Minecraft is getting closer and closer to its official launch later this year. But before that happens, the popular sandbox game"s development team at Mojang has got at least one major content update ready to go. On Friday, one of Mojang"s team members, Jens Bergensten, released an early copy of the 1.8 beta update out to the Internet. Technically it"s not supposed to be the official release but it does have the blessing of Minecraft"s creator Markus "Notch" Persson. He states in a Twitter post, "I am fine with you using it. Make sure you get it from the leaked url we are hosting, though." The final version should be made available to all Minecraft players via automatic update in the very near future.
Dubbed the "Adventure Update" by Mojang, the 1.8 patch is aiming to add a ton of new gameplay features to Minecraft. It will add randomly generated villages and dungeons, along with a mysterious group called the Endermen. It also has a new Creative mode that will allow players to go nuts and build anything they want in their Minecraft world without having to worry about those pesky in-game creatures.
Mojang still plans to release the "final" version of Minecraft in mid-November, the same time it will also hold its first annual MineCon event in Las Vegas. If you are going to MineCon, you will also be given alpha codes for two upcoming Mojang games; the card-based RPG Scrolls and the action game Cobalt.