No Man's Sky

[leedsrevolution]

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/275850/header.jpg?t=1470685607

So after a 3 year wait, No Man's Sky is released tomorrow. Anyone planning on getting this?

For those who know nothing about it, it's a space exploration/survival game.

[Mike]

Here's Giantbomb's rather long Quick Look

http://youtu.be/TxuAH687KGs

[Raoul Duke]

It looks absolutely phenomenal. I've got it delivering for when I'm back off holiday.

It's a bit more than a 'space exploring game'; it's a procedurally-generated universe with something like 18 quintillion fully-explorable planets, with uniquely-generated plant and animal life, ships and buildings.

The potential scope of it is outstanding.

[Patje]

It'll be arriving today or tomorrow. Either way, I'm ready.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Mine didn't come today :(

[Pepe]

This one always had the 'too good to be true' vibe to it. I'll wait a while with not too high expectations.

[Yevrah]

The premise sounds amazing, but I absolutely hate the shiny shiny graphical style to it.

[Bernanke]

I'm gonna wait a few weeks to see if people get tired of the resource gathering and randomly built creatures after a few days of playing it.

[Ian]

This one always had the 'too good to be true' vibe to it. I'll wait a while with not too high expectations.

Yeah this is where I probably am as well. I'd definitely like to play it at some point though.

[Disco]

I'm too invested in Elite to get into another seemingly infinite space-athon, one galaxy is quite enough for now thank you.

[John]

It looks absolutely phenomenal. I've got it delivering for when I'm back off holiday.

It's a bit more than a 'space exploring game'; it's a procedurally-generated universe with something like 18 quintillion fully-explorable planets, with uniquely-generated plant and animal life, ships and buildings.

The potential scope of it is outstanding.

They reckon only something stupid like one tenth of one percent of the universe will ever be seen by players.

[7om]

I got it on digital download and got about four hours in today.

There's certainly enough to keep you occupied for a good while. The mineral mining and exploring is very interesting just because the planets are so dynamic. You get wildly variable temperatures through the day-night cycle and some of the planets have toxic atmospheres which requires you to keep replenishing your space suit. Flying between planets is incredible. They let you go into hyper drive and dodging the asteroids and trading space ships is quite exhilarating.

The only thing that concerns is the lack of true direction. I've got a feeling it may get tiring space hopping for no real purpose but it's too early to tell at the moment.

It's a stunning achievement from such a small studio, though. The worlds are really beautiful.

[ItalAussie]

This looks exactly like my kind of game. I can't wait until I get a new computer that can run it. :D

[Mazuuurk]

I got it on digital download and got about four hours in today.

There's certainly enough to keep you occupied for a good while. The mineral mining and exploring is very interesting just because the planets are so dynamic. You get wildly variable temperatures through the day-night cycle and some of the planets have toxic atmospheres which requires you to keep replenishing your space suit. Flying between planets is incredible. They let you go into hyper drive and dodging the asteroids and trading space ships is quite exhilarating.

The only thing that concerns is the lack of true direction. I've got a feeling it may get tiring space hopping for no real purpose but it's too early to tell at the moment.

It's a stunning achievement from such a small studio, though. The worlds are really beautiful.

Yeah this is why I wouldn't enjoy a game like that I think. The idea of just randomly roaming about doesn't really appeal to me. Hell, I almost thought it occasionally was too much in Skyrim (but the stunning scenery sort of made that OK ). NMS looks sort of generic. Like yeah, the planets are all unique, but from what I've seen they all sort of look the same as well.


What I would expect would happen though is that sooner or later some sort of guilds and/or fractions will start to form, I suppose like they did in World of Warcraft (right? never played wow but I've heard about guilds) - and these will start to like go to war with each other and some fat Cartman-like kid in his basement will be the "Emperor of the m0ddur_fUckers!".

Which would probably be fun if you would dedicate your whole life to playing.

[John]

What I would expect would happen though is that sooner or later some sort of guilds and/or fractions will start to form, I suppose like they did in World of Warcraft (right? never played wow but I've heard about guilds) - and these will start to like go to war with each other and some fat Cartman-like kid in his basement will be the "Emperor of the m0ddur_fUckers!".

Which would probably be fun if you would dedicate your whole life to playing.

I reckon the game universe is probably a bit too big for there to be much of that.

[Raoul Duke]

This isn't a multiplayer game. Whilst it's theoretically possible to discover a planet that someone else has discovered, the odds are infinitesimal.

The overall objective is to get to the centre of the galaxy - there's something/someone called The Atlas who will provide guidance (missions) to help you make your way there. It's not just a giant sandbox (although you can play it that way if you want).

[Mazuuurk]

Wait ok, so, you will literally almost never meet anyone? I thought that was sort of the point - that it's an MMO but so massive it won't get crowded.


EDIT: Realize that sounds like a bit of a contradiction, but you get what I mean I think.

[phonics]

They reckon only something stupid like one tenth of one percent of the universe will ever be seen by players.

They also said it was 'incredibly unlikely' that any player would ever meet a player and it happened after 2 days, on a stream.

[Raoul Duke]

Wait ok, so, you will literally almost never meet anyone? I thought that was sort of the point - that it's an MMO but so massive it won't get crowded.

No - there are 18 quintillion planets or whatever and maybe 1m players? It's mainly theoretical...although:

EDIT: Realize that sounds like a bit of a contradiction, but you get what I mean I think.


They also said it was 'incredibly unlikely' that any player would ever meet a player and it happened after 2 days, on a stream.

Where did you see this? Sounds bonkers

[Mazuuurk]

I mean, don't you have some sort of way of navigating the universe...?

I'd imagine friends would attempt to link up and explore together, for instance.

[phonics]

Where did you see this? Sounds bonkers

763270259080097792

He's a really good follow on Twitter by the way. Sean Murray might be my favourite man in video games.

[Raoul Duke]

Yeah, he's awesome.

I feel like with this they built something that they don't quite understand :D Wonder how often this will happen?

[Ian]

So is there multiplayer or did they just realise they'd found the same planet or something?

[7om]

Officially it's not a multiplayer because the odds are just too small, so you can play it without PS+.

According to the thread on Reddit, one guy entered a new system and saw that it had already been discovered so he messaged the discoverer and they arranged to meet on a spaceship.

[Dark Soldier]

http://i.imgur.com/Qk8wphR.gif

[Yevrah]

They reckon only something stupid like one tenth of one percent of the universe will ever be seen by players.

But if it's procedurally generated wouldn't that mean that 99,9% doesn't actually/will never exist?

And presumably someone who plays it for 500 hours would see everything the game has to offer and the remainder they haven't seen would just be different combinations of what they have?

[Ian]

Procedurally generated doesn't have to be as-you-play-it.

Wasn't a lot of Oblivion procedurally generated?

[Dark Soldier]

Apparently the planets are procedurally generated as you enter the atmosphere of it. It then, obviously, stays the same after that.

So if nobody visits a certain planet, its surface doesn't exist.

[Raoul Duke]

It's like Minecraft. The type of thing is already specified (by the procedural code) but it doesn't go through the effort of building it until you get there.

[Giggles]

No idea what's happening in that video but every time I log on it is the last posted thread so I had to have a look.

It looks like Quake.

[Raoul Duke]

It's nothing like Quake (save for being in first person).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKs7YTpSufY

[Yevrah]

Procedurally generated doesn't have to be as-you-play-it.

Wasn't a lot of Oblivion procedurally generated?

No idea, tried to play it but it was bobbins.

[Ian]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/08/10/just-one-mans-sky-really/

[Raoul Duke]

Oblivion wasn't, no. Fallout 4 has 'random events' but these are scripted scenarios or 'Raider attack at n5 +/- 2' or something.

There's a decent summary here: http://time.com/no-mans-sky/

[Dark Soldier]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/08/10/just-one-mans-sky-really/

All the better for it, imo. I'd rather be a lone player exploring. Too much MP in everything these days.

Anyway, grabbing it tomorrow after holding off for Twitch streams etc. Really looking forward to it.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Fucking loving it thus far.

It might well be the perfect game for me as I love exploring and collecting shit.

Finding a huge fucking mountain of gold deposit almost brought a tear to my eye.

[Patje]

Loving it. Was wandering around my ship when I was attacked by some spider like creature. Ran around a cave system for a while before finding my way to the surface and the materials I needed to repair the ship.

Gave some food to an animal I truly think I once made in Spore. It had a happy smiley afterwards.

[phonics]

Played my mates copy last night. I think I like it a bit more than him. Some of it is really wanky crafting nonsense but I liked it. I'd prefer a few more 'missions' though.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Was in pulse drive mode and a space pirate scanned my ship for cargo then started attacking me. Wanker got slapped out of space though.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I just got slapped in the face by the game.

Came across a Gek encyclopaedia orb thing: 'You have learned the Gek word for 'Gek''.

:moop:

For anyone interested, the Gek word for 'Gek' is Gek.

[Dark Soldier]

Got this today, basically for free so jackpot. Knackered after work so gonna boot it up tomorrow for a long session.

Glad y'all are loving it.

[Mike]

I still dunno about this.

Like I got my PS4 originally because I was super excited for NMS when it came out. Now it's out though I haven't picked it up yet.
I may get it on PC tomorrow though. There's no resale value then though.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I'm always at inventory max :(

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

http://i.imgur.com/qveAVyJ.jpg

:drool:

[7om]

So I've encountered the massive glitch in the game.

I preordered and downloaded the dlc ship completely unaware. I then found another ship, switched over and flew off. Now I have no hyperdrive blueprint and so can't leave the current star system. Wank.

On the shelf it goes until they fix this shit.

[Raoul Duke]

So I've encountered the massive glitch in the game.

I preordered and downloaded the dlc ship completely unaware. I then found another ship, switched over and flew off. Now I have no hyperdrive blueprint and so can't leave the current star system. Wank.

On the shelf it goes until they fix this shit.

This might help: https://www.reddit.com/r/NoMansSkyTheGame/comments/4xa5u2/i_kept_playing_after_the_post_about_the_preorder/

[7om]

Some of those are saying you get the blueprint when you arrive at the second system but I can't even do that. I'm trapped on the first system I landed on.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Tom being useless, shocker.

This game is like crack for me, I keep telling myself 'I'll just do this then turn it off' before doing about 20 more things.

[7om]

Don't bother me.

I'm thoroughly engrossed in Pokemon Red. A game that doesn't have a game-breaking glitch.

[Shindig]

Pokemon has one of the most notorious game breaking bugs going.

[Mike]

Scyther?
http://www.dltk-kids.com/pokemon/adoptions/123.gif

[7om]

Pokemon has one of the most notorious game breaking bugs going.

Really?

I've yet to come across any glitch which doesn't allow me to advance in the game.

[Dark Soldier]

Pokemon wtf son :ae:

[Mike]

So yeah, ordered on Steam. No Pre Load?!

[Shindig]

Really?

I've yet to come across any glitch which doesn't allow me to advance in the game.

http://cdn.idigitaltimes.com/sites/idigitaltimes.com/files/2016/02/26/missingno-pokemon.jpg

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

The greatest glitch in a game ever.

[7om]

Fired it up this morning before work, went to the nearest outpost and the Gek gave me hyperdrive :harold:

[Boydy]

I was thinking of getting this as it sounds cool but it also seems like it might be the kind of thing that's fun for a cople of hours then quickly gets boring and repetitive.

I read this earlier and it's put me off a bit too: http://www.pcgamer.com/what-critics-think-of-no-mans-sky-so-far/

[Dark Soldier]

I find it harks back to whether you liked that sense of wonder in your youth. Filling in the blanks, creating your own story, finding discovery and such to be exciting. If you're looking for a modern, hand-held story, purpose and reason as to why to play, you'll probably dislike it.

I'm loving it, its relaxing, fun and the tech, albeit with some issues is highly impressive. The inventory management aspect is used as a negative way too much, once you get the hang of the GUI it only takes seconds to do what you need to do in your inventory.

I've only visited two planets, and the difference between both is large enough to leave me smiling each time I visit them. One is full of wildlife and plantlife, very busy, loads of resources. The other is scattered islands on a planet almost filled with water.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Drones are fucking annoying as shit.

I just rocked up to a manufacturing facility and 3 started attacking me for no reason.

Edit: Went back trying to kill them and they donned me :(

[Raoul Duke]

I started out on some horrific shitshow of a place with toxic air trying to kill me. I've now moved onto a place with acid rain storms and then a moon that's scorchingly hot. Would sure love to find somewhere vaguely habitable soon :D

Got some ace screenshots though. Some of the visuals are astonishing. It's a bit heavy on the inventory management and some of the controls are a bit weirdly-placed but overall it's a great game so far.

EDIT: also, this thread has some useful tips: https://www.reddit.com/r/NoMansSkyTheGame/comments/4x88ji/super_helpful_game_mechanics_that_are_never/

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I've not found anywhere habitable either, I've been to about 25 planets over 3 or 4 different systems.

I did like the cold as fuck planet I found though.

Went to another planet in an earlier system I found to try and dick about for a bit. As soon as I got out of my spaceship I got attacked by some dickhead animal and then by a sentinel after I killed said animal.

The fuck lads? It was self defence.

[Dark Soldier]

My first two planets have been completely habitable 'how. You're shit out of luck. All the animals are chill and the sentinels give no fucks.

[Raoul Duke]

Sentinels are asshats. The grenade launcher is a blessing for killing most stuff.

Just remembered - I found what was basically a small lake made of gold earlier. Got killed by space pirates too :moop:

[Shindig]

Great. Now I need to know if it's physically possible to swim through liquid gold.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I went into a lake on a highly toxic planet earlier and was almost instakilled.

5 seconds or so and my life support systems tanked.

[Raoul Duke]

Great. Now I need to know if it's physically possible to swim through liquid gold.

It was solid, not liquid unfortunately. That and the massive gold eggs are the most bonkers things I think I've seen, in terms of resource deposits.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Yeah, the first time I saw an actual gold mountain I was stunned.

[Ian]

I think I preferred the sound of it when I thought, during the early snippets of pictures and videos, you wouldn't be coming across hostile races.

I'll still definitely be playing it at some point, mind.

[Ian]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/08/12/no-mans-sky-the-pc-launch-goes-well/

Missed this yesterday.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

http://i.imgur.com/mXDmMAh.jpg

I want one.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I'm not sure why but sentinels are fucking all over me.

I've only got about 30 seconds max when I get out of my ship before they send one drone for me. I kill it with ease but then they send a small army so I need to chip it.

Really fucking annoying now, I need to find a planet with no drones.

[Raoul Duke]

Every planet has them. I'm on a similar place to you by the looks of it - those glowing orb things are rare/precious and the planet I'm on has them. The sentinels are 'Hostile' or something (says in the planet description), meaning they kick off all the time.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I meant the dinosaur type things, I've had plenty of the orbs.

I'm sure I read that there are sentinel free planets.

And this is happening on every planet I visit, so either I'm incredibly unlucky or they just don't like the cut of my jib.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Okay, I've gone to a planet with 'low security' and they're not hunting me down whenever I'm outside so that's good.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Stats thus far:

http://i.imgur.com/MY2XXCg.jpg

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Bought a new ship:

http://i.imgur.com/TfXIJ7Z.jpg

Not much better than my current one (3 extra slots, a shield upgrade and 2 photon cannon cooling upgrades) and I've lost out on about a 60% fuelled up hyperdrive but I love how it looks.

[Raoul Duke]

After not seeing barely any copper for the whole game thus far, i've discovered a planet that has floating eggs of the stuff :drool:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Damn, I've yet to see any copper :(

I've got some nice blueprints but can only get those resources from a vendor right now.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Because you're shit?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

http://i.imgur.com/qKTGC44.jpg

Pissing hell, time to start saving units.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Paying extra for the brand, mate.

Enjoy your shithouse 25 slot when it brakes down on some shit planet with an army of mental sentinel bots.

Just found a nice bit of copper :drool:

[Raoul Duke]

I've found a space station where I can buy Dynamic Resonators off incoming mooks for 25k and sell them for double that at the station :drool:

I really wish the inventory stuff was simpler and just let you rearrange things. It doesn't make much sense.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I've found a fucking massive hunk of gold.

I've taken around 700 gold from it thus far and only mined about 40% of the shit on the surface. Decided to check how far it goes down, I think if I decided to mine it all I'd get around 4000 gold but it would take me ages.

Edit: Left with 1500. I think my initial estimate of 4000 is well off. I reckon a good 10k is in there.

[Baz]

I feel like I enjoy hearing about this game more than I would playing it.

I might pirate it (if poss?) to have a taster. If it's ace I'll pay, but I'm too unsure to dive straight in.

[phonics]

I'm at a point in my PC's lifespan where I can't tell if the PC Port is a bit shitty and laggy or I need a new card.

[Disco]

It sounds like the PC port is buggy as shit so I would wait for a patch or two before condemning your rig. What' the combat/flight model like in this? I'm tempted but wondering if being a pirate is actually viable.

[Raoul Duke]

No, not really Disco. It's more akin to something like Battlefield/Starfox for the flight controls. It's not really a 'dogfighter'.

The main thing is the endless planet/exploration. There's some cool-sounding shit coming down the line (base building etc.) but it's kinda grind-y at the moment. The loop is pretty fun though: earn resources to fund/power space jaunts, do a couple of trips and find some hitherto-undiscovered stuff and then repeat. There's little in the way of story to it.

It looks amazing and, if you're in the right mood and it's your kinda game, I think very worth it.

[Disco]

Thanks. The exploration does sound good, I'll likely have a bash once some of the kinks have been worked out of the PC version.

[Raoul Duke]

They unlock later, I believe, as you progress closer to the centre

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

So you can't get multi tools from geks and all 7 systems I've warped too have been gek systems. Least that's one mystery in my journey explained.

Now got a 16 slot multi tool and have got 2 million in my back pocket with pretty much fuck all to do with it. Anyone found a bastard atlas pass yet?

No, I've seen guides to getting them though but I've been too busy pissing about on the same planet for a couple of days now. Huge amounts of gold, copper, heridium and plutonium plus low security so I'm loving it.

Oh and I got my multi tool from a gek place.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I fucking love this planet:

http://i.imgur.com/2CLs2Nz.jpg

Bottom is pure gold, the top is part gold part copper :drool:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Came across a set of platinum barrels, even on low security planets when you blow one up the sentinels swarm.

I decided to drop all of the barrels to 1 slither of health before blowing them all, jumping in my ship and fucking off.

http://i.imgur.com/cBryGvl.jpg

I actually ran out of space when I did it too so I'd have probably made off with another 250 or so.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

How are you so poor on the game?

I keep buying exo suit upgrades.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

31.

Edit: 32.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

33 now, last one I bought cost 200k.

Each upgrade costs an additional 10k.

My ship is only 18 (I bought it for looks but I really should just go full on gold farm, I'd get the cash easily) and my gun is a shitty 8.

[elth]

I thought this game looked like horridly boring overhyped shite before release, but I'm getting increasingly intrigued by it now.

[Yevrah]

It's intriguing me a lot too. Not least for the diversity of creatures on the planets, which looks amazing.

[phonics]

It's intriguing me a lot too. Not least for the diversity of creatures on the planets, which looks amazing.

Diversity of creatures is bollocks. It's exactly the same across most planets except this one will have deer legs instead of lizard legs or a beak instead of a mouth. It's like a really shit Spore.

[Mike]

It hasn't been as impressive as I expected.

[7om]

There was great video uploaded to the No Mans Sky page on reddit called 'expectation vs reality'.

The footage shown at E3 showed this quality looking planet with rivers, varied plants and animals. Then this geezer took a video of his planet and it's some mini t-rex glitching around on this baron shit hole.

For all the hype about procedural generation and variety it's all been surprisingly repetitive. The animals all look the same and their movements are fucked. The weight to speed ratio is way off so it just looks stupid. I played it for about 5 minutes last night and just couldn't be bothered.

EDIT: Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvAwB7ogkik

:D Fucking hell

[Pepe]

'Procedural' shit always turns shit. Turns out properly designed stuff is better than throwing random parts around. Who would have thought?

EDIT: That video. :D

[Ian]

Fucking hell. :D

That creature looks like the product of sensible evolution.

[Shindig]

Get that reptile a suit.

[elth]

I think because I thought all the hype was bullshit anyway, I'm not at all bothered that it isn't what the most optimistic people hoped. I don't really care if I never see a planet with rivers or anything. I just like the idea of zinging around space exploring, surviving, and upgrading shit.

[Disco]

Multi-platform release backed by Sony?

Well that's where all your other features went, stripped out until it ran properly on PS4.

[Yevrah]

That video. :D

Haven't genuinely lol'd that much on my own in ages.

[elth]

I suspect it's one of those games they're just going to keep throwing stuff at for years too, they've made so much money off it they can afford to and it's a clear labour of love.

The complaint memes have been quality too so as far as I'm concerned we're all winners.

[Shindig]

Our review (http://www.playstationcountry.com/game-review/no-mans-sky-ps4-review/)

I expected a higher score.

[Dark Soldier]

Once the 'wonder' goes, its an absolute shit show. It is a nothing game in its current state.

[7om]

I feel the same, DS.

I reckon I've put in about 10 hours on the game and the first 6-7 were really great. Then there's a realisation that what you've experienced is basically all there is and there is no point at all to keep playing.

[Dark Soldier]

I think mine came when I mined for ages for almost 3mil, got a ship with about 27 slots, then realised all it was doing was let me mine for a bit longer without selling so as to get an even bigger ship. Absolutely no point to it. All the ships seem to handle the same, the animals are just variations on ideas with a beak/wings/face/arse changed. Yay another grass planet! This one is purple instead of blue like the rest, let me go visit the identikit crash sites, or way stations and then mine one of four valuable elements for hours.

Its all well and good having to create your own story, but when that story is built is of a miner pointing a laser for ten minutes until an object disappears, its not a thrilling base to create said stories from.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I think I've lost the spark too.

I haven't played it for a couple of days now whereas before it was any spare minute I could find. I was so excited when they announced it a few years ago but the hype isn't real. Hopefully they add more variety in patches/dlc.

[John Arne]

Has anybody actually met yet? Or was the whole multi-player/MMO a massive lie?

[Ian]

As I understand it you'll know if somebody has been to the same planet as you (which given how big the universe is supposed to be it sounds like it's happening surprisingly often) but you can't actually see them in game.

Might have the wrong end of the stick though.

[Raoul Duke]

Several people have found each other and tried to meet up. It's not possible.

[Yevrah]

No posts for 6 days? Is this dead?

[Disco]

The concurrent players stat absolutely tanked after the first week, it would appear to be a huge flash in the pan that has intensely annoyed the internet. I am interested to see if they keep developing it, the concept is intriguing even if the flight model looks utter bobbins.

[Yevrah]

I'm struggling to think of a game that was as much of a flash in the pan as this appears to be.

[Shindig]

Bloody space nerds and their expectations. And Sean Murray for his "Yes to everything" approach which seemed to arrive after being vague for years.

[phonics]

Concurrent player stats tank after the first week of all non-multiplayer games. It was pointed out in the Reddit thread I saw that stat in that Doom and a series of other definitely good games suffered similar 75-85% losses.

[Pepe]

Everything I've read points out to this being complete shite.

[Yevrah]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/116922-No-Mans-Sky-Review

[Disco]

Concurrent player stats tank after the first week of all non-multiplayer games. It was pointed out in the Reddit thread I saw that stat in that Doom and a series of other definitely good games suffered similar 75-85% losses.

Not surprising with something like Doom where most people will play through the campaign and move onto something else, this was supposed to have god knows how many 'unique' planets and an entire galaxy to explore with your friends. Some of the raging about the devs being liars is rather overblown but I certainly don't think they've been very honest in the build up to release, the fact that even Sony are refunding people (even digital sales) is an admission that someone fucked up.

It's also nice to see this meme again.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mz5YPkThOU

"Tod Howard ain't got shit on me" is a particular highlight. I suppose now we just wait for RPS to interview Murray and ask him if he's a procedural liar.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/NMS-Peak.png

Completely dead.

[Disco]

Well they did say the odds of meeting another player were very slim, I guess they're right now.

[Raoul Duke]

It's a good game, with potential to be awesome - but they hyped it to death and there's currently not that much meat on the bones. I can see them getting a coupe of DLCs in and it being something more than it is.

I've not really touched it since the first week or so, probably mirroring that graph.

[Disco]

It's an indie walking sim with some light survival elements living in a big old Skinner Box but that doesn't sound like the kind of thing that would sell so well.

[Ian]

In terms of build-up and promotion it basically comes across as basically being a classic Peter Molyneux game without him ever actually having been involved.

[Raoul Duke]

The look, feel and environment of it is stellar (pun intended). It ticks a lot of boxes in terms of freedom and otherworldly awe - but it's not a huge amount of fun (even for a committed icon-collector like myself).

[Shindig]

And it's not a walking simulator. Walking simulators are usually linear, more directed experiences. This is more a basic space exploration game with your sole objective to find the centre of the universe.

[Ian]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/09/28/asa-investigating-no-mans-skys-steam-advertising/

Now, then. Slippery slope, this one.

[Raoul Duke]

It's about ethics in game advertising, obviously.

If they've had any kind of disclaimers around the thing ('illustrative purposes, not representative of final product' etc.) then this won't fly.

I do have some sympathy with the Cheeto-fingered Reddit unwashed who've brought this up though - there was a discrepancy between what was described in interviews and what made it onto the disc. I'd put it down to wide-eyed optimism and under-delivery rather than malice though.

[Disco]

I think it's more to do with them still using promotional material (in places like the game page on Steam) that doesn't accurately represent the game. Changes in development is one thing, it's almost a given that the released game will not be identical to earlier versions but using misleading stuff to sell it once it's been released is quite another.

[Dark Soldier]

http://i.imgur.com/Zr8BQK8.png

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1302183

Bwahahahaha

http://www.polygon.com/2016/10/28/13453440/no-man-sky-creator-game-was-a-mistake


Hello Games studio head Sean Murray tweeted this morning that the studio’s space exploration game No Man’s Sky was “a mistake.” The tweet was later deleted and the studio’s account set to private. No further tweets or explanation has been forthcoming.

Reached for comment Friday morning, a person responding to Murray’s email account and identifying himself as Sean said that he sent the tweet.

“The tweet is from me, but somebody from the team took it down,” he wrote in the email. “We have not been coping well.”

Murray hasn’t responded to follow up emails and his formerly active personal Twitter account hasn’t been used since Aug. 18.

[Shindig]

And people wonder about the validity of games journalism. :uhoh:

I really wish this would kinda blow over. Sean talked some serious bollocks in the marketing but the dust needs to settle.

[Dark Soldier]

It'll blow over once the fuckwits have something else to pounce on.

[Gray Fox]

This reminds me of Robert Bowling back in the MW2/3 days. Because he was the guy put in front of the camera, he was at fault for everything wrong with the CoD series.

[Shindig]

I'd say Sean's a bit more Molyneux-ish. Or rather, he just said 'yes' to every question the press pitched to him at some point. Like he was tired of answering.

[Yevrah]

Let's call a spade a spade, he's a crook.

Now whether or not that's worthy of the ire directed at him I don't know, but I assume those who try to claim otherwise are giving him an easier ride because his is an independent studio and not a behemoth. Ultimately he systematically and repeatedly lied about what was in his game and has made a fucking fortune from it. Which really isn't on.

[7om]

I know it's difficult to feel sorry for a geezer that's raked in millions but I do a bit. Even before the game was released I felt bad for him because, even if the game was amazing, it was never going to live up to the ridiculous hype that it got.

What was he going to do? Go on these shows and tell people the truth and not to buy it? He looked like a puppet on strings towards release and the guy isn't stupid, he knew the game was shit but it was too late. If they indefinitely delayed (which was probably out of his hands anyway) the backlash would have been equally as bad. People were chomping at the bit in May / June.

It's bad what happened, and I myself got burned but I understand why they did it. People are saying he'll never sell another game after this but does he have to? He must have made a killing. I really don't know if he is a crook or his hands were so tied towards the end that it was out of his control.

The lesson I learned is that I just won't pre-order games anymore, basically.

[Gray Fox]

The lesson I learned is that I just won't pre-order games anymore, basically.

We all need to start doing this. In a world where you can find out how good a game is now, basically on the day it comes out, combined with stores never actually selling out of games, means there's no need.

I remember back in the day if you wanted something like GTA 3 when that came out, you'd better have pre-ordered or else you'd be disappointed. But now you have your supermarkets and online stores with plenty of copies. The only reason to pre-order now is to get a bonus with it, but there's very few games that actually have something making it worth doing.

[Disco]

If the whole charade serves only to stop people pre-ordering then it's a win.

Murray himself I'm sure will go on to make other things, NMS had some interesting ideas that captured people's imagination (which was the beginning of the problem) and for such a small studio the execution was pretty good. He's never getting out from under the stigma of it though, this is getting mentioned for the rest of his career. The good news for him is that people like Randy Pitchford (a persistent liar) and Peter Molyneux (hyperbolist in chief) continue to have a job in the games industry.

To answer the question of 'what should he have done' in the face of all the hype and questions? Told the truth for a start, I've seen perhaps a fraction of the press stuff he did but he continually teased a multiplayer element rather than being honest about it.

[Disco]

We all need to start doing this. In a world where you can find out how good a game is now, basically on the day it comes out, combined with stores never actually selling out of games, means there's no need.

I remember back in the day if you wanted something like GTA 3 when that came out, you'd better have pre-ordered or else you'd be disappointed. But now you have your supermarkets and online stores with plenty of copies. The only reason to pre-order now is to get a bonus with it, but there's very few games that actually have something making it worth doing.

Not if Bethesda get their way, which they probably will.

[Gray Fox]

Not if Bethesda get their way, which they probably will.

What is it exactly they are doing? I saw they were refusing to give out review copies until 24 hours before release, but are they doing anything else?

[Disco]

Isn't that enough?

[John]

Copies of the game ship to stores about a week in advance and you'll always get a smaller vendor willing to put it out early though, so that seems like a bit of a pointless exercise. You'd think it would lead to offending shops being denied copies or whatever, but there's a shop in town that's been doing it since the PS2 and as far as I'm aware they've still had every major release.

I got FIFA three days early this year from that shop, which lead to the lol situation of having to download and install a 780mb update for a game that hadn't actually been released yet.

[Shindig]

It does provide this bollocks arms race for day one reviews which, given the size and scale Bethesda operates, will result in some rushed, inaccurate coverage. Unless you're one of the few people that has recorded Skyrim soft-locking on them inside the opening cutscene. Because that five year old glitch never got patched out.

I fucking loved getting PES 2015 a week early because I could sit down, play it and then linger on it a bit, instead of rushing through shit to land on release day or whenever the embargo was lifted. I'm in a situation this week where I've had to buy WRC 6 because the review copy we were sent has now been lost in transit. Meaning I'm trying to play and collect my thoughts ASAP. You only get one first impression and your review shouldn't really be that.

[phonics]

Let's call a spade a spade, he's a crook.

Now whether or not that's worthy of the ire directed at him I don't know, but I assume those who try to claim otherwise are giving him an easier ride because his is an independent studio and not a behemoth. Ultimately he systematically and repeatedly lied about what was in his game and has made a fucking fortune from it. Which really isn't on.

A crook :D

[Disco]

Getting games at/before they release isn't the issue, publishers not willing to let critics have access until it's too late to do a proper review is shitty and most definitely anti-consumer. Yet another in the long list of reasons not to buy games at release, it's getting to the point now that you have to question the intelligence of people who do.

[phonics]

I genuinely don't understand why people pre-order. I haven't been in a shop where I couldn't get the game I wanted because they were sold out since Championship Manager 97/98.

[Shindig]

I used to when Grainger did 200 loyalty points for each one. Now there's bullshit tangible rewards like extra skins or weapons which fill that void. Activision let pre-orders get early access to the game days before any other consumers. It's heavily incentivised now.

[Disco]

I genuinely don't understand why people pre-order. I haven't been in a shop where I couldn't get the game I wanted because they were sold out since Championship Manager 97/98.

And with the advent of digital distribution it makes even less sense, it's not like Steam is going to run out of electrons. Also, name me a game that was better (or even the same) at release than it was a couple of weeks down the line let alone a few months.

[Ian]

Don't pre-order and don't pay full whack when the developer won't send the game out for review pre-release. Even if it turns out to be amazing, just on principle.

[Shindig]

And with the advent of digital distribution it makes even less sense, it's not like Steam is going to run out of electrons. Also, name me a game that was better (or even the same) at release than it was a couple of weeks down the line let alone a few months.

People like to have shit early. Or get bonus tat for pre-ordering. Rubes.

From a publisher's perspective, pre-order number allow them to gauge how many discs to print. The last thing you want is a warehouse of unsold stock.

[Raoul Duke]

New update available now:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI9PvjJJijY

Sounds pretty awesome, will dip back into it and give it a try.

[Boydy]

Apparently this is actually pretty good now and a lot closer to what all was promised. It's on sale on Steam at the minute. Quite tempted to get it.

[Disco]

Have they completely re-worked the inventory system, flight model, and enemy ai?

[Raoul Duke]

No Man's Sky: Beyond update: https://www.nomanssky.com/beyond-update/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM7ArMxUFR0

[Ian]

I gather it's had a bumpy launch but still, patching in more of the game you originally promised is always gonna be rough.

[Raoul Duke]

Some useful Reddit threads:

- https://www.reddit.com/r/NoMansSkyTheGame/comments/csml74/random_tidbits_from_a_guy_who_just_likes/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/NoMansSkyTheGame/comments/csibwr/new_players_hints_post_them_here/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/NoMansSkyTheGame/comments/95elq6/the_economy_of_no_mans_sky/

Oh and one other one which has proven very useful: use the smallest size of Terrain manipulator to extract far more from mineral deposits. It's slower but you get shitloads more out of it.

[Yevrah]

Is this actually quite good now then?

[phonics]

Play Outer Wilds Yev, it's short and you'll love it

[Pleb]

Is this actually quite good now then?
The most recent update has made it playable and it's actually pretty good if your into space exploration.

[Raoul Duke]

Is this actually quite good now then?

I reckon you'd probably like it - it's got enough of the grindy masochism element (resource gathering/base building). Give that third link a read too - some interesting trade opportunities which is probably up your street.

There's not a tonne of game in it - but I'm enjoying the upgrading path stuff and just general exploration.

[Giggles]

What can you play this on?

[Raoul Duke]

PS4, Xbox and PC

[Offshore Toon]

Picked this up for a fiver yesterday. Looking forward to wasting some time.

[Raoul Duke]

It's great now - they have mechs for mooching around planets :drool: