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No Man's Sky just keeps getting better

polygon.com

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Re: No Man's Sky just keeps getting better

#61

Post by hedora »

ryandrake wrote: post #58
xenophonf wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> all without any loading screens It's like Elite: Dangerous or Minecraft. There are all kinds of loading screens, but they're all pretty cleverly hidden. On planetary surfaces, you can see chunks load as you drive or fly towards surface features. Every teleport is a loading screen. So is entering and exiting a vehicle, landings and takeoffs, entering/dropping from NMS's equivalent of supercruise, or warping to other…

In order to have a realistic, but reasonably playable space game, you need one of 1. Distances compressed, 2. Time compressed, 3. Unrealistic speeds KSP uses [1] (scaled down solar system) and [2] (user-controlled time passage), although [1] can be modded away by using a realistic solar system mod. Elite:Dangerous uses [3] (warp drives). I've never played NMS but it sounds like they use [1] and maybe [3]?

Mostly [3], I think. There are a few different levels of plaid speed for the ship's engines. If you want to walk on the ground, it rapidly turns into "this will take days or weeks". Similarly, different levels of implausibly fast mode in the ship remove multiple orders of magnitude from travel time.

They may have also used [1] for NMS. I don't think it really matters, given the game play, to be honest.

Re: No Man's Sky just keeps getting better

#62

Post by hedora »

pohl wrote: post #7
digging wrote: post #3

To save you a click or perhaps a rage-comment: This is a hype article for people who think No Man's Sky is already a great game. Seems like a fluff piece to me. There's nothing in it that suggests any sort of fundamental change in the quality of the game.

I first played it after it became available for M series Macs, so I skipped all the drama from the early days. I found it to be a great game.

Same, but for the Switch. Now I need to check to see how much having better graphics at the expense of it being multiplayer would cost.

(The Switch version is single player, and I consider that a feature.)

Re: No Man's Sky just keeps getting better

#63

Post by hedora »

progne wrote: post #40

Everywhere you go in the whole damn galaxy, armed drones are there, waiting to enforce the rules. It mashes up the rule of law and rules of nature such that the rule of law cannot be escaped even at faster than light. It's a dystopian surveillance universe. I'm not that into horror.

If you think that's bad, try deleting a comment you made on HN last week. :-)

Re: No Man's Sky just keeps getting better

#64

Post by huytersd »

riotnrrd wrote: post #4

I love this game so much. First of all, it's kind of technologically astounding. You can get in your spaceship and take off from a planet and fly to another one and land, all without any loading screens. The planets themselves are sculptable isosurfaces (only to an extent, though; you can't drill a hole through to the other side) and littered with points of interest, unique animals and plants. It's quasi-social -- yo…

This is going to sound shallow but it’s so hard for me to play rpgs that don’t graphically look good or realistic. The art in that game cheapens it so much for me I can’t really play it.

Re: No Man's Sky just keeps getting better

#65

Post by ehnto »

tg16 wrote: post #10
glimshe wrote: post #5

No Man's Sky is one of the biggest gaming disappointments of my life. It was always a grindy, pointless game about exploring a dull, repetitive universe.

Seconded. I was hoping for a persistent multiplayer and modernized Freelancer 2 but i got a very pretty, but mile wide and inch deep game. God what i would give for a modern reimagining of Freelancer 2...

It is only a spiritual successor, but have you been following Star Citizen?

Re: No Man's Sky just keeps getting better

#66

Post by huytersd »

GaggiX wrote: post #16
ivirshup wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was my impression trying it this year

Well if you think that the universe is dull then I suggest Starfield (I'm joking).

Starfield is fun but it has no gravitas because they’ve taken anything with edge out of it (sex, nudity, drugs/junkies, extreme violence etc.) it feels like one of those bleh G rated Disney “horror” movies.

Re: No Man's Sky just keeps getting better

#67

Post by thomastjeffery »

schwartzworld wrote: post #47
jomohke wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who's not really a gamer, hearing "it gets tiring after 85 hours" as a negative blows my mind. 85 hours!

I bought a guitar in 2001 for $500 and I estimate that I've put in close to 150,000 hours on it.

I would rather compare a guitar to a console than a game.

Then again, I wouldn't compare playtime of Stairway to Heaven to an entire video game. Maybe Metallica's black album?

Re: No Man's Sky just keeps getting better

#68

Post by GaggiX »

huytersd wrote: post #66
GaggiX wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well if you think that the universe is dull then I suggest Starfield (I'm joking).

Starfield is fun but it has no gravitas because they’ve taken anything with edge out of it (sex, nudity, drugs/junkies, extreme violence etc.) it feels like one of those bleh G rated Disney “horror” movies.

Does sex, nudity, drugs/junkies, extreme violence make a game better? Anyway I think there are more fundamental problems with the game.

Re: No Man's Sky just keeps getting better

#69

Post by starcraft2wol »

schwartzworld wrote: post #47
jomohke wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who's not really a gamer, hearing "it gets tiring after 85 hours" as a negative blows my mind. 85 hours!

I bought a guitar in 2001 for $500 and I estimate that I've put in close to 150,000 hours on it.

Almost certainly you have not. 40 hour weeks a year is ~2000 hours.

Re: No Man's Sky just keeps getting better

#70

Post by waveBidder »

danparsonson wrote: post #50
schwartzworld wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a guitar in 2001 for $500 and I estimate that I've put in close to 150,000 hours on it.

A musical instrument is a tool for self expression - not exactly equivalent is it?

games like Minecraft are very much a medium of self expression. Not to say every game is, but it's a definite genre
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