‘Minecraft’ Update PS4 & Xbox One: At Last, End Cities, Elytra And Amplified Terrain Are Coming

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2011-11-18

In February, the PC version of Minecraft got a massive update called the Combat Update that dramatically changed the game. But for console players on all platforms, it’s been a long wait. At last, the great Minecraft update we’ve been waiting for is finally coming. According to Mojang, via Engadget, the year’s biggest console update is coming out in late December, just in time for the holidays. And the update will bring the console edition close to parity with PC, adding in features like end cities, the Elytra, and amplified terrain. It’s a big deal.

Minecraft Holiday Update: Console Players Get The Goodies At Last

The 'Minecraft' holiday update for consoles will bring us the Elytra and many other much-anticipated features.
The 'Minecraft' holiday update for consoles will bring us the Elytra and many other much-anticipated features. Mojang

Mojang’s announcement cites four big new features coming in the holiday update: the End Cities, lost ruins in the End that can be found after defeating the Ender Dragon; the Elytra, the magical gliding wings found in End Ships in those cities; Lingering Potions made with Dragon’s Breath, which will be useful in the new End Cities; and Amplified terrain, a feature that the PC edition has had for a long time. Amplified mode is reasonably resource-intensive on PC edition, so we’ll see how well it performs on the consoles, especially the older ones. .

Mojang has said that the major holiday update will include several other new features as well, but hasn’t yet clued us in on the details. But one critical part of the Combat Update has not yet been confirmed for consoles: the actual updates to combat. The Combat Update revamped the game’s combat system dramatically, adding shields, giving players two hands instead of one and making many other changes that were not universally well-received. There’s been no word yet on whether these changes are also coming to the console editions, or how they would work if they did, so that’s something to keep an eye out for.

Either way, the Minecraft holiday update for PS3, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Wii U is extremely exciting news. It will give the game a large majority of the features already available on the PC edition, minus a few recent additions like haunted houses. And thanks to the Elytra, it will let us fly.

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