By: James Bowler
Well Minecraftians, the 1.7 beta version is out as of last week and it's already featuring some sweet new stuff.
No it's not as awesome as horses that you can ride and breed, but there are some pretty neat upgrades and additions.
A new fishing system now allows you to monitor your fishing situation a little better.
Now, when you fish, ripples will appear around your bobber when a fish is about to bite.
On top of this there are new fish like clown fish, blow-fish and salmon. But unfortunately we still don't get to see them swimming around so no gigantic aquariums just yet fish-heads.
The new fishing update allows for special items like enchantment books and other treasures to be caught while fishing.
And if you enjoy being underwater there are new potions that allow you to stay underwater without needing to breathe for up to six minutes.
Also new in the world are a large array of pretty flowers to procure your various coloured dyes. You can now find dandelions, poppies, roses and yes, even sunflowers!
As well the grass now grows double in height.
The most exciting thing is new fancy biomes....YAY!
New biomes include:
- Mesa, which is sort of a badlands type of setting with different coloured clay (which means no more aqua-affinity or trying to mine underwater)
- Sunflower Plains which is basically filled with a freaking ton of sunflowers
- Roofed Forest with giant Punch wood trees and huge mushrooms, sort of a canopy-type setting of leaves (no more getting caught in bunches of stupid leaves while running from creepers!)
- Savanna, with Acacia trees which are actually just Jungle wood trees with oak leaves and you do get Jungle wood from them (does this mean Lions? Giraffes? Elephants soon??)
- Birch Forest, which is essentially a TON of Birch Trees...not very exciting
- Swampland Hills, which is basically swampland with very small hills
- Snowless Taiga, which is basically the snow biome with no snow, same darker trees and wood colours
- Ice Plains, which I think is one of the most interesting with various ice spikes jutting out of the ground, makes for treacherous climbing but an interesting and sometimes beautiful view
- Deep Ocean, which has, yes you guessed it, deep oceans. So if you do have one of those water potions you might be able to swim to the bottom and check out what's there (mostly just gravel and squiddies)
- Mega Taiga, which features some Redwood-esq trees, I mean some really, really, REALLY tall trees, you are going to need a pile of dirt to get to the top of one of these and cut it down. Good news is you don't have to spend as much time cutting down multiple little trees
This last biome also features some mulch-covered dirt called Podzol which can only be collected with a silk-touch shovel that allows you to grow giant mushrooms on it.
There is also a large supply of Moss Stone (formerly known as Mossy Cobble which could only be collected from spawners).
So what do you think Minecraft players? Is this not epic? This may be setting the world up for some new animals as well, there certainly seems to be a lot more space for them now.
Check below for Minecraft guru Paul Soares Jr.'s preview videos on these new updates.
Twitter: @journalistjim
