The change was that you no longer eat to renew health, you have a food bar that when full, or close to full, results in you being able to regenerate health. Doing nothing doesn't cause you to lose food points, but walking, sprinting, mining does and at various levels (sprinting burns more food than walking).
At first the food mechanic was a little annoying but it has added a nice touch to the game. You tend to be a little more careful than before and you have to devote a little more time to food resources. But this is slightly configurable based on the difficulty setting as well.
Neat. Maybe I should try the game again. Although this doesn't really solve my primary problem which is I never really had any good idea as to what I should actually do in the game, besides build a random house on some random hilltop and admire the view.
>I'd usually just strip bare and jump off a mountain to respawn.
You'll be pleasantly surprised to know this is more of a viable option than it used to be. It's quite hard to fill up your food bar once empty, but quite easy to jump off a cliff to reset it.
>I never really had any good idea as to what I should actually do in the game, besides build a random house on some random hilltop and admire the view.
I think everyone has this question. I tried to solve it by setting personal goals for myself:
2. craft a map (which can only be filled in by exploring the surrounding area) and fill it in completely
If you decide to try to "beat" the game, be warned that it's rather boring and anticlimactic. Probably the coolest part is it forces you to explore the "Nether".
You should definitely play again. As always, you can still open-world play with no end, but now there is a rather complex but possible way to beat the game. There is also a limited set of achievements, potions, enchanting, new mobs, and new blocks. There are also NPC villages you can trade with.
What got me to play the game again was doing it on Hardcore mode. In this mode, difficulty is set to hard and when you die your world save gets destroyed and you cannot continue playing.
For me, this works well, as I just play when I really feel like it and no more time that my brain can handle[1], and when there are dangerous situations, you can really feel the stress for survival and preservation of all the "things" built.
[1]: Sometimes with games, after one hour or two, one is just playing the game, but not enjoying it.
At first the food mechanic was a little annoying but it has added a nice touch to the game. You tend to be a little more careful than before and you have to devote a little more time to food resources. But this is slightly configurable based on the difficulty setting as well.