No Man's Sky Has Gone Gold

[The Raw Shark]

Will we be able to name any of the planets and/or groups of planets we discover and such?
I'm curious because I'm just waiting for the day that yelling "HELP, I'M BEING HELD HOSTAGE IN THE TURTLE DICK NEBULA" becomes a thing.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

How does one even review a game like this?

The same way reviewers review sandbox games, open-world games, or multiplayer titles. It comes down to their opinions on aesthetics, mechanics, core game-play, stability, and their overall experience while playing.

I mean, do you think someone can't review a game unless they experience 100% of the game's content? Does someone have to play a game from start to finish, in its entirety, to decide whether they liked or disliked their time with the game?

One of my cousins has never played through every piece of story content in Fallout 3, yet it remains one of his absolute favorite games.

But I didn't say 100%. Why to the extreme? I notice that direction often come up in various topics. Fallout games (and their ilk) have specific narrative that can easily be followed because they are guidelines the writers and developers created for the observer. An intended streamlined narrative that allow reviewers a spine to climb while experiencing the branches possible to the casual player. This game, however, is not even comparable...there is no way to measure whether what you have played is anywhere near what anyone else will play. You must be aware of the differences, surely?

 

[Squilookle]

There's really only one way to react to this. Get ready to climb into your cockpits, strap down into your seats, and remember:

 

[Callate]

I hope it's good. I've been looking forward to this one for a while, and what I've seen so far has been promising. Whether it all makes it into the actual game is another question, of course... but at least we aren't getting it from a studio with a history of lying and/or ambitious failure.

But, hey, at least they haven't blown millions of dollars in Kickstarter money to get there, right?

 

[Vigormortis]

But I didn't say 100%. Why to the extreme? I notice that direction often come up in various topics. Fallout games (and their ilk) have specific narrative that can easily be followed because they are guidelines the writers and developers created for the observer. An intended streamlined narrative that allow reviewers a spine to climb while experiencing the branches possible to the casual player. This game, however, is not even comparable...there is no way to measure whether what you have played is anywhere near what anyone else will play. You must be aware of the differences, surely?

This is presumptive, though. You're assuming there's literally no story or intended goal(s).

Likewise, using Fallout as an example is disingenuous, especially since you freely admit the two games are "not even comparable". A better example (if we stick to your presumption) would be, say, Garry's Mod, Counter-Strike, or Rocket League. These are games with no meaningful end-state, yet each is easily 'reviewable'.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

But I didn't say 100%. Why to the extreme? I notice that direction often come up in various topics. Fallout games (and their ilk) have specific narrative that can easily be followed because they are guidelines the writers and developers created for the observer. An intended streamlined narrative that allow reviewers a spine to climb while experiencing the branches possible to the casual player. This game, however, is not even comparable...there is no way to measure whether what you have played is anywhere near what anyone else will play. You must be aware of the differences, surely?

This is presumptive, though. You're assuming there's literally no story or intended goal(s).

Likewise, using Fallout as an example is disingenuous, especially since you freely admit the two games are "not even comparable". A better example (if we stick to your presumption) would be, say, Garry's Mod, Counter-Strike, or Rocket League. These are games with no meaningful end-state, yet each is easily 'reviewable'.

Are you serious or joking here? You're the one that brought up Fallout as a comparison, I was merely working off it. The entire universe is RNG. That is pretty much all we know. How can you know how much of an RNG universe you have seen? How can you know if you may have been dealt a rather poor hand to play? I am assuming a lack of knowledge, considering hardly anyone knows much so far, it isn't even much of an assumption. I'm not trying to say it is impossible to review, just that any review isn't much of a garuntee of what another player might experience.

 

[Vigormortis]

Are you serious or joking here? You're the one that brought up Fallout as a comparison, I was merely working off it.

By using it in an entirely different context. I mentioned Fallout 3 because I was citing it as an example of someone considering a game to be one of their favorites despite never actually completing it. You tried using it as an example of an open-ended game having structure. These are vastly different contexts.

The entire universe is RNG.

No, it's not. They've designed specific aspects of the universe and its lore. You can find videos of Murray talking about that all over the 'net.

That is pretty much all we know.

It might be all you know, but I've been following HelloGames talks and demonstrations on the game. They've written some amalgam of lore and narrative within the game, and constructed specific species, civilizations, tech, events, etc. Hell, one of the reasons for the delay into August was because they wanted to add some more polish to "key moments", implying there are specific events that take place during a play-through.

How can you know how much of an RNG universe you have seen?

Well, I could be pedantic about it and say you could work it out based on the criteria and seed algorithms the devs utilized to make that RNG universe, but I'll capitulate and just say, "You probably can't know how much you've seen."

How can you know if you may have been dealt a rather poor hand to play?

See above.

I am assuming a lack of knowledge, considering hardly anyone knows much so far, it isn't even much of an assumption.

It..kind of is, by definition. Stating something is, without knowledge one way or the other, is an assumption.

just that any review isn't much of a garuntee of what another player might experience

This is true of literally every game that is non-linear (and even some that are linear) or built around some sort of procedural or randomly generated content. Why is it suddenly an issue with No Man's Sky?

I'm not trying to say it is impossible to review,

Mmmm, you kind of did, though. If I may?

How does one even review a game like this? You can't possibly reach the end in any short space of time, you can't even know how much of the content you have observed from the game

Awful lot of can'ts in that comment.

But that doesn't matter. You asked how someone could review a game like this, I offered a method. You apparently don't accept that method. Therefore, we seem to be at an impasse.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

It is a bit over-hyped but I still think it could be good game. I just hope that there are enough varied things to do.

They've said that you can play it offline and in singleplayer, so that's one less thing to worry about.
The only thing that would stop me from buying this game is if you can only pilot your ship in first person mode.
I get that they don't want you to see yourself until you meet another player but that one is easily solved by either tinting/reflecting the windscreens or by removing the player from the ship and "become" the ship.
Unless they lock the camera from behind, which would be fine by me but I would prefer that several options are enabled so that as many players can enjoy it as possible.

 

[McElroy]

Really? The early i can remember hearing that term was jokes about the release of Daikatana.

Well, I was still a child when Daikatana came out, and didn't really start paying any attention to "current" games until about 2010 because I couldn't afford to actually get any until then.

Jesus Christ! If we wanted your life story we would make a thread for it!

OT: Good. I can finally prepare my journey to the Golden Planet. Go Gold myself, that is.

 

[shrekfan246]

Really? The early i can remember hearing that term was jokes about the release of Daikatana.

Well, I was still a child when Daikatana came out, and didn't really start paying any attention to "current" games until about 2010 because I couldn't afford to actually get any until then.

Jesus Christ! If we wanted your life story we would make a thread for it!

OT: Good. I can finally prepare my journey to the Golden Planet. Go Gold myself, that is.

I could give the long story, if you'd prefer.

 

[Czann]

I can't wait to be one of the first to play it and name ALL THE PLANETS after me.

"Where are we gonna meet?"

"Why not at Planet Czann?"

"Wait, what? I'm in the Czann Cluster B-3-42-7 Where are you?"

"Fuck, I'm on Planet Czann Gold 3 in Czann Cluster C-3-42-7..."

"Jesus Christ, that's like... 800 LY away. Fuck this game. I'm done."

This, basically that's the aim.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Please don't Mighty Number 9 this, guys.

At least NMS doesn't have a very shady crowdfunding history and a megalomaniacal marketing honcho at its head.

 

[Dalisclock]

Please don't Mighty Number 9 this, guys.

At least NMS doesn't have a very shady crowdfunding history and a megalomaniacal marketing honcho at its head.

Besides, there's another heavily anticipated Crowdfunded game that's got that part covered, coincidentally also set in space.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Holy snip

Ok, I had no idea that I would be expected to have to argue for what was originally intended as a light-hearted comment. To be honest, I shouldn't have even replied in the first case with any attempt at seriousness. Look, I like the sound of the game too and have been trying to follow what I can, but I don't have the time to get all the information available when it comes out. Now my original comment was supposed to a positive opinion towards the potential variety of the game, not something I arbitrarily decided as fact in my mind. This seriousness is really confusing from this website. But I will try harder to make future posts more clear to avoid this sort of thing happening and wasting yet more precious time.

 

[Vigormortis]

Ok, I had no idea that I would be expected to have to argue for what was originally intended as a light-hearted comment. To be honest, I shouldn't have even replied in the first case with any attempt at seriousness. Look, I like the sound of the game too and have been trying to follow what I can, but I don't have the time to get all the information available when it comes out. Now my original comment was supposed to a positive opinion towards the potential variety of the game, not something I arbitrarily decided as fact in my mind. This seriousness is really confusing from this website. But I will try harder to make future posts more clear to avoid this sort of thing happening and wasting yet more precious time.

This has nothing to to do 'seriousness'. You asked, "How can one even review a game like this?" I provided an answer. You seemed to disagree.

Everything else is ancillary. The crux of our back-and-forth is my attempt at answering your question, and you apparently disagreeing with what I said.

I'm not 'attacking' you over whether you think the game will be good or not. I don't know how it'll turn out either. I'm just saying it's not that hard to review a game like No Man's Sky.

If it makes you feel any better, I rarely take anything on this forum seriously anymore.