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Game Informer January cover - No Man's Sky

Still excited for it but more as a time passer. I'm banking on this being a fun little exploring game for my ps4 to fill the gaps for when I'm not quite up for strapping on the HOTAS and Oculus, but ultimately I think it should have been released at some point this year. With Elite: Dangerous bordering on release and already being in the Gamma release anyway what interest I had is beginning to wane. Then with Star Citizen getting more modules put together that's kind of the space game I'm really looking forward to seeing what it becomes.

I dunno, I just feel like I would have been more into this before I had Elite ready to go. Maybe if they can get it out before planetary landings are in it will still have a good hook to pull me in but otherwise I'm just relying on it to be the stress free option for a quick romp in space.
 

IHaveIce

Banned
Did they ever show real gameplay and what the goal is in the game?

Sure the game looks beautiful, many games with these colorful artstyles do, but doesn't matter if everytime I see something of it my reaction is "And?"

Rime even more than NMS though
 
The developers seem like really nice guys so this isn't personal and I wish them lots of success, but I'm kinda looking forward to how insanely let down people are going to be by this game.
 

bsod

Banned
What noun would you replace "planets" with? Because that's a pretty big feature that they (and other developers) have already shown to be working.

And your noun replacement exercise can be done with literally every game out there and doesn't make a good point.

Planets? I don't know, zones? I'm not denying the technical achievements here, but how does flying from one planet to another impact gameplay anymore than sailing from island to another in, say, Black Flag?

As for the general noun thing applying to all other games, uh, no. For example, Half-Life 2: you play Gordon Freeman, a scientist that was taken out of statis by the G-Man and start off on a train car headed to a ghetto run by an alien force known as the Combine. It's a first person shooter where you progress by solving a number of puzzles throughout the environment, mostly by way of interacting with the game's physics. For example, forming a ramp on a water channel by releasing a number of submerged, air filled containers so they rise to the top and lift the platform, allowing you to jump your hovercraft into a raised tunnel. There are other vehicle sections in the game where you ride a makeshift car with a mounted machine gun. Another important element of HL2 is the gravity gun, which, like the name suggest, attracts items to it and also repelling them, allowing you to use various objects in the world as weapons and for puzzle solving purposes.

Does that sound vague to you? You can do this for all games we've played if you apply an ounce of effort.
 

Nickle

Cool Facts: Game of War has been a hit since July 2013
Care to explain why?
I think that it will get boring very quickly. Exploration is at its best when you are looking for something, and not just wandering aimlessly around environments. I think that the design of the planets will quickly get repetetive, even if they have different looking environments. I don't know if the combat/crafting/resource collecting systems will give enough purpose to exploration to make the game interesting for more then a few hours. It may be a good game, but I don't think it will hold people's interest for as long as they think.
 
I mean its good that the game has the Duality of being an exploration game but also has a designed goal and purpose for the player

Im pretty sure the limitations of the procedural generated elements will become clear at some point

Like you can have millions of different looking deer but they all behave and animate the same. Give the same resources etc...

It kind of reminds me of the issues people ran into with Scribblenauts honestly

Massive potential possibilities that could be boiled down to their common denominators. Which in No Man's Sky's case would be the various skeletons used as the bases for the generation

Thats about the extent of my skepticism though. Clearly I am still going to enjoy playing this
Idk, it's one thing if you expect to see millions of different looking deer, but expecting them to also behave and animate in millions of different ways is a bit unrealistic. Animation and A.I. are really lagging behind compared to other areas of videogames when it comes to advancements, and that goes for ANY game, AAA or indie.
 
Planets? I don't know, zones? I'm not denying the technical achievements here, but how does flying from one planet to another impact gameplay anymore than sailing from island to another in, say, Black Flag?

As for the general noun thing applying to all other games, uh, no. For example, Half-Life 2: you play Gordon Freeman, a scientist that was taken out of statis by the G-Man and start off on a train car headed to a ghetto run by an alien force known as the Combine. It's a first person shooter where you progress by solving a number of puzzles throughout the environment, mostly by way of interacting with the game's physics. For example, forming a ramp on a water channel by releasing a number of submerged, air filled containers so they rise to the top and lift the platform, allowing you to jump your hovercraft into a raised tunnel. There are other vehicle sections in the game where you ride a makeshift car with a mounted machine gun. Another important element of HL2 is the gravity gun, which, like the name suggest, attracts items to it and also repelling them, allowing you to use various objects in the world as weapons and for puzzle solving purposes.

Does that sound vague to you? You can do this for all games we've played if you apply an ounce of effort.

We're talking about a game that isn't out yet though. Did you know about all that before Half-Life 2 came out?

I think that it will get boring very quickly. Exploration is at its best when you are looking for something, and not just wandering aimlessly around environments. I think that the design of the planets will quickly get repetetive, even if they have different looking environments. I don't know if the combat/crafting/resource collecting systems will give enough purpose to exploration to make the game interesting for more then a few hours. It may be a good game, but I don't think it will hold people's interest for as long as they think.

Fair enough. They've said in interviews that there is more than just exploration, things such as trading depots and space stations. I'm sure we'll find out more about this game in the next couple days at the Playstation event. It reminds me a lot of Minecraft, which seems really basic at the top but can be really deep once you get into it.
 

injurai

Banned
OK5pFQH.gif

if this game comes with an ejaculating dildo, i'd suck it
 

Kinthalis

Banned
Still looking forward to the PC version, as a Space sim without a good HOTAS setup and either IR head tracking or Oculus.... just doesn't sound like fun to me.
 
My first post seemed a bit snarky, but right now it seems like a lot people are hype by a game that's still in a very abstract state by a small unproven group of devs. You can make Destiny comparisons with how they communicated their game to the masses, but they always had the pedgriee of a great hugely successful and similar franchise behind them. This is...I don't really see it yet.

I'll have to find some old thread where I basically said the same thing and someone linked me a bunch of interviews to shut me up. It worked in the sense that I better understood what they were after and that a lot of thought had gone into how they want it to play. It sounds really interesting... but so do a lot of things until they release.

Edit:

Here's something.
 

Drazgul

Member
Still looking forward to the PC version, as a Space sim without a good HOTAS setup and either IR head tracking or Oculus.... just doesn't sound like fun to me.

Freelancer was great fun, sure it was more arcadey and the space sim purists scoffed at it, but not every game needs to be a hardcore sim in that genre.
 

bsod

Banned
Half-Life 2 is a linear story-based game. You're not helping yourself out at all.

I fail to see why that matters. Can you elaborate? Are you saying non-linear games don't have gameplay elements you can describe concretely? Hmm, let's find out. Let's choose a non-linear game: AC: Black Flag

You play as a pirate named Edward Kenway who's trying to create a place where they can govern themselves. Along the way he gets mixed up in a plot between the Assassin's and Templars. Kenway employs extensive parkour movements to navigate the environment, including climbing on tall buildings and trees. There's a strong stealth element in the game where Kenway can use the environment to blend in, such as hiding in shrubbery, and be hidden or surprise his enemies. For example, performing an assassination from the air, attracting attention from a hidden location, pulling enemies off of ledges. There's also Eagle Vision, which when toggled on, allows you to better see and track enemies. In terms of combat, there are a number of weapons at your disposal from ranged stealth weapons, guns, and various melee weapons as well. Attacks are typically require timing to block/parry/dodge. A large component of the game is finding collectibles spread around the environment and completing side missions, which may include assassinations, tracking characters in order to listen in on their conversations without being seen, and so on.

Oh, and there's also a huge naval component. Kenway can upgrade his ship using resources gathered from pillaging other ships, making it stronger and better capable of fighting off larger ships. Sailing is the only way to reach a number of small islands and fortresses, which can be taken over.

Again, is this vague to you? Compare what I described about this non-linear game with your best description of No Man's Sky. I challenge you.
 

Croyles

Member
I'm not convinced yet either. The exploration looks cool but we have no clue what the actual focus of the game is yet, let alone how the gameplay will pan out.

I'm cautiously optimistic.
 

bsod

Banned
That's more of a tech demo for the new Source Engine than it is for HL2. Plus they originally announced that it would be available in September 2003 before it got delayed some time after that E3 presentation. We still don't know how far out NMS is from release.

Sure, but from that demo we learned about vehicle sections, gravity gun, importance on physics and puzzle solving, etc. All things that were described in my summary. I was asked if we knew those things before the game was released, and that's proof that we did. Half-Life 2 wasn't as abstract as No Man's Sky is.
 

Neiteio

Member
I just got my PS4 yesterday, so I've been looking into upcoming attractions. And... I just don't see the appeal of No Man's Sky.

It looks like it's a game about walking around one relatively boring planet, randomly generated and unique to you, and doing nothing particularly interesting from a mechanical standpoint. Then you can leave for space to find another player's planet, which looks different and sounds different from yours, but that still doesn't have much in the way of stuff to do. And in-between you can have dogfights in space that may or may not control well and have good feedback and compelling mechanics/systems in place.

That's my threadbare understanding of the game based on its initial few reveals. What key things might I be missing that inspire faith in this game?

I mean, it's impressive a small group is making it, but if it's like the above, it doesn't sound fun.
 

Tigress

Member
I fail to see why that matters. Can you elaborate? Are you saying non-linear games don't have gameplay elements you can describe concretely? Hmm, let's find out. Let's choose a non-linear game: AC: Black Flag

Again, is this vague to you? Compare what I described about this non-linear game with
your best description of No Man's Sky. I challenge you.

So your complaint is you don't know every specific of a game that's not out yet?

My contention is that we know enough to be able to get the general gist of gameplay and enough to know if it is something that would interest us. I'm not saying we know exactly everything about the game. But enough to know if it is something we might enjoy. It's not so vague we know nothing of the game like a lot of people are trying to contend.
 
Sure, but from that demo we learned about vehicle sections, gravity gun, importance on physics and puzzle solving, etc. All things that were described in my summary. I was asked if we knew those things before the game was released, and that's proof that we did. Half-Life 2 wasn't as abstract as No Man's Sky is.

We already know a good amount about the core game idea. You travel planets in your ship, upgrade your space suit/ship, trade with AI, gather resources. It is a pretty abstract game idea but so is Minecraft if you try to distill it down to your descriptions.

I also like that the "non-linear game" you chose was Assassin's Creed. Sure it's open world, but the game is very linear. Try describing what Minecraft is about and it'll sound very similar to what you'd expect from No Man's Sky.
 

kaching

"GAF's biggest wanker"
All we know is there are a lot of procedurally generated planets and you can travel to their atmosphere and land on the surface seamlessly from space. Oh, and there's some space shooting too. That's literally it.
The game's official about page says it offers a fair bit more than that so, no, that's literally NOT it. I'm not sure why some of you guys feel the need to keep questioning people's interest in the game without at least consulting basic information like this first. All well and good to say the devs have been vague about some elements of the game, but you're not giving credit to much of what HAS been said.

In any case, some vagueness about a game that has no release date yet and is likely many months from release still is hardly out of the ordinary. No one has any investment in this game yet, except possibly whatever gamer street cred you attempt to derive from being "right" about how much hype the game deserves to receive :p
 

bsod

Banned
So your complaint is you don't know every specific of a game that's not out yet?

No. My concern is that this game is getting a ton of hype when there's no tangible details on the gameplay itself and when the game comes out people will unfairly judge it because they're expecting things the game has never promised. People are basically reading a two-line synopsis of the new Mad Max film and expecting Academy Award winning material. I'm personally looking forward to the game, and I hope it blows everyone away, but the facts are we no very little and development team's comprised up of only a handful of people the last I checked.

Basically, what I'm saying is tame your game boner and temper your expectations until we know more than "Well, there's some form of space exploration where there are a ton of planets for some reason, and some form of space combat, I guess, and crafting plays a part somehow. And I heard there's multiplayer but I'm not really sure how that even works."
 

bsod

Banned
I also like that the "non-linear game" you chose was Assassin's Creed. Sure it's open world, but the game is very linear. Try describing what Minecraft is about and it'll sound very similar to what you'd expect from No Man's Sky.

Read above.
 

btkadams

Member
Does anyone know if there is a way to read this on iPhone if you are a subscriber through the iPad newsstand app? Are there PDFs of the print magazine available for those users to just pull up on iPhone?
 

bsod

Banned
The game's official about page says it offers a fair bit more than that so, no

lol, no it doesn't.

"And one mistake could see you lose everything. In No Man’s Sky, every victory and every defeat has lasting consequences."

What consequences? That's the missing details a lot of us are asking for. Okay, there's space combat. How does it play out? What are the mechanics? What can be gained by performing well? What can be lossed from getting shot down? It's like you're car shopping and a picture of the car itself is enough to sell you on it.
 

ANDS

King of Gaslighting
Not sure why people are getting all up in a tizzy at that first post or people just not sold on the game yet. It's like folks have already decided (without playing the game) that this is game is GOTY and are railing against the folks who (without playing the game) are saying it doesn't look particularly inspiring given the details that have emerged about it.
 
I'm just really concerned they won't be able to deliver on the hype this game has surrounding it.

Especially with a development team that is a mere modicum of what most dev teams have in terms of personnel.

They claim will have like a 100 million worlds, but will they all be generic clones of one another with minimal differences?
 
Not sure why people are getting all up in a tizzy at that first post or people just not sold on the game yet. It's like folks have already decided (without playing the game) that this is game is GOTY and are railing against the folks who (without playing the game) are saying it doesn't look particularly inspiring given the details that have emerged about it.
It's actually the opposite lol
 
About to leave on a flight so I have to do this crazy fast. GI info on NMS:

Game starts with trippy space trip like end of 2001. You just appear on a random planet, everyone will start on a different one. It could be very difficult with tough monsters, or have rare items or be boring. It will be different for everyone.

A beacon on your mini map leads you to your ship, you can leave at any time. Map shows the entire galaxy, different zoom level lets you see stars up close. Stars have a color that indicate the kind of resources they may have. You can scan their solar systems to see if there is a space station or a planet with points of interest, if it is previously explored you will see exactly what is on the planet.

At first you need a new hyperdrive and fuel so you cant go far. you need money to buy upgrades and fuel, basically everything you do deposits currency into your account. So you can blow up rocks to gather resources, blow up other ships, discovering new areas ect all give currency.

Every solar systems has a trading post or space station where you can cash this stuff in. The trading post is on the planet so you don't have to jump to space every time you want to cash in. Each post will have ships coming in and generally active. You can view ships you would like to buy, see upgrades ect.

You can attack incoming ships and steal their cargo as well, doing so will get the local police on you. If you escape they will put a bounty on you so that you can't go around the base without being attacked.

Each solar system has a space station, depending on how big it is shows the level of items in it. Large stations have much better ships and upgrades to buy. You can attack the station, can't blow it up but you can lower its ranking. You get nothing for it, they simply allow you to be an ass if you want.

Combat is standard FPS stuff. Every planet has robots (bipedal ones shown, mini at-st's) they want to keep nature untouched. So the more you get resources or kill alien animals the more these things will come at you. They will come in teams, flank, etc. tougher ones will appear close to the center of the galaxy.

Space combat is arcadey pick up and play style. They describe the combat like halo, you will need to determine which enemy to attack first. The smaller easy to kill ships or the bigger ones with shields which they describe as elites. Some ships will give shields to other smaller ones. Some you won't be able to stand up against until you upgrade.

Traveling to the center is the main goal but devs don't care if you don't care to go there. They say they want it to take 40-100 hours to reach there depending on how much you focus on getting to the center. Some planets have temples with portals that will randomly transport you closer to the center, you never know what you will find on the other side.

If you lose your ship, you will escape in a pod and land in the closest planet. You lose what items you had on the ship but keep your personal upgrades and your bank account. Your goal is to buy another ship. If you die on land you get taken back to the pod site and lose everything you gathered since leaving the pod. Dieing closer to the center of the galaxy is far tougher as planets could be brutal to escape.

With multiplayer they don't want people to meet up, no voice chat. They talk about how you don't know what you look like so someone else seeing you will be the one way to see what you look like. I'm hazy on that section, I'll read it again later.

They have a chart of possible upgrades for your suit, your ship and your multitool. Standard stuff like shields, jet pack, armor, power, fuel capacity, hyperdrive, etc.

If I forgot anything I will update later, got to go. If mods want to make a new thread to ahead, I'm out of time.
 
About to leave on a flight so I have to do this crazy fast. GI info on NMS:

Game starts with trippy space trip like end of 2001. You just appear on a random planet, everyone will start on a different one. It could be very difficult with tough monsters, or have rare items or be boring. It will be different for everyone.

A beacon on your mini map leads you to your ship, you can leave at any time. Map shows the entire galaxy, different zoom level lets you see stars up close. Stars have a color that indicate the kind of resources they may have. You can scan their solar systems to see if there is a space station or a planet with points of interest, if it is previously explored you will see exactly what is on the planet.

At first you need a new hyperdrive and fuel so you cant go far. you need money to buy upgrades and fuel, basically everything you do deposits currency into your account. So you can blow up rocks to gather resources, blow up other ships, discovering new areas ect all give currency.

To be continued...

You better have WiFi on your flight!
 
hey its got space in it but it is not getting sold piecemeal, or in endless beta . Thats good! even old fashioned.

Roberts industries No Mans Sky: you will get early access to the first planet, with an orbit simulator. If you pay more, the planet will be a class "A" one with the creatures pictured here, we hope to complete the landing module late 2015.
 

legacyzero

Banned
The developers seem like really nice guys so this isn't personal and I wish them lots of success, but I'm kinda looking forward to how insanely let down people are going to be by this game.
Ok, so let me understand..

You want the game to be dismal just so you can see people disappointed by it.

..Do I have that right?
 
I'm just really concerned they won't be able to deliver on the hype this game has surrounding it.

Especially with a development team that is a mere modicum of what most dev teams have in terms of personnel.

They claim will have like a 100 million worlds, but will they all be generic clones of one another with minimal differences?
Are they claiming every single world will be a completely unique experience that you have never seen before?

The funny thing is, there's all this worry about will the game live up to the hype, but what exactly is this hype you guys are talking about? Same as above, people are worried about if combat will be boring, but have they said combat will be an amazing experience you have to see to believe? This goes for just about every single aspect of the game.
 

KooopaKid

Banned
They claim will have like a 100 million worlds, but will they all be generic clones of one another with minimal differences?

Yes and that's a guarantee. Has a procedurally generated game ever been varied/good?
Minecraft doesn't count, it's basically Lego.
 

kaching

"GAF's biggest wanker"
No. My concern is that this game is getting a ton of hype when there's no tangible details on the gameplay itself and when the game comes out people will unfairly judge it because they're expecting things the game has never promised.[b/]
Meanwhile you've been unfairly judging the merit of people's hype for this game without accounting for all the actual information we do have about the game so far. How is that any better?

I'm hyped for this game. Hyped based on what I've seen and what the devs have officially said the game will do. If the game fails to live up to my hype for it, it will be because the game either failed to do things it promised (explore, trade, collect, craft, combat, etc.) or because it failed to do those things well. Not because of things that were never promised.

Why don't you tell us what is that you think people are specifically getting overly hyped about that hasn't actually been promised for this game, rather than just generally try to downplay the game and indiscriminately raining on everyone's hype?
 

bsod

Banned
Meanwhile you've been unfairly judging the merit of people's hype for this game without accounting for all the actual information we do have about the game so far. How is that any better?

If all the info about the game is on their site and E3 videos, then I have accounted all of the information. Try again.

I'm not saying don't get hyped. Hell, I'm hyped for it. What you're apparently having difficulty in understanding is that it does the game no good when people are creating false expectations and that is what the hype is being built on--an abstract idea--and I'd hate the game to be blasted because it didn't meet those unrealistic expectations. I've seen it happen dozens of times, especially with MMOs.
 
If all the info about the game is on their site and E3 videos, then I have accounted all of the information. Try again.

I'm not saying don't get hyped. Hell, I'm hyped for it. What you're apparently having difficulty in understanding is that it does the game no good when people are creating false expectations and that is what the hype is being built on--an abstract idea--and I'd hate the game to be blasted because it didn't meet those unrealistic expectations. I've seen it happen dozens of times, especially with MMOs.
Explain these false expectations.
 

kaching

"GAF's biggest wanker"
lol, no it doesn't.
It certainly says more than your claim that the game is just about landing and taking off from procedurally generated planets, with some space combat on the side. Don't hold people who are hyped for this game accountable for how accurate they've been about the promises its made when you're hardly doing any better yourself.

That's the missing details a lot of us are asking for.
Tell me something, do you really think the people who are hyped for this game aren't also interested in those "missing" details? Do you think those details won't come in time for you or anyone else to make a sufficiently informed purchase decision?
 
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