Game review: Minecraft for Mac and Windows

by Brandon Tucker

Minecraft, this game picked up where my childhood left off. When I was a kid, one of my favorite past times was playing legos. I had a vast collection of blocks where I could build anything my heart desired. From cars to castles I built everything. This is coming true once more with the help of Minecraft, although with the added twist of circuitry.

Minecraft is a very simple looking game, but don’t be fooled by just its looks. Within Minecraft’s heart lies a complex structure with tools or “cubes” dynamic enough for you to create active structures, light sources, doors, machines and anything else your heart desires. One of the main things in Minecraft is called redstone. It can be used almost like circuitry to power and mechanize your buildings, and other creations. From creating traps, to turning on the lights, and opening doors with redstone the possibilities are almost limitless.

Back in March a 16 year old created a working scientific calculator within the game built as a structure using redstone and cubes. His device even has a screen that outputs your answers!

With Minecraft you have the choice to play locally or on a server. There are three different modes.

Survival: In survival mode you have health, hunger, and have to collect resources.

Creative: In creative mode you have no fear of health or hunger and have unlimited resources available for creating your own world inside of minecraft.

Hardcore: Hardcore mode is just like survival mode but if you die from hunger or an attack you lose everything and have to start all over from scratch.

Of the 3 modes I spent most of my time in Creative mode. I’ve spent the best part of the last few nights building a Skyscraper, Pirate Ship, and a Castle. The best part is everything I built was on a server where I can show my friends and family that also play minecraft. They can also share or take part in helping you build or solve difficult problems when trying to make things using redstone.

Overall I recommend this game for everyone young and old. It has some slight learning curves but they range from very easy to highly difficult depending on how you play. It’s available now for 25 dollars for both PC and MAC.

http://www.minecraft.net/

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

About Brandon Tucker

Brandon is the Gaming Editor for Beatweek Magazine. He has always been an extreme gaming enthusiast. He is also a web & graphic designer. He loves all things tech and playing video games.