Tuesday, May 15, 2012
No Review For Minecraft 360
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Reviews: Looking forward to a Gamecritics review of Minecraft: Xbox
360 Edition? I'm sorry to disappoint you, but we won't be covering it anytime soon due to the game shipping in an unplayable state. Want more info?
Here's the scoop.
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| Actually, that's a pickaxe, not a scoop... |
After receiving review code from PR, I loaded it onto
my 360 and completed the tutorial. All was well. At this point, I quit the tutorial and started a new world. I was only able to play for a few minutes before I opened my
inventory and the game locked up.
Specifically, the game would not let me close
the inventory window, and my cursor was only able to alternate between two
particular slots. No further interface with the game was possible, so I had to
shut the entire game down and relaunch it.
After relaunching it, I tried again and got the same result.
I shut down and relaunched again, and I still got the same
result.
At this point, I reached out to PR to see if this was a
known problem, and if there was a fix. PR referred me to Microsoft tech
support, and I got in contact with one of their reps.
I described the issue I was having to the representative. Here's
an excerpt from our chat:
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Stephanie: Hi Brad! Lets try a few things to see
if we can stop that. You do have the requirements met- HDTV and a HDMI
cable, correct?
Brad: No HDMI cable, but I've played a million
Xbox/XBLA games before, and I've never had a problem. I’m using component
cables.
Stephanie: Ok, I'm just giving you the information from
the publisher on playing the game.
At this point, I was directed to clear the 360’s system
cache and delete the marketplace system data. I did so, and after restarting
the game, found that this did not solve the problem. I informed the rep that
the freezing was still occurring, and here's what she said next:
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Stephanie: Brad, I did double check and you will need
that HDMI cable in order to make the game play properly. That is causing
the freezing.
Brad: How is that possible?
Stephanie: It has to do with a combination of ways the
feed from the game is going through the system. But it does say that
particular cable is required for the game... on the website that is.
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I'm no tech expert, but I've never heard of any game on the
360 having this sort of an issue due to a lack of an HDMI cable. I mentioned it on Twitter, and I was rapidly greeted with
several responses from people who were playing with component cables, and even a
few who were playing on SD sets with no problem.
It's pretty clear that this HDMI information is bogus.
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| A huge bug rears its ugly head. |
Soon after, crack researcher and fellow critic @Gelles22 passed
along this link to the official Minecraft forums. If you click on that and scroll
down to the fifth issue, that's exactly the problem I'm having. A quick scan of
the GameFAQs forums reveals that there are several others having the same
problem, so I'm clearly not alone.
Obviously the game works for the majority of the million-plus people who've already bought it, but it's completely unplayable for me since something as simple as opening the inventory kills it. With no reliable workaround or fix, there's no way I can
review the game. Although I'm sure that it will be patched at some point in
the future, who knows when that will be?
As a console reviewer, I'm not
interested in games which are works-in-progress, and going
to a forum or contacting tech support to find a fix isn't something that should be seen as acceptable. It would be one thing if this version of Minecraft had been released for free, but it's one of the most expensive XBLA releases ever
(if not the most expensive) and having it ship with severe problems isn't OK under any circumstance.
I apologize for not being able to review the game at this time.
We may cover it at some point in the future after it's been patched to a workable state, but if you're thinking about a purchase for yourself, be aware that there's a chance that it may not be playable.
We may cover it at some point in the future after it's been patched to a workable state, but if you're thinking about a purchase for yourself, be aware that there's a chance that it may not be playable.
Caveat Emptor.
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Posts
The HDMI cable 'excuse'/troubleshoot kind of amazes me. That makes no sense what so ever, so I don't even know why it would be proposed. As someone who runs a tech support department for a software company, I would be concerned just how knowledgeable that employee was in general.
That said, we have been among the fortune. My son picked it up, and absolutely loves it, and hasn't run into any issues thus far with it at least.
Sweet! I've just received my free minecraft giftcode!
>> Minecraftcodes.info <<