsters, lizards, poodles, capuchin monkeys, snails, hedgehogs, snakes, German shepherds, parakeets, penguins, rats, piggies, ferrets, koalas, chameleons, and rottweilers.”

6. Luxury Life by Pixelheads

“Luxury Life is a world where you role-play life as a billionaire. Cruise the streets in a sports car or any of the 10 other vehicles, explore luxurious mansions and decorate with furniture!”

7. Dragons by InPvP

“Take one of six dragons to the skies and become a legendary dragon rider. Surprise your enemies with custom attacks. Shoot fireballs and drop TNT. Explore three huge castles and the beautiful custom landscape.”

8. Advanced Farming by GameMode One

“Farm your heart out with new machines, vehicles, animals, pets, vendors, characters, and lands to explore. Fully functioning machines and vehicles. New and improved farm animals. Huge custom farm and ranch. A peaceful and relaxing roleplay countryside experience. Progress through the economy and optimize your farm.”

9. Steven Universe Mash-Up by Minecraft

“Steven enters the Minecraft universe in this Diamond-worth mash-up. Contains Steven Universe themed skins, textures, and original music from the show and all your favorite locations, from Beach City to Homeworld. Believe in Steven.”

10. City Life by Pixelheads

“Cruise through the big city in City Life! Chase down a bandit in your police car, save the day as a firefighter or take your dog for a walk.”

Top 10 highest grossing

Click to view slideshow.

1. Pet Shop by Pixelheads

“Welcome to Pet Shop. Choose between 17 lovely pets. Explore a town and earn coins by collecting poop or by catching stray animals. Play fetch with dogs, trim a poodle, or take a snake for a walk. Cats, hamsters, lizards, poodles, capuchin monkeys, snails, hedgehogs, snakes, German shepherds, parakeets, penguins, rats, piggies, ferrets, koalas, chameleons, and rottweilers.”

2. Advanced Farming by GameMode One

“Farm your heart out with new machines, vehicles, animals, pets, vendors, characters, and lands to explore. Fully functioning machines and vehicles. New and improved farm animals. Huge custom farm and ranch. A peaceful and relaxing roleplay countryside experience. Progress through the economy and optimize your farm.”

3. Luxury Life by Pixelheads

“Luxury Life is a world where you role-play life as a billionaire. Cruise the streets in a sports car or any of the 10 other vehicles, explore luxurious mansions and decorate with furniture!”

4. Steven Universe Mash-Up by Minecraft

“Steven enters the Minecraft universe in this Diamond-worth mash-up. Contains Steven Universe themed skins, textures, and original music from the show and all your favorite locations, from Beach City to Homeworld. Believe in Steven.”

5. Dragons by InPvP

“Take one of six dragons to the skies and become a legendary dragon rider. Surprise your enemies with custom attacks. Shoot fireballs and drop TNT. Explore three huge castles and the beautiful custom landscape.”

6. City Life by Pixelheads

“Cruise through the big city in City Life! Chase down a bandit in your police car, save the day as a firefighter or take your dog for a walk.”

7. City Mash-Up by Everbloom Studios

“With over 1,000 hand-detailed rooms, there are stories, secrets, and mini-games around every corner. Build with the city’s full texture pack in your own worlds or take on any role you can imagine!”

8. Dinosaur Island by Pixelheads

“This once-idyllic island has been overrun by prehistoric beasts after the scientists lost control of their genetic experiments. Explore and discover the hidden mysteries of this intriguing island in a completely new adventure on Dinosaur Island.”

9. CampCraft by Blockworks

“A vast wilderness awaits you and your friends in CampCraft. Discover forest animals, ride camper vans, toast marshmallows, sit around the campfire, and set up your own camp.”

10. Shopping Time by Cyclone Designs

“It’s shopping time. Spend emeralds around town to buy furniture, cars, bikes, boats, pets, and much more. Decorate a pre-built house or build your own in a vacant plot and let your creativity and imagination flow.”