No Man's Sky (console game) - Procedural space game

[Neil]

Have these guys beaten Elite to it? - http://indiestatik.com/2013/12/07/mans-sky/

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[Rancid Carcass]

I stumbled on this last night funnily enough. It looks like it should be ace - though someone needs to mod it with a Star Wars re-skin at some point! :cool:

[Neil]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-12-09-a-future-that-has-a-history-introducing-no-mans-sky

Hope this comes to the PC, and then the modding community can get involved :)

[roadroy]

It is looking good. Is it space RTS game like Star Quest 2?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObwkL8OqqUQ

[Neil]

E3 trailer
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[Neil]

It is NOT a PS4 exclusive. It will come to the PC - http://www.gamespot.com/articles/no-mans-sky-confirmed-for-pc-is-a-ps4-timed-exclus/1100-6421442/

[Neil]

So reviews are already appearing from individual(s) running illegal early copies.

Turns out one review is from someone who bought it off ebay for $1300!

Bet Sony would love to find out where that leak was!

[shootemindehead]

The guy who leaked it also says it can be finished in 30 hours.

Meh...

[EvilNed]

While this game looks awesome, it also doesn't look like there's anything to do. Why would anyone want to spend 1300 dollars for it? I mean, I can tell just by the trailers I'll be blown away for the first couple of hours and then eventually start to get a feeling of... "Well, now what?"

[Neil]

So anyone got/getting this?

[shootemindehead]

Gonna hold off until I see more about it. Might pick it when the price drops.

[EvilNed]

I'm definetly picking it up once it gets released for PC.
Don't know when that is tho.

Looking forward to Skyrim Enhanced Edition this fall too.

[EvilNed]

I got the game. It got a PC release on Friday. I bought it.

It's a nice game. But to be honest, here's my honest thoughts on this:

This is Spore 2. Not that it's similar to Spore in it's scope or themes (except Spore's final space exploration part) but this game was hyped so much by everyone - and most of all the fans and that smug ass game designer who we've all seen getting interviewed. With all that hype, there's simply no way this game could be anything other than a disappointment. And in some ways, it really is. But not really for me. I sort of got what I expected - a nice space simulator where you travel from planet to planet and look at crazy stuff that some random seed generator throws at me. That's pretty much what it is. There's a small variety of planet types, but many of them are quite similar to each other. One dead rock is gonna be just like any other. Sometimes you stumble upon something unique but most jungle planets are a mix of purple and green, whereas most dead rocks are a mix between grey and brown. That's pretty much it. I've never encountered a cliffy lava planet, an ice covered snowstorm of a planet or a desert planet where the dunes stretch out endlessly. It's mostly rocky or jungle. The alien life is wholly uninteresting. I got chased by underground crabs on my first planet before I had a gun, but that was it. I've never stumbled upon t-rex like creatures that have given me a run for my money. The critters mostly just skitter around doing nothing like the dumb Spore knock-offs that they are.

The game is about collecting resources. From these resources you can craft stuff to constantly improve your ship, weapon or suit. To craft something you need a recipe of it. The problem is that an improvement costs an inventory slot, and these are VERY limited. Furthermore, most improvements are Meh, at best. Why should I improve my life support system to hold more air, when the resources that I recharge my life support with is ridiculously abundant on 9 out of 10 planets? In such a scenario, I'd much rather keep that extra resources slot for something else. Then again, improvements can be dismantled at will, so maybe you want to install something like that for a one-time visit to a lava planet or something... Not that I've seen any lava planets.

You could theoretically become a pirate and start shooting down everything you see, i suppose. I don't see any benefit to this tho, at least not yet. Trading is incredibly lucrative and more or less risk free. Dogfighting on the other hand is a nigh incomprehensible mess. Maybe you get better at it once you get better ships, I don't know.

So what's nice about it?

Well, exploring is fun and fairly easy. You can jump from one planet to the next in less than a minute with your spaceship and it's Pulse Drive. Each planet is MASSIVE and there's quite a few things to find on each. The game world features 3 intelligent alien lifeforms, each of whom have their own language. You can learn these languages as you find tomes, stones and artifacts in the wild. You can increase or decrease your standing with each of these races too, which can lead to positive or negative encounters further on. You encounter these aliens on space stations (every star system seems to have one), on research bases located on the planet surface or flying around in space.

I personally have always had a soft spot for exploration games and so, for all it's shortcomings, I am enjoying myself. But if you do not enjoy exploration, do NOT get this game because that's more or less all there is.

Oh and I forgot;
There's no multiplayer of any kind. So don't get it if you were somehow under the impression that you could play with friends. You can't.

[EvilNed]

Here's a link to all the stuff that was marketed being in the game but actually aren't. The post also includes links to where the Creators talk about said points in the hype leading up to release. Amongst them are:

- Multiplayer
- Factions
- Faction vs. Faction space battles
- Advanced solar systems built on simulated physics

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I'm done with this game. There's nothing to do in it.

[Neil]

Oh dear :(

[shootemindehead]

A common trend amongst a lot of entertainment media these days, its seems.

Another emperor with no clothes.

[EvilNed]

Forgot the link!

It's actually a good article that can serve as a review as well:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/4y1h9i/wheres_the_no_mans_sky_we_were_sold_on_a_big_list/

It breaks down all the things that were marketed that are not in the game. More or less, the entire gameplay was fabricated in the marketing. What was delivered is just not really close to the game that HelloGames talked about at all, except visually.

[Neil]

LOL!

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[Neil]

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[shootemindehead]

Such a shame that this game turned out to be a con. :(

[kidgloves]

I've bought this on the Xbone X and it is a superb game so far.
Supposedly nothing like it's release state

[Neil]

I've bought this on the Xbone X and it is a superb game so far.
Supposedly nothing like it's release state
Well, it's just had a huge update hasn't it...

[kidgloves]

It's now 4 player co-op. Its a bit of a grind to start because use you have to do a lot of mining and refining to maintain and upgrade your ship but I've just had one of those punch the air gaming moments which I haven't had since Mass Effect 1.
Great game IF you have the time.

[Tricky]

Anyone still play this? I was very late to the party after picking it up last year on Steam but it's a pretty decent game when I'm in the mood to play it, I never saw all the early bugs and what people were saying were broken promises so it didn't sour the experience for me. You definitely get a sense of wonder at times when you first hurtle through the atmosphere and land on an undiscovered planet, exiting your ship and taking in your surroundings before exploring. It's just a shame there isn't more going on with each planet as they are often quite samey with variations of the same creatures and plants. I've got a HTC Vive VR set up as well so playing it through that adds even more to it, it's pretty cool just coming to a stop out in space and sitting there looking around your cockpit and at the planets or starships around you and asteroids floating past.

[EvilNed]

I can imagine that with a VR set it's a pretty neat break. But the repetetiveness was so apparent in the first release that I don't think I'll ever be able to come back to it and enjoy it.