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My first clue that Minecraft's Boo! update had dropped is when I decided to hop on to harvest more obsidian only to find my .exe launcher failing to connect. Chances are, when new stuff is happening, people are flooding the servers.
So when I finally got Minecraft loaded up and found my launcher downloading updates, I got excited.
Just add fire for fun and chaos!
So I set fire to my Stargate and jumped right through it. I mean, literally I jumped right through. To get it to work, you have to stand inside the portal for a few seconds. And after a few brief seconds, the purple haze whisks you away to a terrible, horrible land that is also kind of awesome.
After a brief loading screen where you learn of the official name of this new dimension, The Nether, you'll find yourself in a strange, hellish world.
First thing you'll notice is that the lighting swings between dim and dark most of the time unless you're near one of the world's many lava lakes. There appears to be a ceiling in this world, so no sun means no light. Most of the light present already in the world is from lava or fires that have already started on the flammable surface.
A small thing that I also noticed was that your compass doesn't work in The Nether. Like some science-fiction malarkey using terms like metal deposits, magnetic fields, and smoke monster, your compass will swirl around, giving you zero information on your bearing. My planned exploration was just a few meters away from my portal anyways, so I shouldn't get lost. The Nether allows you to fast travel through it's compressed surface area anyways, so I'll probably slip through The Nether in short distances.
After exploring the land a bit, I realized I was playing on peaceful, because I prefer the exploration without the sense of dying and losing all my hard earned loot. So I changed the game to easy and was immediately hit by The Nether's eerily improved sound work.
On easy mode, I heard the blood curdling wailing of moans and screeches nearby. I came face to face with The Nether's neutral mob of pig-like man zombies.
"Why helloooooh my god!"
Not long after I came face to face with one did a humongous ghast float above me and starting raining flaming death on me. While not accurately aiming at me, it did make sure that I didn't stay in one place too long, lest I get blasted by its explosive projectiles.
The camera takes off 10 feet.
I didn't see a good escape route, so I opted to build a new portal with the obsidian I brought along with me and escape back to what I'll call Earth.
Suddenly, I found myself in an entirely new, unexplored cave system back on Earth. I discovered I must've been in pretty deep as I found lava floes, gold deposits, and red stone.
Remember that my original gate was outside.
After I figured it was safe by now, I went back in The Nether and continued exploring. I found out to my amazement that there was another source of light in this world that wasn't nearly as dangerous as lava or fire.
These strange golden blocks actually emit light, already setting my imagination off of constructing a self-lit home out of this strange glass like substance. Every block you break gives you two piles of gold-like powder. I later found out that making a block out of all 9 squares on a work bench allows you to reconstruct the block for use.
Break a piece and you'll see it gets darker around you.
Next was this sand-like block. It makes the same sound as sand when you break it but it slows you down when you walk over it like some sort of mud. It'll take a more creative mind to see this used in construction.
I'm sure you could use it for some kind of trap.
Strangely, on my return trip through my original portal, I ended up near my original portal from an entirely new gate. I'm not sure why the portal did that, but it give me a new point of a entry. At the very least, few obsidian I can harvest from breaking it down.
Take a look at the compass in my inventory and you'll notice it doesn't sync up with my first picture.
There's still a lot more to explore about The Nether and what it brings to the table. I haven't even begun seriously crafting the new items, building with new materials, or seriously trying to survive and live in The Nether. I haven't even crafted a fishing pole yet, which is supposed to work now! But for now, know that when you get into Minecraft now with the Boo! update, it not only fits the Halloween theme, but also expands the grandiose sense of adventure you can make by yourself here.
Keep in mind that Notch has finally mentioned the idea of beta on his twitter. Minecraft still has a lot of steam left!
This post was cross-posted at my blog as well.