More thoughts and impressions:
# Meteorite ore got a balancing pass. Meteorites now only start falling after the Eater of Worlds/Brain of Cthulhu has been defeated. What's worse, meteorite ore can no longer be done away with by explosives, you have to get in there and get dirty with the pickaxe. This ups the difficulty for new players considerably, but it also makes Meteor Head Banners VERY VALUABLE, to the point players might want to just hang around and kill 50 Meteor Heads to get it before starting mining. Also, a balancing change was that a Meteorite-biome now needs 75 blocks of it to spawn Meteor Heads, and not 50.
# On the note of meteorites, have you been checking out the background in Terraria? You can see loads of interesting stuff there, and some of it is relevant to what's going on in the world. Most importantly, if you pay attention to the sky just before midnight, you can
see the meteorite as it's about to crash into the world. A really cool addition.
# Hearing about that Ocean-Travel-Without-A-Boat Magic Conch makes me feel confused. On one hand the Pylons have got long-distance travel sorted, and yet they add an item that teleports people to the end of the world (on the horizontal plane)? What for? That's redundant. What Terraria really needs is a vertical end-of-the-world teleporter. You know, a Hell Conch. Sends you straight down to Hell based on your horizontal position. Obviously not an item to be gained before entering Hell (unless it's one-use, like a potion).
# By that same logic, a Space Conch (or potion) would be an interesting addition, get sent straight up to the top of the world based on your horizontal position.
# What I've always felt was lacking in the game was a reason to return to Hell after you've defeated the Wall of Flesh; one new enemy and an NPC just doesn't cut it for me. I would like to see a non-essential boss fight (but with cool drops) take place down there. No effort is required for it: We have King Slime, we now have Queen Slime, so why not a Prince of Hellslime? You know, a giant ball of lava bouncing around the place? Sure would provide a challenge in that environment.
# Another biome that I feel could use a boss is the Ice Biome. So far I've only seen it on the surface since 1.4, my world didn't spawn with a clear access point down to the Underground of it, but unless something drastic has changed the Ice Biome is Easy Mode in Terraria. I think it could use a little more (sp)ice.
# If you've been playing Terraria long enough while hanging around ducks, you know that there's an Easter Egg attached to them. That same Easter Egg is also attached to the owls.
# After having played around with the Gray Zapator... I can safely say this is one of the more lulzier weapons in the game. It fires a blue ray that insta-travels (as they do). BUT as the weapon is said to be broken, some side effects may occur. The beam may bounce back the way it came. It may bounce off at an angle. It may 'repeat' itself, leading to multiple hits against the same target. It may knock enemies back with greater knockback effect than you've ever seen before (they literally fly off the screen). But the funniest one of all is the Ultra-Slow Moving Ray. It crawls so slowly around, and any monster that runs into the tip of it is doomed to death. The best thing is, there's a Hardmode upgrade of the weapon available. :D