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Arguably the most awaited game of summer ’16, No Man's Sky finally landed on our PCs and consoles this week. With its immense, unique worlds it brings to the table a new perspective to open-world games, game design… and to life itself.

The game's most likely feature to catch one’s attention is its immensity. This game is not merely open world but open universe. Boasting over 18 quintillion (1.8×10^19) life-sized planets teeming with their own fauna and flora, you can explore each and every one to your liking. Your only limiting factor is the range of the hyperspace jump engines of your current spacecraft and how much fuel the craft presently carries. No Man's Sky is so immense that Hello Games estimated that more than 99.9% of the planets would never be explored by players, The developers managed this feat by procedurally generating almost all elements of the game, allowing mathematical formula to create an exponential set of unique features rather than having the rather small developer team designing them individually. Following in the tracks of Minecraft, the game offers a paradigm shift regarding the possibilities in open-world games.

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However it wasn’t all roses for them. From the game’s secretive development debut, initial tension among the Hello Games team, losing most of their equipments in a flood, delaying the release date, death threats and day-one updates, they've had a lot to deal with. One might also wonder about the point in making a game so immense if all you'll experience is less than 1% of the whole game. But hey, it’s an indie game that offers an AAA experience. We have to appreciate that at the very least!

Moreover, their fundamentally different approach to game design challenges the conventional ways. “The physics of every other game—it’s faked,” the chief architect Sean Murray explained to The Atlantic. Their game on the other hand offers something else. Every star that you see in the sky is an actual place that you can go to and explore. And your exploration is even credited for being the first to discover a planet and other types of information. Within 24 hours of the game's official launch, Hello Games reported that more than 10 million distinct species were registered by players, exceeding the estimated 8.7 million species believed to exist on Earth. “It’s our universe, so we get to be Gods in a sense,” said Murray in the same article.

Speaking about Gods, over on YouTube Mike Rugnetta asks a simple yet pressing question: "If we are able to simulate universes of massive, life-like complexity within our universe, should we wonder or worry if our own is simulated?” No Man’s Sky might not emulate life as we know it but how far are we from creating such an emulation ourselves, how far are we from being our own Gods? Even prominent figures are leaning towards a simulated “reality”. Elon Musk recently fuelled this thought by stating that “the odds that we're in base reality is one in billions”. When confronted to the question, Sean Murray's answered that "even if it is a simulation, it’s a good simulation, so we shouldn’t question it.”

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So what do you all make of it? Should future open-world games be procedurally generated to allow for more randomness and exploration in games? How big is too big? And lastly, what does that signify about our own existence? Are we in a simulation or will we create one? Nevertheless, cogito ergo sum... right?

GBAtemp No Man's Sky Review

 

[Dr.Hacknik]

A simulation in a simulation? Sounds like the Matrix has gone to far!

 

[codezer0]

The concept for it does intrigue me. But hearing that it's another Arkham Knight on PC... So, either way it seems I'm not missing out on much to wait for a steam sale.

 

[naddel81]

View attachment 59080 View attachment 59081

Do not sit there and tell me what I experience, because quite frankly I am not telling you what you should be experiencing and that you are a liar. I am saying it works as intended mostly(For me). It stutters a bit but overall i am indeed hitting 59/60 FPS Constant with V-Sync Enabled. You should rethink your life if all you are going to do is insult my intelligence and call me a liar. No I do not owe any kind of loyalty to the game. I didn't even buy it (yet), I happen to agree that the game is pretty bland and could use more content. I do not believe it is worth 60 dollars. I will w8 for it to either drop in price or go on sale for 20-30 dollars.

This is the end of the discussion because you are not worth my time considering you are just trying to force your shit experience on me, when that's not what I experience.

P.S. You will also notice that my CPU usage above is only sitting at 30%, and that is with other tasks running in the background. Just FYI

"I maxed everything out, turned off the frame-rate cap and v-sync. The most immediate thing that struck me was the hitching—the game was hitching and stuttering hard in the loading screen, and continued with some frame-rate dips and hitches during gameplay. I turned antialiasing down from SSAA to FXAA and capped the frame rate at 90 and that’s smoothed things out somewhat, but the game definitely isn’t what I’d call smooth."

source: http://kotaku.com/no-man-s-sky-is-pretty-rough-on-pc-1785215657

 

[Chrisssj2]

Fail game. No man sky INDEED.

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

@HaloEliteLegend it's true that No Man's Sky might lack in gameplay but it compensates in content. And we don't know what it's really capable of. It might blow up to become the next Minecraft with modding teams and quintillions of applications but it might very well not. Even if it doesn't work out for them in the end, it'll remain in the annals as a "proof of concept" from which future titles might take inspiration from.

I reiterate what I said. Gameplay is king. Content is nothing without gameplay. I wouldn't call procedurally-generated worlds "new content." Any ol' rogue-like or dungeon-crawler can randomly generate dungeons, but it's not considered "new content," is it? Now, the next thing you say is interesting, which is about modding. Modding is a different beast altogether, allowing players themselves to drastically alter gameplay and introduce incredible new content. The one caveat I see with No Man's Sky is that, if it does have online features, then mods cannot be used. And there's a very blurred line between multiplayer and single-player in NMS. Also, I don't really know how modders could mod the game. Perhaps new procedural generation code for new terraforms? Time will tell, but if you ask me, this game will not have that big a modding community (albeit one will most likely exist).

And I do agree that it will be immortalized as a "proof of concept." That's what I brought up in my previous post, and also what I criticized NMS for being. Great PoC, but really not great for mass-media consumption.

 

[Pedeadstrian]

The one caveat I see with No Man's Sky is that, if it does have online features, then mods cannot be used. And there's a very blurred line between multiplayer and single-player in NMS

As you stated in your second sentence, there's very little difference between multiplayer and single player in NMS. The discovery and naming of different star systems, planets, flora, and fauna seems to be the only actual multiplayer available, unless the whole "you can't see each other even if you're right next to each other" thing was malarkey. I don't see why mods would be a problem at all. They can't alter the procedural generation algorithm, as Sean has shown that it would drastically alter every planet in the universe, but it may be possible to create a custom galaxy that is unaffected by the algorithm (or is built by it then cut off from it) that then has hand-made planets or hand-altered ones.

The big question, though, is whether or not people would actually be interested enough to do so.

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

As you stated in your second sentence, there's very little difference between multiplayer and single player in NMS. The discovery and naming of different star systems, planets, flora, and fauna seems to be the only actual multiplayer available, unless the whole "you can't see each other even if you're right next to each other" thing was malarkey. I don't see why mods would be a problem at all. They can't alter the procedural generation algorithm, as Sean has shown that it would drastically alter every planet in the universe, but it may be possible to create a custom galaxy that is unaffected by the algorithm (or is built by it then cut off from it) that then has hand-made planets or hand-altered ones.

The big question, though, is whether or not people would actually be interested enough to do so.

Right, right. I could see people taking the procedural generation code and spinning it off into a project in the NMS engine separate from the actual game itself. Perhaps some cool things could come of that. But it would be markedly harder than the likes of Minecraft or Skyrim, where most additional content is just injected and layered on top of the base game. I certainly do not expect there to a be many mods for this game, and nowhere close to the likes of Minecraft or Skyrim.

Texture mods are usually fairly simple for many games, and the planet surface textures are markedly blurry. I could see people changing those, however the game seems to be suffering from a lot of performance issues on PC, so yeah, I guess we'll see.

 

[netovsk]

Glad that their attempt at fully pricing indie games is failing, as if the fully priced remasters werent enough.

 

[ric.]

Ayyy b-but muh 500 gorillion planets.
Bought it, played it for 20 minutes, refunded it.
This isn't a game, it's a glorified tech demo. The concept is cool, but it lacks any substance to keep anyone with half a brain hooked for more than half an hour.

 

[p1ngpong]

Yes so after playing the game for a solid few days I can safely say my initial reaction to it was correct. No mans sky disappoints me on pretty much every level, it tries to do a lot but does nothing well. Combat is bad, worse than minecraft. Flying is bad, worse than the new star wars battlefront. It has some survival elements but does not do that particularly well. Resource collecting is as grindy as you would expect with random monoliths of everything scattered all over the place.

The variety of the planets is very disappointing, sure they may have a different lick of paint on them and a different atmosphere gimmick here and there but they are generally very flat, very dull, with the same alien outposts scattered every few hundred meters.

People giving No Mans Sky a pass are either people who feed off of half finished steam early access survival trash or are just defending the game to justify their purchase. Once you scratch through the veneer there is nothing here that is actually good or impressive.

But-but mah exploration! Explore what? There is nothing here of interest, you explore one planet and space station you have explored them all.

But-but updates are coming! Yes future promises of upcoming content does not give any game a pass, Street Fighter V anyone? The devs should have been honest and marked this up as early access because that is exactly what no mans sky is, unfinished, unpolished, lacking content and variety. In a year this game might be good if they add a shitload more content, tighten up the combat mechanics and actually make the flying somewhat realistic.

In the meantime I might actually go back to a game I got on early access a while back called Grav. It is eerily similar to No Mans Sky on a planet exploring level anyway but has ten times more content and more to do. And Guess what it cost me £4 not £40 because it was honest about what it was.

 

[LightyKD]

Gonna drop my two cents...

I really wanted to love this game. Being a fan of Star Trek and space exploration, I waited for this game with much hype. What I found was a game NOT worth a full 60 dollars. In comparison to Mass Effect, I was actually dismissive about ME at first but fell in love with it. Mass Effect does space politics very well but not so much on the exploration part. I simply wanted a ME style game with lots of space politics but with a lot more exploration. No Mans Sky seemed to be offering a lot of exploration but I wasn't quite sure about the story. Upon playing the game, I get a lot of exploration but what seems to be almost little story. Even worse the gameplay seems to be more of a pain in the ass. I get that I have the PC version and its supposedly a bit slow and buggy but WTF, no run option? The two biggest flaws for me is the crafting system and how expensive some things are, secondly the fucking save system. Let's start with the save system. I spent thirty minutes, yesterday to look for an element to power my ship. I wouldn't have been annoyed had there been a save system that allowed me to stop in the middle of my journey. This notion of having to enter/exit my ship to save or find a beacon is total bullshit! I'm a father, when I need to exit a game, I NEED to exit a game. -not keep my PC running just to get back to the game. Right now, I need to make a cell so that my warp drive can be active. what am I stuck doing? mining fucking resources to sell so that I can buy this expensive ass item! Again, WTF?! I get that some developers have to pad out their games with silly side quest in order to make the game feel longer but this is highly annoying and makes no sense! So much for being able to hop on and off a planet and just explore.

About the 7 billion plus planets or WTF the number is, I DONT need that many planets. The universe being presented here feels generic BECAUSE everything is randomly calculated. I would much rather have 100 highly detailed and planned out planets than a billion plus random mud balls. Exploring isn't just looking at the scenery of a planet but also interacting with the life of that world. There is none of that here. I thought there would be some type of scanner system like Metroid in which you get to learn about the lifeforms you encounter. NOPE! None of that. Overall, No Man's Sky comes off as a incomplete project. Hell, it's not even graphically intensive (which, given the slowdown, annoys the fuck outta me). I don't mind its look but everything feels generic. I'll keep playing this (in hopes of finding some fun element) or switch back to playing "The Solus Project". I really wanted No Man's sky to be awesome but I imply can't recommend paying full price for this game.

 

[Abcdfv]

wall of text

Press SHIFT to run(it's a toggle), and press F to use the metroid style scanner to learn more about the animals on the planets.

 

[Pedeadstrian]

Press SHIFT to run(it's a toggle), and press F to use the metroid style scanner to learn more about the animals on the planets.

I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he meant some kind of auto-run. But yeah... that post is full of nonsense. 1) No one said this was gonna be a space western with tons of inter-species politics. Don't get mad at the game for assuming it's something it's not. 2) Once you actually get your ship running you have a nearly limitless amount of ship fuel (in the form of asteroids), so the idea of being 30 minutes away from your ship (or heck, one of the countless beacons scattered everywhere) is laughable. 3) Oh, and you can make your warp cells, you know.

I get it if you don't like the game, but ranting for ranting's sake isn't gonna convince anyone.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

I think the game is victim to a lot of overhype and a terrible advertising campaign. Like if this game wasn't picked up by Sony, stuck with a $60 price tag, and just left as an obscure indie game it'd be well praised.

Trailers for this game made it out as some big open world space game (like Elite Dangerous or Star Citizen) and it's really not. The game's closer to some of Sony's actual indie games like Journey. It's a big mood piece for people who like world building. I can totally see why people don't like it and it's very much "love it or hate it" but so far I'm on the loving side of it. It's just such an interesting game to play and yes, it's repetitive, but you're always finding little things here and there. It's a game about isolation and about the journey, it's not "space Minecraft" and it definitely shouldn't have been advertised as some big awesome space action game. It's hard to describe honestly but there's some people who will love it and some people who will hate it. There's really no in-between.

 

[LightyKD]

Press SHIFT to run(it's a toggle), and press F to use the metroid style scanner to learn more about the animals on the planets.

Please translate that to controller lol I have a mostly strict policy of not playing PC games without controller support lol

 

[Du'Islingr]

Please translate that to controller lol I have a mostly strict policy of not playing PC games without controller support lol

I did a simple google search and came up with R3= Sprint and L2 is whats used to zoom in with the binoculars if you repaired them to begin with on the multitool or you have a better one by now. These are the controls from the PS4 and should translate as such to a PS4 controller attached to PC.

Considering you didn't even know this fact, cause I assume you probably tried every button looking for sprint before you complained about it here, I will also assume you also do not know what R3 is. The joysticks on the controller also act as buttons when you push down on them.

Heres a resource in case you also are unaware of other button mapping. http://nomanssky.gamepedia.com/Controls

 

[Pedeadstrian]

Heres a resource in case you also are unaware of other button mapping. http://nomanssky.gamepedia.com/Controls

There's also the, you know, in-game resource aka Controls options. *sigh* Milenials these days...

 

[Deleted User]

Milenials these days...

I hope you're being sarcastic

 

[LightyKD]

Man, the hate is strong in this thread. I get that there is a nice chunk of people who absolutely love this game but, don't get your panties in a bunch because someone gave logical criticism of the game. NMS has some serious issues. I'm still playing. I don't hate the game but by no means is this game a masterpiece like Super Mario Galaxy or Xenoblade Chronicles.

 

[Du'Islingr]

There's also the, you know, in-game resource aka Controls options. *sigh* Milenials these days...

Not entirely sure if you are trying to insult me or not however that is the logical response but, based on his reply I guess that logic was lost at some point after he had kids lol. Which is also why i bothered to explain about the Joystick buttons too.

Man, the hate is strong in this thread. I get that there is a nice chunk of people who absolutely love this game but, don't get your panties in a bunch because someone gave logical criticism of the game. NMS has some serious issues. I'm still playing. I don't hate the game but by no means is this game a masterpiece like Super Mario Galaxy or Xenoblade Chronicles.

My replies aren't intended to offend you. It's just you seemed to be lacking some logical common sense for some of your issues which I honestly figured out 5 minutes into the game as I was examining my inventory seeing how it worked for the zoom and I by default know that shift is pretty much universal for sprint,run etc in any game. However its a toggle in this game so you don't press and hold it. And like I said I did a simple google search for No Mans Sky controls and that source I linked was the first suggestion lol. I probably sound insulting as fuck here but not intending to be

I mean I get it ur a dad and all, so you probably don't spend as much time giving thought to all the little variables you would have figured out a lot sooner without help I personally like the game but it is lacking and needs content. No arguments there period.