Computer Games

Microsoft's big experiment in real-world augmented reality gaming, Minecraft Earth, is live now for players in North America, the U.K., and a number of other areas. The pocket-size AR game lets you collect blocks and critters wherever you go, undertake little adventures with friends, and of course build sweet castles. I played an early version of Minecraft Earth earlier this year, and found it entertaining and the AR aspect surprisingly seamless. The gameplay many were first introduced to in Pokemon GO is adapted here in a more creative and collaborative way. You still walk around your neighborhood, rendered in this case charmingly like a Minecraft world, and tap little icons that pop up around your character.

Microsoft's big experiment in real-world augmented reality gaming, Minecraft Earth, is live now for players in North America, the U.K., and a number of other areas. The pocket-size AR game lets you collect blocks and critters wherever you go, undertake little adventures with friends, and of course build sweet castles. I played an early version of Minecraft Earth earlier this year, and found it entertaining and the AR aspect surprisingly seamless. The gameplay many were first introduced to in Pokemon GO is adapted here in a more creative and collaborative way. You still walk around your neighborhood, rendered in this case charmingly like a Minecraft world, and tap little icons that pop up around your character.

Learning a new cloud can be intimidating. In the past six years as a solution architect, I've had to learn AWS, Azure, and most recently Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and the incredible array of technologies, products, and vendors can make it seem like an impossible mountain to climb. Even moving between major cloud providers can be difficult due to subtle, but meaningful, differences in products, acronyms, and company cultures. Each time I want to learn a new cloud platform, I do it the same way: by hyper-over-engineering a Minecraft server for my kids. As a parent of two kids who are crazy about the block building game, I do my fair share of playing along with them, building castles, gathering resources, and defending my home from zombies.

Those are some of the adjectives being used to describe "Death Stranding," the much-anticipated video game from famed game designer Hideo Kojima ("Metal Gear Solid") available Friday (Nov. Since Kojima revealed the game was under development three years ago, with a trailer showing Norman Reedus ("The Walking Dead") as the main character in a sci-fi setting, expectations have been high – and speculation has spiked – about the prospects for "Death Stranding," which is currently only available on the PS4. A PC version is in the works for summer 2020. A measurement of demand for the game comes from Nielsen, which asked 10,000 gamers, aged 7 to 54, to rank their interest in games set to be released before and during the holiday season. Nintendo Switch:'Super Smash Bros. Ultimate' is officially the best-selling game in the series While "The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening" (Score: 99), "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" (98), "Luigi's Mansion 3" (96) and "Borderlands 3" (95) led the way, "Death Stranding" was close behind with a score of 94, ahead of well-known titles such as "Gears 5" (88), "FIFA 20" (87), and "Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order" (82).

Eric did not imagine this would be how he would spend his first BlizzCon. The 26-year-old World of Warcraft (WoW) player from Glendale, California, was at the annual fan event in Anaheim held by Blizzard, the games company behind global hits such as Warcraft, Overwatch and more. Each year, more than 35,000 people pack into the city's vast convention centre to play games, attend talks and share in their fandom. But at this year's event, held last weekend, there was a different feel. Instead of WoW cosplay, Eric was sporting a mask as worn by Hong Kong protesters to shield their faces from tear gas and facial recognition.

You've bested creepers, traveled deep into caves, and maybe even gone to The End and back-but have you ever transformed a sword into a magic wand? Built a palace in the blink of an eye? In Learn to Program with Minecraft, you'll do all this and more with the power of Python, a free language used by millions of professional and first-time programmers! Begin with some short, simple Python lessons and then use your new skills to modify Minecraft to produce instant and totally awesome results. Learn how to customize Minecraft to make mini-games, duplicate entire buildings, and turn boring blocks into gold.

Eímear Noone got into composing and conducting video game music by accident. One day, while studying music at Trinity College Dublin, a fourth-year student came to the bar she was drinking in with members of the college chapel choir and offered them a few quid to help with the orchestration on a project of his. "I have a vivid memory of sitting on a studio floor somewhere in Dublin writing choral parts with my pals and then singing them," she says. "Six months later my brother calls me in a complete tizzy and says, 'Did you work on Metal Gear Solid?' I was like, 'No!' He says, 'Well, I'm looking at your name on the screen credits right now.' And sure enough, the session she had contributed to for beer money was the soundtrack to Hideo Kojima's blockbusting adventure game. "Years later I was at the Bird's Nest in Beijing at the Olympic Stadium conducting this very piece of music," she says. Noone is now a hugely successful film and video game composer, having contributed scores for directors such as Gus Van Sant and Joe Dante, and for games, World of Warcraft, Diablo III and Hearthstone. In November, she's presenting her second series of High Score, Classic FM's agenda-setting programme dedicated to game music. Underappreciated outside of game fandom for years, the genre is now huge business with dedicated orchestras playing sold-out global concert tours. And Noone is a passionate advocate – very keen to explore and explain the unique elements of the art form. There is, of course, a foundational similarity between game and film scores – they are both composed to accompany and accentuate screened action. But while a film score needs to accompany a two-hour linear experience with specific cues and events, video game music must be there for many hours of play. Most open-word action adventures, the likes of Assassin's Creed Origins, Witcher 3 and Final Fantasy XV, offer over 100 hours of narrative, but many players will spend much longer exploring. Music scores also have two different roles in games: they accompany the non-interactive cinematic sequences that set up the story and occur throughout a game – sort of like short animated movie sequences; and they provide background music while you play. "Cinematic are scored very similarly to a movie or an animated film.

Though video game culture is seldom a quiet, peaceful place, the uproar over Blizzard Entertainment punishing a popular gamer for showing support for Hong Kong protesters has shaken the whole industry. Ng Wai Chung, a Hearthstone player from Hong Kong who goes by the name "Blitzchung," championed the pro-democracy protests in his hometown that have raged for the past five months during his appearance on a post-game stream. And Blizzard, the developer and publisher of Hearthstone, quickly responded with blanket punishments for everyone involved. It's the latest example of an American company caught between business interests in China and western-world freedom of speech. Outrage over Blizzard's reaction swiftly came from players, industry titans and politicians.

If you make a purchase by clicking one of our links, we may earn a small share of the revenue. However, our picks and opinions are independent from USA TODAY's newsroom and any business incentives. Buying a gaming machine is no longer as challenging as a game of Tetris. Thanks to smaller chips and lighter hardware, now you can buy a powerhouse in laptop form that will optimize gaming experience without having to piece together the hardware yourself. Gaming laptops have made PC gaming so much more accessible, and you can easily find machines with high-resolution displays and the latest graphics cards without breaking the bank. We've done the hard work for you, researching and testing out the top options on the market. After weeks of testing we think the Alienware M15 with an Nvidia GeForce 2070 is the best overall for people who want a high-performance machine. If you need something a little more budget-friendly, the Acer Nitro 7 can handle just about any current game as well for under $1,000.