The 15 best Minecraft texture packs
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Minecraft's low-fi charms were predictably the first thing modders took to 'fixing'. The ruddy textures, while distinctive, are an obvious target for an upgrade if you stare at them long enough. I confess that when I found a texture pack I loved I've never gone back to the original look: I'm going to start off with that one and then explore the the rather vibrant world of Minecraft Texture packs. There's nothing too crazy in here: those packs tend to be part of larger mods that fundamentally change the game, and that's another article entirely.
But what we do have here is a fantastic selection of textures that bring all sorts of style to the game, from the ultra-realistic to the cartoonish to far out sci fi. There’s even an animated textures included, a feature supported since development snapshot 13w02a was released, although they’re not yet implemented in the main game. Not sure how to grab and install one of these snapshots? Don’t worry, I can help you with that too. Click through to be delighted by the variety and vibrancy of Minecraft’s many texture packs.
I'm a sucker for anything the Minecraft community does and, if I'm honest, I sometimes find myself more excited by what they've been up to than what Mojang themselves have been doing. Then again, I don't think I'd be wrong to say Mojang are pretty enthusiastic about their fans, too, giving them any excuse to let loose. While Hallowe'en's now long past, the Minecraft community are still making the most of the 
Yep, since those witches were introduced in the 
The Pretty Scary Update 
Hold on to your temporal tuning fork as I attempt to explain what’s going on here. 
It's here! Or it's practically here, more or less. Minecraft 1.4, also known as the Pretty Scary Update, now exists as a pre-release version on Mojang's blog. It adds lots of little big fixes and some big, big noises...
I'll be honest with you, I don't completely understand 3D printing. I don't get how the process works and I don't know how we end up with the solid objects that we do but, blimey, it can be impressive. Now, a program called Mineways allows you to export anything from your Minecraft world and (for a price) see it brought to life by the 3D printers at Shapeways with some quite beautiful results. Our readers on the other side of the pond might be interested to know that the team behind Mineways are running a competition for Minecraft players in the US and Canada to win a $300 Shapeways voucher and one of those Xbox 360 things. Click through for details and for some more lovely models.
Over the last couple of days, you might well have noticed a couple of new games have been giving a tip of the hat to Minecraft. That’s jolly friendly of them, but it’s hardly anything new. Minecraft is one of the most referenced video games ever, a testament to its popularity. Here are its most famous appearances.
In a recent post on the MineZ forums, developer Highlife explained the delays behind their forthcoming updates, in which the team are hoping to add wolves and give players the opportunity to build their own settlements.
Minecraft players just can't help but tinker, can they? But just how well does a server run on a credit card-sized machine that has only 256Mb of memory?
As well as introducing 
That's right, after 
With monsters now picking up and using items that they've found laying around, we're now getting situations like this one, spotted by a reddit user. Sure, you can laugh, but this means the monsters are able to make themselves not only tougher, but also immune to the effects of sunlight. They're getting smart. Too smart.
This gigantic labyrinth was created by reddit user Chris-P and though he's flying above the maze to take this picture, he claims he built it in survival mode. That's impressive if it's true. Click through for a download link.
