Hello and Wlecome to another one of my slightly ranty Blogs that I sometimes enjoy writing which is hard as it seems like almost everything has been done and talked about to death and then some. However, I happen to be in a lucky position of being at odds with many others that let me have a different view compared to most other Players. Still, though, even I am having trouble finding stuff to talk about as I am sure there are multiple Streamers and YouTubers who may have already covered this yet I have not seen them myself so my opinion is still unique...maybe.

Anyway, what is today's topic going to be? While I am having trouble to come up with an interesting title, we are going to be discussing my thoughts on Caves & Cliffs as it is now released in its entirety. Being an Alpha player, not knowing too much about Beta 1.7.3, and having issues with Modern Minecraft due to the many problems I have stated before in previous Blogs, I figured now was the time to return to the present and give it a Fair analysis of how I like or dislike the game. Normally, people say they try to have an Unbiased opinion, but we don't do that here. I show mine yet hold them aloft not as a guide and moreso to frame your perspective to mine.

You like what you like and I like what I like. I am not here to convince you that I am right or you are wrong. I am simply here to entertain you and give you something to think about. Maybe it will touch a nerve or you'll feel your heartstrings be pulled, that is up to you. These are enjoyable for me to write as it is a hobby that I have tried to keep up for years. Nothing less, nothing more.

Anyway, if you're new here or not going to go back to read the text dumps of the past, let me give you a run down of my Minecraft career before and after the Burnout.

Started in Alpha 1.2.4 on November of 2010 after having tried the Free Trial Classic mode on the website. Played for a long time into Beta, started to wear down towards Adventure Update 1.0 eventually giving up and quitting around 1.2.5 or so. Since then, I became addicted to League of Legends for about four years before I started to get tired of that game as well as trying to shift on to playing other games that had piled up in my Steam library in the following time following this.

Tried to come back in 1.8 and 1.9, but those updates were just not great. I'm better about them now, but back then wasn't much kinder. Oceans were and still are a pain, Combat is ehhh. Pretty sure I wouldn't mind it if the game wasn't laggy-er than a fighting game with delay-based netcode. I'm getting ahead of myself here, but the point is, I was not fond of the game's direction at all.

In short, I thought it was far too easy, there was no point to Mining and Crafting, and there was no enjoyment for me as a Survivalist given the emphasis on Map Making tools and creative additions. This was not me saying "Game is bad, delete now," more of "Game isn't for me, I'll play something else." which is fine and more people should learn that. If you don't enjoy something, there's literally hundreds of thousands of other titles to play.

Then came Update R1.10 where I saw Jeb_ post some interesting screenshots. This would later become the World of Color Update which got me super excited about the game despite me being as creative as a Potato. Gave it a go again, but burnout still stung deep that I decided would be remedied by going into the past, finding my roots and finally enjoying Minecraft again.

Which brings up to now. A while back, I said that as soon as Caves & Cliffs fully released, I would give it a fair chance. After spending a few hours, several worlds later (playing Hardcore, died many times cause I'm a Minecraft God), I feel comfortable enough to share my thoughts on how I feel the game is now compared to my experiences being the only person with more than 500+ hours in Alpha. I feel like I need a trophy or something for that, I'm certain that I'm the only person with the most hours in the older versions of the game.

But that's for another time. I've wasted enough here and I'm sure you're all eager to hear what I have to say. Slight warning, this is going to be extremely screenshot heavy which I feel like is a point in the game's favor from the start. Again, ahead of myself, let's get right into it!

It's like a Whole....old game.

Right off the bat, I have to say this is exactly what the game needed from me. It hit the right chord from the get-go and I could not be happier. The lands look just incredible and give you that exact sense of wondering what is over that next hill which I am sure many agree were one of the big issues with the game.

While I have next to no experience with the Seed Generators of Beta, I have seen a lot of YouTubers including DanTDM, the Yogscast, and AntVenom cover this in extensive depth to get a good feeling of the terrain generation of old. One day I will re0visit it, created my own Beta Vacation spot for later, right now we are focusing on the game as it is now and boy is it a lot better. We will get into that in a bit. In the meantime, here are my screenshots of my world which just look amazing.











This next one has to be my favorite so far as it really captures that feeling I had been wanting from this game since as far back as 1.2 or thereabouts. It's simple, it's calming, it just oozes ideas of where you can make a nice little home for yourself, cuddling your dogs and cats as the creeper stares at you through the window.



Almost every chance I got, there was always a spot where I wanted to stay for a bit, explore around, try to make a house that I know is eventually going to be a 5x5x5 oak plank box with a chest in it. There are many different places with so many materials, it's a shame I'm not like Grian who can create monoliths and amazing structures, but I'll be damned if I won't try as I play around in this world.

While I might be praising the terrain of this game, it does have some issues. There are parts where it feels jarring, too curated, like it tries to force you in a direction and fails at doing so, at least for me it did.





No, that above image is not broken, that's exactly how it looks. It doesn't fit and it is not interesting enough to warrant going over there. Maybe can make a wizard tower out of it, but I highly doubt it. More rather move past it and find better land.

One of the other issues I have is how empty the game feels. Sure you have animals and mobs and grunting villagers, though with how big and spread out everything is as well as span changes to make it so nothing comes out unless it's at light level 0, it does not feel alive. There is almost a robotic sense of living that everything simply exists to be there without any real obligation to. Almost as though going through the steps of a dance or motions of a play, there is no organic feeling of life while roaming around which is a real waste of potential.

Hey, where are the Caves?

So, you may have noticed a distinct lack of anything below ground. There's a somewhat good reason for that in I have not spent much time underground. However, that is not to say I never tried, it just never became a thing that came up in my mind. you have caves that lead down, but mostly are those Spaghetti Caves and those don't feel great to me.

I get the point of them, but if they were wider I would be more inclined. Alongside that, I did fall into some open areas which were amazing only to quickly die because I'm just the best at video games. Never really got any good screenshots, will try to get some later, though the previous point comes up again in that it feels absolutely curated. Most feel the same, the caves have the sense of being pulled out of a model box, put together, and shoved into the ground for the Player to run into without any real meaning.

There is not much to say about mining except for the joy I get when I finally stumble on some non-copper ore. Almost like an Early Christmas present, I find myself digging away fro an entire hour in the hopes of finding something which I have been doing. How the ore has been spawning has been one of the most interesting things to have caught my eye and I'm all for it. While I would love to go underground, finding things on the surface is just as enjoyable for me.



And I found this just below the waterline as I was playing earlier



There is so much to this game and I have been having a great time of it even if I do die a lot due to me being either overconfident or not paying enough attention to my surroundings.

Creepers still suck, I hate the lag and it makes killing them impossible PLEASE SEPARATE SERVER AND CLIENT, I BEG YOU!!!

Ahem, anyway, in conclusion, this is the best Update that the game has gotten and if you are a veteran like me, I highly recommend staring up a new world and going out into it. There is so much room, so many nooks and crannies that it just begs you to use the space given even if you are Creatively-challenged like I am.

Definitely going to be playing more of this before I head off to work, maybe I'll make a decent looking mansion or a giant city. The possibilities are endless even if the world is only 32M by 32M blocks wide.

That is all for today, Happy Crafting!