Pretty Scary Update



The Pretty Scary Update was a major update, labeled as 1.4.2, officially released on Thursday, October 25, 2012. Among the main changes are a number of new mobs and variants (witches, bats, zombie villagers, wither skeletons), wearable and placeable heads, a new boss (the wither), the command block, the anvil, the beacon, new food (potatoes, carrots, pumpkin pies), carrots on sticks for controlling pigs and new decoration items (such as item frames, flower pots, cobblestone walls).

The official name of the update was revealed at PAX Prime 2012 during the Minecraft panel, then later with snapshot. Dinnerbone first revealed the 1.4 release date with snapshot, where he stated that he was fully into the "Prepare for release" mode.

Development on the Pretty Scary Update began directly following, which was released on August 16, 2012. 15 development snapshots for 1.4 from to  were released. The 1.4 Pre-release was unveiled on October 19, 2012, so that modders can start preparing their mods before the launch on October 24, 2012.

Mojang found a mob suffocation bug after this was released, and was forced to delay the launch by a day. The 1.4.1 Prerelease was unveiled on October 23, 2012, and the release was pushed back a day.

Mojang then found yet another bug, and fixed "a severe memory leak in the server". This, as well as correct rendering of fences and cobble stairs, came in the 1.4.2 Prerelease, released on October 24, 2012. 1.4.2 was the first official release of 1.4, available through the launcher on October 25, 2012.

Since the release of 1.4.2, versions 1.4.4, 1,4,5, 1.4.6 and 1.4.7 were released to the launcher. The majority of these subsequent releases fixed bugs.

A new bug had appeared. You can no longer achieve the The end? achievement.

The Pretty Scary Update was originally intended to include the Modding API, however this has been pushed to a later version.

Lighting bugs present in 1.3.2 were only partially fixed. Dinnerbone first introduced changes in snapshots. Dinnerbone tweeted to revert and push this to 1.5. Other changes postponed to 1.5 include redstone changes, and a rendering overhaul.

New stuff
Added:
 * Beacons
 * Carrot on sticks
 * Item frames and flower pots
 * Potatos, carrots and pumpkin pies
 * Anvils
 * Infections
 * Withers and wither skeletons
 * Bats and witches
 * Monsters can now pick up items (eg:your sword)
 * Command block

New bugs

 * In 1.4.2, you can no longer get the The end? Achievement.
 * In 1.4.7 sometimes, you will eat more than 1 food at a time.

Notable Features
The biggest feature seen in this update was the introduction of a new boss, the wither. Other major features were anvils, beacons, and witches.

Criticism
Reception of this update was mixed. With so many new additions to the game, like the Adventure Update, players had a hard time getting their head around everything. The main criticism was the beacons being underpowered and being thought of as incredibly expensive for such a short range, as one has to beat the wither boss and mine out hundreds of ores. The beacons were buffed in 1.5, but many people still feel it is too weak. This ties in with another criticised feature - wither skeletons. Many people were mad when they found out that wither skeletons could only spawn in nether fortresses, as people always felt that the nether itself was underpopulated, and they were overpopulating nether fortresses.

This lead people to not bother with the wither, as the reward was very underpowered and one would have to find a nether fortress and risk their lives, kill on average 120 wither skeletons to get 3 skulls, bearing in mind they are rare, and people thought the fact the wither skeletons had a 20% chance of spawning a normal skeleton was an abominable idea. Also, people found the wither boss itself too hard, having more health than the ender dragon. This lead most people to simply forget about the wither and go witch hunting, only witch huts were found to be almost non-existant.

Another heavily resented feature was the bats. People thought that as they didn't drop XP or any items on death, they were simply annoying and got in the way. Others however, loved the new bats, as they felt it added atmosphere to caverns.

The best received feature was the command block. The command block opened more doors in adventure maps than anything else. Item frames were another big addition that people liked, as they could store items and swords without it cluttering their inventory, and could be used as a trophy, as well as being helpful in adventure maps. Anvils were also well received, as it was an element that contributed to both mining and crafting and made the game feel more complete. People however, thought the recipe was too expensive, requiring 31 iron ingots.

Other smaller features like pumpkin pie and the new sounds came with open arms, the lava sound especially, as players could tell when they were near lava.

Trailer
A trailer documenting some of the Pretty Scary Update's major features was released on Mojang's official YouTube channel on the 26th of October, 2012. The trailer was made by Hat Films, who have made update trailers for Mojang in the past.