A new snapshot has been released for Minecraft and with it comes a fairly massive thing, just for the map-making part of the community: an official ‘spectator mode’.

Spectator modes are useful for those game modes/maps where you don’t want players who are ‘out’ to interfere with the game for the rest of the players, but equally don’t want to box them all up in a ‘waiting room’ with nothing to do. The new official spectator mode can be turned on by typing the command ‘/gamemode 3’ or ‘/gamemode spectator’ and makes it so that spectating players are invisible to all but other spectators, can check inventories but not mess with them, inhabit the bodies of mobs (although not control them) and pass through blocks. In other words, it is a gamemode that turns players into ghosts.

Other notable changes include activator rails now being able to eject entities from minecarts, a new ‘invisible block’ for walling off areas of maps and the book copying can now differentiate between the original copy and copies of a book.

Snapshot notes are here.

Seems that Battlefield 4 didn’t sell as well as EA had hoped it would. What then is the cause of this? According to the publisher it’s the next-gen transition that is the cause of the below-estimated sales, not the problems and bugs the game has had.

Of all the things related to Battlefield 4, the problems the game has had since release are some of the most talked about. November saw DICE having to compensate players who hadn’t been able to play the game even several weeks after release because of server issues and crashes that stopped them joining games in progress and December saw most of the month dedicated to dealing with on-going problems. There was even talk of lawsuits being brought against EA for the game’s unpredictable levels of playability. Yet this apparently had nothing to do with why the game didn’t sell as well as predicted.

“Shortly after Battlefield 4 went live, we began hearing from some players in the community who were experiencing issues with the game. The Battlefield team acted swiftly to address the issues through game updates, and they continue to make refinements as part of our live service to ensure a great game experience for all Battlefield 4 players.” CEO Andrew Wilson said.

They point to other big-name EA titles such as FIFA 14 and Need for Speed Rivals which also undersold to support their reasoning in pinning the blame solely upon the next-gen console release as the cause.

PC sales were also up, with a 157% increase on last year’s total, which EA attributes to Battlefield 4’s release onto PC; and with around 1.6 Premium Memberships sold despite the problems, it does seem that EA have still had some success from the game.

Hotline Miami was one of those games that moved very very fast, yet seemed to take ages to finish. That was probably because every action, ever movement had to be perfect and a lack of quick reflexes meant it was game over all at once. Somewhat frustrating but also quite addictive. Also, you could total someone by opening a door into their face, and that’s just incredibly satisfying.

Now tweets from the @HotlineMiami suggest that the sequel Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number will soon have a release date. They’ve at least said that the game will release in Q3 2014.

Although there’s also been some vague hints at what will be new, there’s also been one detail that’s been outright stated. Wrong Number will be like the first Hotline Miami and will be releasing to the PC first before other platforms.

Good news for all the PC fans that made the first game such a success in the first place.

When a game is in Alpha players often find and exploit the mechanics of the gameplay that maybe the developers haven’t yet had the time to fix or fully implement properly yet. One part of the popular game DayZ (in which you must survive the attacks of zombies and often the other players) that has been exploited since its early origins as an add-on to the ARMA 2 game is the ability to leave and quickly rejoin a game if you didn’t like the server or spawn location you landed in. With the next patch to the standalone game though, such things will quickly lead to players being ‘timed-out’ for a short while to stop this from happening so often.

The line of the patch notes that refers to this reads thus: “Login: Player queuing system introduced. Penalty waiting time added for switching server or disconnecting a server quickly.” which seems to allow breathing room for the random disconnects that happen to every player, especially during the Alpha and Beta stages.

Other highlights of this patch, which is still in the Experimental stage for the moment, include that defibs now work on players with less than 500 units of blood, morphine can now fix broken legs and both machetes and crafting knives can open cans, which should be a relief for those players who find it hard to scavenge any can openers in the wilds of the game.

The last patch implemented to DayZ put an end to the infamous ‘backpack-ception’ part of the game which allowed players to carry as many filled backpacks with them as there were spaces in a backpack.

Patch notes are here.

Right now, one of the biggest things on the horizon for gaming is the impending release of Bethesda’s big MMO, The Elder Scrolls Online, which is currently in a Closed Beta stage. Every week seems to bring some new information for us to spread around our friends and yesterday brought a pretty big one. TESO will have a special release pack called the Imperial Pack, which seems to be the only way so far that you can play as an Imperial.

The pack comes with many extras included with the game besides the ability to play as an Imperial, who are the only type of character able to ally themselves with any of the three factions that make up TESO’s world. The content of the Imperial Pack is:

• Molag Bal Statue. A 30.5 cm statue featuring Molag Bal, Daedric Prince of domination and enslavement.
• The Improved Emperor’s Guide to Tamriel. A 224-page illustrated guide annotated by the Imperial scholar, Flaccus Terentius.
• Physical Map of Tamriel. A 53.3 cm x 66 cm printed map detailing Alliance-controlled zones and the ultimate conquest: Cyrodiil.
• Steelbook™ Packaging. A limited edition steel case decorated in the color of the Imperials.
• Exclusive Collection of Digital Content.
• Play as an Imperial: Become an Imperial and play in any Alliance. Gain unique bonuses, crafting styles, gear, and more.
• White Imperial Horse: Summon this Imperial mount and journey through Tamriel with speed.
• Mudcrab Vanity Pet: Explore Tamriel with a mudcrab pet scuttling along by your side.
• Rings of Mara: Complete the Ritual of Mara with a friend and receive an experience bonus when you play together.

The recommended retail price for the pack though is £69.99/$79.99 though which is additional to pay on top of a subscription fee TESO will require in an era of free-to-play MMOs. The standard game purchase is set to be about £39.99-£49.99 so it’s up the individual if they believe the extras on offer and the chance to play as an Imperial is worth the extra money spent.