Minecraft 1.8 Released, Includes Masses Of Changes

Minecraft 1.8 has officially just been released and with it comes maaaaany changes you need to be aware of.

Along with the masses of bug fixes there are also a ton of new features and blocks! This has been the longest time between releases, so hopefully it will be worth it to you.

The faster performance is probably my favourite addition to this 1.8 update, as the game has always been quite sluggish to play especially when visiting new areas.

Highlights
Added Granite, Andesite, and Diorite stone blocks, with smooth versions
Added Slime Block
Added Iron Trapdoor
Added Prismarine and Sea Lantern blocks
Added the Ocean Monument
Added Red Sandstone
Added Banners
Added Armor Stands
Added Coarse Dirt (dirt where grass won’t grow)
Added Guardian mobs, with item drops
Added Endermite mob
Added Rabbits, with item drops
Added Mutton and Cooked Mutton
Villagers will harvest crops and plant new ones
Mossy Cobblestone and Mossy Stone Bricks are now craftable
Chiseled Stone Bricks are now craftable
Doors and fences now come in all wood type variants
Sponge block has regained its water-absorbing ability and becomes wet
Added a spectator game mode (game mode 3)
Added “Customized” world type
Added hidden “Debug Mode” world type
Worlds can now have a world barrier
Added @e target selector for Command Blocks
A bunch of new commands
Containers can be locked in custom maps by using the “Lock” data tag
Added logAdminCommands, showDeathMessages, reducedDebugInfo, sendCommandFeedback, and randomTickSpeed game rules
Added three new statistics
Player skins can now have double layers across the whole model, and left/right arms/legs can be edited independently
Added a new player model with smaller arms, and a new player skin called Alex?
Added options for configuring what pieces of the skin that are visible
Blocks can now have custom visual variations in the resource packs
Minecraft Realms now has an activity chart, so you can see who has been online
Minecraft Realms now lets you upload your maps
Difficulty setting is saved per world, and can be locked if wanted
Enchanting has been redone, now costs lapis lazuli in addition to enchantment levels
Villager trading has been rebalanced
Anvil repairing has been rebalanced
Considerable faster client-side performance
Max render distance has been increased to 32 chunks (512 blocks)
Adventure mode now prevents you from destroying blocks, unless your items have the CanDestroy data tag
Resource packs can now also define the shape of blocks and items, and not just their textures
Scoreboards have been given a lot of new features
Server list has been improved
Buttons can now be placed on the ceiling

See here for the full list (no different to the pre-release). Boot up your launcher to update.

Personally I think they need to work on making combat not only more interesting, but also more worthwhile with more rewards for actually combating mobs. I know the main hook in Minecraft is the construction, but the combat seems to be mostly left out of being updated and that's a little sad. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.