Wings are finally coming to Minecraft: Console Editions in December.
A free Holiday Update will bring the Elytra insectoid wings, End Cities, lingering potions, levitation and luck buffs, and amplified terrain, which exaggerates the contrast between mountains and valleys – perfect for a bit of flapping around.
The Elytra wings arrived for PC Minecraft in October 2015, and they’re a pain in the arse to find in game. Obtaining them involves going to The End, where be the Ender Dragon, and finding a flying ship where the wings are mounted on a wall. But once you have them you can glide around like a seagull eyeing someone’s lunch below, the majestic bastards.
A guide to getting the Elytra wings on PC in Creative mode, but it should be the same in Survival and on console.
The lingering potions are created using the dragon’s breath ingredient collected (bottled) from dragons. Lingering potions leave status effects on the ground.
October’s update.
The Holiday Update follows October’s console patch that introduced banners, blocks, beets and polar bears.
Microsoft announced today that it will bring a Holiday Update to Minecraft on Xbox and other consoles in December. This update will include new mobs, items, blocks and status effects, in addition to UI, game and tutorial updates, the firm says.
“Since adding banners, beets and polar bears with our last update in October, the team has been hard at work on our biggest Minecraft console update of the year – the Holiday Update,” Microsoft’s Jeff Rivait explains.
The Holiday Update is for what Microsoft calls the Minecraft: Console Edition, which includes the versions of the game for Xbox 360 and Xbox One, plus Playstation 3 and 4, PlayStation Vita, and Wii U. Microsoft also makes a Minecraft: Computer Edition for PC, Mac, and Linux, and Minecraft: Pocket Edition for Android, iOS, Windows phones, and Amazon Fire. It’s not clear if the Holiday Update will ship on these other platforms. Nor is it clear when or if Microsoft will ever consolidate these various products into a single line of compatible games.
Anyway.
Today’s announcement is just a sneak peek and Microsoft says it will reveal more next month. But Mr. Rivait included the following list of enhancements that we can expect:
Fly with the new Elytra. “If you’re sick of spending all your time walking on solid ground, just equip the new Elytra, which enables players to glide through the air!”
Updates to The End. “You’ll find your Elytra in The End, which has been updated to include End Cities, End Ships and all the Chorus Plants, Flowers and Purpur you can handle. Don’t say we didn’t warn you if one turns out to be a Shulker.”
New Potions. “Like potions? Use Dragon’s Breath to create Lingering Potions if you want to leave some status effects on the ground for a friend or foe to happen upon. Speaking of status effects, we’re adding a couple new ones as well – Levitation and Luck.”
Amplified Terrain (Xbox One only). “If you’re just getting started on a new world on Xbox One or PlayStation 4, you can turn on Amplified Terrain. This option makes the differences between mountains and valleys more extreme – so put that Elytra to good use!”
It’ll look familiar to those who’ve used introductory programming projects like Google’s Pencil Code or MIT’s Scratch: Commands take the form of Lego-like pieces you snap together into a sequence that controls an on-screen character. Puzzles alternate with video tutorials explaining new programming concepts.
Programming isn’t for everyone, but many schools and businesses are trying to expose students to it as a way to build skills for the 21st century, when tech is spreading beyond PCs and phones into cars, refrigerators, thermostats, and many other corners of our lives.
President Barack Obama has endorsed the Code.org effort.
“If we want America to stay on the cutting edge, we need young Americans like you to master the tools and technology that will change the way we do just about everything,” Obama said in a 2013 video. “Don’t just buy a new video game. Make one… Don’t just play on your phone. Program it.”
If you want your Minecraft Pocket Edition [$6.99] to look like a silly Saturday morning cartoon or as if you just had a breakdown and the whole world looks like a joke, then the latest texture pack is just the thing for you. Cartoon Textures, which was just added to the game, doesn’t change the environment that much but it makes a huge difference on how people and mobs look. I mean look at the image below; you can’t go much sillier than that. I can see this texture pack being great for those who like to stream multiplayer Minecraft because it will add a veneer of silliness on top of any shenanigans. The Texture Pack costs $2.99 and is available in the Store.
In addition to the texture pack, we got possible hints that music might be coming to the game. According to this reddit post, there’s been code discovered that talks about downloading the Minecraft Music to your device. While I don’t know how valid this post is, the developers have said in the past that if the game’s music makes it to the Pocket Edition, it will be as a separate download because of space considerations. Here’s hoping.
Minecraft is one of the most popular games in the world as it enables dedicated players to build whatever they imagine. However, it can also be a powerful learning tool through which we can appeal to kids in a variety of topics. Now, a new program wants to use Minecraft to teach kids how to code.
Code is already a valuable skill and it will become even more essential in the future. However, it can be difficult to pick it up at an advanced age and difficult for kids to learn it through the usual ways. However, games have always provided a simple and fascinating tool to teach kids. Microsoft, the owner of the game, has launched a new Minecraft Hour of Code Designer tutorial.
The program is part of the company’s Hour of Code campaign which is being held from December 5th to December 11th, during the Computer Science Education Week. The Minecraft tutorial is available for free the Code.org website. Anyone can access it and learn about coding through Minecraft, despite being designed for kids.
Although Minecraft tutorials for the annual Hour of Code is not entirely a new endeavor for Microsoft, the company does develop different types of tutorials within the game each year. For the current one, Microsoft has stated that their own developers, as well as a few from Mojang, have worked together to create it.
The tutorial itself is short, lasting one hour on average, in order to fit with the Hour of Code overall theme. It is also available in ten languages currently, but Microsoft plans to release for up 50 by December 5th.
In the tutorial, users are presented with a very small Minecraft world display where their chosen character is present. They gradually learn to control the character by dragging various blocks of code from a panel into the editor, after which they run their lines of code. Kids can create anything you can imagine in the Minecraft tutorial, setting rules which are ludicrous or as logical as you like.
The tutorial is specially designed to entice kids as young as six years old to learn more about coding by giving them a very basic idea of how the whole process works.
