Minecraft 1.5 Weather, Powered Minecart Rails, Achievements and Statistics

Minecraft Beta 1.5 just came out, and I do mean just came out. It's 1.45 am in this neck of the woods and like the proverbial early bird with the bird, I caught the release, which definitely includes achievements. How do I know? I just got one for opening my inventory, and then another one for punching a tree. So let's list a few of the high notes in this update, shall we:

Achievements

Opening the menu screen shows me an achievement tree that will calmly hold me by the hand and take me through the game. Seasoned Minecrafters might be bemused by this, but anyone who had to read a bunch of articles and watch half a dozen Minecraft videos in order to work out how to make it through the first night will probably appreciate this on some level.

Statistics

In addition to achievements, there are also statistics which tell you things like how many times you've played, how far you've walked, how far you've swum, how many times you quit, how many mobs you've killed, how far you've fallen, how far you've traveled by boat, how far you've traveled by minecart and many, many more.

Powered Minecart Rails

Without a doubt the most important aspect of this update for me, powered rails boost minecarts, thus resolving the longstanding issue of how terrible minecarts actually are.

HOW TO CRAFT MINECART BOOSTER RAILS

This part is important. You need 6 gold ingots (finally, a use for gold), one redstone piece and a stick. Place the gold ingots down the left and right sides of the crafting table, with the stick between them in the middle and the redstone underneath it. NOTE: These rails need to be powered with restone to work. If unpowered, they actually stop your minecart. The boost they provide is significant, but not very long lasting, so it's just as well you get 6 for every 6 gold ingots.

Weather

This update is the first to incorporate actual weather. And by weather, I mean rain and thunder and our old friend snow that was cruelly taken from us whilst the game was still a tender babe in alpha.

Ladders

Ladders aren't new to Minecraft, but you'll no longer be able to climb up a set of ladders with spaces between the ladders. Ladders now act like actual ladders, as a compromise, the lord high Notch has granted double the number of ladders when crafting.

Glitches:

The first glitch I happened across was the fact that putting torches on grass now seems to spawn half a gazilion million cows. There are at least ten of the lumbering beasts, and that's not counting the ones that fell down the large cave system right next to the makeshift base.