No Man's Sky

And lo, a new trailer appears. Damn is it pretty. If the other trailers show off some deeper gameplay I might be properly excited.

I'm definitely interested, but, and I might have said this here before, I'm going to wait until some reviews and opinions come in before I buy. If it has the staying power, great, if not, I'll probably just pass.

I'm still getting it, but I agree with the principle there. This could be beautiful, but repetition is the real worry.

Will see!

I wonder what the modding scene for this game is going to be like.

Are the devs putting in mod support? I'm sure there will be mods even if they don't, but still.

Apparently Sean Murray has mentioned it, if only to ensure people don't go off on their own and break the client side of the game. I doubt it could impact the server side stuff but it could make the procedural stuff go "wibble".

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2014/12/26/an-assortment-of-lesser-known-no-man-s-sky-facts.aspx

I guess the question is how much is he willing to allow the negative influence of hackers to affect the game. Heck it's the primary reason why I ultimately chose to get it for the PS 4 instead of waiting for the PC version.

Instead of waiting for PC? Wait, is the PC version coming after the PS 4 version?

Nope, release date is the same, they're just prioritising PS 4 trailers - Steam release is the same apparently.

DOUBLE POST:

http://www.pcgamer.com/company-claims-no-mans-sky-uses-its-patented-equation-without-permission/

Looks like a company, all of a sudden, is now dangling a patent breach at NMS. Curious what the outcome will be, because I thought you couldn't patent mathematics...

That's an interesting legal question. Can one patent mathematical formulas? Or more precisely, fragments and inspiration of a mathematical formula?

I don't think it'll be a huge issue though. They don't even know how exactly Hello Games got their hands on the formula or how exactly it's being applied, so that means they couldn't have taken the formula directly from the complainant.

On one hand patent laws in both Europe and the USA explicitly deny patenting mathematics. One the other hand, patents on mathematics have been issued for around 30 years now and there have been successful lawsuits to enforce such inherently invalid patents.

So, trading. Some nice glimpses of how things might work, the crafting menu and some of the non hostile npcs.

edited 25th Jul '16 1:41:25 AM by JerekLaz

And plenty of vomitously oversaturated colors.

No Man's Sky will not require Playstation Plus to be played, just merely an internet connection.

The reasoning being that the likelihood of running into other players - especially friends - is so low that the Sony Execs and Hello Games staff figured that the experience comes closer to being singleplayer.

I have little sympathy for console players whining about online requirements for games when I've been dealing with that on PC for what seems like an eternity. That said, it's a good decision by Sony, and I'll admit that the idea of the Playstation Plus network, where you have to pay for features that PC gamers take for granted, is a bit odd.

edited 25th Jul '16 7:25:25 AM by Fighteer

Still really on the fence. This stuff is helping but I dunno.

I'm probably just gonna wait it out until the reviews come in. Maybe get it on sale.

My fence-sitting is twofold. On the one hand, I don't want to cough up a AAA price for a sandbox game that ends up being Minecraft In Space. On the other hand, I'm afraid of having my life sucked away by yet another obsession if I end up liking the game too much. So I'm definitely going to wait for the initial reviews to come in.

edited 25th Jul '16 8:51:19 AM by Fighteer

Someone who got the game early says the game can be finished in about 30 hours.

By which he means he filled out the entire crafting table, explored almost every planet he saw, made it to the center of the galaxy, bought every upgrade, and did just about everything he could.

He's been documenting this on reddit and other places and we know he does have a copy.

He was playing without the day one patch and has said there were a lot of bugs and seemingly obvious oversights to the leveling and progression system.

That being said though it does really make me worried about the longevity to this game.

There's leaked footage floating around as well, covering the early game.

While I still really like what I see, it is fairly basic, and I do think the asking price is too high. There are simply much more robust games available for that price, like Doom for example. Sure, it is entirely possible to get more hours out of NMS than Doom, but it's what you do during that time that matters more, and I don't think NMS quite measures up, at least at that price.

Maybe it's a gamble that will pay off. Casual space flight has never really been a thing that I know of, and the closest competition is Elite: Dangerous, which is still a niche title. But people certainly need to go in with appropriate expectations.

Minecraft has a "win" state as well, which can happen in much less than 30 hours if you get sufficiently lucky, but the main point of the game is the sandbox elements. It is interesting that NMS has upgrade trees that can be maxed out; this seems to contradict one of the essential elements of sandbox/exploration games: the idea that there's always more "up" to go, even if that's just building ever more elaborate structures.

I should also mention that Minecraft was pretty bare bones at release, too — a lot of the appeal lies in the constant changes and additions made by each patch. Part of the appeal of pay-up-front sandbox games is that one expects ongoing support in the form of new features at little or no charge.

edited 1st Aug '16 12:10:10 PM by Fighteer

Yeah, I'd imagine NMS can last a while if the studio allows it to get a lot of mods.

A lot of space sims really lean on the SIM part - so many controls, heat management, complex trade systems, complex dogfighting.

Something that is pick up and play, coupled with quite an expansive world could fit into that niche of "relaxing" games as well.

Frankly, 30 hours? Most triple a games have 20 hr campaign which could just be a movie and we're still asked to stump up £39.99 for that.

Even on download.

So, I find the "it shouldn't cost this much" a bit of a strange argument to make. If it was a roguelike, top down game with only five enemies, then yes, I'd balk at it. But justifying price on team size seems a strange line of reasoning to me.

After all, Sim City (the recent one) was a full scaled triple A game with a huge team, but it certainly didn't justify the asking price. Same goes for Duke Nukem, and Colonial Marines.

Effort should be rewarded, as should ambition.

I suppose I should clarify that my "it shouldn't cost this much" argument is more of a "I wouldn't buy for that price" argument (therefore, I don't think it should cost that much). This is subjective after all.

This isn't about team size (and you're absolutely right about Sim City, etc.), it's about content. And it's just that niche of comfy, world survival/exploration and crafting games haven't really gone for that high a price, and understandably so, in my opinion. Compare early access titles like The Long Dark and Subnautica which go for $20 (and get much more attention when they're on sale), Minecraft for $27, and even Elite: Dangerous is $30 (excluding DLC).

Again, this could work out fine and a lot of people could be totally okay with the price. And the continued support and future content would certainly help justify it. Personally, I'm not willing to spend that much on launch, for any game for that matter, but that's just me. But if this game was ~$20, I would pick it up on launch. If I'm in the minority, there's not much of a problem, but I am worried that the game will get a lot of flak simply because people wanted more bang for their buck.

Try Freelancer. It's pretty old, but it still holds up if you ask me.

edited 2nd Aug '16 4:06:23 AM by Kayeka