Last week saw the official release of the long-awaited "Adventure Update" for Minecraft. Really, this 1.8 update was only the first half of the Adventure Update, adding new locations such as abandoned mineshafts, new lighting, villages and more, but the life was missing. The 1.9 update adds NPCs to those villages, sees the return of the snow biome and adds an entire new one on top of that.

This is just scratching the surface of the gameplay tweaks, new mobs and more that are coming with the 1.9 update and if you are as eager as we are to test it out, the pre-release version of the Minecraft 1.9 update is now available as are several videos delving into some of its new content offerings.

Before we get to the download details of the Minecraft update, check out the following four videos from our friends at the Yogscast.

Villages, villagers and Lily Pads

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTZ4boILlvs

Nether Dungeons & new mobs

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLdFQXGzH_8

Building and defending with Snow Golems

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOyTtxX1wc0

New Mushroom Biome & mobs

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

That's your demo look at the remaining half of the Minecraft adventure update so if you want to try it out yourself early - and before the bugs are worked out - you can download it and the server client here.

We love the snow golems but wish there was a way to make a better weaponized version of it to really defend a home. The new mobs are also needed but we don't want Mojang to stop there. Throw in some horses, birds and other wildlife that some of the user-mods are adding then we can watch them breed.

Are you satisfied with the latest Minecraft additions and the directional change towards adding experience, objectives and more to explore? If you could pick anything to be added to the game, what would it be?

Minecraft exits beta status on November 11, 2011.

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