However, there was no word at that stage on how long fans would actually have to wait until the Minecraft 1.8 update is released. We do have a bit of good news for Minecraft fans now however, as according to an article over at accelerated-ideas.com, Notch has recently provided a hint as to when we could see the 1.8 ‘Adventure Update’ released.

Notch took to his Twitter account at the beginning of this week, to inform his followers that the much-awaited ‘Adventure Update’ would in fact be playable at PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) 2011 between August 26th and August 28th. At the same time he revealed that a beta release for Minecraft version 1.8 would be launched shortly after.

This of course means that we could see the 1.8 Adventure Update arriving in early September. For those that don’t know, the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) is a semi-annual gaming festival – which has been going for more than 7 years now -that takes place in Seattle and Boston, and features game panels, keynote speeches and exhibitor booths.

The 1.8 ‘Adventure Update’ not only makes some major changes to the way the Minecraft game – which as we mentioned in a previous article has been nominated for 6 awards at this year’s European Games Awards – is played, it also brings some brand new features. This includes a greater emphasis on exploration, new mobs and NPC Villages.

The guys over at IGN asked Markus Persson a number of interesting questions regarding the Minecraft game via email recently and according to Charles Onyett, the game’s creator kindly answered them. Well most of them anyway!! One of the questions they asked was whether or not a console version was on their mind when they first started out on Minecraft.

Persson said that the idea of a console port didn’t come to them until quite late in the project. Although Notch was also asked whether there was a possibility we would see the Minecraft game come to the PlayStation 3 or even the Nintendo Wii U in the future, he replied by saying that he had been instructed not to answer that question.

You can read the full Q&A via the IGN website. Are you looking forward to the arrival of the Minecraft 1.8 Adventure Update?

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The great news is that the Minecraft 1.7 update has now been released by Mojang, although many fans may be left slightly disappointed as it’s unfortunately not the ‘Adventure Update’ that they were expecting. According to a recent article by John Jacques over on the gamerant.com website, the adventure update – which Notch claims would ‘flesh out the game a bit’ – will be the 1.8 version instead.

Version 1.7 only brings a small amount of changes compared to other Minecraft updates, with the new pistons probably being the most anticipated. The pistons will enable players to utilize the power of movement to shove up to 12 blocks, depending on the blocks’ position compared to the piston block. Gamers can also use the pistons as a floodgate, pushing lava or water in order to create a flow of liquid.

The push pistons can also be used to push either the mobs or players, as well as dropped items. Meanwhile, the pull piston will extend a platform to interact with a neighboring block. You can read more about the new pistons via the link here. Another new feature that the 1.7 update has provided is shears, which will enable users to right-click sheep to earn themselves some wool without the need to harm them.

However, you will need two pieces of iron to craft the new shears. Players will also be able to use shears to collect leaves, which means that building hedges will no longer need the destruction of trees and an intimate placement. After downloading the Minecraft 1.7 update, players will also discover that the cobblestone and brick blocks have new textures and fences will now be stackable.

The 1.7 update has also made it so that the breaking texture animation now has a higher opacity, and the single slabs will use the bottom half of the full block texture. As Ryan Blanchard notes in his gamerant.com article, although the pistons may not seem too exciting on their own, creative gamers will no doubt find some rather interesting and exciting ways to use them.

We have embedded a trailer below this post, to give you an idea of what the pistons can possibly be used for. What do you think about the Minecraft 1.7 update?

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The attack had been carried out by infamous hacking group Lulzsec along with a attack on EVE Online earlier on in the day, with no apparent reason why they decided to bring down both services.

Minecraft’s creator Notch confirmed the attack on his Twitter account, but stated that the service was already back up. However, as most of you will find out by visiting the Minecraft site or log-in section, both aspects appear to be offline at the moment.

Perhaps Lulzsec will offer an explanation as to why they decided to go after Minecraft, as it definitely is a bit of a head-scratcher. The fact that they tweet about it beforehand, and then carry out the planned attacks will be worrying for other game-based services.

Can you log into Minecraft at the moment? Perhaps the service is up in some areas, but down for the rest. Let us know your current location and if the servers came back up for you at all. We’ll inform you when we have any updates on the situation.

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All of the following information was posted on Notch’s blog here, he confirmed that the Xbox 360 release will support Kinect controls, but it will be optional. This was unclear last week (see here).

As for Minecraft – Pocket Edition this game is coming to the Xperia PLAY and will be exclusive to Sony’s handheld / smartphone hybrid for an undisclosed period. When this exclusivity ends it will be coming to all modern Android phones, as for the game’s development Notch, Minecraft’s creator, will not be involved in this version of Minecraft in terms of programming, however he will still be the game designer on the Xbox 360 and Xperia PLAY titles.

Notch also confirmed that he would be keeping lots of information quiet, on his website he states that this is because “there are actual PR budgets on them, and I don’t want to mess up any big plans”.

As and when we hear more about both Minecraft for Xbox 360 and Minecraft – Pocket Edition we will keep you posted, it may be worth following Notch on Twitter for all of the breaking news.

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You can see all details which Notch revealed on his blog, Notch is dubbing update 1.7 the “adventure update” he is keeping tight-lipped, however pistons are coming and on the whole the update will ” flesh out the game a bit”, he also says that he wants the game to reward exploration and combat more.

Notch does state that a full list of changes is unavailable for two main reasons, firstly he wants to remain secretive and secondly work is still being carried out on the Minecraft Beta 1.7 so nothing is final just yet.

Once update 1.7 is released we should see some modding support, however the game’s source code will only be given out to a “very VERY small group of people before the update arrives”, the modding api should arrive soon after the update is launched.

To keep up-to-date with all of the latest Minecraft news you should follow Notch on Twitter.

Which change are you most looking forward to?

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