No Man's Sky hype is reaching critical!!!

It's coming soon! I'm psyched. Are you psyched? August 9th and 10th is just a bit more than a month away but it seems like I have been waiting forever which I basically have been. It's the game I've wanted since the first time I played an arcade machine or my Atari 2600. This is what I had wanted Space Invaders to be like. This is our childhood imaginings come to life. Or is it? We don't really know for sure and that is part of the fun, at least for me. If you love sci-fi and particularly old sci-fi novels can you really not be hyped right now?

Even if it doesn't do all they promise I still give them tremendous credit for trying to accomplish such an ambitious project. This is clearly not some money making scheme of a game who's idea was created in a focus group or board room. This is what we want isn't it? Developers who have a passion for games making the kind of game they would like to play? Their own original inspired ideas and not just cashing in on whats come before and copying it? It's what I want anyway. And I hope you are as excited as I am.

I have put this in Game Discussion and not System Wars as an attempt to get less of the absurd anti-indy, anti-playstation, anti anything challenging their comfort zone type of posters just shit posting for no reason. However, I still welcome everyone's opinion regardless of how negative or positive.

Here is the youtube link to Gamespot's recent video so you can watch it on something other than their awful video player.

Also, I like this guy's No Man's Sky videos. He's got as much enthusiasm as anyone right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6he-aT5eqxs

So who else is excited? And who is super angry and hates this game? All are welcome.

Hmm, psyched or hyped?

Nah, not really i almost forgot the game was coming soon.

But it looks like a fun game

I am looking forward to it, for sure. Kind of reducing my hype a bit, though; all the recent space sims have been not so fun for me.

That's not to say they have not been good; X3, Elite: Dangerous, and Starpoint Gemini 2 have all been quality titles. It's just I grew up playing games like Tie Fighter/X-Wing, Tachyon The Fringe, Freelancer, and there have not really been any in that arcade-sim vein for a while.

Granted, No Man's Sky looks more like the latter(arcade-sim) than the former (sim-like, i.e. striving for "realism"), but everything released for the past few years just tries too hard to be excessively deep or complex.

Just want a light-hearted space sim.

I Do love what he said towards the end of the video, about players being cleverer than game designers think. That is so true.

@mrbojangles25: My impression is that it will have some of that arcade feel even though it's an ambitious galaxy sized game with a lot of depth. I don't know if it can really pull off both at the same time but It should be interesting to see when it comes out. I want a light-hearted space sim as well.

@Jacanuk: I think it'll be a sleeper hit. The way it grabbed my attention from the beginning it's hard for me to see it as a "sleeper" but my prediction is that's what it may well be for a lot of people.

@mark1974: I'll be buying it, but the hype died a long time ago.

@suicidesn0wman: Is there something that has changed your mind about this game or that has made you skeptical? Or is it that they showed it too early and you just aren't excited about the idea anymore? It's coming in a month! The time to be excited is now!

@mark1974: Too soon. Hard to stay hyped for games that are announced 2, 3 sometimes 4 years in advance. I think Bethesda nailed it last year. Show off the game, then drop it on us 5 months later and take a swim in the money afterwards like something out of an after school cartoon.

@suicidesn0wman: I think you are right. But for me the idea was interesting enough and no one has really delivered on a similar game in the meantime so I still want it badly. And if they don't succeed with this game I will still be waiting anxiously on an ambitious space game like these guys are promising.

I think it will do well; they're a small studio from what I've read, just a a handful of people, so their development costs are pretty low (though the game has been in development for quite some time, I imagine they need to make some money back).

Furthermore, with the recent popularity of "walking simulators" games such as Journey, Firewatch, and so forth have shown that there is a fairly sizable niche where people are perfectly content just exploring and doing little else.

I don't expect the game to sell like Call of Duty-type volumes, but I think it will do well enough.

Spot on here.

I was thinking the same thing, think it´s been at the last 3 E3´s so it's hard to keep up being hyped for that long. I miss the times where a game was not on E3 until it was close to release, now a game can be at 3-4-5 E3´s and still not have a release date.

Bethesda did the right thing, show it , release it and not try to keep a hype up for years.

It does not offer me anything that I really want in a game.

Hold your horses, while the game do look interesting to explore we might find out to be boring game with not so much to do.

I'll wait for some gameplay, reviews and impression before deciding on jumping the hype wagon.

Let's be realistic here. Everything shown so far has been customized for the press, planets have now been moved to more realistic distances, so now it's reported that it took one player 45 minutes in hyperdrive to get to 1 planet...have you sat there for 45 minutes before? because that's crazy boring.. So I'm more worried about the interest this game will hold for most of us. Let's analyze what it might really be like.

It has it's own periodic table? Sounds cool but also doesnt sound fun, especially if you have to craft things from these elements. Do we need a degree in chemistry? Do we need to refer to guides to get the right elements put together?. Next up is the Sentinels, if you steal too much or break into something locked, you get attacked....I'm not keen on the Sentinels thing, it's just something to help hold you back by creating an obstical...an odd obstacle because if we ever discovered AI life out there like this, it would be a huge discovery for us but in the game it's just kind of meh, like cops in GTA.

If I'm not mistaken, they said maybe 10% of the planets will have life? The vastness of the game suggests that most of us likely won't see much more than rocky worlds or what have you. Requiring fuel and resources usually means lots of grinding. The intelligent life is said to be rare? How rare? Another issue is that we already know way too much about the game. Crysis had this problem just before release. If 99.9% of the game will never be visited, at least by most average gamers, it's almost pointless in it's existence. Next of course is the graphics, colors look a bit over saturated to say the least, to the point where the red grass and red leaves on trees all blend together, looking rather odd.

I think this is a game that sounds awesome on paper but isn't immensely practical as far as length of fun. I suspect the interest will hold for 20 hours on average until many of us are tired of playing it but some will put in thousands of hours and perhaps only see a few near solar systems. Even if this is an arcade/sim, it still sounds more sim to me than not and space sims tend to be rather boring in most respects for all but the die hards. If nothing else then hyper drive should not be some 45 minute long journey but rather whiz through solar systems like what has been shown in videos, that alone will help a lot.

if the survival, combat and trading parts of the game are substantial enough the game could be something special. the reservations i have are based around that i've seen so little of these things in previews (which mostly are made up of exploring what look like pretty but rather empty planets) that it's hard to see how everything fits together so it has more of that tech demo type feel to it. i don't really feel like they've done a great job of promoting it and conveying the gameplay. it could be a huge surprise and turn out incredible but just as likely the opposite could be true so i'll be waiting for the reviews before i consider a purchase

I think the reservations many are expressing have some merit to them. But I don't think they've shown us everything in this game by a long shot. They have stated that they don't want to reveal too much. It clearly wont be a game for everybody though. I love the idea of exploring and discovering new things in a sci-fi atmosphere. That isn't going to appeal to everybody. I love the idea of a huge open universe as a sand box to create your own adventure. My biggest gripe these days is games forcing you into a story and not letting you make your own choices, constantly guiding you down a linear path and throwing cut scenes at you. This seems like a true role playing experience. It's your character and you have the freedom to make what you want of the game. I love the idea of that freedom, imagination and creativity. I don't need them to provide me with a reason to play, even though they have given us the center of the galaxy as a goal. I want to get lost in this game and simply enjoy what they have created and just be, it's like a zen game. LOL. I don't have to have an end goal. The game doesn't need a beginning or an end for me.

This is a very ambitious thing for them to try to make and they may well fall flat on their face but at the very least I think they will inspire other developers and they will build on this and I believe we will get there one day soon.

yeah this game is probably going to be nuts. your right about it being a game we always could imagine but never existed until now. Its going to be so fun just to fly out there and do whatever you want in this universe. I just hope theres not too many restrictions with the sentinel things so you can go crazy and really mess up the worlds you land on. The way i'd like to play it would be to basically land on planet, kill everything there and take all the resources and move onto the next place. I'm hoping when you kill off all the animals on a planet that they stay dead.

@pimphand_gamer: yeah those are all realistic things to worry about, but I am hopeful and I won't jump to conclusions before it is even released (though I swear they keep pushing it back lol, could have sworn the Steam page said July last month).

Concerning the colors, I think they want it to look a bit cel-shaded and also to resemble the old sci-fi and scientific magazines and book covers

I think they've shown us too much. They even let the press see some of the intelligent aliens, one of which I recall is a bird like one with a beak and bird legs? ok why not? They probably haven't shown much in regards to trade or survival ..etc but I think it would have been better to not say much at all. Make some trailers, give us an idea of the size and scale and let it be.

Exploration is tremendous but it sounds like it'll be limited if it's true what I read about hyper drive taking some 45 minutes to reach another planet ( i assume another planet in another solar system) and of course you'll require enough fuel...etc. I'll likely get bored before I make it past the moon. I am curious if you'll know what the planet temps..etc are before you land so you know if you have the right suit?

I'm just preparing myself to be somewhat letdown, at least in regards to time, it'll probably take quite some hours just to get the gist of a few planets and likely a hundred hours to more fully explore one...it's cool but time isn't something I have a lot of for gaming. I want to explore faster or at least have some option too. To see what's really out there would be something but probably not very feasible.

Wish it had proper co-op :/

And this game might suffer from over hype

This game will suffer because it has to run on a PS4.

I'm keen to play this game, but I can't say I'm super-hyped for it. I still don't really know what you actually "do" in the game. Yes, you kill stuff. Yes, you explore. Yes, you find treasure and resources. But what do you do with them, other than trade? Why trade at all?

Can you use the resources to build stuff? To upgrade your ship? Are there any quests/missions? Is there any significant real-time multiplayer restructure?

None of these queries are intended as a criticism, but I feel that this game is very technology-focused rather than being gameplay-focused, and that is a concern to me. Conceptually it started with a technology approach rather than a gameplay approach.

So, we'll see.

It might be really wonderful - I genuinely hope it is - but I haven't seen a lot that gives me much confidence or certainty in this. I'll probably be buying it, but I'll wait for reviews before going ahead with this one.

You have the freedom to do whatever you want. There is no beating the game. Just playing it. You want to be a bounty hunter? You want to be a Pirate? You want to be a marine Biologist? You want to be a trader? Do whatever you want. It's a second life in a fantasy sci-fi universe and you can do with it what you please. Make it your own game with your own goals. That's what you do. I hope to see you out there but the odds are against it, it's a big universe.

There has been some hints that it may have a co-op mode in the future.

To your second point, try not to worry about the hype. The game is whatever it will be and the hype cannot make it a better or worse game. It is the game it is regardless of any hype or lack there of. Why let it influence your personal opinion?

But see, when I read that...it is still really vague. What does it mean to be a bounty hunter? What does it mean to be a pirate or a marine biologist?

It's the vagueness that concerns me.

If we take the bounty hunter example - what, exactly, is involved with that? Presumably I collect bounties and go and kill specific aliens? Or I kill aliens and do what? Sell their carcasses to someone? Why would I want to do that? Do I earn money to upgrade my ship/armor/weapons? Do bounties become progressively tougher? Is there variation in bounty encounters?

It seems to me that much of what has been described about this game boils down to vague motherhood statements. But what specifically do you do? What is the progression like? Is there any progression of any kind or not? Are there NPCs? Home bases? What is the survival like? What are the online interactions like?

Based on what I've seen, it looks like you just keep flying around randomly-generated planets. You can kill aliens, you can "discover" them and catalogue them, you can find hidden items and you can loot/trade. But if that's all there is, then it sounds impressively boring to me.

So, I'm hopeful there's more to it; I'm hopeful that there are actual underlying systems and mechanics that make the game fun and enjoyable over the longer term. At the moment, that isn't clear to me.

It'll likely be decent at the very least. Im pretty hyped about it and i dont even own a ps4 yet. Plus i love the art style.

@djura: It's hard to say what all will be possible. I personally don't like knowing everything about a game before I dive in. Basically if space exploration and open world sand boxes aren't your thing and you don't care for anything you've seen thus far then it probably isn't for you. If it is, take a risk and dive in and see just what is or isn't possible by experimenting. If you need a promise that you will like the game and it will entertain you before you buy it I doubt you'll get one. I like the mystery of it and I like the way the developers talk about it and it's ambitious ideas enough that I personally wouldn't miss it for the world. I don't even want the game necessarily to try to entertain me, I just want it to have enough depth to let me take charge of entertaining myself. But that's me. If I paid my $60 and it wasn't all that good I can shrug it off without being angry, it would be a sad missed opportunity though.

And what's boring to one person is not necessarily boring to another. Some people find mathematics boring were as others see it as the language with which God wrote the universe.

I love the art style too. I love those old covers to Science Fiction novels. It's such a great reference point they have chosen.

@mark1974: Yeah, I'm not really saying that I need to know everything about a game before diving in, nor that open world sandboxes aren't my thing. I'm a fan of going in with limited information, and I'm definitely a fan of open world sandbox games. :-)

I really love the idea of being dropped into an enormous world where I can experiment. Look at Breath of the Wild on Wii U as an example; you can theoretically spend a ton of time just exploring the world and playing with the physics.

What I'm saying is that we haven't even seen that level of explanation about No Man's Sky. And it's not for lack of footage or developer interviews; there have been tons of these, and they've all largely focused on repeating the same overall beats again and again.

I am not suggesting that No Man's Sky won't be great. I am hopeful that it will be - I really am. But at this point, I don't see much valid reason for the huge hype surrounding the game, because its biggest selling point so far has been is technology rather than its gameplay. And that is a bit of a concern for me.

As I say, we'll see. I'm cautiously optimistic, rather than hyped. :-)

@djura: I am probably naive in my optimism but I choose to be optimistic non the less. We need more good open world space games. I like the way Sean Murray thinks and I can only root him and the rest of the crew on. We need some new ideas injected into video games. Things could stand to be shaken up a bit. Hopefully we aren't let down.

@mark1974: I agree with your sentiment there. That's why I'm really hoping that his team will be successful with this game - I feel that they deserve to do well, and I definitely think that it's always important to see innovation in game design (in general).