A race track for experiencing the elytra full on - Glide will be available for consoles tomorrow. In the form of a free mini-game, Glide will feature a race track full of obstacles and "power-ups" with a time counter and a leaderborad.
As is customary with all mini-games being added to Minecraft, Glide alone will be free and its expansions will come in both free and paid map packs.
Glide was designed to take full advantage of the game's elytra - an item which looks like grey wings and gives the player's character the ability to, wait for it, glide.
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The map is designed to look and play like a racing track with curves, shortcuts and obstacles. Score Attack mode features different, overlapping routes, which are marked by different coloured rings: "green for easy, yellow for middling, blue for hard." The rings even vary in size, corresponding to the level of difficulty and score value.
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More tracks will be coming in the future, some free of charge, others as a part of the Season Pass.
Minecraft being Minecraft, they've added the "thermals" which give a boost to character's altitude based on thermodynamics - hot air travels up. Entropy. These boosts are conveniently available when gliding over a fire.
Art director David Keningale explained: “The thermals basically give you that roller-coaster feeling, you know? You’re flying down, and it’s getting frantic and tight and then all of a sudden you get this lift up and then you sort of pause and then you dive down again. It gives you both adrenaline boosts and little breaks in the downward trajectory, giving you a chance to look around a little and see what’s going on.”
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David went on to explain a little more about the DLCs: “The first DLC pack going out will be themed around beasts,” says David. “We have a kraken-themed level which takes inspiration from Battle’s Cove map."
No word yet on Liam Neeson's Zeus, and whether he'll be giving orders to release the kraken or if the beast has entered puberty and takes no orders from the god of sky and thunder.
"Then we have an exciting glacial track that uses the Ice Spikes biome as inspiration." David continued: "We have lots of yetis running through the map and giant fossils for you to avoid and to fly through. And the final one uses the Chinese Mythology pack - you’ll be flying alongside dragons and around the fantastic, epic terrain of China!”
Glide will be available for consoles tomorrow, 28 March.
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