Minecraft

Minecraft

Plot:
There technically is no plot in Minecraft, as it is a sandbox game. There has, however, been several nice theories as to what the plot could be, and my favourite is; That there was an apocalypse-level event that involved in some way zombies, and everything was destroyed. You are alone and are trying to rebuild. The reason why this one fits is that the zombies in the game are the same skin as the character, but overlaid with zombie-ness.

Rating:
Graphics 4/10
Acting NA/10
Plot NA/10
World 6/10
Online 7/10
Character: 3/10
Game-play 8/10
Customize-ability 10/10
Camera 7/10
Controls 7/10
Difficulty (varies)/10
Replay Value 10/10
Soundtrack 5/10
Overall 10/10

Review:
            Minecraft is a game that anyone can play. I bought the 360 version just the other day, and I let my niece and nephew play, and they are only 7 and 6 years old. They probably don't get as much out of it as I do as far as what I can accomplish. But my nephew can play that game without looking away for countless hours. Unless he has to use the restroom, he even forgets that he hasn't eaten. Now that is both a good and bad thing, but take it as you will. First I'd like to talk about Minecraft for the PC, however. You purchase the game once, and own it forever. Anyone you want to play with will also have to own their own copy, but it is not expensive. With the purchase of the official game, you also can access all the mods for it. Tekkit is the main Minecraft, but there is honestly endless modding possibilities. I have seen Minecraft with Pokemon; you can catch, train, and trade them. If you don't like the blocky graphics the game comes in, you can download HD realistic texturepacks that look very well rendered(provided you have an adequate computer). Without the mods, Minecraft is a sandbox of unlimited creativity. Because the game is in 3x3 blocks, anything that can be seen in pixels can be made to scale. I have seen replicas of the USS Enterprise, and have made my own replica of the Tower from Lord of the Rings that has the flaming eye. I admit I could talk for hours about the creative functions, but there is more to it than that. "Craft" is only one part of the name. "Mine" is what it means, mining. You get a pickaxe, find some rock and mine. You may ask yourself "Self, why the frakk would I want to mine? No one wants to do it in real life, why would I here?" But your forgetting one thing. Farmville. I don't want you to think Minecraft is like Farmville...I hate Farmville, but the idea is there, why would anyone want to farm? Well people get strait up obsessed with that game. For me mining in Minecraft is therapeutic, relaxing. Just mining away, creating tunnels through the ground, collecting precious minerals. The best part about mining is that what you mind in turn gets used to craft. You need higher levels of materials to make better equipment. The monsters in Minecraft- while some are based off of other types of creatures- take on a personality and type of their own in this strange world. each bringing with them their own level of difficulty and unique needed for crafting.
             Basically this all comes back to the game being for everyone. I like to mine, my fiance likes to build structures, my nephew likes to kill monsters. Some people play in peaceful and spawn no monsters, some like a bigger challenge. Play by yourself, or with many others on a server.
              The Xbox 360 version of the game isn't that different. Buying the game gives you the ability to play with up to 4 people on the same disk, or up to 8 online. Modding is not available yet for the 360 version. But texture packs are, at a price. That's not to say it's all bad. It just has some downfalls, but it is cheaper to buy the game outright, without add-ons. The add-ons are also not very expensive.