Minecraft's Update Aquatic brings friendly dolphins and fetching reefs
Splish splosh
I do like to be beside the seaside, but there's a lot to be said for diving into it and building oversized penis monuments. Fortunately the second and final part of Minecraft's "Update Aquatic" came out yesterday, and lets people with the Windows 10 version do exactly that. For players still on the Java version, work-in-progress snapshots have been available for a while but the full update isn't ready yet.
Obviously Java folk can still get up to whatever they like underwater without the full update, unless they like erecting constructions amongst pretty coral reefs while being followed around by dolphin pals. There are treasure maps, shipwrecks and ruins to explore too, and oh huh I think I might actually play some Minecraft.
Here's the update page.
I'll do the dolphin deets first. There are many of them, as covered in this post on Mojang's website. The devs advise that the optimal dolphin experience involves just chilling with them than capturing or hurting them, though personally I'm looking forward to seeing the first monstrous dolphin farm the internet produces.
The update promises "a paradise of colourful reefs, deep sea trenches, and kelp forests", which do indeed look lovely.
You can also "discover shipwrecks and underwater ruins, take a swing at the Drowned for a chance to earn a mighty trident, or assemble the awesome conduit." Those first two things sound neat, the Drowned are boring underwater zombies but trident chucking looks fun, and the conduit is a handy new block that makes stuff that's near it behave as if it wasn't wet. Including lungs.
The update definitely feels like it's missing a deep sea horror element, though I'm holding out hope that there's some messed up stuff that Mojang deliberately haven't mentioned on the update page. Maybe they're waiting for someone to get ambushed by a shoggoth while they're larking about on the sea bed. Or maybe that's the kind of trick you're not supposed to play on kids. (There is, of course, already a Lovecraft mod.)
Those who plan on sticking to dry land until the Java version is ready won't have to wait too long. The devs say they "hope to have it released by the end of July".
Commendably, the Minecraft team are tying this into a coral reef restoration project. As part of RPS's stealth transition to solely covering aquatic wildlife, I'm obligated to show you this axolotl.
You can buy Minecraft for £18/$27/€20 via Mojang's website. That'll net you both the Java and Windows 10 editions.