Cubic Violence: Minecraft Combat Update Released
Fight me!
Minecraft [official site] murderers can enjoy a little more vim in their BAM! and a little more pow in their BIF! now version 1.9 of the mega-popular craft 'em up has arrived. It's nicknamed the 'Combat Update' for its focus on overhauling violence, with changes including adding shields and charged attacks so fighting is less about clicking frantically. But it also brings new blocks to build with, new enemies, and delicate wings which let people glide gracefully rather than plummet to their death.
Mojang's blog gives a quick run-down of all that's been added in version 1.9, or changes are listed in exhausting detail over here.
If some of this sounds like old news, that'll be because it's been in public testing for a while. Which handily means that players have already filled fan Wikis with information on the mysteries of skeleton riders, Shulkers, elytra wings, Purpur blocks, End rods, new arrows, and all that.
This update is for the original Java version of Minecraft, mind, not the new Windows 10 Edition. Development of the two different versions is still separate but cross-pollinating, so all this should probably make it over to the Win 10 edition at some point. This goes both ways; v1.9 has added beetroots from that other version (or from the Pocket Edition which the Windows 10 Edition is based on - look, it's complicated).
Hey, if you're reading this, you might also dig Cobbo's new bit insisting that heroes don't craft - about how the success of Minecraft means that crafting systems have ended up in many games where they're far less at home.