No Man's Sky

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there's a frog in my snake oil
WARNING: "Godzilla confirmed" spoilers below
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Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here



Not that I have to ask (), but yeah, keep us apprised of your impressions. I'm still leaning against buying this right away, even with good reviews, just because I've got so much else to play, but I suppose there is a level of effusiveness where that might break down.



there's a frog in my snake oil
Ok I may be hitting peak hyper-ventilation, but here are some non-spoilery patch note excerpts from an unreleased game

- Planets – we’ve added dead moons, low atmosphere and extreme hazardous planets. Extreme hazards include blizzards and dust storms

- Atmosphere – space, night time and day skies are now 4x more varied due to new atmospheric system, which refracts light more accurately to allow for more intense sunsets

- Space Combat – advanced techniques have been introduced, like brake drifting and critical hits. Bounty missions and larger battles now occur. Pirate frequency has been increased, as well as difficulty depending on your cargo

- Networking – Ability to scan star systems other players have discovered on the Galactic Map, increasing the chance of collision. Star systems discovered by other players appear during Galactic Map flight

"Next up we’re adding the ability to build bases and own giant space freighters. Temporal AA and my new cloud rendering tech should be coming soon too. It will really change the game again, and enhance it visually"
Now I'm thinking I should wait more for those next updates



there's a frog in my snake oil
Not that I have to ask (), but yeah, keep us apprised of your impressions. I'm still leaning against buying this right away, even with good reviews, just because I've got so much else to play, but I suppose there is a level of effusiveness where that might break down.
The stars have aligned, I've got the flat to myself this weekend, and nothing beyond Abzu on my mind for this week. A deranged Friday purchase will def be happening

I'll stick spoiler-free-ish stuff here on how it grabs me. Probably effusively



The Adventure Starts Here!
And luckily no self-control required this time. Didn't realise the UK launch of the 12th is behind other regions, so should have a fair few reviews to mull . The way reviewers throw themselves at games with a min-max vengeance should reveal repetitions and weaknesses hopefully, although I'm guessing this game is best played at a laconic pace.
Not sure if you noticed this, but they pushed back all countries' release dates to the 12th, so no reviews from others beforehand for you.

This does look lovely and fascinating (kinda like a less silly/cartoony version of the Spore idea years ago)... but there's no way I'm dishing out sixty bucks for it. I've got plenty to keep me busy... including Obduction coming out on the 24th.

I'll keep it in my Steam wishlist and will await a big sale further down the line.



there's a frog in my snake oil
Not sure if you noticed this, but they pushed back all countries' release dates to the 12th, so no reviews from others beforehand for you.
That's for PC ay, so I'm risking that it might not be a solid build. PS4 is out from Tuesday, and the 'day 1' patch went live today, so gameplay reviews should abound tho

Originally Posted by Aus
This does look lovely and fascinating (kinda like a less silly/cartoony version of the Spore idea years ago)... but there's no way I'm dishing out sixty bucks for it. I've got plenty to keep me busy... including Obduction coming out on the 24th.

I'll keep it in my Steam wishlist and will await a big sale further down the line.
Yeah, the shadow of Spore does hang over it, but I think tech and dev dreams may be more closely aligned this time.

All I know is, many early players who are loving it describe themselves as 'Minecraft explorers'

Reckon the price will be much more indy by the time they patch the base building they've just teased. (Currently you can only destroy them voxels. Will be interesting to see if they're planning creative construction)

So yeah hang fire, then find yourself a harmless planet (or indeed solar system) when the time is right



there's a frog in my snake oil
Damn these leaks.

It's slightly painful to know I'll never stumble on my own one of these...



Still, a 4 metre tall panther-turtle. What's not to like?

(Answer = this)



there's a frog in my snake oil
I'm posting this new concept art here, and you can't stop me:



Will also be sipping from this official hype juice later. This also cannot be stopped



*EDIT*

Bonus image:



I'm unsurprised that this landfish bug exists.

I like that you can dig down and get it back into water though

*EDIT*

Aarrrg!



(It's the roar that makes it )


*ABSOLUTELY LAST EDIT*

The bearded God of NMS has spoken...

Here is what No Man’s Sky definitely is:
  • Exploring a universe of pretty procedurally generated worlds, with beautiful creatures
  • Trading with NPCs
  • Combat against robots/mechs and cool space battles
  • Survival/crafting in a universe sized sandbox
  • An awesome procedural soundtrack from my genuine favourite band (check the NMS album out here)
  • For one small moment, you might feel like you’ve stepped into a sci-fi book cover

...

It’s a weird game, it’s a niche game and it’s a very very chill game.
works for me


*PUBLIC INFORMATION END-NOTE*

A lot of PS4 players are reporting a lot of crashes, even post patch.

Meanwhile the devs seem to need sleep. A lot of sleep.

Not ideal...



The Adventure Starts Here!
That's for PC ay, so I'm risking that it might not be a solid build. PS4 is out from Tuesday, and the 'day 1' patch went live today, so gameplay reviews should abound tho



Yeah, the shadow of Spore does hang over it, but I think tech and dev dreams may be more closely aligned this time.

All I know is, many early players who are loving it describe themselves as 'Minecraft explorers'

Reckon the price will be much more indy by the time they patch the base building they've just teased. (Currently you can only destroy them voxels. Will be interesting to see if they're planning creative construction)

So yeah hang fire, then find yourself a harmless planet (or indeed solar system) when the time is right
You had me at "Minecraft explorers." LOL

I'll purchase this at some point, surely... just not at that initial price point. But it's still probably a good thing that I am really busy the rest of this month and couldn't in good conscience find time to play it anyway.



there's a frog in my snake oil
You had me at "Minecraft explorers." LOL
Thought that might appeal

They've introduced completely unpopulated planets now, but I reckon with a bit of trial and error you could find ones with only friendly flora for unfettered wandering. (Or worst case, you can get some predators to act as your guard dog if you feed them )

---

Here be a mainly non-spoilery stream from some tipsy devs

They got persistence in for destruction, which is nice, so any rock defacing or mass deforestation will be permanent now. (Always had that pang of guilt in Minecraft if you strip-mined something beautiful).

Like the fiery descent at 26m20s too. It's not LOD-pop free, but it's pretty atmospheric. (pun-pologies)



The People's Republic of Clogher
I've bought it, on PS4 because I know that the PC release will get a huge discount much quicker. Steam Link doesn't play nice with my TV's AV system either, and I want something to play on my new TV.

I hope I'll like it but everything I've seen so far shows an incredibly short gameplay loop. It worked for a few hundred hours in Elite but this is a completely different beast.
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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan



there's a frog in my snake oil
No FOV slider for you young man

Definitely a TV game though yeah. Luckily my cable collective has worked out fine on the audio front.

On those gaming loops, there've been some complaints about storage limits early on, and that the ole loot-scoop is very far from anything new. Lots of parallel "I got lost exploring for hours anyway and enjoyed it" too though in the first-looks. I know you don't Mako-craft though, so poss issues there :/

It seems like the longer hooks may involve the scattered mysteries. Sounds like there's a very 80s 'chose your own adventure' style to the alien chat and mini puzzles that some are finding retro-good. Seems like a thrifty solution to story-telling. Lots of show-don't-tell etc too.

Will find out soon enough I guess

GiantBomb's quick look was fun...




The People's Republic of Clogher
Yeah, I started watching that but ducked out after a few minutes - enough to push me over the edge into buying the thing - and will return once I've played some of the game myself. FOV doesn't really bother me in this instance as I'll be sitting 15-20 feet from the screen.

Looks like it's unlocking at midnight.



there's a frog in my snake oil
I resent waiting 2 years, 5 months, and 3 bonus days for this game!

The thing I like about skipping through these first looks is you can't spoil the starting location . Something about the overall package suggests this might be some sublime escapist grind once you're geared up a bit tho. Seems to hit the right rhythms for me. The contextual music will have to go eventually tho, nice as It is at tying all the phases together.

But now I must stop ruining it for myself, as I pre-ordered last night . I'm allowed to look at animals tho. They're fair game...



The People's Republic of Clogher
What does PC pre-ordering get you?

I netted a better starting ship, some more cash and a sick (probably not sick, as the only theme I've seen which has stayed on my console is the Firewatch one) PS4 theme.



there's a frog in my snake oil
Just a starter ship it seems, which has one more storage space and a jump drive in place already apparently.

I would have preferred a bigger grind motor on my multi-tool I think



The People's Republic of Clogher
Watched a bit more of the GB video - You make a good point about the starting randomness negating any spoilery outcomes from watching a quick look.

There seems to be enough space sim in there for me to be happy but, man, the texture and asset pop-in (at least on the console version) is rough and immersion-breaking.

The UI is also, basically, Destiny's.



there's a frog in my snake oil
Yep some of it's pretty front-and-centre, especially in descent. (Lord knows I'm liking the compact 'swiftness' of all the elements though, as a sweetened alternative to ED's stateliness )

It seems it was worse, and with much worse draw distance, before the 'day 1' patch (which I suspect they've been working on for a while). Imagine they'll keep balancing, but will always struggle. Will see if PC improves on it, but I'm braced for something comparable. Shame as they've just added the ability to scan while in flight too, which looks useful.

*EDIT*
The plus side seems to be that on foot it looks pretty solid, and you'll spend more time there and in space than in transition maybe. (Or possibly by choice :/). Saw lots of 'lovely sci-fi vista' moments happen in the GB playthrough, and that's one of the little reward cycles I was hoping for.



The People's Republic of Clogher
I'm hoping the graphical stuff isn't a result of engine/proc generation limitations and is just the LOD settings slider at minimum for the comparatively weedy PS4.

I will say this though - The PS4's approximation of a beefy graphical PC powerhouse is a lot better than the previous generation managed.



there's a frog in my snake oil
Yep finger's crossed. Part of my reason for going i5 / GTX 970 was to get the sweetest version of ED & NMS possible...