Minecraft 1.8, also known as the Adventure Update, recently went live and added all sorts of features to the game, from new mobs and combat features to NPC villages and a new food/health system. If you're wondering how this major patch affects casual Minecraft players, Mike B. aka Fony's got you covered in his latest BFF Report.

Click here to watch BFF Report Episode 81: Quick Guide to Minecraft 1.8!

Fony will also be at MineCon from November 18-19 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. If you're attending, keep an eye out for the chinhawk!

Minecraft 1.8, also known as the Adventure Update, is now live. This major patch adds a ton of noteworthy features to the game:

• New biomes: adds scenery like swamps, mountainous areas, oceans, rivers and chasms.
• New mobs: The creepy Endermen will ignore you until you look at them, at which point they'll freeze and stare at you. When you look away, they'll attack. The update also adds cave spiders and silverfish.
• New food and health system: Eating food now takes time and fills your health bar, which allows sprinting and passive health regen. Food is now stackable.
• Expanded combat: You automatically get critical hits when attacking while falling. If you attack an enemy while sprinting, it will knock them far back. You can now charge bows to increase their damage and range.
• NPC villages: You can find these villages throughout the world, even though the NPCs aren't coming until 1.9. The villages include buildings like houses, farms and churches.
• Abandoned mines and strongholds: These can now be found underground.
• New blocks: Vines, stone bricks, glass panes  and fence gates.
• Creative mode: Fly around while invincible and have unlimited resources and instant block destruction.
• Experience: Players can collect experience orbs from monsters to level up, although it doesn't do anything yet.
• Improved graphics: There's a new lighting engine and sliders for FOV and brightness. Explosions are prettier.

For more details, watch the Minecraft 1.8 trailer below. Don't forget that you can celebrate the official Minecraft launch at MineCon from Nov. 18-19!

Mike B. aka Fony's a big Minecraft fan, so he decided to spend his latest BFF Report looking at Minecraft-inspired titles available on Xbox LIVE Indie Games. He tries out CastleMiner, FortressCraft and Total Miner. Let Fony be your guide as he shows you the similarities and differences between all these games.

Click here to watch BFF Report Episode 80: Minecraft-Inspired Games!

So which of these three games is your favorite? Are you playing any of them, or are you waiting for Minecraft to officially launch on the Xbox 360?

If you're a Minecraft fan, you may want to start planning your trip to Las Vegas! Mojang will be hosting MineCon, the first official Minecraft event, from November 18-19 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. The convention's site is now live and tickets are available for $99 until September 30. If you wait until October, the price jumps up to $139.

So what will you be doing at MineCon 2011? Here's a list of the currently planned activities:

• Official Minecraft launch
• Keynote speeches (including one by our very own Notch)
• Build contests
• Breakout classes with all different Minecraft topics
• Costume contests
• Exhibits by leading gaming and Minecraft related companies
• Meeting friends from around the world
• Commemorative merchandise

Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson has been tweeting about MineCon today, and he candidly explains why Mojang is hosting the convention. "No matter how many tickets we sell, MineCon is going to be a monetary loss for us. But an emotional win! In fact, the more people that come, the more expensive it gets, heh," he said. "It's totally worth it, though. It's about celebrating with the players, not about making money. To make money, we make games."

Wargaming.net, the developer behind World of Tanks and the upcoming World of Warplanes, has announced that it is the official headline sponsor of this year’s European Games Award. The EGA is the first award exclusively for European video and computer game developers, which lets professionals and gamers from all over Europe participate in the voting for the best games.

Want to know which games are up for awards this year? Head over to the EGA categories page for the full list. Here are the titles that are in the running for best online game:

• Wakfu
• Stronghold Kingdoms
• EVE Online: Incursion
• Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword
• Magicka
• Minecraft Beta
• Black Prophecy
• Runes of Magic
• World of Tanks

The European Games Award ceremony will be held on August 13 on the event ship Pure Liner 1, moored on the Rhine river in Cologne.

Following denial of service attacks attributed to hacker group LulzSec, CCP restored EVE Online's Tranquility server and then took it offline again to protect its customers and investigate the situation. The server is currently back up, but CCP is prepared to take it offline again if warranted.

When Tranquility was first restored about an hour ago, Chief Operating Officer Jón Hörðdal wrote a letter to the community explaining why Tranquility was taken offline in response to the attacks. "It is always our approach to err on the side of caution in order to ensure the best possible service for our players and the security of their personal, billing and account information," he said, confirming that players' personal information and credit cards are safe.

Shortly following the restoration of Tranquility, CCP took the server offline again once the team "became aware of ongoing traffic flooding." As mentioned, the game is back up and is being closely monitored.

LulzSec took credit for the EVE Online attack on its Twitter page, along with similar attacks that occurred today against League of Legends, Minecraft and The Escapist magazine.

Minecraft 1.4 just launched, adding the eagerly anticipated tameable wolves and more to the popular indie game. Well, it turns out that's just the tip of the iceberg for the franchise. Yes, we said franchise. Creator Markus “Notch” Persson and Mojang announced today, April 1, that they're currently developing a separate Minecraft MMO, which will officially bring the addicting construction-based gameplay to a persistent world setting.

As Minecraft fans, we went straight to Mojang for all the details. Keep reading after the jump to check out some exclusive screenshots and learn more about the upcoming Minecraft MMO, which will actually allow you to complete quests in the massive Ruby City and the lands beyond (as seen in the above image).