We basically live in Minecraft now, so in a sense, Britain is about to be flooded with new underwater block types, cute wickle bunny rabbits, less cute killer bunny rabbits, and mutton by the blockload. Which is to say: Minecraft has a big ol' update launching today , featuring quite a few changes and a lot of added content, including those things I just said, a bunch of new world types and more.
Once again, this latest patch has "removed Herobrine" from the game, but in HB's place is a new slime block, new types of stone and dirt, collectible mutton that appears when you kill sheep, a new spectator game mode and 'Customized' world type, "lots and lots of other changes", and "LOTS AND LOTS of other changes"—there really are quite a lot of changes. The most exciting new stuff is probably all the underwater content: Guardian and Ender Guardian enemies, Prismarine and Sea Lanterns blocks, and the Ocean Monument itself.
Oh, and who could forget the cast of Watership Down?
Update 1.8 took Mojang over 300 days to develop, and contains "large game structure" and performance changes—basically, a lot of under-the-hood stuff. Here's the full, mega-long list of changes:
- Added Granite, Andesite, and Diorite stone blocks, with smooth versions
- Added Slime Block
- Added Iron Trapdoor
- Added Prismarine and Sea Lantern blocks
- Added the Ocean Monument
- Added Red Sandstone
- Added Banners
- Added Armor Stands
- Added Coarse Dirt (dirt where grass won't grow)
- Added Guardian mobs, with item drops
- Added Endermite mob
- Added Rabbits, with item drops
- Added Mutton and Cooked Mutton
- Villagers will harvest crops and plant new ones
- Mossy Cobblestone and Mossy Stone Bricks are now craftable
- Chiseled Stone Bricks are now craftable
- Doors and fences now come in all wood type variants
- Sponge block has regained its water-absorbing ability and becomes wet
- Added a spectator game mode (game mode 3)
- Added one new achievement
- Added “Customized” world type
- Added hidden “Debug Mode” world type
- Worlds can now have a world barrier
- Added @e target selector for Command Blocks
- Added /blockdata command
- Added /clone command
- Added /execute command
- Added /fill command
- Added /particle command
- Added /testforblocks command
- Added /title command
- Added /trigger command
- Added /worldborder command
- Added /stats command
- Containers can be locked in custom maps by using the “Lock” data tag
- Added logAdminCommands, showDeathMessages, reducedDebugInfo, sendCommandFeedback, and randomTickSpeed game rules
- Added three new statistics
- Player skins can now have double layers across the whole model, and left/right arms/legs can be edited independently
- Added a new player model with smaller arms, and a new player skin called Alex?
- Added options for configuring what pieces of the skin that are visible
- Blocks can now have custom visual variations in the resource packs
- Minecraft Realms now has an activity chart, so you can see who has been online
- Minecraft Realms now lets you upload your maps
- Difficulty setting is saved per world, and can be locked if wanted
- Enchanting has been redone, now costs lapis lazuli in addition to enchantment levels
- Villager trading has been rebalanced
- Anvil repairing has been rebalanced
- Considerable faster client-side performance
- Max render distance has been increased to 32 chunks (512 blocks)
- Adventure mode now prevents you from destroying blocks, unless your items have the CanDestroy data tag
- Resource packs can now also define the shape of blocks and items, and not just their textures
- Scoreboards have been given a lot of new features
- Tweaked the F3 debug screen
- Block ID numbers (such as 1 for stone), are being replaced by ID names (such as minecraft:stone)
- Server list has been improved
- A few minor changes to village and temple generation
- Mob heads for players now show both skin layers
- Buttons can now be placed on the ceiling
- Lots and lots of other changes
- LOTS AND LOTS of other changes
- Removed Herobrine
Ta, Eurogamer .
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Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.