Category: News (Page 46 of 108)

Minecraft 1.5 released

April 20, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

Minecraft 1.5 launched just a couple days ago, bringing a few new craftables, some performance updates, and weather! So far the performance updates have been the best part. I’m getting 80+ FPS while running around in single player worlds, where before I was somewhere around the mid 30s depending on chunk loads. I’m also really excited about the way weather works. I was always sad to see it in YouTube videos since it was gone by the time I started seriously playing. It will be nice to have it back.

I’ve included a couple screenshots with the post to show off some of the new features. The texture pack I’m using is called Coterie if you’re interested. In one picture you’ll notice the “crying obsidian” texture – that’s actually been replaced with a sidegrass texture in 1.5. Other than that, enjoy the pics – share some of your own in the comments if you have them. Has anyone seen lightning yet?

Development, Minecraft, News

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Rumble Sneak Peek

April 18, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

We’re well on our way to a new champion again, this time with a Blitzcrank doppleganger named Rumble. Here’s the blurb:

Harpoon? Check. Flamethrower? Check. Triple rockets? Check, check, and check. Just to be safe, we’ll throw in one mischievous yordle whose mechanical prowess has been used to make the most diabolical machination ever to hit the Fields of Justice. Meet Rumble, the Mechanized Menace. His desire to see you burned, speared, crushed, stomped, blown up, or otherwise grievously injured, has him pushing his war machine way beyond what would be considered safe operating procedure, even if he might blow a gasket. But don’t call him short. That’ll really grind his gears.

I gotta say, I dig his little checklist at the beginning. I’m a little concerned that he’ll steal my boy Blitzcrank’s thunder, but all the same he seems interesting. His skills sound vaguely like Tinker from the Dota days, though I wonder how the harpoon will work out. I bet triple rockets are his ult.

Champions, Development, league of legends, News

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Brand patch skins announced

April 12, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

The Brand patch, as with most champion patches, includes some nice new skins. Brand launches with a Vandal skin and a Fallout-style “Apocaplyptic” skin, both of which look pretty nice. This patch also showcases Gragas‘ classy side – Gragas Esq. is ready for action on the Fields of Justice. Lastly, Time Machine Zilean is entering the battle this go round.

Anyone buying any of these? I’m seriously tempted by Gragas Esq., but I haven’t played him in forever.

league of legends, News, Patches, Skins

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Brand Champion Spotlight released

April 12, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

The Brand Champion Spotlight is live, giving us a look at his skills in action. I’m pretty excited about Brand – his passive doesn’t seem crazy strong, even if I am a bit worried about those high-MR targets. Judging by what we can see, I’d say the only thing I don’t like about him off the bat is that it’s a little difficult to see when his Conflagrate actually casts. That’s a pretty minor complaint compared to a couple of recent releases.

I really like the shift toward skirmishing heroes over teamfight/tanky heroes. The fact that Pyroclasm only has a couple bounces makes it really devastating against two heroes, but sort of average against more than that. It’s a solid balance idea that should hopefully keep him from just solo-nuking entire teams.

Champions, league of legends, News, Patches

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Achievements, statistics and weather to hit Minecraft 1.5

April 9, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

Notch made a blog post this week announcing the official release date for Minecraft. The post also detailed some of the features we can expect in 1.5, not the least of which is the return of weather. Weather used to be in the game but was removed at some point for resource management concerns. It’s making a comeback, as are achievements and statistics.

I’m curious to see how achievements and stats will be tracked. I’d love to be able to log in to Minecraft.net to compare my stats and achievements to those of my friends. It will be interesting to see the types of achievements that Mojang thinks are most difficult or interesting to get.

Jens Bergensten – one of the coders at Mojang – has also been tweeting a good bit about adding the piston mod to Minecraft. It’s not definite, but if he’s spending a lot of time on it I’d be willing to bet that it will make an appearance in some way, shape, or form.