Minecraft is an indie phenomenon you have to play
Minecraft is a creative sandbox game, in which you can create huge structures and caves to play in. It's a deceptively simple game of building during the day and survival at night.
Your world in Minecraft is randomly generated, and you appear in a land surrounded by water, with mountains, valleys, trees and animals. It's not clear what to do except explore to begin with but as the sun sets, monsters appear, who will kill you. Survival is impossible in the open, so you need to build a shelter to hide out in for the first night. Here is a guide.
Version 1.0 has some nice cosmetic changes, including an HD texture pack, better lighting from torches and even prettier sunsets and sunrises! The game launcher also looks better. There is now a 'Creative Mode', which makes you invincible, gives you unlimited resources, allows you to fly, and fast forward/rewind time! This mode is ideal for players who just want to get on and build cool stuff, without worrying about staying alive.
Minecraft is constantly being improved. It's blocky graphics give it a unique style, and while there have been many clones and copies, nothing matches the original. The mix of exploration and creation during the day, and frightening survival at night is infectious.
Minecraft is a wonderfully inventive sandbox game that really deserves the title, as your creation in it is only limited by your imagination and time!
A new realm has been added to Minecraft, which allows faster travel through the huge worlds. Called The Nether, it resembles Hell, and is full of flowing lava and monsters. You can access The Nether using portals made from Obsidian you have mined. Also, when you create a new Minecraft world, it will now be more varied, with 'biomes' of different landscape, like desert, tundra and snow. NPC (non player characters) now roam villages, which can serve as early shelters for you at night, if you can find them!
Features
Your world in Minecraft is randomly generated, and you appear in a land surrounded by water, with mountains, valleys, trees and animals. It's not clear what to do except explore to begin with but as the sun sets, monsters appear, who will kill you. Survival is impossible in the open, so you need to build a shelter to hide out in for the first night. Here is a guide.
Playability
Version 1.0 has some nice cosmetic changes, including an HD texture pack, better lighting from torches and even prettier sunsets and sunrises! The game launcher also looks better. There is now a 'Creative Mode', which makes you invincible, gives you unlimited resources, allows you to fly, and fast forward/rewind time! This mode is ideal for players who just want to get on and build cool stuff, without worrying about staying alive.
Quality
Minecraft is constantly being improved. It's blocky graphics give it a unique style, and while there have been many clones and copies, nothing matches the original. The mix of exploration and creation during the day, and frightening survival at night is infectious.
Conclusion
Minecraft is a wonderfully inventive sandbox game that really deserves the title, as your creation in it is only limited by your imagination and time!
What's new
A new realm has been added to Minecraft, which allows faster travel through the huge worlds. Called The Nether, it resembles Hell, and is full of flowing lava and monsters. You can access The Nether using portals made from Obsidian you have mined. Also, when you create a new Minecraft world, it will now be more varied, with 'biomes' of different landscape, like desert, tundra and snow. NPC (non player characters) now roam villages, which can serve as early shelters for you at night, if you can find them!
Recent changes
- New jungle biome
- Added ocelots
- Added cats
- Added iron golems
- New AI for mobs
- Tame wolves can have puppies
- Villagers will have children if there is room in their village
- New map height limit (256 instead of 128)
- New items and blocks
- Doors have been updated so that double-doors work better with redstone
- Added rare drops for mobs
- Many other minor tweaks and fixes