Zero Punctuation: No Man's Sky
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
In before Escapist is DDOSed for a negative review of No Man's Sky.
In all seriousness, everything I've watched about this game says to me, "I would like this game . . . if only it had something to it." It has so many basic elements I want in a game, but there are just no fine details to make engaging or give it personality. It's video game equivalent of a data entry job.
In all seriousness, everything I've watched about this game says to me, "I would like this game . . . if only it had something to it." It has so many basic elements I want in a game, but there are just no fine details to make engaging or give it personality. It's video game equivalent of a data entry job.
I, for one, am shocked, shocked to learn that Yahtzee didn't like it.
Especially considering he's saying the same things a lot of other people have said since it dropped.
Especially considering he's saying the same things a lot of other people have said since it dropped.
The game gives me the impression that you're supposed to pick up only what you currently need to continue your journey but it fails to provide any variety of obstacles along the way. Craft a warp cell once (out of extremely common materials) and you've seen all the things needed to progress already. Get a bit into the "story" and you get the tools to have warp cells galore. There's no new threats popping up to block your way, just your patience.
It's basically an endless series of sandboxes in the old sense of "here's a ton of identical side activities" except without missions to break up the gameplay and all the activities are between super easy and "just walk in and say hi to get a gift".
It's basically an endless series of sandboxes in the old sense of "here's a ton of identical side activities" except without missions to break up the gameplay and all the activities are between super easy and "just walk in and say hi to get a gift".
And don't forget that the Developers lied and released a game with almost nothing that they promised, despite still using old build footage to advertise it. The list of stuff they promised and then didn't have is massive, to the point that it seems almost like it should be illegal to lie that much.
That was kinder than I was expecting, frankly kinder than the game, and especially devs, deserve.
Live by the Hype Train, die by the Hype Train.
I'd like to think people would learn a good lesson from this debacle, but I doubt it.
In too many people's minds the perfect game is one that hasn't been released yet. That in potentia state where it can be anything you can and will imagine. You have to have it, even before it's released, have to be the first among your neckbearded clan to experience such perfection. When it turns out to not be the nerdvana you'd imagined, or even very good or at all like what was sold as, you check to see what the rest of the gaming herd is bleating, bleat similarly, and move on to the next bit of unreleased game that you're absolutely sure will this time be perfection personified.
Sean Murray rode that wave, encouraged it with vague blather, when he should have, had he any brains at all, have dampened it some rather than risk his and his company's name for that sweet, sweet pre-order luchre. I hope it, and whatever mountains of cash Sony heaved his way, was worth it, because I doubt he'll get away with the whole "Aww shucks, I'm just a gamer like y'all!" act again. At least I hope not, then again I didn't get why anyone fell for that in the first place, or why so many failed to recall just how many wall hacking, aimbotting, corpse camping, lying, cheating, rage screaming twits are among the gamer fraternity.
Live by the Hype Train, die by the Hype Train.
I'd like to think people would learn a good lesson from this debacle, but I doubt it.
In too many people's minds the perfect game is one that hasn't been released yet. That in potentia state where it can be anything you can and will imagine. You have to have it, even before it's released, have to be the first among your neckbearded clan to experience such perfection. When it turns out to not be the nerdvana you'd imagined, or even very good or at all like what was sold as, you check to see what the rest of the gaming herd is bleating, bleat similarly, and move on to the next bit of unreleased game that you're absolutely sure will this time be perfection personified.
Sean Murray rode that wave, encouraged it with vague blather, when he should have, had he any brains at all, have dampened it some rather than risk his and his company's name for that sweet, sweet pre-order luchre. I hope it, and whatever mountains of cash Sony heaved his way, was worth it, because I doubt he'll get away with the whole "Aww shucks, I'm just a gamer like y'all!" act again. At least I hope not, then again I didn't get why anyone fell for that in the first place, or why so many failed to recall just how many wall hacking, aimbotting, corpse camping, lying, cheating, rage screaming twits are among the gamer fraternity.
Love the nod to the old fairy liquid rocket ads.
I was tentatively looking forward to No Man's Sky. The idea of a space exploration game with some light trade and combat compared to Elite appealed to me. A nice idea with some pretty impressive tech for a small indie team, let down by a mix of lofty goals, unclear marketing, baffling basic design decisions and expectations that had spiraled out of control.
A least the gaming public and media has learned it lesson into buying to much into pre-release PR. I'm sure that when the next space exploration game is released that promises much will be met in a much more level headed way. >.>
I was tentatively looking forward to No Man's Sky. The idea of a space exploration game with some light trade and combat compared to Elite appealed to me. A nice idea with some pretty impressive tech for a small indie team, let down by a mix of lofty goals, unclear marketing, baffling basic design decisions and expectations that had spiraled out of control.
A least the gaming public and media has learned it lesson into buying to much into pre-release PR. I'm sure that when the next space exploration game is released that promises much will be met in a much more level headed way. >.>
EliteK.ur said:
angerous never was, and never will be "fun." It's grindy, frustrating, complicated, massive, overwhelming, awe inspiring, beautiful, glorious, and amazing in every sense of the word. Every time I play I find something new to complain about, or a new way to complain about a previous complaint. But it has me by the balls and I can't do anything about it.
They're still going (with the kid bemoaning the stuff lasting forever), even though modern Fairy Liquid bottles look nothing like rockets any more...The Artificially Prolonged said:
With the less than stellar performances of Star Fox Zero, No Man's Sky and MN9 made people uneasy about delays, especially since the 30FPS in the Demo of Breath of the Wild, people are currently targeting Final Fantasy XV and The Last Guardian as the next hype train-wrecks. To which I will answer, you better jump that bandwagon folk, SquareEnix is going to deliver the Final Fantasy that people always wanted if the trailers are to be believed and they never lied; and Team Ico, what is there to say? It's Team Ico, the guys who made Ico, to which inspired MGS 3: Snake Eater, Twilight Princess and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time; the trailers do look kind of rubbish, but with Shadow of the Colossus and Ico under their belt, they can take as much as benefits of the doubt that they can.
With that out of the way, No Man's Sky was the answer to Minecraft's question "Why must this world be alive one when there's a player?" and NMS would deliver by making the universe distinct, but I think they actually forgot about the player actually doing something in this universe of possibilities. With the way they only advertized how big their universe was, the question: "What do we actually do with it?" was becoming inevitable, this looked more like a NASA space project to when we abandon Earth rather than being something to interact with. You know what would have made the game better, if instead of a billion, they made just 9 planets, but made them actually planet-sized, with variety on each and every corner of it, that way each planet will deliver a different experience and each one is going to feature the variety necessary to keep invested in, with some stuff to do added of course.
With that out of the way, No Man's Sky was the answer to Minecraft's question "Why must this world be alive one when there's a player?" and NMS would deliver by making the universe distinct, but I think they actually forgot about the player actually doing something in this universe of possibilities. With the way they only advertized how big their universe was, the question: "What do we actually do with it?" was becoming inevitable, this looked more like a NASA space project to when we abandon Earth rather than being something to interact with. You know what would have made the game better, if instead of a billion, they made just 9 planets, but made them actually planet-sized, with variety on each and every corner of it, that way each planet will deliver a different experience and each one is going to feature the variety necessary to keep invested in, with some stuff to do added of course.
As I've said before elsewhere, Minecraft started as a silly little virtual building-block toy that Notch banged together when he realized that people who played Infiniminer were more interested in using the blocks they'd picked up to build things rather than mine for resources or whatever it is you're supposed to do in Infiniminer. All the survival-mode stuff was added in later, and was made to give you the sense that this is a real world with real materials and provide a degree of challenge to your construction projects. By keeping that stuff and leaving out the building aspect, these survival sandbox games are essentially Minecraft minus Minecraft.
Building is so essential to the Minecraft experience that it extends even into the survival stuff. How do you survive the night? You build a shelter. How do you deal with your limited inventory? You place a chest in that shelter. How do you travel long distances? You either build an elevated track, dig out a subway tunnel, or erect a portal. How do you gather rare minerals? You dig down and start a mine system. Even one of the game's bosses has to be constructed. And all of that conveys a sense of malleability and tangibility to the world (that block you just mined out/cut down/dug up? You can put it back down anywhere you want and it'll go back to being a solid block, not just some item in your inventory) and emphasizes the role that building has as a core gameplay mechanic.
Building is so essential to the Minecraft experience that it extends even into the survival stuff. How do you survive the night? You build a shelter. How do you deal with your limited inventory? You place a chest in that shelter. How do you travel long distances? You either build an elevated track, dig out a subway tunnel, or erect a portal. How do you gather rare minerals? You dig down and start a mine system. Even one of the game's bosses has to be constructed. And all of that conveys a sense of malleability and tangibility to the world (that block you just mined out/cut down/dug up? You can put it back down anywhere you want and it'll go back to being a solid block, not just some item in your inventory) and emphasizes the role that building has as a core gameplay mechanic.
So... it finally happened!
The voices in your brain have stopped calling you Yahtzee and are now using "Yahtz" as a condescending way of having to pronounce as little of your nickname as possible! :O
Don't worry, you'll *always* be Benjamin Yahtzee Godzilla Croshaw to me!!!
Screw those bastard voices' insolence!
The voices in your brain have stopped calling you Yahtzee and are now using "Yahtz" as a condescending way of having to pronounce as little of your nickname as possible! :O
Don't worry, you'll *always* be Benjamin Yahtzee Godzilla Croshaw to me!!!
Screw those bastard voices' insolence!
So Elite Dangerous has still fun with you after playing for so long? Eh, i got bethesda for that already.Silk_Sk said:EliteK.ur said:
OT: If you wanna a 3d minecraft with SciFi, i would recommand http://planetexplorers.pathea.net/ It has build in item editor and recipe charing. Though it's still on Early Excess, but it got recently into the Beta.
The thing is, in every interview, you can see that he's mentally adding the "but" at the end of every statement. Anyone with any kind of talent at reading people can tell he was hedging anytime he said anything.Myria said:
"Can you play with your friends?"
Slight pause with a "Yeah, but" look on his face. "Yes"
You can tell there was more to it.
Eh, Starforge wised me up about being hopeful with that kind of stuff. I'll check it out if it ever gets a full release.K.ur said:So Elite Dangerous has still fun with you after playing for so long? Eh, i got bethesda for that already.Silk_Sk said:EliteK.ur said:
OT: If you wanna a 3d minecraft with SciFi, i would recommand http://planetexplorers.pathea.net/ It has build in item editor and recipe charing. Though it's still on Early Excess, but it got recently into the Beta.
Came here for the salty tears, but its drier than the Gobi Desert. Guess we're all agreed No Man's Sky is a mess of hot garbage wrapped in the still freshly cut skin of better games.