No Man's Sky

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 9:33 am

...or less beer.

Lee · Post by **Lee** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 10:04 am

Just to clarify, good beer can cost around $40 case (24 beers) here as well. You can almost always get something on sale for cheaper though. I think that the confusion is that a case is only 12 beers in some parts of the US.

killbot737 · Post by **killbot737** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 10:18 am

Don't forget that's in Canadian loonies and toonies and Canadian Tire Money(TM). So it's about $30 gol-durn merica bux.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 10:19 am

Isgrimnur wrote:But if two friends both buy cases and meet at the same place to drink them, will they be able to see each other?

No (assuming all of the beer is consumed and the ABV is Jeff V approved).

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 10:30 am

Max Peck wrote:
Isgrimnur wrote:But if two friends both buy cases and meet at the same place to drink them, will they be able to see each other?
No (assuming all of the beer is consumed and the ABV is Jeff V approved).

Thank you for running with it.

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 10:44 am

Lee wrote:Just to clarify, good beer can cost around $40 case (24 beers) here as well. You can almost always get something on sale for cheaper though. I think that the confusion is that a case is only 12 beers in some parts of the US.

Some parts of Canada too...which was part of why I spoke up. Where I grew up a case = 12, Ontario a case is 24, so was think there might have been a confusion with what a case was (and totally whiffed we were talking $80 and not $40

)

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 10:52 am

I haven't paid $60 for a game in years, yet I'm on the fence about to grab this on Steam. The consensus may be that it's a flawed game, but the entire concept is just intoxicating.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 10:56 am

I'm feeling the same way. At this point I'm more worried about bugs and PC related issues instead of the game play. And that I'd purchase a $60 game, play it for 3 hours and get bored.

Lee · Post by **Lee** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 10:58 am

Zaxxon wrote:I haven't paid $60 for a game in years, yet I'm on the fence about to grab this on Steam. The consensus may be that it's a flawed game, but the entire concept is just intoxicating.

I am torn because gaming site early impressions are almost all bad, yet every forum I go to the people who have actually played it, all seem to like (love) it. $60 is just too much though.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 11:20 am

Zaxxon wrote:I haven't paid $60 for a game in years, yet I'm on the fence about to grab this on Steam. The consensus may be that it's a flawed game, but the entire concept is just intoxicating.

I've never played a game that isn't flawed in one way or another. Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 11:23 am

Well, one good part is that with Steam there's no risk to take it for a 90-minute joy ride. If it sticks, great. If not, $0.

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 11:24 am

Lee wrote:
Zaxxon wrote:I haven't paid $60 for a game in years, yet I'm on the fence about to grab this on Steam. The consensus may be that it's a flawed game, but the entire concept is just intoxicating.
I am torn because gaming site early impressions are almost all bad, yet every forum I go to the people who have actually played it, all seem to like (love) it. $60 is just too much though.

I'll wait for the price to go down, by which time DLC will probably have made the whole experience more interesting.

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 11:29 am

I'm interested but not at $60. Too bad GMG and Amazon don't have it

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 11:29 am

I'm probably 75% convinced to buy this. I have $27 still sitting in my Steam wallet that I didn't use during the summer sale so I can tell myself it will really only cost me $33. And I just got a cash performance award at work so that's like found money. I was thinking about getting it from GOG but I have a feeling this is going to be patched a lot and Steam seems to get the patches much quicker. Plus, there's the Steam wallet thing.

I guess maybe I'll hang back for a bit until I hear what kind of shape the PC release is in and then decide.

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 11:33 am

Hint, easy money, bypass chips fetch good cash, and use 2 very common elements to craft.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 11:33 am

This seems almost perfect for my kids. They enjoy exploring.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 11:37 am

I'm "agonizing" over buying this too. I'm wondering if waiting for bugs / more features / dlc and a lower price is worth it. The lack of Amazon is annoying to me as well - even if to buy a Steam key. I have credit there I would like to use.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 11:37 am

Zarathud wrote:This seems almost perfect for my kids. They enjoy exploring.

This is another thing that has me leaning toward 'buy.' My Daughter #1 v4.8 will probably love just looking around and naming things.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 11:43 am

Is a controller required/recommended on PC? I see it has 'full controller support,' but am hoping it's easily playable with keyboard/mouse. Anyone seen thoughts on this?

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 11:54 am

I think it's going to depend on your bias. As simply 'any given game' then yeah it should be downgraded. But if you were a fan of Asimov et al, or really enjoyed the open world of Starflight then you're going to be more likely to enjoy it, at least for awhile.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 11:54 am

I'm wavering on this. The concept is intriguing, but every time I hear it described as a "survival game", I get a little less interested.

I've got a gift card for $50 collecting dust at home. Maybe I'll go grab the PS4 version this afternoon...

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 12:01 pm

Skinypupy wrote:I'm wavering on this. The concept is intriguing, but every time I hear it described as a "survival game", I get a little less interested.

It's really not a "survival" game. It's an exploration game with some survival elements to it that are pretty mild from everything I've seen.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 12:17 pm

Zaxxon wrote:Well, one good part is that with Steam there's no risk to take it for a 90-minute joy ride. If it sticks, great. If not, $0.

Yes, that's likely the biggest benefit -- and why purchasing off GMG or Amazon isn't nearly as enticing (if that was an option) because there's no return possible. Screw it, I'm in. And with my DSL connection, maybe I'll be playing this weekend.

Lee · Post by **Lee** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 12:31 pm

Judging by my Steam friends list and this thread, a lot of you guys are jumping in. Would love to see some impressions here tonight.

Lee · Post by **Lee** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 12:35 pm

Eurogamer likes it. I tend to trust them, that makes this more difficult.

wonderpug · Post by **wonderpug** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 12:40 pm

I'm so thankful I went on a media blackout for this game a while back. My expectations are set at a very easy-to-meet "this game sounds pretty neat". Unless they cut out spaceships and planets, there's almost zero chance I'll be disappointed about a feature that was cut or scaled back.

Actually, I guess my one preemptive disappointment is that it doesn't sound like there will be HOTAS support for the spaceship flying. I'd have really liked to switch between a gamepad for on-foot stuff and HOTAS for the ship.

naednek · Post by **naednek** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 12:45 pm

Skinypupy wrote:I'm wavering on this. The concept is intriguing, but every time I hear it described as a "survival game", I get a little less interested.

I've got a gift card for $50 collecting dust at home. Maybe I'll go grab the PS4 version this afternoon...

I guarantee you wont' like it.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 12:52 pm

naednek wrote:
Skinypupy wrote:I'm wavering on this. The concept is intriguing, but every time I hear it described as a "survival game", I get a little less interested.

I've got a gift card for $50 collecting dust at home. Maybe I'll go grab the PS4 version this afternoon...
I guarantee you wont' like it.

You're probably right, but I thought that about Elite Dangerous too, and came away really enjoying that.

Sometimes a game scratches an itch you didn't even know you had.

AjD · Post by **AjD** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 12:54 pm

Lee wrote:Eurogamer likes it. I tend to trust them, that makes this more difficult.

That's a very intriguing review. Thanks for posting it. I also trust Eurogamer. Especially reviews from editor Oli Welsh. He's a great writer, and takes the video game form seriously.

This part sold me, as it addresses my biggest concern:

Some disappointment is inevitable once you've visited a handful of planets and started to see the limits of the algorithm. The parameters of weirdness in No Man's Sky have been quite strictly defined, and it gets repetitive. Look, here's another world of dog-things and dinosaur-things and little lumpy green groundhogs, of rock arches and caves of glowing minerals. There are limits to what Hello Games' artists can create, even if there are no limits to what the algorithm can do with it - and actually, if you want the game to look this good all the time, even the algorithm's style is going to be cramped. So a certain ennui does descend as you make your tenth, fifteenth, twentieth planetfall.

But then something great happens. As you get deeper into the game, you start to understand the algorithm's language, and gain a keener appreciation of the parameters at work. Once you've visited a planet with an extreme weather system, where you need to sprint from your starship to nearby shelter; once you've discovered planets barren of all life, or rich in certain rare minerals you need, or infested with aggressive security drones that hound you if you so much as mine some iron; once you've had to puzzle out how to island-hop across an ocean planet where fuel for your ship's launch thrusters is a rare find; then you start to really understand the character of a new world, and what it means for your endless journey into the stars. Land on a world with a mild climate, relaxed drone security, rich deposits and blue skies after a long string of harsh planetary encounters and you will feel the greatest joy of the explorer: the exultation of a great find.

Oli also mentions that "it takes quite a long time - dozens of hours and star systems and planets, hundreds of light years - before a true appreciation of (the game) sets in." I think this may be why people who have been playing the game for dozens of hours are reporting better experiences than some of the early impressions articles posted by pro gaming Web sites, which typically have only played the game for a handful of hours.

The apparent slow-grow style of this game reminds me of the old days ('80s PC games), when you bought one game and played it for weeks and weeks. Back then, I didn't expect a game to "wow" me instantly. And I also expected it to get better/more engrossing the more I played it. (I miss that kind of game!)

Maybe it's because I'm pretty old too. Come to think of it... I also like slow burning '70s style character-driven movies. And listening to albums of music from start-to-finish. My forum posts are pretty long too. And the main point of my posts usually comes near the end. So there you go.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 1:00 pm

Downloading now. 2.5 GB.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 1:01 pm

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 1:02 pm

Installing

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 1:10 pm

Sepiche wrote:Downloading now. 2.5 GB.

I might actually be playing this afternoon then. I don't know why I thought it was a much larger installation. Hooray!

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 1:13 pm

That's just the downloader client.

System Requirements
Storage: 10 GB available space

killbot737 · Post by **killbot737** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 1:21 pm

OMG I already ran into someone named Joey Jo-Jo Junior Shabadoo.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 1:25 pm

Smoove_B wrote:I don't know why I thought it was a much larger installation. Hooray!

The install should decompress to about 6 gig or so. A lot of the game content is procedurally generated so that really keeps the size down.

PC players, don't forget to go into options before you start playing and change the settings. The default setting is 30 FPS so change that. The default FOV is 70 so change that. If you are having trouble changing them, you have to hold the mouse key down (weird). And no, I don't have the game, I just read stuff.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 1:28 pm

killbot737 wrote:OMG I already ran into someone named Joey Jo-Jo Junior Shabadoo.

That's the worst name I've ever heard!

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 1:36 pm

Hahaha, this is at 1:30 EST. So a half hour after launch. It's going to be interesting to see what the numbers look like by tomorrow.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 1:45 pm

Since I have another hour+ to go in downloading, I was perusing the STEAM forums for the game and it's filled with crash reports and people saying it won't load. It's so difficult to take the STEAM forums seriously and understand whether or not there really is a problem, so I'll take the lack of commentary from my fellow OOers as a good sign.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Fri Aug 12, 2016 1:52 pm

Greetings from planet Barsoom, in the Dagobah system.

After downloading, my install directory is still only about 2.55G. Maybe it will grow as I explore and see more of the galaxy. The game does not seem to be alt-tab friendly if I run it in full-screen mode (I couldn't alt-tab back into the game and had to kill the process and restart). I've switched to borderless windowed mode for the time being.