Minecraft PC Latest Snapshot Update Available For Download – Packed With Top Features

Last year, I experienced a special kind of magic at Gamescom. That magic came in the form of Skylanders on iOS. The idea made so much sense, and the implementation was so perfect, I was honestly blown away. You see, most kids play Skylanders, and then get upset when it’s time to leave the house and their mom and dad make them turn off the console and go. Alternatively, they aren’t allowed on the console, but they are allowed to play on the iPad. Skylanders on mobile devices was a revelation, and it’s continuing this year.

What I liked about it the most was that kids could continue playing on just the iPad while out of the house – certain characters were stored in the mobile device so they could play in the car or wherever. It’s the same complete game, just on tablet. This year, SuperChargers will also include the entire game, but this time it will also include a cloud save feature to allow for playability between multiple iOS devices.

The starter pack will include a Bluetooth portal, a Bluetooth controller and a built in-stand as well as the two Skylanders character figures and one vehicle. Upon download of the game, players will get Instant Spit Fire and Instant Hot Streak for free with the download, while in-app purchases will unlock Instant versions of Dive-Clops, Dive Bomber, Super Shot Stealth Elf and Stealth Stinger.

It’s this kind of innovation that will help keep Skylanders relevant for families, even as Disney Infinity and Lego Dimensions grab their share of the toys to life genre. I wonder how many ideas Skylanders will have up their sleeves – how long can the franchise keep innovating and staying fresh? Still, vehicles are changing things up this year, and by offering the complete game on iOS as well, it’s the ultimate in family life friendly gameplay.

Minecraft was released in its alpha form in 2010, and has been receiving constant and consistent updates for over 5 years, which is rather impressive. More impressive is how it’s become a cultural phenomenon, and in many ways, the face of modern gaming, at least as far as the mainstream populace is concerned.

The latest update for the block-breaking, block-building game is out – but it’s one of those odd snapshots that you’ll have to specifically enable.

Here’s what the new changes are:

• Rebalanced armour.
• Changed damage & protection enchantments to match new armour system.
• Fixed a few AI bugs across lots of mobs.
• Made endermen creepy again.
• Vwooop.
• More optimisations! Many optimisations!
• Added player collision again.
• Fishing rods can now catch entities properly again.
• Added team-based options for collision.
• The world may corrupt slightly less times now! Or slightly more, we’re not sure!
• I like hugs!

A note from Mojang:

“To get snapshots, open your launcher and press the “New Profile” button. Call it “snapshots” and check the box saying “Enable experimental development snapshots” and save. To switch to the normal version, you can select it in the dropdown at the bottom left corner of the launcher. Back up your world first or run the game on in a different folder (See the “new profile” dialog).

Snapshots can corrupt your world, please backup and/or run them in a different folder from your main worlds.”

I don’t play Minecraft myself, but my kids love it – and I’m very, very impressed with the new Windows 10 beta of the game, which is essentially a tweaked and modified version of the mobile game. While it doesn’t support mods yet, its lack of reliance on Java makes it significantly more efficient, less resource intensive and a wee bit more polished.

In tangentially related news, Minecraft is the most streamed game on Youtube, and the service’s most popular ‘Tuber is now British gamer Daniel Middleton – known The Diamond Minecart – usurping the accolade from PewDewPie.