“Minecraft” fans will be happy to receive fresh new content that comes with the latest update, Content Update 33, which is now live. The update can now be downloaded for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. The game update pretty much featured additional content in the form of new enchantment, new blocks, a new mob and more.
As stated in the patch notes from 4J Studios, three new items have been added to “Minecraft” for console, namely: Beetroot, Beetroot Seeds, and Beetroot Soup. Players can also augment items through FrostWalker and Mending enchantments. Terrain generation features have also been added, introducing Fossils and Igloos.
The polar bear is now the new mob; sounds for the polar bear, squid, snowman, cow, horse, item frames, witch, paintings and leash knots have also been added. One of the most noteworthy additions is the Chinese Mythology Mash-up pack, which costs $4.99. This new “Minecraft” content is inspired by Chinese legends and myths and will take players to a new world where dragons exist. The full patch notes for “Minecraft” Content Update 33 can be found here.
Meanwhile, the Exploration Update for PC has also been released. As noted by Kotaku, the “shulker box” is one of the most interesting additions found in this latest “Minecraft” update. The shulker box serves as a storage space for anything players want to keep – and this is something that “Minecraft” fans have wanted for so long. When not in use for survival, the shulker box can be used as a decorative item.
Also, a big addition making its way to “Minecraft” is the Woodland Mansion, a dungeon that players will rarely find in wooded locations. The mansion is populated with spell-casting mobs known as Illagers, who also have the abilities to summon villains, and attack players. Also new to this update is the existence of llamas. These guys can be used to transport items or become a caravan during travels.
Mojang, the team behind one of the world’s most popular games, Minecraft, has just announced a new update is now available for those who play on smaller screens.
Minecraft Pocket Edition has been updated with a bran new Campfire Tales skin pack, which contains 16 Halloween-themed skins. Each of the skin included in the pack is spooky enough even for the most fearless Minecraft player.
The skins include well-known characters like the Headless Haunter, the vengeful Lumbering Jack, the obsessive Sea-Swallowed Captain, the hasty confectioner Crisp, the cursed Well Wisher, Rancid Anne, The Sham, Ol’ Diggy, and the Risen Rose.
Although these skins are available for free, Android users might have been asked for money while trying to get them via the Google Play store. If that’s the case with you, then you should use the code MINECON2016 to reduce its cost to zero. It’s also worth mentioning that these skins won’t be available for too long, so make sure to get them as soon as possible.
Aside from the Campfire Tales skin pack, the new update also adds some tweaks like a small fix to smart turning (VR only). It also addresses an issue with mirror textures and fixes a bug with the capes that were clipping through armor.
Lots of other small and major bug fixes have been implemented in the update as well, so make sure to download the latest version. Here is the fill changelog for both Windows 10 and Pocket Edition versions of Minecraft:
– Fixed crash when rendering leads in VR. (VR only); – Using the B button to quit the game (when using a controller) now works. (Win 10 only); – Fixed top of cursor flickering in VR. (VR only); – Mouse clicks no longer cause keyboard input to stop. (VR only); – Fixed issue where Minecraft would not shut down completely when launching another app in the Oculus store. (Win 10 Oculus only); – Added in bug fixes for VR that were previously in the 0.16 betas.
Released yesterday on Xbox and Wii U, Minecraft update 1.36 is now available to download in North America, Europe, and Japan for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita.
Adding new blocks, items, enchantments, banners, DLC support, and more, here’s the full list of patch notes for the new Minecraft update on PlayStation: Trending Articles
PS4 PlayStation Store Price Drops: Ratchet & Clank,… Add new blocks – End Bricks, Beetroot, Grass Path, Frosted Ice, Magma, Nether Wart Block, Red Nether Brick, and Bone Block. Added new items – Beetroot, Beetroot Seeds, and Beetroot Soup. Added new enchantments – FrostWalker and Mending. Added new terrain generation features – Fossils and Igloos (in newly generated worlds). Add new mob – Polar Bear. Add Banners. Added Chinese Mythology Mash-Up Pack. Added sounds for Polar Bear, Witch, Squid, Snowman, Armor Stand, Cow, Horse, Item Frames, Leash Knots and Paintings. Updated all Texture and Mash-up Packs with new items & blocks.
As for the Chinese Mythology Mash-Up pack, it’s priced at $4.99/£3.99 and carries this description:
Journey through epic terrain and find enlightenment in the land of dragons with this Mash-up Pack inspired by the myths and legends of China. Minecrafters get to explore a Chinese Mythology-themed world, with glorious Textures, legendary Skins and enchanting Music. The Pack also includes a themed Battle map exclusive to this Mash-up!
Expect the DLC to be up on the North American PlayStation Store later today, shortly after the update goes live.
After much hinting, foreshadowing, and teasing, the newest Minecraft snapshot is out, showing us at long last what the much vaunted ‘exploration update’ has in store.
The most exciting addition for this most recent update is the ‘shulker box’, an item built out of the newly added shulker husks, that finally upgrades your storage capabilities. You can stuff the box full of whatever you want, and it keeps its inventory, even if you destroy the block, letting you use it as a sort of backpack. Players have wanted something like this for ages. Even if you’re not a survival player, it has its uses as a decorative block or as a way to upgrade your storage system, so this is a very exciting change.
The other big addition is the Woodland Mansion, which is a procedurally generated dungeon that appears very rarely in wooded areas. The mansion is filled with tough new mobs that cast spells, summon baddies, and attack you with weapons, making it very much an ‘end-game’ destination (though if you’re lucky enough to find one early it can give you a serious head start on your build.)
Woodland Mansion shows that Mojang is getting more comfortable with their procedural generation—the mansion is a lot more detailed and complex than earlier structures—which means that we could be getting explorable dungeons or structures for every biome eventually (and not just igloos).
As a part of the Woodland Mansion addition, you can also now buy exploration maps from the new cartographer villager. These maps show you the location of the closest Ocean Monument or Woodland Mansion, allowing you to set up an expedition with an actual goal besides aimless wandering. This is more exciting because of what it might eventually allow, but it’s still another tool in the explorer’s toolbox.
For tinkerers, Mojang has finally added an Observer block (which has been in Pocket Edition for a while), a redstone contraption that updates based on the status of the block it is observing. While this might not sound thrilling to everyone, it’s opened up a whole new world of automated builds, including flying machines, transporters, and farms.
In general, it’s not as great of a change as it might seem because the block has been around for a while. But the best redstone contraptions are still on Java, and this addition adds another powerful tool for players who can already built immensely complicated and interesting machines in game.
Other additions include llamas, cursed items, ways to escape from The End, and a useful console command. Exploration players will no doubt be happy, and there should be something for everyone to enjoy, but the big question is whether or not Mojang can continue to deliver updates with this level of content in a reasonable amount of time. In terms of exploration and progression, Minecraft is still pretty features-light when compared to games like Terraria and Starbound, so if Mojang wants to compete in that arena there’s still a lot of work to do.
Rob Guthrie is a lapsed academic who writes about history, video games, and weird internet things. Follow him @RobertWGuthrie for pithy Tweets and lukewarm takes.
“Minecraft” was upgraded today, after 4J Studios rolled out updates for the game’s console versions. Players can now download the 1.36 update called the “Banners, Blocks, Beats and Bears” on their PS4, PS3 and Playstation Vita.
4J Studios also announced on Twitter that they Japanese and European gamers will also get the update a bit later. “Minecraft on Sony consoles in Europe and Japan, and will be out later today in North America,” the studio tweeted.
Now, The latest “Minecraft” DLC offers a bunch of exciting new features as promised by 4J Studios. Gamers will be thrilled with the new mobs, wildlife, enchantments and more.
Below are the changelog posted on Minecraft forums. The update is applicable to all gaming platforms where “Minecraft” is playable.
For new blocks, end Bricks, grass path, beetroot, magma, frosted ice, bone block, red nether brick and nether wart block have been added. Then, beetroot seeds, beetroot and beetroot soup are now included in new items list.
The new enchantments in “Minecraft” are FrostWalker and Mending while new terrain generation features in the additional generated world include Fossils and Igloos. In addition, there will be polar bears roaming around the icy biomes and the range of banners can serve as personalized drape to beautify the place up.
Lastly, the “Minecraft” DLC comes with the Chinese Mythology Mash-Up Pack and fresh battle map. Once the Chinese Mythology pack is downloaded, the map will automatically appear together with other items that are part of the update. Players will get to wander through the dragon-laden Chinese Mythology-themed world.
In any case, since the update seems to be few in number, players may think that there is not a lot to gain from it. But in truth, the 1.36 update offers a lot and gamers will only see the changes once they start playing after installing the DLC.
I’ve been playing Minecraft Education—mostly with students or other teachers—for about four years now. My experience came to a head two weekends ago, when I attended MINECON, the annual Minecraft convention and fan fest held this year in Anaheim on September 24-25. I go to a lot of educational technology conferences, but I don’t have a lot of experience with “fandom conventions.” Experiencing MINECON 2016 as an educator, I found it to be a melding of the two—and a clear indicator as to why the education world is obsessed with Minecraft.
Bringing Together Teachers, Parents and Students
MINECON is definitely aimed at kids, who are among Minecraft’s biggest fans. I, in fact, took my 12-year-old son with me, who contributed to this article. But upon attending the conference, I found that there were a lot of parents and quite a few educators in attendance, as well. Minecraft is especially unique in the sense that it’s a tool that brings together each of those three different groups of individuals, all in pursuit of creative expression, adventure, and fun.
I know how I use Minecraft in my own computer science classes, and I’ve heard and seen amazing applications that other teachers have shared. But if you really want to feel as inspired as I felt coming away from this weekend, you need only look to the kids who use Minecraft without adult intervention. In mass amount, I saw how students try, click, play, guess, and take risks with computer applications and other devices, all in attempt to figure out “What happens if I…?” I’m ecstatic to see a generation of willing pioneers who know no fear when it comes to bravely experimenting and inventing, with little regard for adults who may want to steer them toward more traditional and pragmatic pursuits.
As Minecraft is a gaming experience popular with both adults and kids, it can often be a family endeavor, where parents and their children play together. Many parents I’ve talked to became interested in Minecraft themselves because they were curious about the obsession that had such staying power with their kids; it wasn’t a fad that came and went. As they started to see how much their kids were learning, they felt naturally drawn into the game themselves. And it’s worth noting: many families in attendance at Minecon were homeschoolers who use the game as a learning tool.
A Rich Variety of Activities, Projects and Partners
When it comes to Minecraft, the implications for student engagement and project-based learning are endless. A clear indicator of this is the list of top five favorite items that my son identified from MINECON, from his perspective as a student:
Celebrity Minecrafters: My favorite thing was meeting famous YouTubers who play Minecraft. I met, took selfies with, and got autographs from Stampy, Squiddy, Sqaishey, and Wizard Keen.
New Items Inside the Game: Everyone who went to MINECON got an email afterward with a code for the official MINECON 2016 cape that you can wear inside the game!
Minecraft Activities with LEGO and More: The LEGO booth had a fun activity where you could build a Minecraft LEGO solution to get Alex (a Minecraft avatar character) out of a problem. Two other activities (unrelated to LEGO) that we could partake in were punching trees and a Minecraft witch hunt in the game. These were really popular with kids!
Student Voice Panel: There was a student voice panel that had kids who talked about their Minecraft experiences, such as making games inside the game and making videos of their builds.
Exploring Biomes Exhibits: There were cool biomes—big physical constructions—in the expo hall, such as a real-life tundra, underwater, forest, and even a farm with Minecraft animals. There was also a replica of a Minecraft house with all the stuff inside that you would need in a real Minecraft house in the game, like a bed, a crafting table, a furnace, a jukebox, and cake.
A MINECON forest biome exhibit. (Cameron Main)
Leading the Minecraft charge is a small army of YouTubers—veritable celebrities in a setting like MINECON—who make videos of their game play as well as tutorials and artistic creations within the Minecraft world. I don’t know who most of these digital celebrities are, but my son knew of a few big names, and most of the young Minecraft fans knew who everybody was.
Minecraft itself has worked its way into so many facets of life—YouTube and LEGO, to name two—that adolescents connect with, and as such, the classroom is a logical place where Minecraft can help bridge the gap between life inside school and life outside of school.
New Minecraft Developments, to Keep Users Engaged
My focus on Minecraft in the education space has meant that I’m an early advocate of Microsoft’s new Minecraft: Education Edition, which officially launches on November 1st. This new edition, aimed at schools, includes some new features and some improved Minecraft features:
There are chalkboards of varying sizes, which can be used to post information in-game as part of the students’ learning experience. (Think directions or clarifications, for example.)
There are some NPCs (non-player characters) that can be added to the game. This isn’t an entirely new feature, but it’s an add-on to previous educational versions.
Cameras—and the portfolios they feed into—garnered the most excitement from teachers I have talked to about the new updates. Players can now place a camera to take a “selfie” with their work, or use the camera to capture images of their builds, caption them in the portfolio, and then export them to use in any applications they’d like.
Finally, a new classroom mode, which will be released with the new product in November, allows the teacher to check in on various worlds that students are using. Teachers can also view students’ in-game chat, move students around as needed, give students items, or communicate with them without having to enter each world individually.
Some of today’s students have already been lucky enough to be in classes with teachers who’ve been using Minecraft for the past few years as a learning platform. It’s popular with kids and teachers because it’s familiar and fun, but also because it provides a space in which students can visualize, build, and experiment in a 3D environment.
But there are so many more students out there, who have yet to really exercise their creative spirit and impulses. We’re going to need creative student thinkers, because they grow into courageous, innovative adults who can solve the world’s problems.
The collaboration, engagement, and exploration opportunities that Minecraft provides are well-suited to give kids the experiences they need to build tomorrow’s solutions—but Minecraft is just where they start.
Diane Main serves as Director of Learning, Innovation and Design (9-12) at The Harker School in San Jose, California. Follow her on Twitter at @dowbiggin.
