This looks interesting: No Man’s Sky

[Onkel Neal]

No Man’s Sky travel diary, day one: all alone on an alien planet

http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/9/12405648/no-mans-sky-travel-journal-day-one-ps4-pc

No Man’s Sky is an almost impossibly huge game, an entire virtual universe filled with 18 quintillion planets, each one different from the next thanks to the powers of procedural generation. Instead of a typical review, for the next week I’m going to be writing daily dispatches from No Man’s Sky, giving a firsthand account at what the experience is like, and what you can expect if you choose to dive in.

This game showed up all over my news feed this am.... must be getting a lot of attention.

[Eichhörnchen]

Puts me in mind of X3: Reunion

http://x.wikia.com/wiki/X3:_Reunion

[AVGWarhawk]

Reminds me of a console game(I believe Saga) were you are to mine planets. Starflight or something like that. The graphics for this new game look different.

[Dowly]

John Walker's first impressions.

I am having a tremendously good time playing No Man’s Sky, but I’m really getting annoyed by No Man’s Sky. Such is the dichotomy that’s central to this most peculiarly hyped of indie projects, that it is at once magnificent and mundane, breathtaking and benign. It is very much what everyone feared: a massive concept with no ideas to go in it. And yet it seems, from my first couple of days with the PS4 build, to be enough. I had to tear myself away to write this, what with a few quintillion stars I’ve still yet to explore.https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/08/11/no-mans-sky-impressions/

[Highbury]

I have been watching this one for a long time. I have had it on Steam pre-order for some time now and it is supposed to become available in a little under 24hrs. I am looking forward to it very much.

Also a heads up for anyone who might have a pre-order with a new ship. Claiming it before you do the tutorials can result in a bug.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/no-mans-sky-players-may-want-to-wait-before-claimi/1100-6442530/

[Highbury]

No Man's Sky: The Horrible Truth :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K6t77a9Rw0

[Onkel Neal]

Cool, let us know how you like it?

I'm wondering, does my XPS15 have the spec for this game?


System Requirements
Minimum:
OS: Windows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit versions)
Processor: Intel Core i3
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: nVidia GTX 480, AMD Radeon 7870
Storage: 10 GB available space

[Platapus]

I have watched a few You Tube walk thoughs and it looks like a game that would get boring after a while.

I realize that some of these videos were pre day-one patch (Don't get me started on day on e patches!!). And I really like the concept.

Maybe these early You Tubers just suck at showing the more interesting parts of the game. Who knows.

If anyone here has it, I would be very interested in reading their reviews.

But from what I have seen, $60.00 is a bit steep for my wallet. I might pay 30 just to try it out. But 60 is above my pain decision threshold for an unknown game from an indie producer.

[Highbury]

Well I have spent about 3hrs with it so far....

It is not bad, although they do seem to have gone for size over content. If you think that it would get boring after awhile, it may not be for you. What you see in the preview vids is basically what there is. On the other hand if spending time in a fictional universe almost exclusively for the purpose of exploration is your thing you will probably like it. $60 is probably a bit too much for it, but not so much that I regret the purchase.

As for performance, there has been alot of negative raging over this today. I am not really sure why. My PC is old and was never cutting edge but the game runs fine for me. A few little stutters, but I have played much worse.

Sorry I am not really good at actual reviews other than "I like it, runs fine". If anyone who does not have the game has any direct questions I will try to answer them.

[Onkel Neal]

How much do you know about day one patches and the release process?

The game looks interesting, but like you said Highbury, will there be ambushes? Useful discoveries? Ways to interact with NCP type elements? Or is it a lot of exploring and collecting resources?

Like most, I am impressed with the scope of the open world-ness. If they have enough variety to the game activities, I want to try it.

[Highbury]

The only thing I know about day one patches is that it apparently received one, but from my end on Steam it was seamless.

As for ambushes, I have been jumped by NPC ships on two occasions. The ensuing dogfight mechanic was fairly standard/arcadeish, (the whole fight model is definitely NOT a sim.) And I had a crab like creature come up an nip me on the arse while exploring a planet. That is the extent of my "combat" so far.

Each star system has a space station where you can use a Galactic Exchange Network of sorts, as well as interacting with NPC traders that land there.

To be able to converse with them properly you need to learn their language, which is done through exploration. You learn one word at a time from relics/monuments you find on the planets.

For the most part it is alot of gathering, exploring and crafting. Although I have not really played any of the survival games that are so popular right now, I do get the feeling that this shares alot of similar mechanics well hidden beneath a galactic exploration premise.

I do think that if you are prone to becoming bored with games then this one may become repetitive for you. That said, how many times have people here lined up the same torpedo shot on a merchant ship without getting bored of it :haha:

[NeonSamurai]

Cool, let us know how you like it?

I'm wondering, does my XPS15 have the spec for this game?

Offhand I would say probably not, especially given how rough this game runs for many. To be sure though I would need to know what specs (GPU, CPU, Memory capacity for computer and GPU) your XPS has, as they vary wildly and have been around for years.

[Skybird]

I recently took the chance to grab a new PS4 for very low price, since the only sports game I like to play on PC, is not done on PC since years: NHL16. I am also slowly abandoning Windows as a platform, checking alternatives.

Coming from there (PS4), I took note of NMS. And I think sombody nailed it when saying: the expectations for this were pushed to such heights that it cannot avoid to necessarily disappoint after some while. Probabaly quite repetitive, and the looks - they simply are not my cup of tea, really not.

I would instead have a look at Subnautica, which seems to do the same principle things like NMS (though in a maritime environment), but maybe a bit notched up. LINK (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsZkt6E7nmo)
Coming for PC, PS4, XBox. Early Access, but price-reduced and playable, I did so a lot already. Can be quite nerve-killing due to the inherent survival system and limited oxygene pressure when diving, whcih I mean as a good thing: you have time pressure there. BTW, the diving often looks really stunning in different underwater habitats and dynamic time-of-day cycle. Oh, and there is a thread describing a bit what it is: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=225262&highlight=subnautica There were several updates since then again, they really keep on working.


P.S. An alternative may also be X Rebirth, which now has been tremendously patched, further developed and blessed with one or two DLCs, after its porked release almost three years ago. I certainly got my money's value out of it - and then some more. LINK (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_qc7irEq8w)

[Dowly]

I think the big question is: How long will the game be interesting to play?

This really reminds me of Spore. Lots of hype, but from what I've seen and read about NMS, it seems to be somewhat 'OK'. :hmmm:

[Onkel Neal]

Offhand I would say probably not, especially given how rough this game runs for many. To be sure though I would need to know what specs (GPU, CPU, Memory capacity for computer and GPU) your XPS has, as they vary wildly and have been around for years.

Memory 16GB (2x8GB) 2133Mhz DDR4 Memory
Video Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960M with 2GB GDDR5
Hard Drive 512GB PCIe Solid State Drive
Processor 6th Generation Intel Core i7-6700HQ Quad Core (6M Cache, up to 3.5 GHz)

[Highbury]

I think the big question is: How long will the game be interesting to play?

This really reminds me of Spore. Lots of hype, but from what I've seen and read about NMS, it seems to be somewhat 'OK'. :hmmm:

I really do think that for the most gamers it would become boring very fast. It is certainly a niche game, some will love it and most will probably not. My best advice is to read all you can and maybe wait for a steam sale unless you really want to be the first to discover a virtual rock, plant, animal or planet. :D

[Skybird]

Elite clones:

For PC: http://www.oolite.org/

For Android: http://alite.mobi/

For free.

[Dowly]

I will now talk about No Man's Sky hype for about 40 minutes (by TotalBiscuit):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCG9YLeIB98

Can't wait for AngryJoe's review. :D

[NeonSamurai]

Memory 16GB (2x8GB) 2133Mhz DDR4 Memory
Video Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960M with 2GB GDDR5
Hard Drive 512GB PCIe Solid State Drive
Processor 6th Generation Intel Core i7-6700HQ Quad Core (6M Cache, up to 3.5 GHz)

Everything passes but the video card. The GTX 960M is not even close to the GTX 480, with an average benchmark score of about 1/3 that of the 480.

So it might run it, but not very well or at very low graphics/resolution settings.


I will now talk about No Man's Sky hype for about 40 minutes (by TotalBiscuit):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCG9YLeIB98

Can't wait for AngryJoe's review. :D

Yugrh! That man is in love with the sound of his own voice.


Anyhow I have to say in a way I kind of like this game, despite its numerous flaws. There is tones of annoyances, like having to refuel every 4 takeoffs, the lack of ground vehicles, the general sameness of everything, The entire upgrade system taking up needed space, the fact you can't transfer upgrades between ships/tools but have to waste time finding the resources to rebuild the damn things, the lousy combat, horrid mouse flight controls, lack of display settings on PC, etc. Yet it still is kind of fun tooling around talking to the aliens, learning their languages, and exploring. Just don't play the game for long periods at a time or its flaws will begin to piss you off.

[Nippelspanner]

Had the opportunity to play it today. I find it incredibly bad, mostly due to the insolent state the game is in (PC). But even if I imagine it would run fine, the game just offers nothing of value to me, gameplay wise.
Everything is completely arbitrary, plants, colors, animals, resources/how you get them. The controls are a joke (again, PC) and not thought through at all, same goes for the retarded interface and 'crafting system'.
While playing, one question echoed through my head over and over... "why?"

After docking at a 'space station' (the worst and cheapest design I ever encountered in any more modern space game) and trading with some random NPC ship, I decided to stop laughing and hit ALT+F4.

I am somehow confused as to what this game tried to be, but at this point I also don't really care. However, I am certain about one thing: This piece of software is definitely the very most over-hyped game of all times, where fanboys created myths and legends about what this game would be, since there was nothing else but imagination.

Amazing, somehow.

[Betonov]

Angry Joes angry review.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTTPlqK8AnY


Even if you hate him (and I can't blame you, he yells too much), he points out in this review how the developer either lied or decided on last minute cutbacks as it seems the game itself is only less than half of what was promised feature wise, and backs it up with developer interview clips.

Most often phrases that sum up this game are ''wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle'' and ''this years colonial marines''

[Highbury]

Angry Joes angry review.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTTPlqK8AnY

Joe sums it up quite well.

[Darojax]

He does.

[Nippelspanner]

The most accurate video about No Man's Sky is and forever will be this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYNriatnYkE

Additionally to Joe's Review, this says a lot as well. It focuses on the lying scumbag openly deceiving players before release with complete fantasy-tales that are just not true at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8P2CZg3sJQ

But, he is no exception, he is the norm.
Big studios do it for years now, yet players refuse to boycott them.
My personal most hated studio is Ubisoft, which destroyed so many franchises, that I lost count on.
Here is a phenomenally eye-opening video that compares Ubisofts promises with the actual product delivered (multiple games over the years, don't miss this!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNter0oEYxc

[NeonSamurai]

The question becomes how much of it is outright lies and hype, how much is what they hoped to add, and how much of it is game design shifts during the making of the game (a very common thing I might add).

One thing that a lot of players were not aware of until recently with the advent of early access, is just how much a game can change its form during development, even becoming an entirely different game. It's not deception it is just part of development of games, and somewhat explains some of the changing footage like in the ubi video. The optimizing process can be another explanation.

On the other-hand there is also a lot of utter bull that streams from the games industry. Promises they know are highly unlikely to happen, crazy levels of hype, prerendered video being presented as ingame footage (see ubi videos), and etcetera. Not to mention all the money grubbing crap such as preorder culture, overpriced dlc, and now "in game monetization" like what's found in free(fee) to pay game yet now in a 60$ retail game.

[V13dweller]

I heard due to the massive volume of hate and flooding of negative reviews going on, Valve is now offering refunds on this title regardless of how long you have played. (Normally 2 hours, or 14 days, whatever comes first)
It was really good for Valve to come on board with this, as the game doesn't meet the quality and lacks the content that they advertised, and sold the game on, they sold the game on a facade, and Valve is backing their customers and returning customer money, and taking it back from the Developers.

I do think Hello Games really pulled a fast one on their fanbase, when they outright lied on television to closed questions.
I have never really heard of direct lying on this scale before, but they have set a new benchmark on lying.

[Nippelspanner]

It's true, and it's not only steam, some more distributors like gog.com do it as well, which is a very smart move business wise.
It shows devs that just squishing their crap out wrapped in lies might backfire hard and it builds trust between customers and distributors.

[Dowly]

Bad news for Steam users:
http://i.imgur.com/Rs1pwH1.jpg

[V13dweller]

That is tragic, they must have been losing a lot of money on it, I wonder if Hello Games had something to do with this.

[Dowly]

http://i.imgur.com/3AH3E94.jpg


Quite an achievement to lose nearly 97% of your players in under a month, and this is just Steam players. :haha: