Some tips for newcomers to Minecraft:
1. Make a map - this will help as you can note down your co-ords so that you can go exploring without fear of losing your hard work.
2. Take a bed when exploring - if you place it (even outside) then sleep as soon as night time hits (watch for the sun hitting the horizon, and just keep clicking your bed until it lets you sleep), bad guys don't get a chance to spawn meaning you can safely skip night time and carry on exploring. If you can't do this, just dig into a hill and cover yourself in then sleep.
3. Walls - placing Cobblestone into a Furnace and cooking it produces Stone. Combine Stone to create Stone Bricks at a Crafting Table, which look even nicer! Play around combining all 3 types of Stone and throw in some Wood and you can have very nice looking house designs.
4. Diamonds - these generally spawn from bedrock to Y 16. Given that lava pools are normally generated with their top layer at Y 10 most people find digging down to Y 11 then strip mining on that level and above is safest and the most effective place to find diamonds. (If you mine below Y 10 you may mine under a lava pool causing lava to come pouring down over your head, be prepared!)
5. Strip Mining - this is considered the most effective mining technique so that you don't waste time/resources mining unneccesary blocks. Let's say there is a 7 block wide wall, you would only mine blocks 1, 4 and 7. This is because if you mine through block 1, you can see what is on block 2 to your right, and by mining block 4 you can see block 3 to your left and 5 to your right etc etc Repeat this pattern infinitely and upwards if you want!
Image in Spoiler showing example of a strip mine
Given that there is actually an 'end' to Minecraft (once it ends, you are back in your world and can continue playing however you like), you can pretty much make the game what you want. Play it like an adventure building up to defeating the final boss or create a world to have fun in with redstone creations (doors that open at the touch of a button, rollercoasters, piston farms to automatically farm for you, the list is endless)
I loved Minecraft on the 360 and will be buying it on PS4 once I get it on Tuesday