"No Man's Sky" Looks and Sounds Amazing

I keep reading all these interesting, mind-bending things about a game called No Man's Sky.  It has yet to be released, but already there seems to be a lot of buzz.  The promise of infinite--that's right, I said infinite--worlds to explore sounds genuinely amazing.  There's a part of me that wants to believe it's too good to be true.  Can you really create an artificial environment that is infinite?  How does that even work?  Luckily PBS's GameShow did an episode that attempted to explain the complicated systems being used to create this infinite universe.

I'm no mathematician but I think I get the general gist of how it works.  Basically they use a mathematical formulas to create planets, animals, galaxies, environments....just everything.  Then, all they have to do is alter that formula a little bit and they get a whole new plant or animal.  I kind of hate math, but this is actually a fabulous concept that will hopefully keep the game fresh.  Maybe procedural generation will become the new "it" thing in games?

Overall, I'm hesitant to totally buy into it.  For one thing I'm not particularly drawn to "exploration" games and like to have some sort of compelling story that gives me a reason to want to visit the next planet or the next area.  Will having 18 quintillion planets to explore keep me entertained?  What's the goal of exploring all these planets?  It's possible that the draw of discovering new varieties of plants or animals will keep people launching to new planets.

Open world seems to be the optimal focus in so many games right now.  Every game lauds it's huge "open world" or tries to sell us on having the biggest maps or areas to explore.  Having played through The Witcher 3 twice already (absolutely loved it--but probably 90% because of the story/characters) I'm not sure that open world is the sole draw to games for me.  Having a variety of environments is a nice change but I always hit a point where things start to get stale.  As much as I wanted to explore every hidden cache in Skellige, I reached a point where I got tired of fighting sirens and looting another set of chests full of loot that I would sell.  Is it really meaningful to have all these minor points to explore or would it be more meaningful to have another quest or mission?  I suppose it comes down to what you really enjoy--there is probably someone out there who had a blast looting every hidden cache in the game.

I will keep watching news related to No Man's Sky, but I don't think I will be pre-ordering anytime soon.  We could be witnessing the future of gaming...or we could just be buying into hype.  It remains to be seen.

Here's a link to the official No Man's Sky page:  No Man's Sky