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[Dr. Zoidberg]

How did it show any less depth than any other trailer for any other game? That's what I'm curious about.

It looked like a tech demo, not a playable game with goals, systems, and such. This puts some people on guard. Whether that is fair or not is another question entirely. Gamers have been burnt by big promises and many are erring on the side of caution now.

You are right in that with established genres we can look at the trailer and "fill in the blanks" for the gameplay portions but because this game is doing some new things, it is up to the devs/publishers and their PR people to sell us on it. With all the other games to play, if gamers have to go searching online and read articles to figure out what the gameplay is about, they have fucked up, IMO. This is all fixable, by the way, but I stand by my assertion that they either showed the game too early or simply did a very poor job with that first trailer, and that is why this topic comes up so much.

 

[Raist]

It looked like a tech demo, not a playable game with goals, systems, and such. This puts some people on guard. Whether that is fair or not is another question entirely. Gamers have been burnt by big promises and many are erring on the side of caution now.

I'm confused by these two bits. Because if all what's been shown is a barebone tech demo, what kind of crazy promises have been made then?

 

[GribbleGrunger]

Why do we get so many negative opinions about up and coming PS4 titles? Is it just me or has anyone else noticed this is becoming something of a phenomenon?

Exploring infinite space sounds pretty great to me, even IF that's all you do, which of course we know it isn't.

 

[Gambit 1138]

NMS is one of those games that nobody will be talking about a month after release

 

[brickwalker0]

Why do we get so many negative opinions about up and coming PS4 titles?

We don't want another 2014.

 

[Amir0x]

Why do we get so many negative opinions about up and coming PS4 titles?

DO we get any more negative opinions about coming PS4 titles than coming XBO or Wii U titles? Genuine question. Was wondering how you quantified that.

We don't want another 2014.

One of the best racing games of the past decade, a really great creative outlet in LBP3 and indie heaven.

I'm cool with 2014 if that's how it ends up >

 

[Zeuanimals]

There's plenty of stuff they've talked about, but they haven't shown much in their actual videos yet (at least in terms of how you'll be doing things; i.e we saw trading in the PSX trailer but it was sort of out of context).

Thing is, that DOES sound very interesting to me, but I'm not convinced the game is going to do an interesting job of those things yet. In particular, I'm curious what there will actually be to explore. If the planets are procedurally generated but all variations on desert, jungle, different colors etc... I dunno, I'm worried that won't hold my interest. Starbound had the exact same problem. Exploring is only interesting if I can either do or see a massive variety of things. That's what I want to see more of, and they of course don't need to show their entire hand before release but something a bit more detailed would go a long way for me.

I know that there's more information out there, but I want to see some of it, and not just a few frames of shooting or whatnot in the trailer. I don't think it's unreasonable to be excited by the prospect of the game but unsure of how or if it will deliver.

They've shown a bit on trading, exploration, and space battles. We don't know how mining works yet but you'll probably shoot at rocks with your multitool laser and have to gather pieces that fall off. I think we saw how you buy ships too.

I agree about seeing a massive variety of things. I want to see colonies or intelligent natives with varying levels of technology, and this one is an even longer shot, but unique cultures. We're probably not going to get that. We did see a place to land your ship on a planet, but it didn't look like a colony where people would live on, more like an outpost.

 

[sappyday]

They haven't over promised.


People are putting in expectations because they're not clear what the game is about. The trailer pretty much shows what it is about and if you think "well that will get boring fast" then this isn't your type of game.

 

[Majestad]

Why do we get so many negative opinions about up and coming PS4 titles?

I thought this was multiplatform....

 

[BouncyFrag]

We all need to reign in all these crazy gamers excited about a game that I'm not excited about.

 

[Goldenroad]

No Man's Sky is being made by a few nobody's who have put out some cartoony stunt biking games....expectations should be that they will hopefully make a relatively decent space exploration game. Spore was made by one of the most legendary game designers in the industry, so expectations were deservedly, at the time, sky high. Spore might have been considered an alright game if it was made by a small team of indie producers like NMS is.

 

[Amir0x]

I thought this was multiplatform....

Right now it's PS4 only, and then they're moving to development of PC version. After that it's in the air, no determination which is going where first. They simply said they're a small development team and so they can only focus on one version at a time.

So we're probably looking at least a eight months to a year before XBO version after the PS4 version lands.

So basically

PS4 version lands --> X amount of months pass --> PC version lands --> X amoutn of months pass --> XBO version lands (because king and lord savior Phil Spencer totes is giving in his infinite wisdom an exception for the ID@Xbox Parity shit clause for NMS due to its prominence. Thank you master Phil)

 

[Zeuanimals]

They haven't over promised.


People are putting in expectations because they're not clear what the game is about. The trailer pretty much shows what it is about and if you think "well that will get boring fast" then this isn't your type of game.

This, there's other things to do that have been posted on this thread (and every other thread like this) but the main draw is exploration. If that doesn't interest you, then it's not for you.

 

[GribbleGrunger]

No Man's Sky is being made by a few nobody's who have put out some cartoony stunt biking games....expectations should be that they will hopefully make a relatively decent space exploration game. Spore was made by one of the most legendary game designers in the industry, so expectations were deservedly, at the time, sky high. Spore might have been considered an alright game if it was made by a small team of indie producers like NMS is.

Well there you go. If it scores well you can now sleep at night.

 

[Vespene]

What if No Man's Sky is... the sequel to Spore?

 

[Goldenroad]

Well there you go. If it scores well you can now sleep at night.

Who, me? I don't care how a game scores, only how much I enjoy it, and yeah, if I enjoy the game I will enjoy it, and if not, at least a small team like this was ambitious enough to try to make a game this huge.

 

[Amir0x]

Well there you go. If it scores well you can now sleep at night.

:/

 

[Dr. Zoidberg]

I'm confused by these two bits. Because if all what's been shown is a barebone tech demo, what kind of crazy promises have been made then?

Hmm. I don't know that the devs have made any big promises but nevertheless other devs/pubs have about their games and people have gotten cynical as a result. I guess I would say the hype from the press is the thing that's being doubted here. I don't even read any sites but GAF and yet I got the sense this was a highlight of the show. Some said it "stole the show" at that E3. But when you watch the PS4 trailer you see the "tech demo" and you are confused as to why the game was so talked about. As a jaded gamer you narrow your eyes and think "Why is everybody so gaga about this?" hence the threads and questions. People are afraid that its going to be a pretty game with no lasting substance.

 

[GribbleGrunger]

Who, me? I don't care how a game scores, only how much I enjoy it, and yeah, if I enjoy the game I will enjoy it, and if not, at least a small team like this was ambitious enough to try to make a game this huge.

I do apologise. I must have read your post incorrectly:

No Man's Sky is being made by a few nobody's who have put out some cartoony stunt biking games....expectations should be that they will hopefully make a relatively decent space exploration game. Spore was made by one of the most legendary game designers in the industry, so expectations were deservedly, at the time, sky high. Spore might have been considered an alright game if it was made by a small team of indie producers like NMS is.

Semantics ... how do they work? I got the impression you were putting the game down while simultaneously suggesting if it does well it will be because it was made by a small team. My mistake.

 

[charsace]

Nightly or regular version? Because the Starbound devs dropped development on it a while ago.

It does make me wonder what post-release support NMS will have, if any. I can't imagine that large-scale DLC will fly on such a small, indie title, so free updates seem more likely to me - Minecraft-style.

Starbound update is coming out this month. They didn't drop development on it.

 

[JeTmAn81]

I fail to understand the hype for this game, but then I haven't seen much footage from it. Without the sight of interesting gameplay, the promise of endless procedurally generated content is rather unenticing. I like my stuff handmade.

 

[Goldenroad]

I do apologise. I must have read your post incorrectly:

I'm still not sure how you're interpreting what I've said. Maybe if you posted more than a few words to articulate your point it would help. I'm just saying, that we should have much higher expectations for larger studios with larger budgets than we do for smaller studios with smaller budgets? Maybe you don't feel the same way, but I can't tell, because all I'm picking up is a bit of snark.

Also, why cherry pick out parts of my post like that? There are only a few words you didn't highlight which give context to the other words.

 

[GribbleGrunger]

I'm still not sure how you're interpreting what I've said. Maybe if you posted more than a few words to articulate your point it would help. I'm just saying, that we should have much higher expectations for larger studios with larger budgets than we do for smaller studios with smaller budgets? Maybe you don't feel the same way, but I can't tell, because all I'm picking up is a bit of snark.

Also, why cherry pick out parts of my post like that? There are only a few words you didn't highlight which give context to the other words.

We'll call it a day then.

 

[Zeuanimals]

Well there you go. If it scores well you can now sleep at night.

I don't think it will. It's not a game for everybody and people who don't get it or simply have no interest in what it does but still review it will score it low. What matters more is the content of the reviews, than the scores, though. If people just see the scores and are turned off by what it gets, then they won't really know if it's for them or not.

 

[Raist]

Hmm. I don't know that the devs have made any big promises but nevertheless other devs/pubs have about their games and people have gotten cynical as a result. I guess I would say the hype from the press is the thing that's being doubted here. I don't even read any sites but GAF and yet I got the sense this was a highlight of the show. Some said it "stole the show" at that E3. But when you watch the PS4 trailer you see the "tech demo" and you are confused as to why the game was so talked about. As a jaded gamer you narrow your eyes and think "Why is everybody so gaga about this?" hence the threads and questions. People are afraid that its going to be a pretty game with no lasting substance.

Ever read any space-related threads on off-topic? It's full of people going like "man, that shit is mindblowing. I wish we could go there already." over a few pictures of the universe or even just some of its parts.

NMS is appealing to precisely this kind of people.

 

[Goldenroad]

We'll call it a day then.

Alright. Good conversation.

I think what I'm trying to say is that, if a game like Assassins Creed Unity was made by a team of 6 people I don't think people would be as hard on that game as they are given that that mediocre game was made by over 1000 people.

Maybe you're trying to say that "a good game is a good game regardless of how many people worked on it", and I agree, but if a team has 100 million dollars to make a game and they come back with a game like Desert Golfing, as good as that game is, it's not going to live up to people's expectations for what a game that costs 100 million dollars should be. Is any of this coming through?

 

[LurkerPrime]

Starbound update is coming out this month. They didn't drop development on it.

Whoops, yeah. I meant that they dropped development on the regular version, relegating all updates to the experimental nightly branch.

Good to hear an actual, legitimate patch is coming.

I fail to understand the hype for this game, but then I haven't seen much footage from it. Without the sight of interesting gameplay, the promise of endless procedurally generated content is rather unenticing. I like my stuff handmade.

It's hand-made by hand-made randomization algorithms. The NMS team, last I heard, planned to make every possible aspect of the game procedurally generated, allowing their small team to make a game of massive scope.

At the very least, it sounds imperssive. Certainly worth of hype, at least initially...

 

[RiverKwai]

Every game company is made up of 99% "nobodys".

The guys at Hello Games came from Criterion, Climax, Kuju, Sumo, and EA.
They were technical directors, programmers, and artists on games like Burnout, Virtua Tennis, Geometry Wars, and Black.

They've made 3 or 4 Joe Danger games as Hello, but it's not like this is the second game they've ever made.
Just thought I'd say that, since some people seem to think that these guys don't really know what they're doing.

 

[MYeager]

Yeah, I guess it could be disappointing. Or it could be fantastic. It might even be the "Insert Game Title Here" of this console generation! If only.

 

[RedSwirl]

A lot of posts in this thread seem to assume NMS is like Proteus with a ship, completely ignoring the footage we've seen of combat, mining, and other gameplay aspects.

As for whether or not a small team can pull it off, a very similar game -- Frontier: Elite II, came out in 1993. It has probably thousands of 1:1 scale planets and star systems. You can fly in the atmosphere of each planet and there are entire cities on some of these planets. All this was done using procedural generation made to run on computers from 22 years ago. And the game was made by basically one guy (admittedly one very experienced guy over the course of five years).

NMS started out with four people whom I believe have experience in AAA development, but has now gone up to something like 12 people, some of whom joined up after leaving other developers. I'm pretty sure people who formerly worked at Criterion are also on the game. And it's being made with procedural generation technology 20 years removed from that of Frontier. Them being able to offer a world at the size they're boasting isn't THAT outlandish. It just hasn't been done on a game released for a console yet (unless you count the NES version of Elite 1).

Didn't one of the early trailers actually spell it out? Flashing trade, explore, etc. Showing dogfighting?

I don't know of any other game where publicity is sufficient only if they show someone actually walking the audience through the mechanics "and now I am shooting at the enemies... these are animals I have discovered... these are resources that I can gather to sell... here I am selling them... and now I am entering hyperdrive for a new system".

It's because NMS is a type of game most of these people haven't seen before.

If you show people a target render trailer of an FPS or something, even if it shows less than Hello Games has shown, they have an idea of what the game is. People who've played space trading/exploration games probably have an idea of what NMS is, but those games have been pretty much nonexistent on consoles. They'd almost have to explain the whole genre to PS4 owners awaiting the game.

People who are unsure if playing a game without a clear objective should try Elite: Dangerous. Are you bored after an hour? Don't pick up No Man's Sky. Are you playing for hours and hours and "haven't done anything" but still find you had a blast? Get hyped for No Man's Sky. I'm in that second category.

Edit: Granted $60 is a lot to spend on something "just to try it" but... Try to find a friend that has it?

Or if you can get over the barrier to entry and learn the controls, download one of the earlier Elite games for free.

http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/elite/

http://www.sharoma.com/frontierverse/

 

[Goldenroad]

Every game company is made up of 99% "nobodys".

The guys at Hello Games came from Criterion, Climax, Kuju, Sumo, and EA.
They were technical directors, programmers, and artists on games like Burnout, Virtua Tennis, Geometry Wars, and Black.

They've made 3 or 4 Joe Danger games as Hello, but it's not like this is the second game they've ever made.
Just thought I'd say that, since some people seem to think that these guys don't really know what they're doing.

My "nobody's" comment was only in relation to Will Wright. I'm not saying they don't have a pedigree for making good games, but outside of gaming communities like GAF, no one knows these guys in the way they know a guy like Will Wright.

Also, I'm pretty sure there are only two Joe Danger games (outside of ports), but I could be wrong.

 

[Muffdraul]

I never would have put it in those words, but the topic title perfectly sums up my thoughts on NMS.

 

[RiverKwai]

My "nobody's" comment was only in relation to Will Wright. I'm not saying they don't have a pedigree for making good games, but outside of gaming communities like GAF, no one knows these guys in the way they know a guy like Will Wright.

I don't think that outside gaming communities, anyone knows who Will Wright is either.

 

[Goldenroad]

I don't think that outside gaming communities, anyone knows who Will Wright is either.

I disagree. I think tons of "non-gamers" play(ed) the Sims and Sim City religiously. Hell, my girlfriend does, and she would have no clue what I meant if I said the words Joe Danger or Burnout to her...well, maybe Burnout, but not in the context I'm talking about.

 

[RiverKwai]

I disagree. I think tons of "non-gamers" play(ed) the Sims and Sim City religiously. Hell, my girlfriend does, and she would have no clue what I meant if I said the words Joe Danger or Burnout to her...well, maybe Burnout, but not in the context I'm talking about.

See, now you are getting into judging what "real" gamers are and that's kinda dangerous territory, isn't it?

 

[Goldenroad]

See, now you are getting into judging what "real" gamers are and that's kinda dangerous territory, isn't it?

Come on. That's not what I'm saying and that's not what this conversation is about. I'm just saying that I don't think the guys that made Joe Danger and worked on Burnout necessarily have the same global mindshare that the guy who created Sim City and all that went along with the "Sims" universe does. You can disagree all you want with my point, but please try to keep on topic.


I guess if we are going off-topic though, I 100% believe that if you play games you are a "gamer". But I think a lot more "gamers" have played some Sim related property than have played games made by Hello Games. That's it. Because of the fact that the guy that CREATED the Sims was making a new property, expectations were sky high. I don't think people should have those same expectations from a company who's only real claim to fame so far is Joe Danger, which are fun games mind you, but I just don't think they set the world on fire the way the Sims did.

 

[LookAtMeGo]

I have faith that this game will deliver for me. I think my expectations are in check. What I have seen so far looks awesome. If all I do is what I saw in the first trailer for the course of the whole game I'm cool with that. (Even if only 10% of planets have life) It would have to control like an absolute nightmare to disappoint me at this point. All I want to do is explore and have the odd dogfight.

 

[chromatic9]

Space Engine is a procedurally generated simulation on PC which you pretty much just explore in, look at the planets and the different surfaces and systems. I've been playing it for 2 years and put more time into that other "games". While NMS is very stylized and will have some sort of gameplay it seems fundamentally similar so far where the draw is to discover something cool, go somewhere no one else has been, take photos or videos and enjoy a themed space journey.

Going to be interesting finding what NMS truly is and can more mainstream gamers who expect gameplay get something out of it or can they put some story campaign in. If its mostly explore and see then I don't think it will live up to the hype or suit most gamers.

Procedural is very interesting to me, exploring can be relaxing and therapeutic.

 

[RiverKwai]

Come on. That's not what I'm saying and that's not what this conversation is about. I'm just saying that I don't think the guys that made Joe Danger and worked on Burnout necessarily have the same global mindshare that the guy who created Sim City and all that went along with the "Sims" universe does. You can disagree all you want with my point, but please try to keep on topic.

I guess if we are going off-topic though, I 100% believe that if you play games you are a "gamer". But I think a lot more "gamers" have played some Sim related property than have played games made by Hello Games. That's it. Because of the fact that the guy that CREATED the Sims was making a new property, expectations were sky high. I don't think people should have those same expectations from a company who's only real claim to fame so far is Joe Danger, which are fun games mind you, but I just don't think they set the world on fire the way the Sims did.

That's fine, but that's not what you said. And I agree with the bolded, but it's because way more people INSIDE the gaming community know who Will Wright is than Sean Murray, not OUTSIDE. People who are not interested in video games have no idea who either Will Wright or Sean Murray are. That's my point. They are not pop culture icons or anything.

 

[Zeuanimals]

I disagree. I think tons of "non-gamers" play(ed) the Sims and Sim City religiously. Hell, my girlfriend does, and she would have no clue what I meant if I said the words Joe Danger or Burnout to her...well, maybe Burnout, but not in the context I'm talking about.

I know tons of people who play Candy Crush and I've told some of them that King is a terrible company, none of them had any idea what I was talking about even though they stare at the splash screens constantly and see ads regarding their other games all of the time. It took me a while to start connecting games to companies. For casual/"non-gamers", it might never start connecting, nevermind the names of even the most prominent game developers.

I even know people who aren't casuals/"non-gamers" who don't know the names of the developers of their favorite games, even the huge names like Kojima and Miyamoto. They simply play a lot of games and don't care much for what goes on behind that.

Also, I'm a pretty big gamer and I didn't know who Will Wright was until this thread. I even played most of his games.

 

[todahawk]

Every game company is made up of 99% "nobodys".

The guys at Hello Games came from Criterion, Climax, Kuju, Sumo, and EA.
They were technical directors, programmers, and artists on games like Burnout, Virtua Tennis, Geometry Wars, and Black.

They've made 3 or 4 Joe Danger games as Hello, but it's not like this is the second game they've ever made.
Just thought I'd say that, since some people seem to think that these guys don't really know what they're doing.

Very good point, glad you posted it as a reminder.
That info needs to go with the 'but what do you DO' copypasta. I think a few people are a bit dismissive of Hello's team.

 

[Rusty]

 

[todahawk]

*snip*

How droll.

 

[kyser73]

It looked like a tech demo, not a playable game with goals, systems, and such. This puts some people on guard. Whether that is fair or not is another question entirely. Gamers have been burnt by big promises and many are erring on the side of caution now.

You are right in that with established genres we can look at the trailer and "fill in the blanks" for the gameplay portions but because this game is doing some new things, it is up to the devs/publishers and their PR people to sell us on it. With all the other games to play, if gamers have to go searching online and read articles to figure out what the gameplay is about, they have fucked up, IMO. This is all fixable, by the way, but I stand by my assertion that they either showed the game too early or simply did a very poor job with that first trailer, and that is why this topic comes up so much.

For those of is old enough to have played the first version of Elite I think the trailers for NMS were pretty clear in what would be happening in the game.

NMS sits well within an 'established genre' - space trading and exploration games - the difference in this case is that not only is the basic galactic map being procedurally generated, but the planets, ecosystems and hardware in the game also.

As for your second paragraph - there's been extensive coverage of the game across multiple articles on major gaming websites, not to mention many interviews with SM covering the game. For example, one of the most common complaints "What is the point of the game' was answered really early on - to get the the centre of the galaxy - and has been reiterated many times.

I didn't have to go to multiple sites to glean this information either - I got it from one interview with SM after the VGX reveal over a year ago. The simple fact is people are either deliberately being obtuse or not bothering to actually listen/read articles about this game.

Still, here's to another idiot thread about NMS.

 

[RexNovis]

What is with all these No Man's Sky and Order: 1886 concern threads? It's insanity. Repeating ad naseum and expecting different results: Continuous posting of the exact same shit using different words or analogies to describe something that has been answered literally thousands of times at this point. The only thing this is succeeding in doing is embittering people against each other and against the forum as a whole.

Never in my close to 30 years as a gamer have I seen such a constant prolonged stream concern posting. Before the thought has been to express your opinion or concern have them heard and possibly addressed and move on resulting in a reasonable contained and focused discussion. Recently, I have instead witnessed a sort of concern revival thread on one of these two games damn near every week that is then responded to with the exact same sort of information that has been put forward in any number of other concern threads and quickly followed up with a spiraling descent into more pointless vitriol on the part of people who are getting tired of hearing and saying the same things ad infinitum.

I respect that these games aren't for everyone but the people they are for are excited about them. Is it really necessary to start yet another new thread to remind everyone else how you are so worried about these games and how they don't really appeal to you or "look boring?" What exactly is the goal with these threads? What purpose do they serve? Are people really so arrogant as to believe that their opinions are irrefutably correct or are they just an attempt to deflate the excitement some gamers have about these titles? At first I thought it was the former but as time has gone on and I've seen more and more of these sort of threads I can't help but think it's the latter and it's becoming absolutely infuriating to witness and I really wish it would stop. If you have concerns about these games read the responses in one of the other twenty or so threads and post there.

 

[Mista]

I still cant understand the hype..

 

[Sword Familiar]

Judging by the interest in this game I'm gonna take a wild guess and say it'll intially sell very well based on sheer curiosity by many gamers wanting to know what it's about. Sadly, I haven't seen anything that promises that this game will actually be fun, at least if you don't like games where you have to make your own goals, so I'm anticipating many a cat being killed by said curiosity.

Here's to hoping I'm wrong.

 

[That Wont Fit In There]

Honestly the fact that this is launching on PS4 AND PC, I don't think it will suffer the same fate. Launching this year would be a perfect time to do so.

 

[RiverKwai]

Honestly the fact that this is launching on PS4 AND PC, I don't think it will suffer the same fate. Launching this year would be a perfect time to do so.

It's launcing on PS4, and then coming to PC some time later. Not at the same time.

 

[m@cross]

Its an indie game, of course it can't deliver on promises, of course it will be a disappointment...

Mark my words, it will be the Transistor... no the Mine Craft of this year.. complete indie rubish!

Spoiler

lol