It doesn’t hurt that they make sure your pickaxe and other things don’t break when you use them, unlike Minecraft. That fact alone has made my two older kids intensely intersted in playing Terraria, so much so that I bought a second copy, gifted it to my wife’s previously unused Steam account, and put it on my wife’s computer and in front of my oldest daughter.

The 1.8 update to Minecraft looks to tilt the balance back in its own favor in a big way. A new Create mode will allow flying and unlimited building, ameliorating the irritation of breaking pickaxes and not enough of one resource or another and including the ability to flag specific users on a server to have that capability. A revamp of the Survival mode will have a lot in store for us, too. The advent of NPC villages, underground dungeons, the beginnings of a new experience system, a new hunger and healing system, a new fighting mechanic including critical hits and the need to pull back the bow before firing, along with the scary new Enderman mob promises to drive us out of our painstakingly built caves and homes and out into the wider world.

Look for the features of 1.8 to roll out in at least two updates as 1.8 and 1.9 within the next month or so.

For the full details check the press release below.

Xperia(TM) PLAY 4G Keeps Favorite Video Games at Your Fingertips Beginning Sept. 18

First PlayStation®-certified smartphone from AT&T available for $49.99 in AT&T stores and att.com

DALLAS, Sept. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ –

Key Facts

— The Xperia(TM) PLAY 4G, combining a PlayStation®-certified gaming
device with the capabilities and portability of an Android smartphone,
arrives in AT&T* stores, and online on September 18 for $49.99 with a
two-year agreement.
— The Xperia PLAY 4G has dedicated gaming controls built into the phone
through a slide out controller including directional keypad, dual analog
touch joystick, two shoulder buttons and the four iconic PlayStation
symbol keys: circle, X, square and triangle.
— Running the Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) platform, the first
PlayStation-certified smartphone in the world features a brilliant 4″
480 x 854 screen and stereo speakers.

AT&T Exclusives

Only AT&T customers can choose the 4G-capable Xperia PLAY, offered in an exclusive “stealth blue” color. The smartphone package is complete with bonus accessories including the Sony Ericsson Multimedia Dock DK300 and MC100 music cable. In addition to providing a convenient charging station, the DK300 converts the Xperia PLAY’s screen to a large clock display, and the music cable lets you connect to external speakers.** The DK300 and music cable come in the Xperia PLAY box, only from AT&T.

In addition, the device is pre-loaded with seven games, some of which are exclusive, at no additional cost including:

— Dungeon Defenders(TM) Second Wave by Trendy Entertainment
— Asphalt(TM) 6 Adrenaline by Gameloft
— Star Battalion by Gameloft
— Madden NFL(TM) 11 by Electronic Arts
— The Sims(TM) 3 by Electronic Arts
— Tower Bloxx(TM): My City by Digital Chocolate
— Crash Bandicoot® by SCEA/Naughty Dog/Universal

AT&T customers will have access to 150 Xperia PLAY optimized games including Minecraft(TM) Pocket Edition, Battlefield: Bad Company(TM) 2 and Dead Space(TM) 2 for download and purchase through the “Get Games” recommender screen, easily accessible when you slide open the Xperia PLAY’s game controller.

Handheld Gaming and Smartphones Converge

The Xperia PLAY 4G offers a gamer’s wonderland by providing the on-the-go capabilities of an Android smartphone with the immersive entertainment appeal of a portable gaming device.

— Snapdragon chipset including a 1GHz CPU and Adreno 205 graphics
processor (GPU)
— Runs on the Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) platform
— Sight and sound: 4″ 480 x 854 screen, up to 60 frames per second
graphics, stereo speakers
— Dual camera: 5MP rear and VGA forward-facing, with video recording and
chat capabilities over Wi-Fi
— Hundreds of Xperia PLAY optimized games through Android Market or
directly from the publishers
— Pre-loaded with seven Xperia PLAY optimized games from publishers such
as Gameloft and EA.

Along with the great gaming and Android capabilities, the Xperia PLAY 4G from AT&T includes Facebook Inside Xperia, a suite of Facebook functions integrated into various applications, such as friends’ birthdays in the phonebook, a “like” button in the music player, photo tags in the media gallery, and YouTube video recommendations from friends.

Pricing and Availability

The Xperia PLAY 4G arrives in AT&T stores and online on Sept. 18 and will be available for $49.99 after a two-year contract with minimum data plan.

Quotes

“Gamers and smartphone fans alike will delight in the Xperia PLAY 4G’s instant access to gaming and entertainment,” said Jeff Bradley, senior vice president, Devices, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “We’re excited to offer a device that allows consumers to have fun while still staying on top of everything in their life.”

“Our fans on AT&T have been asking for Xperia PLAY and now we’re giving them everything they need in a smartphone with what they really want – an immersive gaming experience on AT&T’s 4G Network,” said Peter Farmer, Head of Marketing for North America, Sony Ericsson. “In addition to a constantly growing list of games exclusive to and optimized for Xperia PLAY, we know AT&T customers are really going to enjoy the uniquely Sony Ericsson social experience, including Timescape and Facebook Inside.”

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

**External speakers not included.

4G speeds delivered by HSPA+ with enhanced backhaul. Available in limited areas. Availability increasing with ongoing backhaul deployment. Requires 4G device. Learn more at att.com/network.

References to screen size are measured diagonally.

Important Information: Limited-time offer. Mobile broadband coverage and other coverage not available in all areas. See coverage map at store for details. Two year agreement with qualifying voice plan and a minimum $15 a month smartphone data plan required. Subscriber must live and have a mailing address within AT&T’s owned wireless network coverage area. Up to $36 activation fee applies. Equipment price and availability may vary by market and may not be available from independent retailers. Early Termination Fee: None if cancelled in the first 30 days, but up to $35 restocking fee may apply to returns; thereafter up to $325. Some agents impose additional fees. Other conditions and restrictions apply. See contract for details. Sales tax calculated based on price of unactivated equipment.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation’s fastest mobile broadband network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. A leader in mobile broadband and emerging 4G capabilities, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide of any U.S. carrier, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries. It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse® and AT&T |DIRECTV brands. The company’s suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world. In domestic markets, AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive are known for their leadership in local search and advertising.

Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com. This AT&T news release and other announcements are available at http://www.att.com/newsroom and as part of an RSS feed at www.att.com/rss. Or follow our news on Twitter at @ATT.

© 2011 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. Mobile broadband not available in all areas. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies. Xperia and the Sony Ericsson liquid identity logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB. PlayStation and Sony are the trademarks or registered trademarks of Sony Corporation. Ericsson is the trademark or registered trademark of Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericson. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

About Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson celebrates its 10th year as a joint venture between Sony Corporation and Ericsson in October, 2011. Over the years Sony Ericsson has brought together the best communication technologies with superior entertainment user experiences to create its Xperia(TM) line of the ‘most entertaining smartphones’ in the mobile handset industry. With its global corporate functions in London, Sony Ericsson has sales and marketing operations in all major regions of the world, as well as manufacturing in China, and product development sites in China, Japan, Sweden and Silicon Valley, California. For more information, please visit: www.sonyericsson.com/press.

SOURCE AT&T Inc.
AT&T Inc.

My guess is that the developers wanted it, and wanted it really badly, but that’s not normally how Nintendo works. They make the systems, they make their own really good first party games… ok, maybe some of them are really good… for their systems, and if third party developers can make good games they can sell them too. If developers are angling for cross platform Vita and 3DS development, a second stick is really a must for that to make sense, especially since the attachment and future version of the 3DS with both of these things built in also gets another shoulder button. There’s also the idea that the battery compartment will get bigger, allowing longer battery life.

Did Nintendo actually come to the realization that they needed better control options for this platform to avoid it sinking under the weight of re-releases of everything that was on the DS with no real innovation other than maybe passable 3D visuals? How would this ever matter to Nintendo, the masters of remanufacturing their very strong (and even not so strong) franchises onto each successive platform with success?

So is the idea of twin-stick parity for the 3DS bad news for Sony on the heels of a price cut? I doubt it. They’re still different enough animals hardware-wise, and the Vita isn’t going to succeed based on the hardware alone. It’s going to be the software that sells it, and we won’t know more about that until it lands stateside in 2012.

Much like I’m primarily interested in the Peace Walker remake for the PS3 in the upcoming Metal Gear Solid collection headed to both systems, I’d pick up the Devil May Cry re-releases only for the third iteration, Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening Special Edition, the US remix of the originally JP-only, crushingly hard Devil May Cry 3. I played the heck out of that game back in the day, so maybe I could claw most of my way to a Platinum trophy if I gave it a shot.

For more information hit up the PlayStation Blog which will give you a look at the 3D and Move-enabled game along with its Doomsday Edition.

This also makes us scratch or heads over what Knights of the Old Republic will end up doing. Maybe a WOW-style free to play where you get the first 20 levels free and need to subscribe to get into the good stuff? Either way, paying for a boxed copy of a game seems so archaic. I could definitely see CCP dropping the initial setup fee for EVE as part of a f2p model down the road. You want more people to try your game, even if it’s a pared back version of it. Otherwise how will they get hooked?

The Star Trek Online announcement was carried over on Evil Avatar and more details on what subscription “gold” and free to play “silver” players will be able to do is on the main site.

New box art was announced for the game, which I noticed over at EvilAvatar. Why isn’t it shown here? Because it’s not really all that good compared to the other screen shots available at the game’s site. A video also on the site from GamesCom note an October 2011 release date for the game.

The game retailer tipped their hand just a few days ago, announcing their own game streaming service is in beta testing on consoles and PCs for release in 2012, so this situation where they make money on taking pre-orders and selling a game, you know, at retail, was apparently too much to bear.

The statement from GameStop PR really tells you all you need to know: “Square Enix packed the competitor’s coupon with our Deus Ex: Human Revolution product without our prior knowledge and we did pull and discard these coupons.”

This is ugly. Square Enix did that horrible thing, packing the box with whatever they saw fit, and GameStop agreed to (a) buy it from Square Enix and (b) sell it at a profit. I can see how horrible that must be, making money selling games. I think the next step we’ll see is extraction of a packed-in code for enabling online multiplayer or some other game feature followed by a sticker on the box that you can buy those features from their Impulse service. The sky’s the limit with crap like this.

If the publishers do react, game buyers may be the ones to suffer. I could see this hastening the rise of digital-only distribution and activation when publishers decide to sell fewer and fewer boxed copies of games. GameStop has to wonder if this kind of crap will make anyone want to list in their online store when the biggest publishers that sell the most games already have their own online stores.

And while I was curious about a streaming service built into a console like the PS3 or Xbox 360, because as the wildfire success of streaming services built into home consoles shows, nobody wants an extra box to buy and hook up to your TV, now I don’t want to pay GameStop a dime for anything at all.

His recent move to Director of Development for the video game company Behaviour Interactive along with parental responsibilities seemed to be taking up more of his time, and while he plans to continue playing EVE as well as other games, he’s making a new start by basically closing up the blog and his @crazykinux twitter account.

The soft-spoken CK first joined us over three years ago on Aeropodcast Episode 36 to talk about the Drone Bay Podcast he was part of back then, and he later went on to wish us well on Episode 50 and continue his rise to internet fame as one of the more public faces of the EVE player community.

Good luck CrazyKinux, and maybe I’ll see you fly by in EVE someday or give your Corp a try. It’s just that 99% tax rate that I have a hard time getting past.