No Mans Sky (PC)

ohh_danielson

I've been keeping half an eye on this as it did trigger my interest originally. But I do think it'll just be a game that gets quite boring after a few hours. The scale and different terrains etc will no doubt be quite impressive but I do think it'll feel a little dull and pointless after a while.

Stockholm

Think the day one patch is going to show how capable Hello Games are of refining the game post release. We already know from the leaks that it seems to have some bugs, so if they can fix them day one and continue to patch the game on the fly then it may be worth investing in during the Steam Christmas sale (for me anyway). Unless it blows the barn doors off at launch and the leaks weren't an accurate reflection of the game at launch, which I doubt, i.e. the game we see in the leaked footage is - more or less - the game we'll see next week.

Edit - Oh well, may have to reconsider then. Hello Games are now claiming that the patch (v1.03) will introduce significant changes and improve on many aspects of the game. Seems excessive for a game that went gold about three weeks' ago. How were they able to achieve so much in such little time?! Still think I'm going to wait until next weekend to see what the consensus is post-release... on the PC.

Stockholm

Allegedly Hello Games will be releasing a significant patch on release of the game, which is now the 12th for PC.

Here's a list of changes and fixes according to Reddit...

The Three Paths – there are now new, unique “paths” you can follow throughout the game. You must start the game on a fresh save, with the patch, as early choices have significant impact on what you see later in the game, and the overall experience.

The Universe – we changed the rules of the universe generation algorithm. Planets have moved. Environments have changed biomes. Galaxies have altered shape. All to create greater variety earlier. Galaxies are now up to 10x larger.

Diversity – Creatures are now more diverse in terms of ecology and densities on planets.

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

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

Planet rotation – play testing has made it obvious people are struggling to adjust to this during play so it’s effects have been reduced further…

Terrain generation – caves up to 128m tall are now possible. Geometric anomalies have been added. Underwater erosion now leads to more interesting sea beds.

Ship diversity – a wider variety of ships appear per star system, and are available to purchase. Cargo and installed technology now vary more, and ships have more unique attributes.

Inventory – ship inventories now store 5 times more resources per slot. Suit inventories now store 2.5 times more per slot. This encourages exploration and gives freedom from the beginning. We’re probably going to increase this even further in the next update, for people in the latter game phases, and will allow greater trading potential.

Trading – trading is deeper. Star systems and planets each have their own wants and needs, based off a galactic economy. Observing these is the key to successful trading. We still working on adjusting this based on how everyone plays, but all trading values have been rebalanced across the galaxy, giving a greater depth. A bunch of trade exploits were uncovered and have been removed

Feeding – creatures now have their own diet, based on planet and climate. Feeding them correctly will yield different results per species, such as mining for you, protecting the player, becoming pets, alerting you to rare loot or pooping valuable resources.

Survival – recharging hazard protection requires rare resources, making shielding shards useful again. Storms can be deadly. Hazard protection and suit upgrades have been added. Liquids are often more dangerous

Graphical effects – Lighting and texture resolution have been improved. Shadow quality has doubled. Temporal AA didn’t make it in time, but it’s so close

Balancing – several hundred upgrades have had stat changes (mainly exo-suit and ship, but also weapon), new upgrades have been added.

Combat – Auto Aim and weapon aim has been completely rewritten to feel more gentle in general, but stickier when you need it. Sentinels now alert each other, if they haven’t been dealt with quickly. Quad and Walker AI is now much more challenging, even I struggle with them without a powered up weapon.

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

Exploits – infinite warp cell exploit and rare goods trading exploit among other removed. People using these cheats were ruining the game for themselves, but people are weird and can’t stop themselves ¯\_(シ)_/¯

Stability – foundations for buildings on super large planets. Resolved several low repro crashes, in particular when player warped further than 256 light years in one session (was only possible due to warp cell exploit above).

Space Stations – interiors are now more varied, bars, trade rooms and hydroponic labs have been added

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

Ship scanning – scanning for points of interest from your ship is now possible. Buildings generate earlier and show up in ship scans

Flying over terrain – pop-in and shadow artefacts have been reduced. Generation speed has been increased two fold (planets with large bodies of water will be targeted in next update)

Writing – The Atlas path has been rewritten by James Swallow (writer on Dues Ex) and me.  I think it speaks to the over-arching theme of player freedom more clearly now. Early mission text has been rewritten to allow for multiple endings.

onezeon

Good update that tbf

Think I'll wait a while and get in sale
£40 is high price on PC for something I might not play much after few hours

Peew971

If anyone knows someone who knows someone, etc. Worth a watch.

Nivek TT

I thought there were gonna be tears there for a moment.

Stockholm

Watched a couple of streams as well as Jim Sterling's review and it seems a bit dull and repetitive.

                               
I guess that's one of the reasons Sean Murray has been mildly chiding people who experience the game via streams and reviews, i.e. please buy the game before you see it otherwise its illusion is shattered.

Feel like a weathervane now, changing my opinion about the game from day to day, but firming up my belief that it'll either be better waiting for a Steam sale or just passing altogether.

pandemic

Interesting having a procedurally generated universe, I'm hearing it was under 5GB to download on PS4.
A quick look reminded me of minecraft, probably due to smashing rocks resulting getting elements like carbon or whatever as it most likely differs by world. Having considered the innumerable worlds out there, I find it hard to take a review seriously at the moment i.e. so soon after release.
I'd like to see the performance on PC, the world generation should in theory be much more fluid than the PS4 due to it's relatively weak CPU.
Think I'll wait at least a month, before deciding whether it's for me. I've generally avoid the media around the game i.e. not seen anything up until now since the unveil at E3 2015. Some comments I've read seem to indicate there has been so much hype that game can't live up to it.

Stockholm

Two things I've learned this evening about the game - flying and docking are, at times, on rails, i.e. you don't control your ship during landing and docking, and you can't fly down to the planetary surface, so there will be no cruising through ravines/canyons or performing low passes over an area of interest. Docking isn't like Elite Dangerous - it's all automated.

Also, seems like two people have arrived on the same planet - and the same location - but are unable to see or sense one another. No multiplayer? Perhaps.

ArmitageShanks

What? Really? That's terrible! So much for the "exploration" aspect...