Minecraft: Story Mode Ep 4 Exploring Far Lands Today
Venturing into the glitched-out landscape
I'm not much of a Minecrafter myself, but as a fan of the work of algorithms I was fascinated by the idea of the brick 'em up's old Far Lands - distant, distant places where the world generation and physics started to go wonky and create alien landscapes (because numbers). So I'm pretty interested to see the concept pop up in Telltale's episodic adventure Minecraft: Story Mode [official site] with Episode 4: A Block and a Hard Place, which is due out today. Have a peek in this trailer:
Interesting that, innit? I do like them taking that famous game bug and making it part of the story. As for that story, Telltale explain:
"With the fearsome Wither Storm more dangerous than ever, Jesse, Reuben, and the crew discover there is one thing that can destroy the command block at the heart of the monster - but they'll need to brave the perils of the Farlands to find it. As uneasy allies and ailing friends threaten to tear the group apart, can they defeat the Wither Storm in their final battle? And what sacrifices must be made to succeed?"
Of course, an actual journey to the Far Lands would likely take way, way longer. Since March 2011, YouTube series Far Lands or Bust has been journeying towards them. Having put out 541 episodes, raised $335,000 for the charity Child's Play, and walked over 2,000 virtual kilometres, creator Kurt is still less than a quarter of the way there. The Far Lands are quite far.
Episode 4 should arrive on Windows and Mac in a few hours. Ep 5 is due in "early 2016," say Telltale. Given how quickly they've been releasing episodes - a whopping four since October - I'd be surprised if that's not in January.