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No Man's Sky

Started by Shay Chaise, May 26, 2016, 10:43:19 AM

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lazarou

Yeah, I think you nailed it there. Digital is slowly killing off the second-hand market but it'll take a long time to die entirely, and even longer for the hype mentality to die off, if it ever does.

NEW PAGE GET HYPED

Pit-Pat

Quote from: hewantstolurkatad on September 06, 2016, 05:18:17 PM
Why do people preorder games? I mean, it's not like a film where the cinema has limited capacity, and the developers can't restrict the game to preorders for a limited period of time (beyond a few hours anyway) because that'll just push everyone else to pirate it. Is it for some silly exclusive dlc type shit?

Speaking for myself, I preorder games from time to time because it's cheaper to buy games online than it is in-store, so if I want to play a game as soon as it's available for the lowest possible price I have to preorder it. With PS4 there's no way I'm paying RRP for something and I work relatively long hours anyway so going home from work via a video game shop takes up valuable gaming time.

I just preordered Battlefield 1 with a copy of Deus Ex MD for £72 via Tesco Direct (which managed to send me Overwatch on the release date), which is probably £2.01 more than I would be charged for BF1 alone in Game.

As to why I'm so keen to play games on day one rather than waiting a week for the reviews and opinion to filter through, I suppose that's probably fairly hype-related. Having said that though, I played and loved both the Overwatch and BF1 betas and, despite BF games being consistently horrible on launch, it felt like a reasonable gamble that I'll love it anyway.

brat-sampson

If I pre-order (which is still relatively rare) it's usually some combination of having a lot of confidence in the final product/my enjoyment of it, combined with seeing a too good to miss-type of limited offer. E.G. I had no issues pre-ordering Witcher 3 six months or more in advance having loved the first two and seeing it available for like £30 on Nuuvem or something.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: hewantstolurkatad on September 06, 2016, 05:18:17 PM
Why do people preorder games? I mean, it's not like a film where the cinema has limited capacity, and the developers can't restrict the game to preorders for a limited period of time (beyond a few hours anyway) because that'll just push everyone else to pirate it. Is it for some silly exclusive dlc type shit?

Not all games releases are done in the same way – for example, review embargos. This article - https://tiredoldhack.com/2015/02/04/the-corrupt-world-of-video-game-reviews-part-1/ - is a good look at the review process and will quote a little as it fits here:

QuoteOkay, let's take Mario Kart 8 as an example. A massive game, clearly one a lot of people would want to pre-order. It even had its own pre-order bonus in the UK, a fancy Spiny shell statue, as an incentive to get people to fork out their money early.

Mario Kart 8's release date was 30 May in both Europe and North America. For many other publishers, this would often result in a review embargo of 29 May.

The games press started receiving download codes for the full version of Mario Kart 8 on 1 May, a full month before it was due to be released. This is a massive help for journalists because it gives us plenty of time to not only fully play through the game, but also digest it, have a think about it and take time to craft a detailed review. It's the complete opposite of the RPG weekend rush job example I gave earlier.

The embargo date for Mario Kart 8 was 8am (UK time) on 15 May, a full fortnight after the press got the game and a full fortnight before its general release. This would have given gamers plenty of time to cancel their pre-orders should the reviews have been less than positive....

The result was a situation which put the power in the hands of the press and, ultimately, the reader, rather than one in which the publisher essentially controlled the way its games were covered.

(Nintendo, as the article says, has a good record for embargoes but for fairness, some (e.g. Star Fox Zero) are incredibly close to the release.)

Going back to the cost of games, I've found that I'm more likely to waste money on inexpensive game purchases than costlier ones. With sales like Steam and GOG, it's very easy buying a lot of games for not much money but I've ended up with a backlog of games that I'm unlikely able to play or, if I do, it's questionable how much I would get out of them. Similarly, I can think of console games that I bought partly because the cost made it an impulse buy, but haven't got round to playing or didn't get much out of it.

I'm selective about which games I pre-order, or buy before price comes down significantly, and am struggling to think of one that I regretted getting. On the contrary, the tendency is that I got great value for money and the delayed gratification at a cheaper price, wouldn't have been a good trade-off. When I buy a game for more, it's one that I really want to play.

One reason some will chose to pre-order is because they like supporting developers. That was one factor why I purchase Chaos Reborn and Prison Architect when I did, for instance. If I had waited (and not long) I could have saved a few quid.

Re: your point about capacity not being limited like cinemas.

Physical media has print runs and not just limited editions. The vast majority of Wii U games had relatively small print, which contributed to both retail and second-hand copies tending to maintain high prices for a decent number of games, as did the high cost of digital versions. It was very common for pre-order prices to be noticeably cheaper than the price at launch – for example, I got at least two games for £25, which went straight up to RRP or higher as soon as launch. As well as high prices being maintained, some people just couldn't find copies.

Hello Games are under investigation for false advertising apparently...good, maybe publishers and developers will tell something like the truth now.

Shay Chaise

I genuinely enjoyed the fifty hours I put into the game. The first thirty were especially great fun and fired my imagination. I do think you need to bring a fair bit of imagination to it, which seems like a shit defence of anything, but yeah, I was fully immersed. The issue is that once you've upgraded everything, there's nothing to do. It's got nothing to do with the physics stuff they dropped or day/night whatever. It's that too few worlds are dense enough or bleak enough and it's not balanced very well since everything is available everywhere if you walk for five minutes. There's kinda no reason to explore. Hmm. Before you realise that, it's a good game.

Thursday

Very conflicted on this, on the one hand, I enjoyed it for a time, and this does seem like a typical case of gamer entitlement. On the other hand they were definitely a bit misleading about the game and deserve to get called out on some of this.  But then every game trailer is these days and while that does need to change, it feels unfair to hang Hello Games of all people out to dry when big publishers are far more deserving targets. Then again the space battles really are shit.

Penfold


Big Jack McBastard

People had far too high an expectation of what this was gonna be based on that slimy hipster's blathering.

I played it for about a week while listening to podcasts before realising I'd seen everything already and cheated my way to the core to get that heap of nothing out of the way and that was that for me. Was meh, pretty in places but nothing gets any better or feels like it has a point. I dunno if base building is gonna change much given how much sod all there is out there, farming seems pointless unless the resources have been shoehorned[nb]horseshoed hahaha[/nb] in to make it essential

QuoteCommunications Terminals allow explorers to leave sub-space messages for others to find

'This game is shit lolz' - Captain Cuntface

I may have a look all the same there was 'something' to the original it's just everything around it was tissue thin and that soured a lot of folks. Can't trust 'sneak peak' reveals, even if they actually program that shit in they can cut it out just as swiftly and leave you with a nerfed product.

Shay Chaise

Fair play, I didn't expect this. If it is truly the start of six months to a year of significant support to improve the mechanics and lifespan of this game, fair play. Yes, they completely ballsed up with the disingenuous, lying bullshit but I really enjoyed the first twenty hours and it definitely fired my imagination. I actually enjoyed the next twenty because of the promise of what might come. It was when I started reading around more and realised I'd done everything and that there was nothing at stake or nothing to play for, and my theories about identifying more complex environments were just not true, and that there was nothing to understand about the game's systems, that's when it died immediately.

Thursday

They did say they were going to be adding base building to the game, I think it was mentioned on the statement they made about the patch notes at launch though, so I can see why it got buried.

They probably could have mentioned it again though. I can see why they went completely silent, but just a "we're working on stuff" tweet probably would have been advisable.

Penfold

The sprint button is still on the wrong stick.

Started my first base. You need to build a scanner to find a habitable base. Not sure if the scanners at some buildings give you the option.

You can teleport yourself and your ship between space station and planet base.

The quick menu is handy for faster refueling and now when you scan planets and it will tell you what resources are on it without landing.

You can land on Freighters to buy them, the first one I saw cost about 7 million, I only have 4.

Not touched the new Creative or survival mode but creative lets you build for free.

There's new blueprints to discover, hazmat gloves, and advanced mining lasers which I think is linked to science man you hire for base.

That's my version of the patch notes. I'm enjoying it so far. Unless I can't find the mineral I need to construct science station, in which case I'll hate it.

Thursday

What's the point of freighters, are you effectively just buying more inventory space?

One thing I also noticed is that you can now put multiple Atlas Stones in one spot.

Big Jack McBastard

Is there any point to any of it though? Or does the 'Ah there's no end or anything to fight against' vibe that it originally started to stink[nb]a spelling mistake I stand by[/nb] in after about 10 hours still hang over it?

Bhazor

The real problem with No Man's Sky now? It's racist.

http://archive.is/nQsvG

Penfold

Quote from: Big Jack McBastard on November 27, 2016, 08:32:27 PM
Is there any point to any of it though? Or does the 'Ah there's no end or anything to fight against' vibe that it originally started to stink[nb]a spelling mistake I stand by[/nb] in after about 10 hours still hang over it?

I've got some base building objectives now but I can see myself getting bored much quicker as travelling around looking for a specific item with no obvious guide is getting tedious.

There's no point to any game. None of this matters.

Big Jack McBastard

Yeah but fuck me this one hammered that home already, I don't think I need another dose. There was a point last month where there were 0 players on Steam so it was living up to it's name.

Soon as they said "procedural generation" everyone should have gone 'Ahh it's gonna be shit then'.


Ham Bap

Played the game at launch for 20 hours or so until the endless gameplay loop of nothingness got the better of me. Saw the video of the new update yesterday and it looked decent, probably how the game should have launched. Was even tempted to buy it again.. for about £15 if i could get one. Watched the video of someone's base and the pointlessness of the whole thing came back to me. I'll not be going back to it for now.

Big Jack McBastard

Christ, I can't imagine buying it once never mind considering a second time. This game probably taught the majority of hopeless idealists to #ahem# 'try before they buy'.

Lee Van Cleef

I'm about six or so hours into my first try of NMS. It's alright, I mean I've spent a few hours on the fifth or so planet I've come to because it's good for basic resources and so it's easier to knock out a good exploration. I've even set it as my base, even though I have no idea what I'm doing with that.

chand

Have played three hours or so of this (it's about £22 on PSN in the January sale), and I'm quite enjoying it. I was fairly realistic about the amount of Actual Gaming that would be involved. I liked the idea of No Man's Sky from the beginning but I always expected it to turn out to be a glorified walking sim that you'd just potter around in, and it was fairly obvious that all the gamers who'd seemingly expected it to be this epoch-defining mega-experience that they'd play constantly for the next decade would be disappointed. So I just figured I'd see how it all played out and get it when the price came.

Beyond the basic concept I'd deliberately not read too much about it so I was actually quite surprised to find things like inhabited bases and space stations. Other stuff's taken a while to get used to, I thought I'd got stuck on the first planet because I'd wandered around ages not finding any zinc and ended up trapped in a cave that was too high to jetpack my way out of. But yeah, at the moment I'm playing Mafia 3 and Bloodborne as well, so this makes a nice change of pace whenever I go back to it.

Shay Chaise

Massive update just released on PS4 to mark the one year anniversary of the game. If you haven't dipped into this since launch, it's already changed quite a lot with base building and various vehicles for getting around on the surface, plus graphical and procedural improvements, plenty of QoL stuff.

This is the biggest patch yet and addresses a lot of the stuff which simply wasn't there as promised or suggested. They've added about thirty hours of story, a new race, blah blah blah. They've also added some limited co-op, not sure exactly to what extent but they say you can now explore together and actually meet up. That's pretty big. Lots of other graphical improvements. UI and systemic improvements to map, inventory, scanning and so on.

Basically, every aspect of the game from fighting to exploring is improved, they say, and loads of stuff added with the promise of further support to come.

Yes, they oversold what they would bring at launch but I've been impressed by the attempt to dig their way out of the deepest grave in memory and that they're supporting it this heavily a year on definitely goes some way to salvaging their reputation, and certainly bringing the game much closer to what was promised and imagined.

Viero_Berlotti

Still £9.99 on Playstation Store until 16.08.17 as well. Might have to get this tonight.

Phil_A

Appropriate timing, I started on the PC version last night.

Not a great first experience, to be honest. My starting planet had extremely high radiation which meant every time I ventured away from the ship my suit protection started decreasing rapidly. It's a bit shit, and is making everything much harder than it needs to be, especially as one of my first deposits is eight minutes walk away. I think I may have to start over and hope the next roll of the dice is more favourable.

Shay Chaise

Phil, I'd certainly install the update and start again. There are some changes apparently to your starting state, even if just a different ship or something.

For a tenner, it's a steal. It's still predominantly a massive walking simulator and resource gathering loop but it does have a hell of a lot more meat on the bones now.

I just played half an hour of the new build, definitely an improvement without getting into any of the new mission stuff or any story, just flying around on the surface of some planets and bouncing from clifftops with the jetpack. There seems to be more verticality to the planets than I remember, which is an improvement.

Thursday

I want to start this again now, but there's also so many other games I'd rather be playing. If they continue to support it, the way they have done over the next year, it really will be something.

Penfold

#296
My fucking base has been demolished but I still have 3 exocraft parked outside.

I don't know whether to rebuild or go to the story mode objective to build a new one.


EDIT: Hang on, they've just moved most of my base to the new mission marker with some floors missing. Luckily the exocraft pads were there for a quick teleport. Fortunately my home plannet is still tropical and watery, apparently other people have had theirs turn into irradiated wastelands.

Bhazor

It has taken me a little over a year but I've finally worked out the funniest possible joke.

Why do Liverpudians like No Man's Sky?
Because theres No Mancs, aye.

Viero_Berlotti

Put about 4 or 5 hours into this and enjoying it so far. Fixed my spaceship, started building a base, visited a few other planets and just got the hyperdrive and warped to another solar system. There seems to be quite a bit of depth there in the crafting aspect and there seems to be lots to do at the minute, but I do get this sense of emptiness lurking in the background that makes me think I might get bored with it pretty soon. Absolutely loving the look of it as well. I've always been a fan of sci-fi and fantasy art and this feels like I'm inhabiting one of the illustrations from the Terran Trade Authority Spacewreck book I had as a kid, so there's a nice nostalgia thing going on there as well.

Ham Bap

Im back playing this. Bought it again for a tenner and started up since the last update last week. Theres more to it now and its nice to play that I can sit back and relax whilst listening to podcasts.