Friends, Miners, Countrymen - the time is almost upon us where the Minecraft 1.8 Update will be available as an automatic upload when we log in to our accounts. In the meantime however, Notch and Jeb have released the pre-release version for bug testing, allowing those who want early access to the tasty build to jump right in. While it's not an automatic upload, you can bring it to your computer manually through this link.

For those of you still left, we've got some tasty tidbits in our full-on virtual preview, based on a really handy 60 second video that does its best to detail all of the new update. Including the likes of Endermen, NPC Villages, Abandoned Mineshafts, Creative Mode and much more, this version is sure to delight - and terrify - all fans of Minecraft. Let's take a look at Minecraft 1.8 in 60 Seconds as well as the first part of a preview from our friends at the Yogscast.

Covering all of the basics in the Adventure Update, the video is still chock full of enough new features to satisfy all types of players. With several new meat types (and let's not forget about the new forage-able food coming, like watermelons and edible pumpkin), killing cows and chickens has become all the more important. Remember, cooking food helps restore more health, though if your hunger bar is full then you'll slowly regenerate any lost health anyhow. Bring snacks on your mining trips - getting lost now means you face starvation as well.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8ieJN9S6Mo

Silverfish, which come in packs, are just another somewhat terrifying danger that the world can bring you. Sometimes spawning straight from a block you have broken, it'll demand that you pay attention as you dig deep into the tunnels of your worlds. Imagine running from a zombies and silverfish, turning, then putting a reticule right on an enderman - you know that somewhere, it's already happened.

The new lighting changes are gorgeous, allows the engine to have more nifty features like an adjustable field of view, a quick day-to-night transition mode, and optional brightness settings which help out people with darker monitors. From a technical perspective, Mojang has done a good job making the game perform better while limiting the strain on computers at the same time.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5WBsBDXqDs

Biomes are now much larger, and the introduction of a swamp biome will lead to more unique areas to run into during your explorations. Of course, the addition of having long rivers and streams which can stretch through entire biomes mean worlds will now appear much more fluid and natural, giving a more realistic look for a blocky world - that is, when it doesn't spawn random floating blocks. The pre-release build is full of such little errors, but that's exactly why they want people to play it and report such things.

The full 1.8 Adventure Update will be released on Monday, September 12th - so book the day off and prepare yourself for a day of crafting, exploring and fighting like a madman (jump-attacks give critical hits!). We'll have a Minecraft 1.8 Guide ready to help you traverse the new world, full of more dynamics creatures, areas and well, who knows what else Mojang will eventually put in.

What do you think of the 1.8 Update Pre-Release Build? Is there anything you extremely liked or disliked? Did you like it the update itself?

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