No Man's Sky

Thanks, will do! I did get sick of looking for oxygen plants last night. So, I made a tiny shack, have the base computer, structure builder, bio fuel generator and a warp tunnel setup.

I read i should look for an outpost, one in each planet and set up camp there instead for quick trading. Will do that today, try set up a more permanent base while i still get to grips with the game.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSvwcneTNu4

As someone who bought this at the time, and kept backing it after launch, it's embarrassing at this stage.

There's been something like 20 "updates" at this stage, and basic functionality is sorely lacking.

Save game, reload, randomly fall through the floor. No problem, I'll just console respawn -- doesn't exist.

UI is still appalling. Inventory management is still mostly rubbish. Combat is facile. Everything single you do is ultimately massively repetitive, disguised under a thin veneer of difference, like a rubbish MMO. Animal movement looks briefly realistic until you spot the pattern after 5 seconds. Occasional moments of "that looks cool" fail to disguise the utter sameness of it all 90% of the time. That may well be a deliberate meta-comment on life, given the "story" as far as I've gotten.

But overall this is a mediocre game that could have been great, clearly focused on luring in more saps with "updates" than actually fixing the basic failures.

It's both. I play 100% solo, but I know of people who play 100% MP. I just find myself getting lost in a loop of doing something. Like, the other night I was tempted to try and set up a farm to create the most expensive things you can craft, so I got lost in a loop of trying to find a system with the perfect planets to make certain parts easier to harvest. I gave in after a few jumps and got distracted by finding crashed ships to salvage instead. There is a lot to do here, but it is all basic enough. You can become a pirate, or a pirate hunter. You can smuggle goods or catch those that do. You can create massive bases or just continue to travel. With the latest update, you can build a city on your Freighter if you want. There are 3 "stories" to follow, but I don't recommend finishing one of them completely. You can do all of this with or without other people. If you're not paying for it, I think it's at least worth an experience.

I think MOH's comments are fair, it is very repetitive, but what game isn't if you pare them down to their core mechanics too? Racing games being the stand out, sports games too. It's always the same thing over and over, just a slightly different experience each time. I find the game relaxing, and I'll never tire of flying around in space in a system, watching the spectacular views (imo).

I'd spend that 25 on Plus as it's included with that if I'm not mistaken!

Unreal, i couldn't get into this the last couple of times i played as i was on a tutorial but that had me collect a ton of resources that looked very grindy. I have to go back and try because every update shows a really interesting mechanic so I'm sure I'd like it if I gave it a proper chance.

Mac version arrived the other day. I'm playing it on a Mac Mini M1, performance is just fine, so I don't need to fire up the big PC for this any more.

The new Omega Expedition is Free to play this weekend

Holy crap. I thought they were winding down support when they made all the Expeditions available to play at any time. Now they drop this, with "more to come". Whatever people think of the actual game, I hope HelloGames and NMS is remembered for how to continue to support a game well after launch, how to give the community what it wants and continue to surprise with new amazing content. Had only played through the last Expedition a few weeks back, so looking forward to jump back in and have a go at making my own ship.

I've a good few hours in NMS at this point, mostly heavily modded and/or multiplayer. The updates are good to see, good support, but it remains a very shallow game at heart. Loads to do but not much of it very interesting.

(Funny thing is, this is from someone who has a lot more hours in Elite)

Might see if any of my mates want to dust off NMS for one last attempt at a long MP game.