The National

Plus Xbox One's voice command feature isn't quite cooperative

Minecraft will soon be out on Play Station 4 and Xbox One with "larger maps for more complex structures".

Nov 13, 2013

Minecraft invades PS

Since last year, Xboxers have been able to Minecraft merrily away with their own special console edition of the 3-D sandbox builder. Soon PlayStation players will be able to get in on the blocky action, with developers 4J Studios saying it’s readying the PS3 game for release. It’s also going to be coming out on the PS4 and Xbox One, with “larger maps for more complex structures, expanded multiplayer options and enhanced gameplay”. Although it looks like they won’t be released in time for the new next-gen consoles launch that occurs later this month.

Kinect, can you hear me?

If you’ve seen the latest of Microsoft’s fancy Xbox One commercials, you’re probably impressed with the new ability to issue voice commands to the forthcoming next-gen console, scheduled to be released later this month. Shouting “Answer Skype call”, “Play Star Trek”, “Make me a cup of tea” (OK, perhaps not this one), might seem like great ways to control the machine, but what the ad missed out is that you’re probably going to have to repeat yourself. At a demo earlier in the week, the Xbox One wasn’t being quite as cooperative as Microsoft would have liked, with about 10 voice commands having to be issued to the Kinect sensor several times before eliciting a response. “Everything you’re seeing here is going to get better,” promised a spokesman. We would certainly hope so.

* Alex Ritman