My Problems With It
I have played 3 versions of Minecraft, Java, Bedrock, and Legacy Console Edition. Of all 3, Bedrock is by far the worst version and I find it so bad that I still play the old console version and only play Bedrock when a new update releases and I need to get the trophies. When I heard that the PS4 was going to be updated to Bedrock, I thought it could be a good thing because of the infinite worlds and cross-platform multiplayer but when it finally came, I soon came of the opinion that this version of Minecraft was worse than the console version.
One of my biggest problems with Bedrock is the UI, which is the exact same UI as the mobile version of Bedrock. I understand that it's still the same version of the game but it would have been much better if there was a UI that was designed for consoles/PC and you could switch between the mobile and larger screen UIs. As for gameplay, the Bedrock version has a few annoyances. First, you lose hunger so quickly compared to the console version and it gets annoying having to eat every few seconds. The second major annoyance is the simulation distance, it's just so low, unless you are within a few dozen blocks of plants or other blocks that update randomly, they won't grow/update. On the old version, as far as I've noticed, as long as something is within rendering distance, it will grow/update. As for settings, the deadzones are nearly non-existent on controllers and can't be increased resulting in drifting that doesn't occur in other games that have larger deadzones or a deadzone size option. On PS4, every few months the game will just refuse to load into the main menu and you either have to keep restarting the application or wait a long time for it to actually load into the main menu that usually stutters as it tries to shove the Minecraft store in your face or tell you about the bug fix update that I don't care about. It would be nice if I could just toggle a setting to initially load into the old console version of the game but no, I must sit through the loading screens into Bedrock and possibly deal with update screens and menu that often resets before I can reach the Editions button and finally load the version of the game that I can actually tolerate playing. I also just don't like the way Bedrock feels, even when it's playing like any version of Minecraft would, there's just something that doesn't feel right when playing.
I know bedrock is the most accessible version of Minecraft and supports cross-play making it seem like a step-up from the old console version but to me, it's just so much worse.
Post-Publication Notes
- Bedrock Edition censors text on signs and item names even on single player worlds.
- Performance of Bedrock is worse than Legacy Console Edition as while playing on a copy of Moxistan in Bedrock, flying with an elytra will result in flying past rendered chunks unlike the console version which chunks still consistently render in front of you, just not outward. turning down/off graphical settings and adjusting render distance does not fix this.
- Apparently, on digital copies of the game and the new physical copies on PS4, the Editions button has been removed and you can only access the Legacy Console Edition if you have the old physical copy or digital copy and the Editions button may still disappear and you'll have to do actions to get the button back. Microsoft is trying to force people to play Bedrock, which as this article suggests, is the worst version of the game. This is also problematic in terms of game preservation.
- While in the inventory, the cursor constantly resets and certain UIs while using a controller won't let the cursor move freely with snapping and instead treat analog stick inputs like holding down a D-pad button. The cursor resetting is also in Legacy Console Edition but happens very rarely.
- Loading screens are much longer on Bedrock Edition and it may even take about 5 seconds to load the settings page. Normal world loading and quitting seems much longer than Legacy Console Edition. While going to a different dimension, you load into the game seconds before the loading screen goes away and this can result in taking damage or dying and you can't do anything to prevent it.
- While playing on a copy of Moxistan, the game would often just refuse to let me open any menus or interact with anything. This may be an auto-save problem but I couldn't tell because these problems persisted well after the auto-save icon disappeared. You also can't turn off auto-save on Bedrock. Being able to turn off auto-save is essential due to large world sizes causing possible performance issues with it on. Even on Legacy Console Edition, I have to turn off auto-save to prevent lags caused by the auto-save.
- Pressing the Editions button before the advertisements/store icon loads in will cause the game to freeze completely.
Written 2021-6-22 Published 2021-8-1 Updated 2023-5-1