There seem to be plenty of adults who simply don't get Minecraft. It's not too difficult to understand. After all, what's so great about placing blocks? Not much, you might think. However, with Minecraft the only limit is your imagination. It's as much a canvas as it is a game. And that's the genius of this game. No rules. Just imagination. You can build anything, and I mean anything. There are so many tools at your disposal that you can be a digital Michelangelo or DaVinci if you wish. It lets the dreamers become doers. Hey, you DID build that.

But for me there's even a better reason to buy this game. Namely, it's a fantastic way to connect with your son/daughter, niece/nephew, younger sibling(s), etc. My nephew is about turn nine years old. He lives in Manhattan. I live in Utah. A couple of times a month we hop on our PS3s (we both have the digital version) and just goof around. We mostly hang out in creative mode (we occasionally take on mobs and trade with villagers in survival mode), building our world which so far includes three huge houses, an airport complete with runway and air traffic control tower, a restaurant, two towers with a skybridge, a huge swimming pool and a race track that runs through all of it. And we made it all together.

The PS3 version, unfortunately, has a lot of limits when compared to the PC version. No mods, limited skins (so far), etc, but you can play split screen, which is a huge plus for spending some quality time with your kid(s). I've found the PS3 multiplayer far easier to navigate than the PC version, too.

If you don't know really where to start, ask your Minecraft fan to craft you some armor. After that ask him/her about Creepers, Herobrine, Ender Dragons, Red Stone, and diamond armor. And then listen. Watch that kid's face light up as they explain to you the in's and out's of Minecraft. And then pick up a controller and dive in. They'll guide you and they'll love it.

Trust me when I tell you your kids will never forget the times they got to play Minecraft with mom and dad.

**update**. the PS4 version of Minecraft will be released in August. If you purchase the PS3 version from the playstation store, or played online with the disc version, you can purchase the PS4 version via the playstation store for $4.99. You'll have one year from the August release to cash in on those savings. Additionally, you can import your PS3 games saves into the PS4 version. According to Mojang, the PS4 version generates worlds 36x larger than the PS3 version.

**update #2** in case you were wondering, there are a number of character skins based on PS3 exclusives including Infamous, Killzone, God of War, Uncharted, Sly Cooper, Ratchet and Clank, The Last of Us, Journey, Heavy Rain, and more. Each skin pack consists of a dozen or so skins. There are also more generic skins like prisoner, soccer player, king, etc. Each skin pack runs $1.99.

Those who have played Minecraft on PC, MAC etc.. will know that it's a very fun game, specially with all the mods, adventure, survival maps! I was waiting for Mojang to release it on a physical copy (for the PS3), and they finally did! The maps on the PS3 are not "infinite", but don't let that stop you from buying it, it's still really fun to play it with friends and or family! It's easy to get into multiplayer, and I love the split-screen feature. The controls were a little bit confusing for me, at first, but I already got used to them. It is missing some things (AS OF NOW), they 'might' add them later on, so it catches up with the PC version. Unfortunately, you can't add mods on this version, and the character skins aren't free. Overall, it's a fun game that kids and adults can enjoy! WARNING: this game can be very addicting!

I'll admit, I reacted like many people when I first heard about this game: "Minecraft? Isn't that the game where you build things with blocks? Where's the fun in that?"

When I decided to play it and review it, I was amazed at the reactions I received - not from my friends, but from their children! They couldn't WAIT to tell me their stories about fishing and building minecart tracks and fighting Creepers with diamond swords and battling the EnderdragonI hadn't even played Minecraft yet, but they were all excited for me to start!

GAMEPLAY:

Minecraft is an open world game where you create your own gameplay experience. Initially, it looks very simple - you play as an adventurer in a block-style format, and you need to gather items and mine for rare ores to craft items for your adventurer to survive. There isn't much of a story to speak of, and while there is a "boss battle", you don't have to fight it if you don't want to. During the day, you can see animals and interact with them - horses, sheep, cows, pigs, wolves, and many more. You can dig and uncover rare ores to fashion new weapons, armor, tools and construction materials.
However, when nighttime rolls in, you need to beware: there are several creatures which hunt you down - spiders, zombies, skeletons which shoot arrows, and even the dreaded Creeper - a monster which explodes if you linger too closely!

You can play in a peaceful style where no monsters chase you and you aren't in any danger, but this limits your gameplay experience. I decided to play in survival mode, to get the full effect of the game.

WHAT WAS IT LIKE, PLAYING FOR THE FIRST TIME?

I was afraid I'd be overwhelmed, but the tutorial mode was extremely easy to follow. It showed me step by step how to get wood from a nearby tree and do some basic crafting. Once this was done, I gathered more materials and put a crafting table together. I fashioned a crude pickaxe for mining and made a wooden sword to protect myself from invaders. With my confidence raised, I created a new world and found a nice stretch of land where I decided to make camp.

I thought I was so smart, building a fence to keep out intruders, only to discover I forgot to make a fence gate! I couldn't jump over the fence, so I had to dig under it like Charles Bronson in The Great Escapewhich brought a lot of laughs to my child. While I played, she told me about all the dangers I would be facing. I asked how she knew all of this (since she'd never played before), and she answered with a chuckle: "Come on dad, EVERYONE knows about Minecraft!"

TROPHIES:

There are 29 trophies to earn in Minecraft, most of which are creation based. You'll get a few right off the bat by creating various tools and weapons, but some of them (such as killing the Enderdragon or riding for 500 meters in a minecart) will take considerable time and effort to earn.

In all honesty, this is probably the first time I've played a PS3 game where I haven't been concerned about earning all the trophies as quickly as possible - and I'm one of the biggest PS3 trophy junkies you will ever meet. My enjoyment of Minecraft comes from creating the best game experience for mewhether it's building a house, fighting a skeleton, crafting new armor, cultivating crops, or finding some of those rare jukebox records!

SOHOW DO YOU LIKE IT?

Well, I've come a long way since my first Minecraft session. I've made a well-fortified house with stone walls (zombie proof), a crafting table in one corner and a furnace in the other. On the opposite side I've put three large storage chests, stocked to the brim with various items in case I meet an untimely death from any monsters that roam the wilderness. I have torches which hang on the opposite wall from my bed, so I can drift off to sleep peacefully.

While I play, I have the choice of listening to the Minecraft music (which is quite soothing), or I can play any music I've saved to my PS3. I can fish while listening to "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay", tend my crops while playing Pink Floyd's "Learning to Fly", dig for rare ores to the tune of "Canary in a Coal Mine"the options are pretty much limitless.

Even when I'm not playing Minecraft, I'm thinking about Minecraft. I think about mining for rare ores and creating new structures. I think about finding a new area and setting up a house before the night sets in. Even now, while writing this review, I'm thinking about finding the next secret Minecraft has waiting for me.

But most of all? I'm thinking about my nephew's face lighting up like a Christmas tree when I tell him about my first steps into this world of limitless creation. He's quite the fan, having made a Pinewood Derby race car modeled after a Creeper, and his last birthday party was Minecraft themed.

I've become "The uncle who plays Minecraft" - this allows my nephew and I to have fun discussions which weren't possible before I jumped into this game.

FINAL THOUGHTS?

If you like your video games with scripted starts and finishes, plenty of action or lots of shooting, Minecraft might not be for you. However, if you're looking for a fun game to play by yourself or with family members which encourages creativity and imagination, Minecraft is definitely the way to go.

Very highly recommended!

Minecraft is an amazing game that will give you 100's hours of entertainment. My daughter was into Minecraft for a while playing it on the PC version before it came out on the Xbox 360. Once it came out on the Xbox 360 we bought it and play every weekend for hours on end. It's a great way to hang out with your kids and create some amazing creations. When I was a kid it was sitting on the floor playing with LEGO's not its Minecraft. It's not just mindless game play, many times my daughter and I drew out on paper what we wanted to make before creating it within the game. The game is only limited by your imgination.

The game has had some great upgrade to it, to include allowing to tame ocelots(they tame into cats) and wolves (they tame into a dogs). The game is super fun and Minecraft would be a great Christmas gift for kids and adults alike. I enjoy this game and would definitely recommend it.

Thank you for reading my review, if you have any questions feel free to email me, I would be happy to help you with any questions you have.

I remember when Minecraft was first created a couple of years ago. Back then, and even up until recently, it didn't look that interesting to me. I'm into all kinds of different games and genres, but Minecraft just didn't pull me in when I'd see gameplay videos. Late last year, my daughter really got into it when she'd visit her friend's house, and not long after, it finally got ported to the ps3, which she immediately used a gift card on. Since then, no other game has gotten as much playtime, and I get to see her creations on an almost daily basis. She'd create dozens of worlds, all with something different and unique from one another, and while I was glad that she was playing a game where you could be so creative, I still wasn't that interested.

Then I started up a file for myself and I got it.

Minecraft is a game that this past console generation desperately needed. All-ages games of great quality are rare, and kids usually get the short end of the stick when it comes to games aimed at them. Unless it's Skylanders or Disney Infinity, there aren't many other options. Sure there's Rayman, Sly Cooper, Mario, Little Big Planet, the Lego games and a few others, but they're few and far between. And it just so happens that it appeals to people of all ages too. There's nothing really "kiddy" about it- Minecraft is a solid game worth checking out if you haven't already.

There's no real story here- you start up the game and enter a randomly generated world where you get to do whatever you want. Your world could have lush forests, massive beaches, tons of rivers, or mostly be water with just a couple of small islands (as was the case when I started my first world. That one quickly got deleted). When you start out, you don't have anything, so you need to walk around and destroy things with your fists, taking the material with you in block form so you can make things out of it. Crafting is challenging and fun, and there are -tons- of things to make. You'll probably start out by making a pickaxe out of wood, mining away at stone and rock so you can make a better pickaxe that won't break as easily. Then you can break up stronger materials that make for strong homes, which keep you safe from the various monsters that come out at night.

The number of things you need to make in order to make better things is overwhelming at first, but you'll quickly get the hang of it. Break up a tree to get wooden blocks, get x number of wooden blocks to make wooden planks, get x planks to make a sword and so on. Rarer materials like diamonds can make super strong swords and armor, making you a nightmare for Creepers and zombies. Making homes and buildings is a blast, and more simple than I expected. You just set down the blocks, as if you have giant Lego bricks, and insert things like a bed, stove, windows and more as you get the appropriate materials. You can even make potions to enhance your weapons and other things.

Minecraft is one of those games where there's really no "point" to it. You do what you want. It sounds boring at first, and the easy-listening soundtrack may not help that impression, but once you start playing and see just how time consuming things can be, it becomes fun. Once I saw how long it took to make a house, a steel pickaxe and find materials I needed for other stuff, I had a whole new respect for my daughter and how much time she put into each of her worlds. When I saw just how big the worlds can be, and how deep you can go underground while mining, it really put things into perspective. And don't even get me started on the steps needed to face off against the game's "boss". If things get too tough in the game's main mode, Survival, there's also a Tutorial mode to help you understand things better, as well as Creative, where you can pretty much do whatever you want with unlimited resources and no worries about dying. This may take some of the fun out of the game, although if all you want to do is build a world however you want without having to spend a lot of time getting the right materials, this is the place to go. The best thing to do when you've gotten the hang of things, is to hop online and invite a friend into your world, or go to theirs. Have fun exploring the area, which I can almost guarantee will be completely different from yours, what with the number of worlds that can be generated.

Visually, there's not much to say about Minecraft. it looks like an 8-bit game that got 3D treatment. That being said, it looks good for what it is, and I rarely experience slowdown. As I mentioned above, the soundtrack is on the snoozy side, with some relaxing piano tracks that loop, and there aren't many voices to be heard aside from grunts and growls.

Notch, the creator of Minecraft, is pretty much rolling in cash with the success of this seemingly simple game that started out as a downloadable title for just a few bucks. Word of mouth helped the game become the phenomenon it is today, and I gotta say, he's earned it. Now, you can't go anywhere without seeing a kid in a Creeper shirt or seeing merchandise, from key chains to big foam swords and pickaxes. It reminds me a lot of when Mario really got popular in the early 90s when games weren't anywhere near as big as they are today. Perfect for people who just plain enjoy playing games or creating things, Minecraft is here to stay.

Well, maybe not but it's one of my all time favorites.

I've been having issues with my computers/laptop running the game and decided to try the console route. Works just as well as my "good" PC, and we have up to 4 players on the PS3.

Hoping to entertain the kid's w/ this in the car on our upcoming trip to Florida. If not, we will EASILY log a few hundred hours this winter playing the game.

The easiest $20 I've spent on Amazon. I didn't even have to talk myself (wife) into it.

Never have I ever seen a game quite like this. Minecraft is the most amazing game I have ever seen! The old school graphics make it a favorite of mine. In Minecraft, there are no limits on what you can think to do. You can build anything. Make cool stuff. Explore caves, Mine resources. Battle with creepers and zombies. There is never an end to what you can think to do. It is an adventure where you set the goals, do whatever you want to do, and fun for people of all ages. Even the sky isn't the limit, because you can just fly around in creative mode. :D

Minecraft for PS3 is a lot of fun, but with a few drawbacks. It feels like a complete game, but when compared to all that the PC version includes, it doesn’t feel as fantastic of a game. The PC version has infinite world size, while the PS3 version’s worlds are actually quite small. There are lots of materials missing as well. The game is still lots of fun, but just not as complete. The controls feel great, aside from the awful PS3 controller. There is also no actual full multiplayer like PC. You can just join your friend’s game, more like how you can on Pocket Edition. No matter how much is missing though, it’s still Minecraft, and it’s still a blast to play. The other thing about this is that there are no mods, and texture packs/skin packs cost money. The skin packs are set designs too, so you can’t design your own skins. I feel that once it comes out for PS4 and Xbox One they’ll be able to make a game near identical to the PC version because of how powerful those systems are. I would wait for those to release in probably mid-August if you want to play Minecraft.

This is basically the same experience as the PC version, with a console controller instead of a mouse & keyboard. (As far as I can tell, you can't use a M&K on the PS3 edition, but maybe they'll update that.)

You do give up a few things from the PC version: the worlds aren't quite as large, and you can't download any mods. But the big addition is split-screen multiplayer, which works great. Tired of scratching your head trying to figure out just what the heck your kid is doing for hours on end? Fire up the console and join in! I still don't quite have a handle on everything, but I do have at least a better understanding of the game's appeal now. And it's not so hard anymore to get the boy off the computer when I need to use it. :)

My 5 & 6 year old Boys LOVE IT! We pre-ordered it for the $19.99 on AmazonPrime. They couldn't stop talking about it. They were even counting down the days. Now that they have it, they play it all the time, they allow their imaginations go wild, building houses, blowing stuff up, etc. They talk about the game all the time. BEST $19.99 I HAVE EVER SPENT ON A VIDEO GAME!!!!!!!