PC owners have had access to a range of primarily fan-made minigames set within the blocky limits of Mojang’s creative masterwork for years by loading Minecraft, finding a server, and playing. Participants can compete with and against peers in online sessions, from competitive survival tests to enormous hide-and-seek adventures. The console editions of Minecraft do not currently support this feature. Before now.
Dundee-based 4J Studios created the game’s Xbox, PlayStation, and Wii U versions. In June, the console versions of Minecraft will receive a free update that includes the first of what they hope will be several minigames. They’re beginning with the straightforward Battle, an eight-player deathmatch in which the victor is the last survivor.
Players are granted a brief period of invulnerability at the beginning of each round, similar to the wide variety of “Hunger Games” modes on PC, to look for chests and check them for weapons, armor, or potions, run away and hide. From this point on, everyone sneaks around the surroundings to survive, and it’s pretty much everyone for themselves.
One of the arena-like maps included in the Battle pack for Minecraft is called The Lair.
One of the arena-like maps included in the Battle pack for Minecraft is called The Lair. Picture of Microsoft
Fans can follow the flow easily; it all comes down to keeping an eye out for other players while looking for treasure and traversing the environment without falling off a high catwalk. Every character’s health progressively depletes, so it’s possible to starve to death if you stay hidden for too long. Chests refill at various points during each Battle, so it’s tactically advantageous to know where they are.
The bow and arrow emerge as a crucial tool for achieving easy kills at a distance throughout the fast-paced and enjoyable battles. When three or more players meet, a fantastic frenzy of flying potion bottles and slicing swords ensues. The fishing rod appears useless initially, but you may use it to capture other players and drag them down cliffs to their deaths. You may be recognized as the best marksman, the deadliest melee combatant, or simply the best at concealing after a match when everyone gets to check their stats and the session’s prize.
According to Paddy Burns, director of 4J Studios, “We had a strategy from the outset, when we started the 360 version, that we would look at what the community was doing and add some big additions to the gameplay.” “We’ve only built it all in the past year because we were busy for a while.
“Given where the game is in its lifetime, we thought it was a smart idea to introduce other methods to play. We wondered, “Can we do something similar?” as we observed what was happening with the PC and the mods people were creating.
All Minecraft owners on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and Wii U can download Battle for free when it launches. Three substantial arena-style maps made by 4J Studios are included with the mode. One is akin to a pirate cove, complete with treetop towns in the style of Ewoks and sizable watery sections; another is modeled after the Nether and has enormous lava falls and rocky caverns, and the final one is a stone temple with several winding staircases and small passageways.
Each has a sizable core space encircled by corridors, secret rooms, and jumping challenges leading to vital supply chests. Along with various potions, such as damage, health, and swiftness, which can swiftly change the balance of fight encounters, there are swords, spades, arrows, and other items to gather. Lead programmer Stuart Ross explains, “We began by making practically everything available and randomly populating chests. “However, we discovered that it was too disorganized in your inventory and difficult for people to understand, so we’ve drastically reduced the number of available weapons and things. For example, you might find a weapon, food, and potions that all fit together in some chests to promote a particular play style.
When a player dies, they cleverly don’t just sit out the rest of the level; instead, they turn into a bat and can fly around, swooping into the faces of still-alive players while pressing the right trigger on the controller to squeal irritatingly.
Owners of a console will be able to play online or in local battles with three pals in the same room. You will have access to your friend’s list, but a complete matchmaking algorithm evaluates your prior experience and performance. The lobby area is essentially a mini playable map where everyone congregates while you wait for the map to load. It contains many hidden features, including a music box and a device that can start a fireworks display.
When asked if timed multiplayer tournaments and competitions will be organized by 4J Studios, Microsoft producer Roger Carpenter responds in the affirmative. It could, and he replies, “absolutely. If people desire it, we can go on that path. It’s doable on PlayStation and Xbox. Paddy Burns also mentioned that there might be opportunities for customization in later downloads, enabling users to control the contents of the chests and other settings. Under the hood, he says we’ve planned everything; we anticipate uncovering additional information. “We wanted to wait and see what people thought, and if they wanted to customize the kits, we could do that,” the author said.
There are plans to distribute paid-for content packs with new maps and content after the Battle released in June. There will be battle maps based on Greek Mythology and Fantasy texture packs. These maps will have environmental traps that players may set off to do things like increasing the amount of lava in a certain location. Every month, fresh content and eventually new minigame modes, according to Carpenter, will be released.
Of course, PC users already know all of this, but Battle offers a seriously entertaining new gameplay experience for console versions of Minecraft. There are little delights and discoveries hidden everywhere throughout the three free maps, which are big, interesting, and brilliantly crafted in terms of style, scale, and complexity, to keep you exploring. At the same time, you try to defeat your pals with a wooden spade.
