The XBox One is here, and The Verge has issued its verdict, giving the new console a 7.8 out of 10. Their main concerns are clunky TV support, unreliable Kinect voice command response, and uninspired design.

In a move that has baffled many observers, XBox One consoles will be useful only as expensive paperweights until they are connected to the Internet and a critical update installed. Once again Microsoft seems oddly biased against people with poor or no Internet access, and there will be many sad faces on Christmas morning as a result.

A fan of the original Super Mario Brothers game lovingly recreated the entire game in a web-based format. As the owner of the copyright on the Super Mario games, Nintendo chose not to welcome and and embrace this project, and instead threatened its creator with legal action. And so the site, Full Screen Mario, is now offline.

Unfortunately, it seems that Nintendo is one of those companies that can't see past even the very remote possibility of something eating into their profits. They also have a hair trigger for legal solutions, releasing their lawyers at the slightest provocation, when there are always better - and less hostile - solutions. The upshot of all this is only that Nintendo has damaged its own image in the eyes of fans. Way to go, Nintendo!

CD Projekt Red, developers of The Witcher and its sequels, have confirmed their stance on piracy and announced that there will be no DRM on the upcoming Witcher 3. The two earlier games in the series were pirated heavily, but CD Projekt realizes that trying to prevent piracy is a waste of time and effort, and they are concentrating on building player goodwill - and a good game.

Mojang released Minecraft 1.7.2 on October 25. The release notes list what's new in this version. See the JDRGaming Minecraft page for additional details.

The JDRGaming Minecraft server has been updated from 1.6.4 to 1.7.2.

By special request, next Tuesday (2013Oct29) will be set aside for playing DarkRyda's maps on TPU. That includes The Race Track, always a crowd favourite.

For this special day, the Allied:Axis ratio will be 1 to 1 and of course the ratio will not flip every six hours. The game mode will vary, depending on the map, and will include Co-op, Conquest and Capture The Flag. You can play on either side, and killing other players is allowed.

To play all the maps, you'll need the DarkRyda Map Pack as well as The Race Track, both available for download from this site.

DarkRyda day will start at one minute after midnight on October 29 and end 24 hours later.

We're hoping DarkRyda himself will make an appearance, and I will try to be in game as much as possible. See you there!

I've been using Skype for a development project for a while now and despite some misgivings about security, I like it a lot. It works well as a basic text chat client, but it can also be used for voice chat and of course video. I find that the novelty of video chat wears off pretty quick, and nobody needs to see me looking weird at my desk, but voice chat can sometimes be handy. The basic version is free, but if you pay for a subscription you can initiate multi-way conversations, which can be very useful.

I leave Skype running all the time on my main computer, so as long as I'm at my desk (Skype status: online) you can reach me at jeff.rivett. Those of us who have been playing on the BF2 server are using Skype to alert one another when we're available to play. Feel free to join in!

I just noticed that repair points were being too heavily weighted in the points formula, so I changed the formula to reduce the impact of repair activity. I also reduced the impact of healing activities. As a result, the player stats (when sorted by points) are a lot closer together than before. It's still a good idea to repair and heal, but doing so won't give you an excessive advantage.

The stats points formula is posted in the forum in the Server/stats FAQ.

This morning I enabled VOIP on the BF2 server. To use it, you'll need to enable VOIP in your BF2 client settings.

Here's how to use it:

1. Join a squad (press CapsLock).
2. Hold down the 'B' key to talk. Your voice will be heard by all your squadmates.
3. If you're a squad leader, hold down the 'V' key to talk to the Commander.
4. If you're the Commander, hold down the 'V' key to talk to all squad leaders.

Give it a try and let me know how it works for you.

Mojang released Minecraft 1.6.4 today. This version is kind of a weird one. According to the release notes, its only purpose is to prepare for the upcoming 1.7 release. See the JDRGaming Minecraft page for details.

The JDRGaming Minecraft server has been updated from 1.6.2 to 1.6.4.

Note: My initial attempts to join the server failed with a mysterious error. I started a single player game using an existing world without any difficulty, so I again tried to join the JDRGaming server and this time it worked. Unfortunately, the error was not logged anywhere on the client or server end, so I don't know exactly what it was. However, if you have trouble connecting to the JDRGaming MC server, it might help to try what worked for me.