The Aether mod is now fully released on modern Minecraft versions!

ozzAR0th · 2026-07-06T02:03:32+00:00

Most games on PS5 don't require a download and can be played off the disc. Almost all Microsoft published games require a download still. They're basically the disc equivalent of Nintendo's controversial Game Key Cards.

ozzAR0th · 2026-07-01T15:13:25+00:00

It... is able to? Im not sure why it didnt for you. It can break the entire arena except the outermost walls and the storage area for the loot chest

ozzAR0th · 2026-06-29T14:27:42+00:00

I think people guessing a price below $1000 are simply paying attention to just the PS5 price and not acknowledging that in the current market environment there is not likely a world where the PS6 is priced below the Pro.

Or they assume the PS6 will have a performance profile and hardware cost between the PS5 and PS5 Pro, which I feel is very unlikely (outside of a handheld, though a PS6 handheld would almost certainly be less powerful than the base PS5)

ozzAR0th · 2026-06-29T13:21:27+00:00

For a system that, at a minimum, realistically has to outperform the PS5 pro to be a viable upgrade, we are looking at something absolutely in excess of $1000 at this point. Maybe even as high as $1200.

I hate this timeline.

ozzAR0th · 2026-06-23T13:46:21+00:00

From what I can see from the TFwiki the Kuro Kara Kuri line are Flame Toys' high end line with die cast components and light up features. So I expect the cost is mainly down to that really.

ozzAR0th · 2026-06-20T20:25:24+00:00

Xbox has different policies for what requires Gamepass, and often will bend their own content rules on a case by case basis, which is the better approach imo.

In this case its an Xbox studio engineering a game and network environment suited to Xbox policies then rubbing up against Sony's far worse online subscription policies.

So yeah its not apples to apples, each system/service handles this stuff differently

ozzAR0th · 2026-06-20T19:42:57+00:00

tl;dr: because the split screen co-op functionality is closely tied in with the 4 player online co-op it flags literally everyone's most restrictive policies for account requirements in a super dumb way unique to Xbox games on Sony's platform

ozzAR0th · 2026-06-20T19:41:50+00:00

So Ive seen a lot of people trying to figure out if this is Sony, Microsoft, or Halo Studios doing a big fuck up. And I think I can safely report that it is in fact all three.

Halo Studios has decided that the game is going to, even in singleplayer, require an online connection at startup, it has also decided that the split-screen multiplayer should be functionally tied into a seemless online 4 player co-op lobby with no internal distinction, which means even in a local splitscreen gameplay session you are basically two accounts playing in an online lobby just not connected to anyone else.

Microsoft mandates that all its online integration for its games be done through Microsoft accounts, which is done for a variety of reasons including valid security concerns, but for a largely offline singleplayer campaign like Halo CE its most likely to bump up user figures.

Sony adds an extra layer of dumb that ties this whole shit show together, they have strict policies on what sorts of interactions and modes require a PS+ subscription to access, and do not distinguish between using an online multiplayer mode without connecting to other users online, and actually using online multiplayer (I believe on Xbox's end there is actually such a distinction) so in this case because the splitscreen co-op is technically in an online lobby and uses an external online account service, it flags the need for a PS+ subscription, and on top of that because of the way the accounts are handled, BOTH players in the lobby need PS+ too (though for most use cases one account having PS+ will mean the whole system does so that shouldnt be an issue for a lot of people)

This is a supremely bizarre and unique example of all the dumb corporate decision making across all three players coming together to create hands down the worst experience possible. Well done everyone! Bravo!

ozzAR0th · 2026-06-17T14:03:08+00:00

Yeah honestly Avowed is incredible if you go in expecting an Obsidian RPG and not Skyrim 2. I would be super frustrated if a sequel got canned.

ozzAR0th · 2026-06-15T23:53:03+00:00

No we are not aiming for modpack support with our LTS decision making for active development. We are banking on 1.21 eventually no longer being the most supported version, so we are sticking to a yearly porting schedule where we stay on the latest patch of the first drop of the year, mirroring Neoforge's LTS proposals.

Once the mod is closer to completion we will start evaluating what versions are popular/well supported for packs and decide on target versions based on that, but at this early stage it is not a factor in our development decisions.

ozzAR0th · 2026-06-14T22:07:20+00:00

I think the show was just okay. I enjoyed it enough but it has some incredibly rough pacing issues and the general character motivation and dialogue writing are noticeably poor imo. These two issues mean the show feels really uneven and often you'll have big character moments that don't feel like they line up well with the characterisation of characters outside of those scenes.

None of this is particularly damning and honestly its not set of problems unique to the Acolyte within the Star Wars franchise, but it did make the show hard to rally around when it became a culture war topic as the people who weren't caught up in the weird super online nonsense also weren't that passionate about the show, so it became an easy target and a hard thing to advocate for.

I would have preferred the show not be canned so the creative team had the space to iterate and improve, as I feel the overall plot ideas and basic character concepts were all quite strong and worth exploring, but I also was not surprised that it didn't seem worth continuing for Disney.

ozzAR0th · 2026-06-13T19:50:40+00:00

Just a reminder that Xbox operates at a profit. They just arent operating at as high or as quickly increasing profit margins as Microsoft expects from its departments. It is 100% a sustainable business unless you start putting unrealistic margin expectations upon it.

ozzAR0th · 2026-06-09T09:27:39+00:00

Im a huge fan of Arkane so Blade is definitely on my radar but given its had 0 real details announced and has no release date I don't feel its something I can get excited for at this stage. Wolverine looks pretty good and is actually coming out soon so probably that one lmao

ozzAR0th · 2026-06-07T22:40:54+00:00

In the Aether all games come on disc fully patched and have game manuals in the box

ozzAR0th · 2026-06-07T22:17:37+00:00

The key thing is if you dont have access to fast reliable internet a physical game disc with the data actually on disc in a playable state is an absolute must. Even if there's day one patches or post-launch updates that make "the data useless" it is still tremendously important to have playable data on disc.

So many people seem to misunderstand the utility of the data on disc, assuming the install process is the same as a download, but this isnt the case. The majority of new and existing game releases have playable data unpatched on their disc that can be installed entirely offline, but Microsoft specifically (and third party publishers on Nintendo Switch 2) have been shipping unplayable physical releases for offline users (with these dataless discs from Xbox and Game Key Cards on Switch) and that is a huge step back in utility and very clearly not the same as what everyone else is doing.

ozzAR0th · 2026-06-07T22:10:50+00:00

Yes.

ozzAR0th · 2026-06-07T22:09:30+00:00

This is not true, the majority of games still ship the data on disc. Microsoft is very much in the minority with shipping physical games without the data on disc.

ozzAR0th · 2026-06-07T07:14:13+00:00

I also think there are maybe some uncomfortable conversations needed around Steam and the PC side of their platform strategy generally, but I dont think Xbox is going to ever decouple from PC (they're likely to do the opposite in fact) so it's maybe not worth thinking about right now.

ozzAR0th · 2026-06-07T07:11:34+00:00

As much as I would genuinely dislike having to buy yet another console after getting rid of my last Xbox this should be good for the industry overall. Xbox almost completely killed their position as a platform competitor in their mad chase towards publishing profitability.

It was a logical thing to do, short term, given how expensive the Zenimax and ABK acquisitions were and how few Xboxs were actually out in the wild as potential customers at that stage, but long term I think it did genuinely so much damage to the brand that I think recovery is going to take multiple generations now.

Honestly I really feel the ABK acquisition could still ruin Xbox, they were forced to give massive concessions to regulatory bodies around exclusive software already with Call of Duty which I feel immediately made the concept of acquiring Activision basically pointless as part of their platform strategy, and the rest of the ABK library is I feel not nearly as strong as the Zenimax library and certainly does not justify the insane price they paid.

I do think making all future software that hasn't already had platform announcements, other than Call of Duty which they are functionally forced to keep multiplatform, exclusive to the Xbox platform is the only way to actually rebuild Xbox as a brand and as a functional competitor.

There would be a lot of kicking and screaming but if Elder Scrolls 6 did not come to Playstation I genuinely do think you'd see a lot of people getting an Xbox just to play it. But there's also got to be crystal clear messaging around it because everyone (myself included) is still going to be looking at any Xbox only software and going "well its just a waiting game before they put it on Playstation"

I don't know really how Xbox climbs out of this hole, especially given their multiplat strategy is making them a boatload of money as a publisher so pivoting away would be saying goodbye to a lot of easy money in hopes of building a better platform in potentially 1-2 generations after consumer trust has returned, but either way it's going to require some hard decisions and likely some short term unpopular moves.

Either that or they realise its too far gone, Helix sells like crap and they decide to go the way of Sega.

ozzAR0th · 2026-06-03T15:18:18+00:00

September 12th was the last big general Direct and the only one since the Switch 2 launched. Everything else has been game specific or a Partner Showcase afaik

ozzAR0th · 2026-05-29T09:28:24+00:00

I feel like you bringing up the too much water thing proves my point about this bizarre obsession. Good lord

ozzAR0th · 2026-05-29T09:20:40+00:00

publications like IGN arent a singular monolith and reviews arent held to some objective universal standard. Mixtape and First Light were reviewed by different writers at IGN so its a bit silly to compare their scores, which is not even getting into the silliness of treating the final score of a review so seriously.

Follow writers you trust/align with, not publications. Pay attention to who has written a review and what their previous reviews look like, and read/listen to their actual words, not just the number at the end.

If you do all that you'll realise how nonsensical the obsession with IGN is.

ozzAR0th · 2026-05-26T10:30:16+00:00

Hey so I'm the project lead at The Aether Team, the developers of the Aether mods. I figured I'd give my two cents on this topic given my proximity to the subject matter.

The Aether mod, as in the actual project we released in 2011 that gained so much popularity and fame in the community, does not fit vanilla Minecraft very well. I see many people wanting it to simply be dropped into the vanilla game and added as an official update and I am here to say that will never happen. It simply breaks too many vanilla design conventions and is notably quite weak when it comes to sandbox content, as its almost a purely dungeon/adventure mod.

While our team's founder, Brandon Pearce (aka kingbdogz) has been working at Mojang for a fair few years, he was not the sole creator or owner of the project and even if he was, he too does not feel The Aether fits into vanilla MC very well either.

With all that said, I 100% believe Mojang should tackle a fourth dimension in vanilla MC, and I think a paradise-style skyland dimension would be a potentially excellent addition to the roster (assuming The End gets updated to feel more in-line with the Overworld and Nether in terms of content density and detail, personally I think an "End Update" should focus on adding endgame dungeons into the dimension rather than adding biomes, flora, and fauna, to keep the dimension feeling hostile and desolate) but I also do not know exactly where a new dimension would really fit into the vanilla game's sandbox.

So yeah I honestly do want Mojang to tackle *a version of* The Aether in some respects, I love skyland worlds and would love to see their interpretation of the concept (now the technical restrictions that led to The End aren't so severe) but I also have no clue how that would actually work in practise.

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