Minecraft – Xbox One Reviews

What can I tell you though is that this is one of the most addicting games I’ve ever played! It’s not your standard game in that it does not have a plot and storyline that you follow. You create a world and then build in that world. It’s as simple as that. You can built whatever your heart desires. Well, whatever your heart desires that can be built with cubes and a variety of tools and accessories. When I first heard of Minecraft I thought it was more tailored towards children. Make no mistake, this game is great for everyone. I have an 8 year old nephew who loves building simple towers and houses, while I try to challenge myself a little more and build entire cities with unique textures and designs. It is so satisfying to think of a new design and see your idea come alive as you build it to completion. Once you get an idea in your head, it’s hard to put the controller down. I’ve told myself that I’m going to build for an hour and then go to bed, only to look at the clock “a little while later” and realize it’s 3 in the morning.

There are two modes of gameplay: Creative and Survival.

Creative mode is exactly as it sounds. If you’re only interesting in seeing what you can build and don’t want to worry about gathering materials, that’s what creative mode is for. It’s catered to letting you build as fast and efficient as you can. I prefer to play on Survival mode (which I will get to next) but I have a creative mode map that I will use to test new designs so I don’t throw hours into it in Survival mode and then realize it’s not going to work or it isn’t as cool as I thought it would be. If you’re looking to build something from a movie or another game, I’d recommend Creative mode. I spent hours building the Tower of Sauron but it would have taken WAY longer in Survival mode.

As I said above, Survival mode is my preference. It adds a little more spice to the game. You have to gather your materials by mining or digging, kind of like a watered down game like Runescape. You have to stay alive by eating food. It’s SO fun building a farm of crops and animals. Most people start by building a house and then building a nice little farm next to it. There are also monsters in Survival mode that you need to defend yourself from. They only come out at night but they can be a real pain in the hind end, especially Creepers, which will explode if they get too close to you. It’s quite frustrating to be working on building something and then having a creeper walk up behind you and blow a nice big hole in your creation. But, that’s what makes in interesting. I get a much better sense of pride in my work if I have to earn my materials.

Again, this game is great for people of all ages. Minecraft has become my go to stress reliever. It’s quite calming to play a game that allows me to… well, to just build a world, whatever the heck I want. As I said above, it gives you a real sense of accomplishment when you complete a design and stand back and look upon your creation. If you haven’t played before, it will take you an hour or two to get up to speed on using tools and how to craft different things, but it’s about as simple as it can be for as much as you can do. I highly recommend this game for anyone looking for a change of pace from the shoot ’em ups. If you want to buy a game that you feel is suitable for a kid, this game is perfect for that too.

Are the graphics noticeably better with breathtaking hi-res textures and more complex polygons and animations? Ha! But that’s not what Minecraft is about.

There’s no real story or campaign or objectives in Minecraft. You simply start out, have a variety of tools and environments to explore/destroy/build upon, and do whatever you want from there.

Complexity ranges from ultra simple (TNT go boom lolz!), to as horrendously complex as you want to make it (wiring switches to do all kinds of crazy things, create meta-games, and so forth).

There’s the standard mode where you have a life bar, more limited resources (which forces you to craft/farm/mine for resources), and enemies. Or creative mode which is more suited for purely creating awesome stuff faster and easier. You can fly, move super fast, have unlimited materials, and so forth. Creative mode will prove to be a much easier way to build that replica Death Star you’ve been wanting for so long.

The console versions of Minecraft are always a little bit behind the PC version in terms of updates, but most won’t notice or care except the die-hard Minecrafters. I prefer the console version simply because I prefer my couch to my office chair.

One important thing to note is that if you bought the Xbox 360 version previously (digital), you can purchase the Xbox One (digital) version from the Xbox Store for a discounted .99, which was totally worth it in my opinion. The Xbox One version also has many new achievements compared with the 360 version (1000 points worth vs 200 points). You may not care about these, but I personally love trying to fully explore the games and unlock all their achievements, so this adds a *lot* of replay value for me. Some of them will take quite some time to attain as they can’t be unlocked in Creative mode.

But digital discounts aside, I generally prefer disc versions of games. Physical games tend to go on better sales and more frequent sales, they help me expand my fairly expansive physical game library, I don’t have to worry as much about disk space, I can lend the game to a friend or resell it, and I have the pleasant feeling of actually owning something tangible. But if these perks don’t interest you, the convenience of digital is nice to have to (switch games without swapping discs).

It might take awhile of tinkering around with the game before you “get it”, but once you do, it can be a lot of fun.

Minecraft is spectacular on so many levels. I’ve been playing Minecraft for about a week and I’m already so addicted. I had so many friends have been playing this for years and is never something that I thought would catch my fancy. But my five-year-old nephew got the game and I decided to pick it up so I could play with him online. Well after about a day of playing I was hooked I now find myself thinking about it and night while lying in bed.

I’ve always said that Minecraft is a must play game for children as it fosters their creative sides. Even though I wasn’t a player of Minecraft I’ve always thought this game is spectacular for teaching children to dream of things and then build them. That is why I was encouraging my brother to buy the game for my nephew little that I know I would get hooked in the process (and so did my brother).

I love how every world is different and never the same it makes the replayability of this game infinite.

I want to give a few tips to new people playing the game. As my brother who had been playing it for about a month gave them to me and they help me enjoy the game a lot more.

I would recommend trying the demo first you can download for free from the PSN network store or Xbox live. The demo will introduce you to a lot of the game mechanics and it’s worth playing it before you jump in the game. Even after playing for a week I learned things from the demo that my brother hadn’t even learn after playing for a month.

The first thing I like to do is build a home base, build a furnace and a crafting table and maybe collect some food. You want to build some torches right away and a stone pickax and shovel.

The Second thing my brother taught me when starting a new game is dig a mineshaft. This will help you get good materials so you can start crafting better weapons and tools. Diamonds are the most valuable material that you can find and they spawn between levels 10 and 14 from the bedrock level of the ground. So basically what you want to do when you start your game is building mineshaft going down to the bedrock level (this is the level that you can’t dig through its basically the floor of your world) from their count up 10 to 12 levels and start building your mine shafts from there you’ll be more likely to hit diamonds in this area.

Be sure to dig down on an angle as digging straight down could run you with the lava and even caverns that could kill you. Use your torches to light your way creatures can spawn when ever there is a certain level of darkness or below. I recommend putting torches about every 8 to 10 blocks. There’s nothing scarier than getting surprised by a zombie in the protection of your mine.

So once you have your mine built you’ll want to start building mine shafts to start looking for valuable materials. I recommend carving a two block high shaft in a straight line. Take that as far as you want, then off of that build other shafts. Separate the shafts with two blocks between them to get your most effective search of the material.

In my mine a furnace a crafting table and a bunch of crates for storing materials. You can spend a good chunk of your first few days of playing basically working in your mine.

As soon as you find diamonds craft yourself a diamond pickax and shovel these will last you a long time. Don’t bother mining obsidian but nowhere it is and make sure to save it for later. To meet with a lot of wear and tear on your diamond pickax and is it worth harvesting until you need it later.

When you want to go journeying through the world I recommend building iron armor and having a diamond sword to me that’s enough to get by. Before you go journeying throughout the world I recommend building a giant spire near your house at least 40 to 50 blocks tall that way you can see your location from far away. Be sure to build this using two blocks side-by-side so that when you get all the way up you can then shall your way through the other blocks to get down.

With your mine going you should be all set to survive in this beautifully fascinating and complex world.

Thanks for reading if you have any questions feel free to post them below in the comments.

PS my only regret with Minecraft is that I waited this long to play.
PS2 these books are great gift for any Minecraft player Minecraft: The Complete Handbook Collection and only 20 bucks