No Man's Sky

Nerdlingr

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Elite Dangerous started fairly broken too.
I got it for the XB1 and, until the mission system was repaired, it was a good-looking aimless mess too.
But, over the past year, it has developed a direction, and the repaired mission system has enabled the player to develop to their own career within the world Braben and Co. developed for us.
And, they've also laid out a clear road map for the future of the franchise, and have meshed multiplayer into it too.

Any idea when this out out for PS4 ? Used to play Frontier for hours on end as a kid. Would love to try Dangerous. No Man's Sky isnt engaging enough for me. Yeah its a computing marvel, the self populating worlds, but after while its all a bit samey. Disappointed in it myself.

Mickeroo

Nerdlingr wrote: »

Any idea when this out out for PS4 ? Used to play Frontier for hours on end as a kid. Would love to try Dangerous. No Man's Sky isnt engaging enough for me. Yeah its a computing marvel, the self populating worlds, but after while its all a bit samey. Disappointed in it myself.

Nothing concrete at all at the moment, apparently they said this on facebook in July: "There's no exclusivity period at the moment but we're just developing the PS4 version of the game at the moment. We're hoping it's ready for you all soon but we're not quite there yet. More to be announced soon"

I would say it should show up in the next year going by that but the fact there was nothing mentioned at Gamescon doesn't really bode all that well.

CiDeRmAn

Hopefully PS4 owners will benefit from the time it has spent in ongoing development on PC and XB1, and get to straight to the Elite: Dangerous Horizons package.

If you are looking for a game that brings the whole package, from the minutia of trading cargo, both legal and illegal, to the cut and thrust of a spot of piracy, on both sides of the law, plus the option of following the orders of the various power brokers throughout the galaxy and then the even broader geo/astro political moves going on, it's an amazing game.
They currently allow landing on airless rocks, no walking about but there is a nifty rover available and ground based stations to reach for more trading and contract work.
Atmospheric landings are in the road map for the game, as are navigable craft and stations, multicrew ships, and much more.
Frontier Developments make not bones about charging for these extras in "seasons" but their is always updates and improvements going on in the background.

A bit like Steel Battalion on the original Xbox, this seems like the definitive game of it's type on console and, if it's you bag, might well give cause to purchase the machine, if a PS4 date is still unforthcoming.
The visuals are stunning, though it is more 2001 stark colours and functional looking tech rather than the lurid 50's and 60's pulp scifi cover colour schemes of No Man's Sky.

Captain Chaos

Elite is the main reason I have not traded in my Xbox One, that and Forza 6. I do hope for the day it comes to PS4. Some people are saying the game will only run on Direct X and the PS4 uses Open GL and that's why it will never be on a non Microsoft machine.

Mickeroo

FDev have said it is coming to PS4 just no time frame as of yet as far as I know.

Zillah

M!Ck^ wrote: »

Joe get's it spot on tbf

Yeah, this is all fair.

"The strongest, most potential-filled average game ever".

Zillah

Zillah wrote: »

Yeah, this is all fair.

"The strongest, most potential-filled average game ever".

What concerns me the most is this upward trend of promising features and not delivering them in the final product. It's not just this game there have been countless other examples over the last few years.
Joe calls out so much of the bull****e.
Charging 60 quid thereafter is just so greedy IMO

CiDeRmAn

Driveclub is a similar example, the game promised much and was released in a much reduced form, with many features from the back of the box missing.
Sony had to dig deep and give away a lot of DLC and spend money in further development to actually finish the game, probably 9 months after the game came out.
Now Driveclub is a stunning racing game, in the vein of the Project Gotham games on the MS consoles, with many of the same team developing, but it was very damaged by Sony's poor efforts to rush it's release.
No Man's Sky seems to be in a similar boat.
The game we were all waiting for is probably not going to be available until Spring 2017!

Sephiroth_dude

M!Ck^ wrote: »

Joe get's it spot on tbf

Having watched that I'm really glad I went with my gut feeling and didn't get this.

I think Sean has some explaining to do after watching that.

FAILSAFE 00

Danonino. wrote: »

...

Edit: WELL HOLY ****. After what must be 40+ hours I finally hit a planet that looks straight out of the trailers.
Monsoon weather cycles and gorgeous scenery, big open grass plains and mountains surrounded by thick forests, oceans, the whole lot. It's like a different game. Very atmospheric and surreal.

Weird crocodile looking feckers hanging out down near water attack on sight while massive lumbering Dino things lumber around the mountains. I'll make sure to share screens tomorrow.

The weird thing is I've almost no reason to find points of interest as I'm so far in I don't need to and was about to give up hope that planets like the ones used to promote the game existed. That's sad because it shouldn't take 40+ hours of dross to be floored by what they obviously wanted to be found.

Is that you Sean

Zillah

Danonino. wrote: »

I regret not making my way to the centre sooner.
I've played a silly amount of hours and finished the atlas collecting.

Thing is I never really moved forward after that, just from system to system exploring. Had a bit of a shock when I seen the centre was over 167369.5 light years away!?

That's insane. Actually insane. I just hope I get there before I get completely sick of it all.
Finally discovered an extreme condition planet too, I've been super unlucky to not find one till now.

Edit: WELL HOLY ****. After what must be 40+ hours I finally hit a planet that looks straight out of the trailers.
Monsoon weather cycles and gorgeous scenery, big open grass plains and mountains surrounded by thick forests, oceans, the whole lot. It's like a different game. Very atmospheric and surreal.

Weird crocodile looking feckers hanging out down near water attack on sight while massive lumbering Dino things lumber around the mountains. I'll make sure to share screens tomorrow.

The weird thing is I've almost no reason to find points of interest as I'm so far in I don't need to and was about to give up hope that planets like the ones used to promote the game existed. That's sad because it shouldn't take 40+ hours of dross to be floored by what they obviously wanted to be found.

I would really like to see screenshots so I can tell if you're just a lot more excited about something I've already seen or if you really have found something awesome

Xenji

I got €42 cash in Gamestop today for this, so broke even on it and the money will be used on KOF XIV, I was surprised though when the girl behind the counter said it was the first copy brought in.

Venom

According to a few different forums, the distance to the universe's center players see in game is wrong due to the day 1 patch that made everything else bigger, not correcting the distance meter for the new galaxy sizes! What ever distance you see in game needs to be multiplied by 4 :eek:

Andrew76

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

Having watched that I'm really glad I went with my gut feeling and didn't get this.

Same here. €60 for a "glorified tech demo" with nice music, no thanks.

Some of the points he raised would definitely outweigh any fun/relaxation I might have gained from the exploration side - the crappy inventory, poor navigation not being able to easily back travel, crappy combat, not to mention the game crashing or the rubbish ending to it (that's some trolling right there).

Like others have said, maybe a year down the line it will be a much better experience, and following this thread has at least made me re-install Elite Dangerous and see if that is better to play these days - space games can be cool when done correctly.

Zillah

Venom wrote: »

According to a few different forums, the distance to the universe's center players see in game is wrong due to the day 1 patch that made everything else bigger, not correcting the distance meter for the new galaxy sizes! What ever distance you see in game needs to be multiplied by 4 :eek:

I thought something fucky was going on with distances - the number never seemed to reduce as much as it should. I even resorted to taking photos of the before and after to make sure I wasn't crazy.

Also black holes are useless once you've upgraded your drive, and often don't even seem to move you closer. Also, one of them broke my Theta reactor, resulting in a repair bill of 500 gold and 500 emeril...go fudge yourself, I aint spending an hour or two grinding resources to undo randomly generated damage.

Venom

Zillah wrote: »

I thought something fucky was going on with distances - the number never seemed to reduce as much as it should. I even resorted to taking photos of the before and after to make sure I wasn't crazy.

Also black holes are useless once you've upgraded your drive, and often don't even seem to move you closer. Also, one of them broke my Theta reactor, resulting in a repair bill of 500 gold and 500 emeril...go fudge yourself, I aint spending an hour or two grinding resources to undo randomly generated damage.

The only time I used a black hole resulted in a broken weapon coolant module which wasn't that big a deal but something like a hyperdrive module would really suck.

What's the story with this Sean Murray guy anyways?
I know that he's Irish in some way and that he worked in games dev before going out on his own but what's his background - where is he from and where did he study etc? I haven't seen much on this written anywhere...
I don't particularly like that accent of his.

====

Edit - did find this - http://nomanssky.gamepedia.com/Sean_Murray

even the accent issue is addressed.

Hello! I'm the Managing Director here at Hello Games. I'm from Ireland originally but moved about a bit – including a few years in Australia growing up (apparently leaving me with a confused accent).

In 2001, Murray received his Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from University College Cork, a constituent university of National University of Ireland located in Cork, Ireland. In 2000, Murray began working as a lead programmer for Criterion Games, developer of the Burnout Series, and became technical director of independent developer Kuju in 2006. He stayed at Kuju until founding Hello Games with a few of his friends in March of 2008.

CiDeRmAn

I don't think there's anything wrong with Sean or what he has said.
I think he had an interesting idea that was projected into the limelight by Sony who were desperate for something to show at the 2015 E3.
With Hello Games remaining a small team during it's development it just didn't have the resources to produce the game that was promised.
And I doubt Sean had much leeway over the promotional opportunities, and just made the best of them, with indulged presenters doing much of the talking and bloggers generating the feature list for a game that wasn't released yet.
Hardly surprising that it has failed to live up to the hype.
I thought it was cool to have an Irishman fronting such a big title, and I find some of the personal abuse aimed at him to be shameful and ill deserved.

Zillah

He made about a dozen claims about what was going to be in the game, right up until days before release, that turned out to be completely untrue. Have sympathy for him if you like, but he lied his ass off in the press about what we were paying for.

CiDeRmAn

List the claims, let's have a look at them.

And I don't necessarily have sympathy for him, he and his team have made a product, a flawed product, and it was released.
I just wonder just how much control he had, regards the release schedule, and suspect he would have preferred more time to refine the title, refine into the game it was supposed to be.

But, as a game that was never about Multiplayer, and never had a plot, we suffered due to our assumptions, and the assumptions of those we trusted.
The focus on inventory management and resource management was entirely understated.
You can find Sean mentioning the distribution of animal filled worlds vs depopulated, desolate planets, but this was poorly reported and the focus remained on the Sony hype train instead.

CiDeRmAn

In fact, I think a lot of the response from online sources about NMS is more about saving face, with those who promoted the game without playing it being caught out and are trying to convince the viewing public that it wasn't their fault, that they were conned too.

Retr0gamer

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

In fact, I think a lot of the response from online sources about NMS is more about saving face, with those who promoted the game without playing it being caught out and are trying to convince the viewing public that it wasn't their fault, that they were conned too.

No, he actually did come out and say those things pretty explicitly and it's well documented. Even Superbunnyhops video review has a segment with him talking about multiplayer.

CiDeRmAn

Retr0gamer wrote: »

No, he actually did come out and say those things pretty explicitly and it's well documented. Even Superbunnyhops video review has a segment with him talking about multiplayer.

But, what was this multiplayer element?
All I learned from the various interviews was that it was a super massive galaxy and, regardless of the numbers of players, the chances of meeting a human player were infinitesimal, even if they are all playing on the same server.
With the number of worlds the game is capable of generating in one galaxy, it is not unfair to suggest people could in theory meet up but it was incredibly unlikely to the point of impossible.
What Sean appears to have underestimated is the determination of players to test games to breaking, and that's what they did, visited the same world and never saw each other.
So, Sean is either lying, the system isn't finished or they were on different servers and so there are limits to what the system can do.
link
The quote from Sean in this interview seems to reflect the actual end state of the multiplayer element.
The presence of other players is felt in coming across worlds, systems and creatures that have already been discovered, but otherwise you are not playing an MMO space adventure with your mates, it's not that type of game and never was.
Some accusatory videos have Sean being pressed on the multiplayer, where he repeats the above but has the presenter continuing to press their own hopes for multiplayer, with Sean just looking embarrassed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE0nuW-mQ8A

Only the last part of the clip has anything approaching an untruth, and even then we have to wonder what was planned for the end product and what they could make work in the time frame given to them by Sony.

Danonino.

Zillah wrote: »

I would really like to see screenshots so I can tell if you're just a lot more excited about something I've already seen or if you really have found something awesome

Ah it was pretty cool. I'll try get the screens of the ps4 later.

What was ****e was the planet like every other had nothing new to offer outside of views. Same upgrades I've gotten a billion times, same monoliths, same trade posts. Atlas pass v2, some +4 or 5 upgrades? Nope. No progression for a long time regardless of which class system I'm in etc. Went for 100% scans and spent hours looking for the last creature. Got pissed off and left.

So I made it a mission to make it to the centre.
Worked out I'd have to warp over 150 times to get there.

No thanks. Will get the last two achievements (extreme and zoology) and trade in while it's still at €50

Guess for €15 rental it was enjoyable.

Zillah

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

List the claims, let's have a look at them.

Reddit has done an entire thesis on it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/4y1h9i/wheres_the_no_mans_sky_we_were_sold_on_a_big_list/

Edit: whoops, wrong quote

FAILSAFE 00

I am guessing they have sliced a lot of stuff out for DLC. Co-op, possibly multiplayer. All the long list of stuff promised like warring factions where you can pick a faction.

Zillah

Danonino. wrote: »

No thanks. Will get the last two achievements (extreme and zoology) and trade in while it's still at €50

I can't believe they're paying so much for second hand NMS copies. That would imply that they're paying as much or more for them wholesale? Is their cut on a PS4 game really about a tenner?

Potential-Monke

Right now, i'm of the opinion that Sean was overwhelmed by the amount of work needed after Sony got involved. He probably had an idea, knew a rough time frame, and was working from there. Sony got involved, and i'd imagine started pumping money into him and his team, but in return demanded it be released soon. A few times it was put back, but I still think Sony pressured him into getting it done quicker. I don't believe he blatantly lied about features, just that they didn't get enough time to put them all in and have them working. I'm pretty sure these will be patched in, dlc at some stage. I also get the feeling from the most recent interviews, etc, that Sony have him gagged to a degree, like he's not allowed say anything negative or to confirm/deny features because Sony said so. It looks like he wants to say, but he's not allowed.

Is it what he advertised? For now, yes, I think so. And, like many others, the idea of other players being able to find you and grief you (because, lets be honest, that happens in nearly every mp game) would put me off this game. If they are adding proper mp, I hope you have the option of refusing the other persons request/attack. I know it wouldn't be realistic to say no to being attacked by another player, but I don't care. This game is a relaxing one with moments of combat. It would ruin it for me knowing that I could be killed out of nowhere by another player whose sole intention is to kill everyone he sees. Be different if, say, you were on a mission delivering something where the possibility of a direct attack is probable. But I don't want to be interrupted while i'm doing my own thing.

johnny_ultimate

I have a few thoughts on all this 'misrepresentation' business, but I'm not going to waste my time typing them as I think this article form Mode7's Paul Kilduff-Taylor does it better than I would do Be warned, it's a properly long but worthwhile read.

Personally, and this is more generally speaking, I endeavour to tune out from the hype as much as reasonably possible these days. Games are really the only medium that are put through the sort of scrutiny, questioning and evaluation that they are often years before the finished product is released (Hollywood blockbusters are too to a certain degree). The way game preview and interview journalism work are also unproductive and too 'product' focused. This is perilous when creative works by their very nature change are subject to significant change during the gestation process, and ironically that's probably even more true of video games where very practical and technical limitations become an everyday reality.

Should Sean Murray have been clearer or less idealistic in interviews? Probably, but he was also a designer working on a game that was still coming together. I think his biggest crime was being excited about what he was making, and unlike, say, Peter Molyneux also showed an ability to be grounded and downplay expectations on occasion.

Ultimately, I'm happy with judging the game on the game itself, and all the strengths and flaws within.

CiDeRmAn

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I have a few thoughts on all this 'misrepresentation' business, but I'm not going to waste my time typing them as I think this article form Mode7's Paul Kilduff-Taylor does it better than I would do Be warned, it's a properly long but worthwhile read.
.

Yeah, that article is pretty much spot on.
It highlights just how much incredible work was done by Hello Games in being true to the early trailers, acknowledges the work still to be done, and just how self indulgent and whiny people can be when faced with a game that doesn't measure up to their own ridiculous standards.