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No Country for Old Men's Sky
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sek929
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Aug 1, 2016, 05:12 PM
 
With a hair over 7 days left until the release of this much anticipated game I figured I'd start the officialâ„¢ thread.

I'll be playing on PS4, looks like matty will be on PC.

I have avoided much of the hype these past years but in the last few weeks I've peeked in on the subreddit and browsed around various gameplay videos. Since the game has now shipped to vendors a few intrepid streamers/redditors have been uploading and streaming the game for a few days now. This has caused a hot searing wave of molten fanboy emotions to explode all over the subreddit, calling for the lead dev (Sean) to apologize for lying to them. Seems a fellow has already reached galactic center in just over 30 hours, maxed his ship and suit, and befriended all factions. Ignoring this already herculean feat of beating a new game of this magnitude in under one full day these people have to be slightly autistic or have Aspergers right? No normal person steals (or gets illegally) a pre-released procedurally generated universe sim and sits down and masters it in 2 hours right? This, of course, has caused many folks to conclude we've been fleeced and the 500+ Quintillion star systems are a worthless padding and the game will lose it's appeal incredibly quickly etc etc...

The whole community has gone nuclear again, and I'm just sitting here equal parts bewildered and excited to play NMS.
     
ajprice
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Aug 3, 2016, 01:51 AM
 
I want it, but still haven't decided whether to get it for PC or PS4, and if it's PC, whether to get it from Steam, Humble Bundle or GOG. Is there any difference between them for updates or DRM stuff on other games?

Apart from seeing the headlines on this leak version I've been staying away from the trailers and news on it, I want it to be fresh when I play it, not 'oh this is the bit from that trailer' etc.

It'll be much easier if you just comply.
     
mattyb
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Aug 5, 2016, 07:51 AM
 
Its a pity that we were told about getting to the centre. My understanding is that this player just focused on that though (just to find out the big secret). I shall treat it as Skyrim in space and not try the principal storyline (getting to the centre) but instead make it my own unique experience - I have a feeling Hello Games were trying for this sort of thing anyway.

Probably won't get it straight away though, I'm in a phase of playing Overwatch one night and learning some work-related stuff the next.
     
ajprice
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Aug 6, 2016, 03:00 PM
 
Gone and done it, ordered the PC Steam version from Humble Bundle, so a bit goes to charridy.

It'll be much easier if you just comply.
     
Mike Wuerthele
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Aug 7, 2016, 10:05 PM
 
The exploit to get to the center of the galaxy will be nerfed in the big launch day patch.
     
sek929  (op)
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Aug 8, 2016, 11:05 AM
 
Yeah the day 1 patch is pretty extensive, sounds like something they've been working on well before the game went gold.

The subreddit has done yet another 180, which means now the streamer that posted the leak is getting all the hate.

I might be going to a Red Sox game tomorrow night, so one more day wait on jumping into NMS for me.
     
sek929  (op)
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Aug 9, 2016, 12:05 PM
 
Game plan has changed, no Sox game for me, disc has already been delivered and I'm just here at work like...

     
sek929  (op)
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Aug 9, 2016, 06:56 PM
 
The system of Fatty Prime has been discovered. All the planets rain toxic waste and I'm a terrible pilot, more to come...
     
mattyb
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Aug 10, 2016, 05:56 AM
 
I'm not intersted in what you've actually done, but am interested in your impressions so far.

Especially keen to hear about inventory management.
     
sek929  (op)
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Aug 10, 2016, 10:42 AM
 
My impression is that I'm very impressed. The game is pretty much everything I expected and a decent helping of things I didn't expect. The lore and local factions are a nice touch.

Inventory management is tough since you don't have much space at first, but I wouldn't say it's hard to use or 'sucks' as have some players. At any point you can transfer your personal inventory into your ship, which is pretty awesome. It's a little hard to know what you should be focusing on (besides the stuff that fuels your ship and suit/multitool) at first but that's kind of the spirit of the game, you are marooned in a strange Galaxy and it's up to you and trial/error to figure it out. At some point when you're landing on your 1000th planet I assume your ability to separate wheat from chaff will have greatly improved.

I had one crash early on. Pop-in for graphics is slightly more noticeable than I would like, but nothing awful. Sound design is splendid and the flora/fauna have astounded me more than once. I don't really know how to orient myself in the star map and see where I've already been, but I guess going backwards isn't really the point.

I'm about 8 hours in, which would have been more but I had to eat dinner and use the bathroom a couple of times yesterday. Had to tear myself away at 11:30. Just got rained out of work, looks like another marathon in my future. I'm in my 4th star system, currently I'm at least landing on/naming every planet moon in each system and looking around a bit for artifacts and the lot.

I'm a shit pilot still, but I did manage to kill two pirate ships trying to steal my sweet booty.
     
Jawbone54
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Aug 10, 2016, 10:44 AM
 
Originally Posted by sek929 View Post
My impression is that I'm very impressed. The game is pretty much everything I expected and a decent helping of things I didn't expect.
Exactly what I wanted to hear.
     
Jawbone54
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Aug 10, 2016, 02:49 PM
 
sek, have you noticed any input lag on the PS4 version? I was watching ACG's 24-hour livestream and he kept saying that it was perceptible enough to mildly irritate him.
     
sek929  (op)
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Aug 10, 2016, 08:16 PM
 
I haven't noticed anything like that yet, controls don't feel as tight as some other games but it's nothing that's bothering me at the moment.
     
The Final Dakar
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Aug 11, 2016, 10:59 AM
 
Not sure how best to put this, but however good the game is, it's becoming increasingly clear it isn't live my up to its feature hype. EU cases have stickers covering icons advertising multiplayer, and the scope isn't amazingly large as people keep stumbling over identical planets, yet do not see each other.
     
sek929  (op)
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Aug 11, 2016, 01:06 PM
 
I mean, the multi was kind of never supposed to be a feature anyways. More of an extremely unlikely bonus if it happened. Personally the idea of running into other players in real time was never a feature they touted all that much, they probably didn't consider that somehow two twitch streamers would be right near each other on day one.

I can't tear myself away from NMS, maybe the folks crying bloody murder had an unreasonable amount of expectations for this game.

I know I'm coming off a bit fanboyish... But I have reached peak "hearing others bitch" about this game and I'm in love with it so I'll just leave it at that.
     
The Final Dakar
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Aug 11, 2016, 01:08 PM
 
The expectations aren't unreasonable when the developers alluded to it multiple times. Hell, it's after release and there still hasn't been a straight answer as to whether it's broken or not included.

Myself I think they tried to include it and couldn't in time and will patch it in.
     
sek929  (op)
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Aug 11, 2016, 01:15 PM
 
i mean the game launched 2 days ago, how long did DICE/EA take to fix the multi in BF4? That was a huge AAA game where multiplayer was the biggest feature of all and it still didn't work right.

I think they focused very little energy on player interaction with the idea it was very unlikely to happen and is something they can work on post-release.

Frequently the game tells me I'm disconnected from the servers, perhaps when those two twitch streamers met up the servers weren't running and they were each in their own instance of the same planet?
     
The Final Dakar
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Aug 11, 2016, 01:42 PM
 
You know what helps? Communication from the Dev.
     
sek929  (op)
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Aug 11, 2016, 10:21 PM
 




     
The Final Dakar
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Aug 11, 2016, 11:26 PM
 
I like this one.
     
sek929  (op)
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Aug 12, 2016, 05:42 PM
 
Jumped for my 15th time. Now that I've upgraded my warp drive I can visit the red star systems, so I've been heading to those exclusively.


I have a new ship, with more precious slots.


Pretty surprised by the amount of ocean worlds I've been coming across. There's still plenty of land to be had but some fairly deep vast expanses of water...of all colors.


I think this is another one Dakar might like.

So I've got a large post brewing about my feelings so far. Did 3 pretty decent binge session and am now in (almost) full command of what I'm supposed to be doing. I will, in fact, do plenty of complaining about a myriad of niggling oddities that have cropped up...the multiplayer thing not being one of those.

However, I don't have the time. I am prepping for a week-long camping trip which sets off tomorrow morning, to look at some real stars (and also drink lots of tasty beers and swim 90% of the time).

So in lieu of some wordy nonsense I can only say that I love playing No Man's Sky. Is it for everyone? Hardly. Will you see a creature or two eerily similar to what you've already seen? Sometimes. Does it keep me in an almost trance-like state of wonder with a huge smile on my face when I'm playing? Almost always.

Have a great week you jerks.

Edit: Just clicked around and the PC release is going kinda rough....slowly backs out of the room....
( Last edited by sek929; Aug 12, 2016 at 05:57 PM. )
     
ajprice
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Aug 13, 2016, 06:48 AM
 
Did the steam install last night and played a few hours. Got the ship fixed and hyperdrive built, now I need warp and antimatter to fuel it. I'm liking it so far, its relaxing to play it and do stuff at your own pace. It runs fine on my PC with high settings, but weirdly, the optimised settings on Geforce Experience want to set everything to low or off.

Looking at the screenshots, this game could do with a proper photo mode.

It'll be much easier if you just comply.
     
P
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Aug 15, 2016, 03:57 AM
 
A stupid question, perhaps, but...

What is the game here? Exploring, finding resources, some flying a spaceship, all good. What is the goal? Do I want to kill someone?
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
Jawbone54
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Aug 16, 2016, 02:45 PM
 
Originally Posted by sek929 View Post
Beautiful.

So in lieu of some wordy nonsense I can only say that I love playing No Man's Sky. Is it for everyone? Hardly. Will you see a creature or two eerily similar to what you've already seen? Sometimes. Does it keep me in an almost trance-like state of wonder with a huge smile on my face when I'm playing? Almost always.
I think it appeals to a certain type of gamer, and Sony oversold the breadth of its appeal. I for one plan on picking it up the first time it gets down to the $40 mark (or if I get tired of playing other games). I can definitely see myself enjoying it.

Edit: Just clicked around and the PC release is going kinda rough....slowly backs out of the room....
They're calling it near-Arkham Knight levels of bad, but I think that's an overreaction. It apparently runs great on AMD graphics cards, but has quite a bit of trouble on certain hardware. I'm guessing all this will be rectified with time.

Originally Posted by ajprice View Post
Did the steam install last night and played a few hours. Got the ship fixed and hyperdrive built, now I need warp and antimatter to fuel it. I'm liking it so far, its relaxing to play it and do stuff at your own pace. It runs fine on my PC with high settings, but weirdly, the optimised settings on Geforce Experience want to set everything to low or off.
Did you have to run it in bordered mode? I heard that was part of the temporary fix for a lot of players. Also: uncapping the framerate from 30 fps.

Looking at the screenshots, this game could do with a proper photo mode.
No doubt about it. I wonder if that will be part of the eventual update. At least we know base-building is coming. That did well for Fallout 4, so maybe...

Originally Posted by P View Post
A stupid question, perhaps, but...

What is the game here? Exploring, finding resources, some flying a spaceship, all good. What is the goal? Do I want to kill someone?
From what I hear/read/watch, everything you listed is kinda/sorta the goal.

You get attacked by sentinel robots if you attack too many animals. I hear you also get attacked if you mine too much (?!), which doesn't make sense to me.
     
Cap'n Tightpants
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Aug 17, 2016, 04:35 AM
 
It's a complete sh*tshow on NV hardware and not much better on AMD, don't even try to use Xfire or SLI, as those make the stuttering even worse. It feels like an Alpha release, something that was cobbled together in just a couple months, after the devs realized they needed to actually deliver something or lose all good will. To place this into perspective, it makes Elite Dangerous feel complete and is about on par with Star Citizen's latest patch. It's so bad I requested a refund (only the 2nd time I've ever done that).
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P
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Aug 17, 2016, 07:07 AM
 
OK, wait and see then. I have other games to play anyway, and Deus Ex is coming soon.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
Jawbone54
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Aug 17, 2016, 12:39 PM
 
From Sean Murray's Twitter:

Awesome day at Hello Games, we're going to make some people very happy with a PC and PS4 patch that's in test right now
From the PC Gamer article:

The Experimental branch post on Steam was updated earlier today with a list of changes including support for AMD Phenom CPUs, improved and adjustable mouse smoothing, support for Radeon 6000-series GPUs (which don't fully support OpenGL 4.5), better alt-tabbing, shader caching, proper FPS capping, overall performance improvements, particularly on CPUs with eight threads. And while not all the reactions to Murray's promise on Twitter have been pleasant or sincere, we've given the new build some preliminary play and found that it has improved frame rate stuttering, and fixed the alt-tab bug.
This at least appears a little encouraging. I have $30 of Steam credit still sitting there, and I've been itching to pull the trigger on NMS, but I can't justify it yet.

Regardless, I'm still really interested in your updates, sek. Let us know how your experience progresses once you're back and playing.
     
sek929  (op)
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Aug 17, 2016, 01:10 PM
 
Good resource that is helping lots of PC players fix the stuttering issues here
     
sek929  (op)
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Aug 22, 2016, 05:20 PM
 
I have returned! Actually I returned several days ago from my camping trip, the last couple of days have been spent binging on NMS.

So wow, where to start. I haven't been part of such a polarizing game release in recent memory. There is fairly decent vocal minority that are still calling Sean a liar, and that NMS is awful and boring and a shitty game. I respectfully disagree with their conclusions, however, many of their gripes have merit. I can only rate the game based on my own experiences, colored by my own expectations. For all my reviews here on MacNN I hold different criteria in higher regard than others might. A game that may fall well short of technical perfection can enthrall me with wonderful atmosphere. A game with poorly-defined goals can keep me busy for hundreds of hours based purely on my own interest in the subject matter. STALKER is a perfect example of a buggy game that doesn't run very well or have a coherent story, but I absolutely love and can't recommend enough.

I am now around 50 hours in. My warp drive is fully upgraded and I've been visiting the most rare blue star systems. A day or two ago I was in the midst of a session and starting to feel a little rudderless. I had spent the evening upgrading a new multi-tool with all my previous upgrades (and then some) I had upgraded the warp drive hours earlier and was exiting my first blue star system and headed for another. The planet gen hadn't wowed me in hours, lots of mildly-interesting worlds with some animals and mostly plants, standard amounts of resources and normal terrain. "Maybe this is all the game has to show me," I thought. Then I arrived on a new world in my new system. Lush, vibrant, teeming with life including some rather large dinosaur-esque creatures. The variety of resources was unheard of, crystals of every imaginable mineral, spires of gold, caves festooned with rare expensive artifacts, oceans teeming with life. Holy crap, I was hooked again. I spent the rest of the night, and most of my next play session simply exploring my new world, documenting all the interesting forms of life, marveling at the amazing visuals as a haunting soundtrack whispered in the background. After spending an inordinate amount of time of this world (compared to others) I moved on to the rest in the system, and to new blue star systems, all the while marveling at the new sights I was beginning to see.

If you take the Path of Atlas, and follow the "route to galactic center" you will always be in yellow (common) star systems. If you warp from system to system impatiently wanting the game to throw something interesting in your face you would feel cheated. NMS wants you to slow down, wants you to explore, wants you to appreciate the wonder of it all. Some people's mindsets are simply incongruent to NMS, and that's fine, but to me it's been a breath of fresh air. It's a relaxing game, calming game, a game I can play fully reclined on my couch and still enjoy. No twitch thumbs to get that frag, no constant high-octane action of Rocket League. Just a serene dance through the stars. I love it.

Now, I did promise you gripes, but I just wanted to start off a positive note because the game has genuinely been a very pleasant experience for me. On to the no-so-positive notes. I will mark an asterisk next to things that have been either resolved or made better by the recent 2 patches that have been released.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

•First and foremost the game crashes too often, and while I would love to add an asterisk here it simply hasn't changed much through the updates. Luckily the save system works just fine, and the game actually loads fairly quickly. Still, the crashes are too frequent and seemingly random as hell.

•On even the barren worlds there is background noises of bird like creatures and large creatures howling away every few minutes. The funny thing is these noises do not appear on worlds with creatures, as those guys make their own unique sounds. Now that I've experienced it for quite some time I have to say it's my least favorite thing about this game. I would love a barren rock-world with no life to be silent, only the sounds of the wind present.

•Barren worlds are never barren. I understand they have to have some resources on them to prevent the player from getting stranded. But even a world with flora listed as nil you'll see plenty of plants. I guess a source of carbon that wasn't plant life was never implemented.

•Too many planets have life (in the early going), I understand why people get bored at first and say there is no variety in the planets. The game gives them too many life-filled planets too early, which completely robs away the feeling of amazement when you see a small pack of weird ass creatures. I have no problem with the started world being a medium-level experience in all facets, but simply too many planets have life at first.

•Pirate attacks are far too frequent and are often overwhelming* The first time I was attacked it was 3 enemy ships, I mean jesus christ game, I've barely learned to fly and now I'm dog-fighting with 3 ships that are more maneuverable than me. I have 8 deaths, all by ship2ship combat and all due to overwhelming odds. Post-patch seems to have this toned this down a bit.

•Good grief give me a placeable waypoint or something, anything where I can mark a location on a planet and return to it. Make it hard to craft and only have one to use at a time if being lost is a gameplay decision, finding a crashed ship and repairing it is nearly impossible if you have to travel off-world for more resources. Structures can be 'scanned' and a little dot will appear over it, but they disappear seemingly at random and are not easy to navigate to.

•The bug in which taking off from where you land suddenly rockets you all the way into space is….not cool and I wish the patch already fixed it.

•There are too many alien buildings on the planets and by 20 hours in they are all mostly useless. You'll already have all the multi-tool and suit upgrades and the ship upgrades have their own mechanism to discover. LIke the too many living planets early on having this many alien structures generate on every planet simply ruins any surprise of finding one.

•The space stations are basically: Trading post, interaction with one alien for multi-tool/suit upgrades, and waiting around the hanger to see if any cool ships land that you can buy. They are massive structures and 1% of them is used.

•The star in each system is basically a fixed image that stays the same distance away from you no matter how much flying you do towards it.

•The planets are all rocky worlds. Would it have been that hard to throw in a gas giant or two that are just for show and can't be landed on? It would be neat to see that a new star system has 6 planets but a few of them are huge Jupiter-esque bodies.

•The planets are too close together. Make one or two of them really far away, so that getting to them to explore becomes a question of patience.

•The star map is amazing, no doubt about that, one of my favorite parts of the games. Finding where you came from? Impossible. I know this game is all about the journey moving forward, but a cool traced path of where I've come from would be extremely welcome.

•The complete lack of free-look when flying is abysmal. You can shift your view a hilariously small amount which makes dogfighting in-atmosphere an exercise in mashochism.

•The game forces you to fly 100m above the ground at the very closest. You cannot crash into or even fly that close to the planet. This coupled with the extremely limited free-look makes scanning the surface for places to land / resources really clumsy. You have to constantly point the nose of the craft down and hit the brake, otherwise you'll just glide along too high to see anything of use.

•There are too many damn asteroids. I understand they are a source of engine fuel for jumping between the planets, but jesus, they are literally festooned everywhere (yes I know I used that word already, I like it).

•WHY ARE THERE NO REMAPPABLE CONTROLS DEAR GOD LET ME CHOOSE THE BUTTON CONFIGURATION THAT WORKS BEST FOR ME (this gripe can be applied to many, many games, seriously just let me fully remap the controller why must you be such dicks)

So this went on pretty long. I have a long list of things that I like, and I will roll that into my final verdict on the game, what I say may SHOCK you!
     
sek929  (op)
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Aug 23, 2016, 05:56 PM
 
…and now for the thrilling conclusion of: what does sek think about NMS?

First the list of things I do like.

•I like the inventory management aspect, there I said it. I think it's clever how suit/tool/ship upgrades steal a permanent slot in their respective inventories. I like that grouping upgrades of a similar system together gives them a boost. I like how upgrade boosts stack on each other.

•You realize with the inventory being very cramped early on to just let stuff go (sell everything) No need to stock up on any one resource, just visit a few planets and you may find what you need pretty easily. The more common crafting elements can all be gathered from asteroids, and remember I mentioned there are a ludicrous amounts of asteroids so there you go. The really rare ore gen is very lucrative, and some of the highest tiers of upgrades require them, but the more valuable resources you are carrying the more frequently you'll be attacked in space.

•I like the alien races. I like the mechanic of learning their language and how it affects interactions with them. Of course, as I've said, after a while there is dwindling motivation to play that mini-game. Big fan of the Korvax (robotic race) and the more each factions' storyline emerges the more muddled preconceived notions become.

•Flying from planet to planet is just so damn cool, even after 70+ planets discovered. Bonus points to leaving the surface of a planet's moon and landing on the main planet. Just brilliant.

•Mining is actually sort of fun, especially the hunt to fill a recipe list. The related boosts do make the process a lot more bearable.

•The ambient soundtrack is serene, if just a tad too loud sometimes. Of course when you're playing at 3am any sudden change in sound is large.

•Animal noises, ship sounds, aliens speaking, all related misc sound design (minus the perplexing animal sounds on planets without them) is great. The lady voice that is usually warning you about this or that can get a bit grating if you're in and out of sheltered spaces frequently when on a hostile planet.

•The various hostile environments function the same for the player, but the visual and audio cues are really nice and varied. Blizzard World and Heat World may be the same from a gameplay perspective, but they are distantly unique experiences. Really like the Extreme planets, during Extreme Storm conditions you don't last long outside.

•Picking a new star to warp to is still one of my favorite parts of the game, sometimes I'll get distracted and just float through space aimlessly. Now that I have all 3 warp upgrades (with their boosts stacking exponentially on each other due to clever placement) I can warp not only to all the colored stars, but quite some distance now too. In the beginning you can jump about one star away, now I can wildly change course over very large distances through clusters of stars.

•The ship models are cool and varied. Unfortunately the chances of one having larger space than my ship, most of my ships upgrades already installed, and affordable (just around 6-7 mil) is pretty rare. I have grown very attached to my ship at this point, just enough space for the boosts I want and enough left over to carry anything I'll need.

•The creature animations are actually pretty damn good considering the amount of variation it has to account for. Are they janky from time to time? You betcha.

•Color palette is great. The combinations of vibrant grass, plants, animals, sky, nearby planets, etc… is really awe-inspiring sometimes.

•Past the game booting up there are no loading screens and almost never any noticeable bogging down. Every once and a while low speed as-close-to-the-ground-as-possible flying can generate some tremendous framerate drop. The vast majority of the time you can lift off of a planet, fly to another one, enter the atmosphere and land without so much as a hitch in the framerate.

•I love the game's pacing, which is to say it has none of its' own. You bring your own pace, your own goals, this is one of the ways NMS is similar to Minecraft.

There's plenty other minor details I could go on and on about but there's what makes me keep playing the game summarized fairly well. Now for the meat and potatoes.

The biggest question, IMO, about No Man's Sky is thusly: Is it worth 60 dollars?

No, unfortunately not. There have been many people who try and parallel NMS and Minecraft to legitimize NMS in the face of so many "where's all the content" accusations. I don't really feel NMS is similar at all to Minecraft, tone-wise or mechanically. In truth there's a lot more to do in Minecraft, and I bought that game for under 15 bucks before it even went Beta. No Man's Sky the most utterly brilliant, beautiful, technically mind-blowing proof-of-concept I've ever seen. To work on NMS for 3 years and leave so much of it to the players' own ability to find their own interest in the game is a little baffling. This is not something your average player is going to appreciate or even really give a chance. I have a certain fondness for unfinished games and early access shenanigans. DayZ, Rust, The Forest, 7 Days to Die, Star Citizen. Sometimes even a fractured experience can be incredibly rewarding if the core concept is interesting enough. The zombies were absolutely terrible in DayZ, like embarrassingly so, but that game had over a million players online at once during the heyday…that's bonkers. NMS is exactly the type of game I expected and wanted, I didn't ride the hype train, I saw the trailers years ago and went "Welp, I'm definitely buying that game" and I have not been let down. However, this is a 60 dollar release that took the devs nearly three years to complete, I can't help but think some of these ideas would have a little more flesh on their bones and certainly some of these problems would never have even made it to gold, let alone post giant day-one patch and two more. It makes me a bit sad because I find the game so impressive in scope and beauty, but it's just too hollow to warrant a 60 dollar full release. I think this game could have gone the route of crowd-funding / testing what they had and adding to it over the years, eventually releasing the full game to consoles.

The devs have said that more content is coming, that many things will be fixed and new additions will transform the game. I would greatly enjoy this game to continue to build, as I've said I think this game is the most brilliant framework for a mind-blowing game to be built around, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
     
The Final Dakar
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Aug 23, 2016, 06:24 PM
 
It's pretty much an overhyped disappointment. And even if it had all the scientific mechanics they were alluding to I'm not sure the gameplay would have been much different. I'll be curious to see where they go with the paid DLC and what they improve in the updates.
     
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Aug 24, 2016, 03:33 AM
 
Put it on the list for things to check out when I see it on a sale. I think I could enjoy the Zen aspect to the whole thing, but it does seem unfinished still.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
sek929  (op)
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Aug 24, 2016, 09:02 AM
 
Totally worth picking up once the price drops, which could be sooner rather than later. Perhaps waiting to see if the dlc will be free or not would be a wise move as well.
     
Jawbone54
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Aug 24, 2016, 10:33 AM
 
No Man's Sky is the Tom Brady of gaming: full of lies and deception, eventually culminating in a depressed whimper.
Take the bait. Take it. Do it. Do it.
     
The Final Dakar
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Aug 24, 2016, 10:34 AM
 
/shotsfired
     
sek929  (op)
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Aug 24, 2016, 12:32 PM
 
Triggered
     
The Final Dakar
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Aug 31, 2016, 02:10 AM
 
Finally got to watch a playthrough on Sips' channel. The gameplay immediately made me think of Subnautica, which is a fantastic game, but this comes off as more shallow. In a surprise, sips got bored after 7 episodes.

From what I saw, it was bland and very, very repetitive. Also, the game comes off as you being alone in this vast space, yet almost every planet you go to has abandoned advanced tech and robot traders. It's kind of anti-climactic. There's too much farming/grinding.

Are there worlds barren of any tech/buildings? Are there any civilised worlds with bustling sentient species?

I'm kind of at a loss to figure out why this took so long to come out. I can only imagine they had a lot of ideas they tried to implement and failed.
     
sek929  (op)
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Sep 7, 2016, 05:52 PM
 
Originally Posted by The Final Dakar View Post
Are there worlds barren of any tech/buildings? Are there any civilised worlds with bustling sentient species?
No and No. If you had bothered to read my thorough blatherings you would know that one of my biggest gripes is the alien structures festooned around every world. You can't swing a dead procedurally generated animal without hitting one. There are also no "bustling" worlds unless you count the said festooning of small buildings. The larger trading posts on world have one alien and space for up to 8 other ships to land.
     
The Final Dakar
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Sep 7, 2016, 07:40 PM
 
Originally Posted by sek929 View Post
No and No. If you had bothered to read my thorough blatherings you would know that one of my biggest gripes is the alien structures festooned around every world. You can't swing a dead procedurally generated animal without hitting one. There are also no "bustling" worlds unless you count the said festooning of small buildings. The larger trading posts on world have one alien and space for up to 8 other ships to land.
My apologies but your posts are gigantic on an iPhone. I guess I forgot to follow up on my AirBook.
     
sek929  (op)
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Sep 8, 2016, 06:47 PM
 
I think I've officially hit the wall. No idea on hour count, but I've christened ~180 planets and warped nearly 80 times. I finally found a worthy ship to replace the Red Fighter and outfitted it with the finest in offensive and defensive systems and now I can't, for the life of me, find any motivation to do anything else. I'm officially on the "wait and see DLC" camp, but you're out of your goddamn mind if you think I'll be paying for anything.

The only thing left to do is dump some photos. There were significantly more to sort through for this game. I'll split them up into a couple posts.


An odd creature I found a while back and have yet to see anything similar to.


If only there were a "hide HUD" option.




Dat cockpit


After a bit the barren(er) worlds become more intriguing


Moons are best
     
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Sep 8, 2016, 09:44 PM
 
Those pictures tempt me every time. Do you have any more?

Strangely enough, after Dakar mentioned Sips' videos, I went and watched a few and felt compelled all over again, but I can't keep myself from thinking waiting for a Steam sale is my best option. Maybe there will be more added by then.

Regardless, sek's experience has me convinced I'll purchase it sooner or later and sink 50+ hours into it.

Overall, sek: are you still happy you bought it?
     
The Final Dakar
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Sep 8, 2016, 11:11 PM
 
Yeah, I can see the draw from Sips, video. It's in the context of the hype and price its bad.

If NMS was an early access steam game, I think views on the game would be completely different.
     
The Final Dakar
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Sep 8, 2016, 11:12 PM
 
Is it possible to find blue skies? If there's one thing I've noticed is all the worlds have a sameness in these anything-but-blue-but-miostly -piss-yellow skies.
     
Jawbone54
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Sep 12, 2016, 02:16 PM
 
Originally Posted by The Final Dakar View Post
Is it possible to find blue skies? If there's one thing I've noticed is all the worlds have a sameness in these anything-but-blue-but-miostly -piss-yellow skies.


There are apparently loads of mods that do exactly that.

[EDIT]

There are also some that fix annoying problems like having to hold every button for it to register as a click (a la Destiny).
     
Jawbone54
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Sep 12, 2016, 02:19 PM
 
Another that allows for low flight: https://gfycat.com/FatherlyCompassionateKawala
     
The Final Dakar
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Sep 12, 2016, 02:25 PM
 
So Hello Games have basically been radio silent for a month? - NeoGAF
I can't believe it, but people still don't know if you're supposed to be able to meet other players in the game. What a travesty.
     
sek929  (op)
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Sep 13, 2016, 05:36 PM
 
Originally Posted by Jawbone54 View Post
Do you have any more?
I sure do!


Moons are best example 2


Wrecked ship similar to my Red Fighter


After a while you start seeing new asteroids that contain new (for space at least) resources.


New Shroomland




Moons are best example 3

I have about 20 more that I'll split up between a few posts.

-----------------------------------

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar View Post
So Hello Games have basically been radio silent for a month? - NeoGAF
I can't believe it, but people still don't know if you're supposed to be able to meet other players in the game. What a travesty.
While the updates keep rolling out there has been worryingly little dialogue from the Devs. I'm pretty sure someone data-mined the PC version and didn't see anything that would allow for multiplayer a while back.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar View Post
Is it possible to find blue skies? If there's one thing I've noticed is all the worlds have a sameness in these anything-but-blue-but-miostly -piss-yellow skies.
Originally Posted by Jawbone54 View Post


There are apparently loads of mods that do exactly that.
I haven't seen Earth-like blue skies, but pretty much every other conceivable shade. This game is supposed to look like a sci-fi book cover, not Earth.

Originally Posted by Jawbone54 View Post
Another that allows for low flight: https://gfycat.com/FatherlyCompassionateKawala
Low Flight mod would be really awesome for consoles. All the other mods seem intent on changing the entire look and feel of the game, which I find completely unnecessary.

Originally Posted by Jawbone54 View Post
Overall, sek: are you still happy you bought it?
I wish I picked it up for cheaper than 60 bucks, but yeah, I had a good time with it and I plan on returning soon.
     
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Sep 14, 2016, 10:49 AM
 
Originally Posted by sek929 View Post
I sure do!


Moons are best example 2

All are really good, but those two in particular are incredible.

While the updates keep rolling out there has been worryingly little dialogue from the Devs. I'm pretty sure someone data-mined the PC version and didn't see anything that would allow for multiplayer a while back.
Why they didn't just say that several months ago is beyond me. If they would have said, "Look, we tried very hard to figure out how to make multiplayer possible, but we just can't," that would have been fine. I guarantee people would have ridiculed the game for being $60, but it would have been better to pay for it knowing that in advance rather than not knowing, and feeling ripped off.

I haven't seen Earth-like blue skies, but pretty much every other conceivable shade. This game is supposed to look like a sci-fi book cover, not Earth.

Low Flight mod would be really awesome for consoles. All the other mods seem intent on changing the entire look and feel of the game, which I find completely unnecessary.
True. I haven't liked any of the visual mods I've seen. Even ones that add more foliage look a little off.

I wish I picked it up for cheaper than 60 bucks, but yeah, I had a good time with it and I plan on returning soon.
I feel like $40 is a reasonable for what I'll get out of it. I've got about $30 in Steam credit, so I'll wait until it drops. I imagine it's not too far fetched to see it in the Winter Sale.
     
sek929  (op)
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Sep 14, 2016, 05:00 PM
 

I wish the swimming was a larger part of exploration, as it stands it's too cumbersome and there isn't much to do underwater besides look at pretty things. There is one resource that only spawns at the sea floor, but it's pretty much only used for one crafting recipe sooo...


One of the cooler large creatures so far, the ground shook when it walked around.


Same planet as previous two pics, in fact this was that awesome planet I alluded to earlier that had me liek whoa.


Moons are best example 4


Dat cockpit moon view




One of my favorite shots (goddamn icon that ruins everything

I spend a great deal of time lining up screenshots in this game. Really my approach to the whole game was to upgrade my ship, warp to the rare stars, and see what kind of cool stuff I could see/capture. The Red Fighter was the best ship I've seen in the whole game. 22 slots (not much) but damn if it isn't the sexiest. My new 35 slot refrigerator is a lot better at defending itself, but she isn't very photogenic.
     
The Final Dakar
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Sep 14, 2016, 11:32 PM
 
Originally Posted by sek929 View Post
While the updates keep rolling out there has been worryingly little dialogue from the Devs. I'm pretty sure someone data-mined the PC version and didn't see anything that would allow for multiplayer a while back.
I heard they also datamined the set-piece planets from various demos and trailers. Turned out they weren't procedurally generated at all.

Originally Posted by sek929 View Post
I haven't seen Earth-like blue skies, but pretty much every other conceivable shade. This game is supposed to look like a sci-fi book cover, not Earth.
It's not like they can't do both. And they could certainly set it to very low probabilities of occurring. It almost becomes conspicuous in its absence.

As for me, I'd love to find a 'class M' planet.

Originally Posted by sek929 View Post
I wish I picked it up for cheaper than 60 bucks, but yeah, I had a good time with it and I plan on returning soon.
I enjoyed watching sips, playthrough, but I was having a hard time finding it very deep plus it seemed a little tedious/grindy.

I'm kind of curious what development looked like. I'm assuming they scrapped quite few version that just weren't working well.
     
 
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