Minecraft is undoubtedly one of the most prized recent games acquired by Microsoft, and since picking them up at the end of 2014, you could definitely say that they picked up the ball and ran with it. At the Spring Showcase event I got to go hands on with an early version of Minecraft, featuring support for the Oculus Rift, which near literally placed me inside of the vast cube world.
Initially it was jarring - not only was this my very first time demoing an Oculus Rift, as a person who had played Minecraft exclusively on PC, the controls (and lack of them within visual sight) made the first several minutes a struggle. But after several moments, and an intensely patient tutor, I was able to grasp the controls. You can check out my whole experience in the video above - my facial expressions speak volumes.
Like I said, I’ve played Minecraft before, but never like this. No, this was different – it was like living another life. Upon entering a cave, the PR spokeswoman pointed out how dark and eerie it felt – I laughed, but then realized how scary it actually felt inside the darkness of the Rift goggles. And that wasn’t all, worlds gained a new perspective and looking down from a high vantage point was actually frightening to the point where I now consider staying just a little further away from tall ledges.
I still didn"t have a very good hand on the controls by the end of the demo - turning my head in real life to change my in-game view proved to be something that I often forgot about, instead fiddling with the joysticks with no luck. Overall though it was a great experience and a perfect stage for Microsoft to demo the versatility of Minecraft along with their dedication to VR. I would even dare say that this is the way Minecraft should have always been played - VR and Minecraft were made for each other - and both were made for me. Oculus Rift support will be coming officially to the Windows 10 Edition of Minecraft via an update later this Spring.