It’s time for another edition of What We’re Playing. This week it’s a video game you might have heard of called Minecraft. Does that ring a bell?

We’re joking, of course. Everyone’s heard of Minecraft, right? It’s only one of the most popular and successful video games of all time with 126 million players around the world. Yep, that Minecraft. 

Since some of us here at The Flickcast have kids, we’ve been trying to find ways to entertain them and distract from the monotony of quarantine. Fortunately, during the last year or so, we’ve discovered Minecraft . . . and, of course, we love it! Kids and adults alike!

If for some reason you’re not familiar with Minecraft, here’s a bit of info about the game from the Official Minecraft Wiki:

“Minecraft is a sandbox construction game created by Mojang Studios founder Markus “Notch” Persson, inspired by Infiniminer, Dwarf Fortress, Dungeon Keeper, and Notch’s past games Legend of the Chambered and RubyDung. Gameplay involves players interacting with the game world by placing and breaking various types of blocks in a three-dimensional environment. In this environment, players can build creative structures, creations, and artwork on multiplayer servers and singleplayer worlds across multiple game modes.”

We mostly play in “Creative” mode where you build amazing structures and contraptions out of various blocks in the game. However, if you’re looking for more of a challenge, switch to “Survival” mode where you’re forced to find or grow food, build shelters and fight off hordes of monsters including spiders, skeletons and zombies. Whatever you choose, it’s all fun . . . and you just might learn something too. 

When we play games around here, they usually fall into two groups. Sometimes you want to run around and blow stuff up with games like the Call of Duty franchise and sometimes you want to go fast. Project CARS falls in that second category.

Developed by Slightly Mad Studios, Project CARS (Community Assisted Racing Simulator) is “the most authentic, beautiful, intense, and technically-advanced racing game on the planet.”

In the game you “create a driver, pick from a variety of motorsports, and shift into high gear to chase a number of Historic Goals and enter the Hall Of Fame. Then test your skills online either in competitive fully-loaded race weekends, leaderboard-based time challenges, or continually-updated community events.”

The game features “world-class graphics and handling, a ground-breaking dynamic time of day & weather system, and deep tuning & pit stop functionality, Project CARS leaves the competition behind in the dust.” They’re not lying, the game looks amazing.

To prove it, check out a trailer for the game after the break. Look for Project CARS to drop for PS4, Xbox One, Wii U, PC and SteamOS this November.

Another shot was fired in the next gen console arms race at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany with Sony’s announcement of the PlayStation 4’s release date. Sony lauded the PlayStation 4’s release date of November 15th in a number of countries including the US. What was most noticeable though was that Microsoft said nothing during their Gamescom presentation about the release date for the XBox One. Much like E3 where Microsoft making announcements about the XBox One hours before Sony fired off retaliatory comments, Microsoft was scheduled prior to Sony’s conference. This time though, Microsoft chose silence as the safer route.

Instantly, the flame war arouse online with Sony fanboys taking shots at Microsoft and Microsoft fanboys rising to the XBox One’s defense. On some level, it may come across as cowardly for Microsoft to be silent. Instead of coming out looking for a fight by letting the release date of the XBox One out and trying to stand tall, they held back. Strategically though, it was a move they almost had to make. Shy of saying to the world “And it’s out tomorrow”, Microsoft was at risk of Sony letting the PlayStation 4 release date be a week earlier than whatever Microsoft announced.

This next gen console war has already shown that Sony is aggressively taking the fight to Microsoft with the PlayStation 4. So instead of the story being PlayStation vs. XBox, PlayStation gets the attention and then in a week when Microsoft decides to let out their own release date the stories for the mainstream audience will be solely Microsoft focused and finally allowing Microsoft the opportunity to even release earlier than the PlayStation 4.

While the gaming world somewhat anxiously awaits the release of the successor to the PS3 (aka the cleverly named PS4), Sony has something over there in its right hand to distract you. What is this something you may wonder?

Why, it’s a brand new version of the PS3 of course. That’s right, today the company announced the CECH-4000 model. It will be 20% smaller and 25% lighter than the previous model and will also ditch the slot-loading optical drive in favor of a disc-tray that slides open sideways.

The new PS3 will come in two versions: a 250GB that will sell for $269.99 and a 500GB that will sell for $299.99. The 250GB model, which launches on September 25th, will be sold in a bundle with the game Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception and will also come with a $30 voucher for digital content for the game DUST 514.

Interested in the 500GB version? You’ll have to wait until October 30th for that one when it comes out as a bundle with Assassin’s Creed III.

So, anyone interested in a smaller, lighter, tray-loading PS3 or are you just gonna wait for the PS4, which is expected sometime next year? Supposedly.

One of the major contributing factors to the PS3’s inability to gain initial traction during it’s launch was the fact that it came out to late. In fact, it hit shelves almost a full year after the XBOX 360, allowing Microsoft to convert many first adopters before Sony even had a product in the market place.

It looks like Sony might not let that happen again.

The Wall Street Journal reports that a source close to Sony indicates that the new console should be hitting store shelves in 2013. In addition to the relatively close release window, the source also confirmed that the system will not be a download only console as previously hinted:

Sony decided against a download-only model largely because Internet connections are too inconsistent around the world, one of the people familiar with Sony’s thinking said. Because game files are large, customers in countries where Internet connections are relatively slow would be hobbled by a requirement to download games, the person said.

Sony won the first two rounds it their console wars because they were on the cutting edge in home entertainment, not just gaming. The PS1 was the best CD player in just about any home it was in, the PS2 was the first DVD player for an incredibly large number of people. Even the PS3 found later success as a premiere Blu-Ray player, not just a gaming console. So Sony should be looking into the next step of home entertainment for the PS4.

Playstation 3, Sony’s seventh generation console, has been on the market for almost four years now. It’s had two models, two hard drive sizes, a top-of-the-line Bluray player, a motion controller (with another one on the way), and complete connectivity with its portable predecessor. Overall, you could say the system has had an impressive history. But is Sony already working to release a new console? This video certainly hints to that.

Posted by Kotaku earlier today, the video begins in sort of a complex, labeled S.C.E. Principal Scientific Research Laboratory, Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan (coincidentally the same city where Sony has its offices). A woman is talking to the cameraman, then a man in a lab coat, as they race frantically through the facility.

They speak in anxious tones as they make their way to a room, where a man is lying on the floor holding a controller. When they remove his glasses and try to remove the controller from his hands, he begins shrieking. In the background, a television displays the Playstation symbol, and the video cuts to black with the words “PS4 V3.1 – Please Wait A Moment” written in Japanese.

While the video isn’t confirmed to be the work of Sony or Playstation themselves, the appearance of the video as well as the words and images displayed certainly warrant some speculation. The image that appears on the TV certainly looks three-dimensional, but the appearance of the word “PS4” definitely makes it seem like a new Playstation is what this video is really all about. Check out the trailer for yourself after the jump and let us know what you’re take is.