If you own a PC, you've probably already heard of this fairly massive phenomenon.
You can't look around YouTube without seeing some kind of Minecraft gameplay.
Be it parody, modded or 'vanilla', this simple yet addicting game has pretty
much taken over.
The Background
Minecraft was the brain child of a single mind, Markus Persson,
although he is better known by his nickname – Notch. There is speculation that
his idea had already been made by a group of people and their game,
Infiniminer, with the slight difference that this game was basically a blocky
Team Deathmatch game, and not much fun at all. So I will disregard this
criticism because I can. Mojang developed and published Minecraft in 2009 as an
open Alpha and gradual move progression into Beta. It was in this phase that
the game gained a massive following, with many prominent YouTubers making their
names and reputation publishing videos of this game. Minecraft finally saw a
full release in 2011. Since then, it has garnered much praise from gamers and
developers alike for making both an interesting adventure and creation game in
both single and multiplayer.
My Personal Experience
I’d like to preface
this entire section with the fact that I have only played the Xbox 360 Edition
of Minecraft, which I feel is an incredible beginner’s tool for this very
immersive game. If you read my League of Legends ‘review’, you will know my
computer can barely handle the programs on it at the moment, so I think this
game would probably just kill it, so all of this perspective will be from that
version.
I had heard a lot about the game being a massive time sink
and that they were going to release it as an Xbox Live Arcade game late 2011. I’d
never really been too interested in Minecraft videos online up until then, as
it was to a game I’d probably never play. However, when I heard of this
version, I began to look it up. My favourite part of all the videos I watched
was the amazing structures that could be build out of the simple blocks that
were given in game. The gameplay itself, if slightly over exaggerated by
certain YouTube celebrities, looked very appealing to me. I did take all of
this footage I was seeing with a pinch of salt, however, as I did realise it
would be different to the launch set up of the Xbox Version, but it was safe to
say I was excited for this game to come out.
When it finally arrived, I was both amazed and disappointed at
the same time. I was amazed as it was such a good version of the game. I saw my
first problem would be the infamous difficult crafting recipies, and contantly
having to check back to the Minecraft Wiki to get the information. This was
completely taken out in the Xbox version, replacing it with a much simpler
system where, if you have the items to make something, you can just click on
the icon and it will make it for you. This was very much a beginner’s guide to
Minecraft. I appreciated this, being the dim witted man-child I am.
However, this joy was short lived, as I noticed a lot of the
things that were in the PC version were left out at launch, most disappointingly
for me, the Creative Mode. Yes, you could play on peaceful and build to your
heart’s content without mobs, but digging out all your materials when all you
want to do is build a castle is arduous and unwanted. Fortunately since then,
creative mode has been added, yet, to my knowledge, the End is still
unattainable for some reason, although updates are coming very frequently with ‘new’
mobs and blocks every time. As soon as I was able to go into creative mode, I
was hooked. I would say that Minecraft is probably the game I have given the
most time to since Final Fantasy IX back in the Playstation 1 days.
If you are new to the game, but like to watch YouTube videos
of people playing Minecraft, there are certain things you have to realise:
1) Creepers are not as scary as some people lead
you to believe – Yes, if your stuff gets blown up that sucks a lot, but it
doesn’t make you shit yourself with fear. Think of it like an explosion in any
other game, but coming from a walking shrub. I guess if you are scared by slow
moving shrubbery then you have every right to scream, but also no right to play
a game where it’s basically their mascot.
2) Digging straight down IS a terrible idea – You may
think, as I did, that digging straight down will get you to the more valuable
ores quicker than a normal staircase. Not the case. Alongside random spawning
of said ores, you are also more likely to find a lovely big pool of lava to
burn all your materials or a beautiful ravine, which you will be seeing from
the inside as you fall towards your death.
3) Minetracks are pointless – unless you’re aiming
for a massive build or just want to show off, there’s no reason walking won’t
be less costly and more efficient. Seeing how precious iron is on some seeds it
seems silly to waste it all on a track.
My Verdict
Minecraft is the very well presented time sink everyone has
said it would be on the PC, and playing it on the Xbox only makes it easier,
for me at least. Although it’s still not perfect, it’s definitely worth 1200
Microsoft points, and the skins are pretty cool too. The skins go from Banjo to
Marcus Fenix and everything Xbox in between. If you’ve plated the PC version already
you may come away slightly disappointed, but newcomers to the game will love
its simplistic nature and, now that there is a fully functional creative mode,
enjoy the building and exploring even more.
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