scumble on 24/8/2016 at 08:04

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Looks like a walking roast chicken...

nicked on 24/8/2016 at 09:35

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Yeah, and it makes me sad that there's probably loads of impressionable people who believe that the ability to upload a YouTube video makes one an expert, many of whom (in this instance) might enjoy this game a lot but will skip it because someone else wanted to complain about it to get ad revenue.

nicked on 24/8/2016 at 12:29

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Hahaha, "Why did I spend forty pounds on an incredibly niche, chilled out, shapes and colours simulator?"

Gryzemuis on 24/8/2016 at 21:44

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I played No Man's Sky for 10 days, like a madman. During those 10 days, I prepared myself for a big journey through space. I got a 24-slot multi-tool on the 2nd day I played, I got a 48-slot exosuit the next day. Two days later I had a 41-slot spaceship. That's when I decided to leave my starter planet. :) I think I had a 47-slot ship when I decided to make my first warp-jump to another star-system. There was a snow-planet with terrible snow-storms there. I spend a few hours walking around there, far away from my space-ship. Great fun. I spent another day or so hunting crashed space-ships, trying to find a 48-slot ship that looked better than my Mamogawa S56. Couldn't find one. My Mamogawa is pink. Can't beat that.

So yesterday I decided I was ready for the big journey. I started jumping from star-system to star-system. After your 4th jump or so, you'll get to a point where you have to make a decision. I backed up my savefiles, and decided to go to the core of the galaxy. I made 21 warp-jumps until I figured out how this journey works. My estimate is that you'll have to make ~500 warp-jumps to get there. No thanks. The warp-jumps are kind irritating in itself (shitty UI). Not gonna do that 500 times. Going through black-holes (well, worm-holes to be precise) might be quicker. But also might be slower.

So I copied back my old savefiles. And decided to go into another direction. 1 Hour and 20 minutes later I had finished the game. As I had been afraid of, if you prepare your journey well, the journey itself is rather short. I'm done with the game.

No Man's Sky is not a very good game. Parts of it are entertaining. Parts of it are boring. Being an old MMO-player, I don't mind a little grinding, as long as the repetition is not too much in-your-face. I can deal with inventory management. I can deal with bad control of your space-ship, slow walking, etc. No problem. But still, NMS is not a good game.


At the same time: No Man's Sky is AWESOME !

The procedural generation works really well. I'm amazed. It produces some very nice worlds, with interesting topologies and believable vegetation. That one snow-covered planet I was on, was so good, it could have been hand-made, in stead of being generated. Some planet were boring. But the ones with above-average vegetation looked really nice. I always liked Morrowind, because of the plants and mushrooms and other flora there. No game has ever gave me that same feeling again, where I though I was in a truly different world. NMS reminded me of that.

I can see how this technology could be applied to other games, just to generate larger worlds. Worlds so large and diverse that websites can't make detailed guides anymore. Worlds so large and diverse that you can do real exploration again. Worlds in an MMO that are so large that you don't need to replicate server any more. One huge world, with huge generated areas, that is so big that it can harbor 2 million concurrent players. Areas with generated flora, so that every area in that world truly feels different. The possibilities are endless. Of course this is not enough to create a good game. You need game-play for that. But for the setting, the background, the environment, a procedurally generated world can bring so much more to the table.

demagogue on 25/8/2016 at 07:41

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When a game can procedurally generate a world like Skyrim, which incidentally was very template heavy even as a 'designed' world so it's not as crazy as it sounds, and IMO voxel building is the key piece, I think this genre will have arrived.

The legacy of NMS I bet will be what it inspires in the next generation. Right now so many people are seeing the potential, "if only they added..." whatever it is. But I don't see this game shutting down the genre. We'll get a dream game out of it sooner or later.