Chris’ life is no longer his own now he has discovered this incredibly addictive game

The autosave screen appears and we take a pause. We agree to both stop playing after the next autosave. After the break I continue to build my cross-continental railway and my partner delves ever deeper into the darkness of her zombie-ridden mineshaft.

Suddenly the autosave screen appears once more. I look at the clock, thinking that 15 minutes cannot have passed. I find out that it has, and that it is well past midnight and I’ve been playing for the better part of a weekend.

This is now my life after buying Minecraft for the Xbox 360. I have wholly bought into a game that I secretly scoffed at when I first saw my brothers playing it years ago. I have bought into the wonderfully simplistic design and the oddly beautiful scenery, which has allowed my imagination to flow onto the screen.

It’s no wonder that it has been such a hit worldwide. In the gaming world bigger is often better but, as the CoD sequels have sometimes proven, it can also mean duller. Don’t get me wrong: Minecraft is clearly marvellous technically, but it doesn’t have to show off.

Never did I think I would get so much delight from finding coal in a game, and I almost leapt for joy when I found a block of diamond. The game makes you work for your reward, which I find this pleasantly satisfying, and there is enough threat from zombies and skeletons to make it challenging and exciting.

The game also harks back to a simpler time of ‘on-couch’ multiplayer. You can play online but also have friends join you in your world, and through cooperation you can build things as simple as bridges, or as majestic as castles.

The game never overcomplicates things, and allows you to play it however you want. If you want a mansion, build a mansion. If you want a nomadic existence, then run free. You can go anywhere and do anything. Unless it’s going back outside into society, because once Minecraft has it’s pixelated claws in you, it will not let go.