A Busier Sky

The news of the upcoming Bethesda RPG Starfield and it's 1,000 explorable planets gave me a strange hankering to revisit No Man's Sky.  I spent a fair chunk of time tooling around in the procedurally generated universe and found it to be busier than the last time I played (which according to the date on my previous save was 2018).  Busier isn't necessarily a bad thing and I found that I was mostly having a good time--unfortunately, it's still just not enough to draw me in for longer.

There have been numerous large updates to No Man's Sky since I last played and review it.  I don't know the specifics of all of these patches and expansions, but I'm going to try to lay out the major changes that I noticed.

Positive Changes:

One of the strange bubble-filled planets I found.

1.) More planet variety.  I vaguely remember seeing news in the past of a major game update that was designed to specifically address the repetitive nature of the rotating cast of about 4 slightly different (but still mostly similar) planet types.  There are now more planet types and it's nice not to feel like you're just traipsing your character through the same repeated biomes.  One of the fun features of some of these new planet types is that you can find little collectible items that can be placed in your base.  I found two planets of the "frothing" variety that featured an atmosphere filled with whimsical, floating bubbles.  Another new planet type I encountered was called "rattling" and was filled with odd, alien looking plants.

2.) Freedom to play how you want.  There was a creative mode the last time I played, but I noticed some changes that lend themselves to players being able to skip base building missions/tasks.  Previously, the space anomaly was a part of the main storyline and it appeared as part of that story.  Now, the space anomaly is more of a central hub where players can spend special currency to unlock upgrade modules, new equipment/items for your base, and even unlock some cosmetic/collectible items.  Each planet is now scattered with "buried technology modules" which, once exposed, yield special modules that can be traded in at a special merchant on the anomaly.  Equipment that was once unlocked through either the base computer archives or missions relating to specialists in your base can now be purchased with these modules.  Players can choose from different types of structure/building materials, base equipment, decorative items or several other tiers.

3.) More storage.  I remember the inventory system as being frustratingly small and restrictive before, but the good news is that they've greatly expanded inventory options.  Now all your gear (and ships and exocraft) have three separate inventories--a general inventory, a technology inventory (basically a place where you can install your tech and upgrade modules that doesn't permanently take up slots in your main inventory) and a "cargo" section.  You can gradually unlock more slots in all three inventories through a few methods--at each new space station you can purchase one new slot (in one of the three inventories--the cost varies depending on which inventory you pick), you can find drop pods (through using navigation data or finding drop pod coordinates), and, for only your multi-tool, you can sometimes be rewarded with a special item that can be cashed in at space stations to expand your multi-tool slots.  They've also added in many more buildable base storage modules than before.

4.) Settlement management.  I amassed a lot of navigation data modules and noticed an option (which cost 5 modules--the most expensive that the cartographer offers) to locate a settlement.  Once you find the location of the settlement you are given the option of becoming the overseer.  As the overseer of the settlement you are tasked with settling citizen disputes and balancing citizen input about new structures to construct in the settlement.  The ultimate goal seems to be helping to build a settlement where citizens are happy, protected (the sentinels aren't big fans of the the settlements and will periodically attack), and productive.  Adding buildings requires you to donate specific building materials (which vary) and then waiting for a certain length of time (usually an hour or an hour and a half) before each section of construction is completed (a new building usually requires three donations of building materials).  Each settlement starts off with debt and once you've worked to improve productivity will eventually be able to pay off the debt.  Once settlement debt is paid off the settlement will being producing surplus items (based off of the buildings you've added) that can be collected at certain intervals and sold/kept.

I enjoyed this new feature and found it enjoyable to watch the settlement grow.  There's even a new mission chain tied to the settlement that rewards a special type of exocraft (a mech-like vehicle called the Minotaur) that is geared toward combat with the sentinels.

5.) Feels slightly less grindy.  I remember being annoyed with trying to keep all my various exploration tools fully fueled in my past play session.  Now, it feels easier to find the elements you need to be able to keep everything charged up and ready to go.  There's still a need to find certain specific elements when you're trying to craft upgrades or base items.

6.) The exocraft system has been vastly improved.  In the past you had to build vehicle bays on each planet you visited.  The bays cost a significant amount of resources and it just wasn't feasible.  Now, all you have to do is build bays for each type of vehicle (there are several) to claim ownership of them and then you can build one special vehicle summoning bay in each system you visit (and the resources to build them are very affordable/easy to find) to be able to remotely summon any of your owned exocraft to your location.  There's also a device you can build aboard your freighter that serves a similar function--you just have to make sure you summon your freighter to each system.  It's a huge improvement and makes it extremely easy to explore in a wider range.

7.) I didn't mess with the multiplayer, but it feels more robust than it did in the past.  There seemed to be community type challenges and multiplayer missions available on the Space Anomaly.  The universe feels a lot less empty than it did in the past.

Even with all these changes I still found myself drifting away--there's still a quantity of repetitiveness to NMS and I still didn't feel very drawn into to main storyline.  If you're someone like me who maybe played NMS in the past but haven't picked it up in awhile, you might want to give it a go and see how things have been improved.  I'm always surprised at how much more time and effort has gone into expanding one of the most controversial titles of the 2010's and how Hello Games seems to be dedicated to making up for their mistakes through expanding the game.  

The Sky Ain't for Everyone

The last few weeks I have been trying to puzzle out how I actually feel about No Man's Sky.  I've spent 93 hours playing, so that says something, but I'm just not sure the amount of time that I've played automatically qualifies it as a recommendation.  I do think that it's enough that I've gotten a good feel for the game and what to expect if I was to continue playing...which, at the moment, I'm not.  After 93 hours, I've decided that I've had enough of the Sky.

Pros:

--The universe feels massive and the promise of having countless galaxies with almost infinite worlds to explore is absolutely amazing.  I don't know that I've played another game that has managed to capture the same feeling of the size and scope of an entire universe.

It's hard to tell from this shot, but this guy is huge.

--The procedurally generated fauna makes for some bonkers space creatures.  The part of discovery that I enjoyed the most was trying to find the many different species that populated different planets.  One planet I found was populated by these giant, bird-like creatures that stomped around.  Another one seemed to be entirely populated by different species of slime creatures.

One of the more bizarre critters I found.

 --Freedom to choose how you want to play.  There are several storylines that you can pursue and they are completely optional.  I did a few missions on one of the stories, but just couldn't get into it.  I opted to spend much of my time exploring.  There are plenty of ways that you could spend your time in-game--there are a ton of unlockable base building blueprints and someone who is into building massive, complex bases could probably spend hundreds of hours creating an amazing base.  There's an economic part of the game that could also be attractive to someone who wants to figure out the best way to earn money.  One area that I found enjoyable was looking for new ships or upgraded ships.  It's exciting to finally locate a class S ship.

--Runs reasonably well, even with an older PC.  I turned most of the settings down to low and found that everything still looked nice.  I know that there have been complaints of performance issues for people who are trying to keep things on the higher end of the spectrum.

--Multiplayer.  This was recently added, but now it is possible to explore the universe with friends.  It still has some kinks that need to be ironed out, but it's something that people have been clamoring for since the botched release.

--Finding a truly unique planet is awesome and is the entire essence of the game.  In my 93 hours I found two that were standouts.

This weird planet was made up of floating rock pillars.

--Nice built-in tools for taking screenshots.  There are a ton of options--different filters, the ability to move the lighting to different angles, and a movable camera that can be relocated to almost anywhere.

The blue grass planet took me by surprise.

--Customizable character.  This is also a relatively new feature, but you can choose exactly how you want your traveller to look.  You can choose to be the default "anomaly," or you can make a character from one of the four different species found in the game.  You can further customize the colors and appearances of your gear.

--Ships have a cool, space-y look and you can choose one that best fits your playstyle (if you can afford it or want to put in the time and effort to repair it).  There are several different classes and once you've acquired a freighter you can store up to 6.

--Exocraft are fun to drive and make exploring much quicker.  It's fun to plop down a geobay and then just drive around finding cargo drops or knowledge stones.

--Naming your discoveries offers a chance to put your own mark on things.  Or not.  I tended to only name the interesting planets and fauna and let the game name the flora and rocks.

Cons:

--The same massive universe that I mentioned as pro can sometimes be very repetitive.  There are basically four different types of planets--ice, toxic, desert (which is spiced up into a few different labels in-game--scorched, arid, radioactive, etc.), and paradise.  The minerals and rare items (like albumen pearls or gamma root) are found on the same planet type.  In my game, I found that the flora and minerals on the planets were almost identical--every tropical planet had palm-like trees, every desert planet had several cacti varieties--so, while there's an entire fun premise that everything is unique...well, it just doesn't feel that way after you've landed on your tenth ice planet and you're seeing the same rocks and trees.

--Side missions are boring and repetitive.  Fortunately, many of them involve doing tasks that you're probably doing anyway.  You don't necessarily have to do them, but they are one of the few ways to raise reputation with the specific species or guilds.  To unlock some merchants you must raise your reputation to a certain level.

--Main storyline is uninteresting.  I tried to get into it, but there was a lot of flying to one place, finding a thing, flying to a different place for one minute to find a holo-tower, and then rinse and repeat.  If you're hoping that there is some sort of engrossing story behind the entire universe...I don't know if it's really there.

--Ship buying/selling.  The only way to buy or sell a new ship is to park yourself in a location like a trading post, freighter, or space station and negotiate a trade.  You cannot sell a ship outright and must trade ships.  It's a bit of a pain and would be much easier if there was a ship merchant or console.  I wanted to use my best ship at all times, but I also wanted to try to upgrade some of my other ship classes.  Negotiating a ship price can be very hit or miss--some sellers are reasonable and others want a fortune.  I feel like this is needlessly complex.

--Exocraft aren't summonable like your ship.  You have to build an exocraft bay on each planet where you want to utilize vehicles.  For me, this really limited their usage.  It would be much, much more fun if you could summon them anywhere on a planet.  I also was irritated at the fact that you have to exit the exocraft in order to scan--why can the craft have the equivalent of a signal booster, but not a scanner?  It doesn't make a lot of sense.

--Bugs.  For awhile there was some weird stuff going on...especially with freighters.  My frigates would return from a mission damaged and then the components that were damaged wouldn't be marked.  Or they would simply fix themselves (which I didn't mind).  Another confusing bug happened when the marker for my base computer kept getting moved to my freighter.  Most of these bugs were fixable with a save and a restart, but I still don't think they've been fully resolved.

--Can feel grindy at times.  All aspects of your equipment need to be refueled/reloaded.  This means that you are constantly gathering to recharge your stuff.  I tried to plan my gathering during my exploring and it helped, but I still had moments where I was tired of running out of ferrite dust and having to gather a bunch more.

For me, the part that stopped me playing was simply a sense of repetition.  I realized that for those two awesome, unique planets that I found that I would be slogging through many that were basically the same.  I would be doing the exact same things on every planet--scanning for unique features, travelling to them, gathering items, scanning flora/fauna/minerals, etc.  Several of the reviews that I read used the term "a mile wide and an inch deep."  I definitely felt that, but I do think that with some of the additions to the game (things like base building) that there has been some depth added.

I can't completely condemn No Man's Sky, I have had a lot of fun discovering strange fauna, beautiful planets, and managing to buy the Qwib-Qwib 2.0.  I think some gamers will really love the exploration and discovery component of the game--in reality, I think that's a pretty niche group.  I think the game does deserve some of the scorn that it received for the botched release, but that Hello Games seems to be working to make it into the game that they originally pitched to people.

In the end, I can't say I fully recommend NMS and would urge any potential buyers to think about what they need in a game to stay entertained.  If you're turned off by repetition...it's probably best to skip.  If you're content in games that are open and exploration oriented...it might be for you.

I might return to NMS at some point in the future.  There is still so much to discover.  I am just not sure that I have the patience.

It's a Regular No Man's Sky Conundrum

As the title suggests, I'm still spending much of my gaming time trying to puzzle out the complex feelings that I have for No Man's Sky.  There are times where I'm generally having fun, there are times when I'm irritated, and there are times where I've genuinely questioned why I'm still playing.  Somehow, through this strange brew of emotions, I've kept going.  I've managed to find something exciting or motivating and that's what has kept me in the game.

The Fun
For me, the best part of No Man's Sky is exploring--I'm talking completely setting aside any of the main storylines and just flying to different systems and seeing what's out there.  Each new planet offers up an opportunity to discover new (and absolutely bizarre) creatures.  The creatures have definitely been the highlight as I have found some other aspects of planetary exploration to fall under the "irritating" category.

My strategy for exploration is to set down on a planet, scan everything within the general scanning radius, and then to set down the signal booster.  Encrypted navigation data is all over the place (most commonly in containers that require an AtlasPass V1 but also scattered around space stations) and I've accumulated a ton of it.  I like to run through the entire cycle of options that require navigation data and then head for those specific spots.  Depending on my current need for resources, I will usually try to drop by some resource nodes for some mining.  Occasionally, during my running around, I will stumble upon something that didn't get picked up by the signal booster--a drop pod or a crashed ship.  Finding those hidden gems is exciting and adds to the magic of exploration.

On the planet of Portlandia resides the massive Fredosaurus Rex.

I've finally grown tired of allowing the game to name everything and have come up with my own plan for naming--I'm going to name each planet, it's fauna, and zones after my favorite shows, games, and movies.  The first planet where I employed this strategy was the third "paradise" planet that I've found.  The warning message popped up to say that the planet has extreme weather in the form of boiling humidity, but so far I haven't experienced any adverse conditions.  The planet is largely covered with water and it rains all the time, so I decided to name it after the rainy city and setting for the sketch comedy "Portlandia."  I've begun naming the creatures after the different characters from the show and it still makes me chuckle when I scan them and see a Candace flying overhead.

A cheesy pose with my ship, the Qwib-Qwib.

Oddly, I've also enjoyed the task of repairing crashed ships.  I repaired a class B hauler called the Osairita Calculator XVIII and learned a few tricks along the way.  On one of my expeditions I discovered a better ship--a class A explorer!  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to upgrade to a better quality ship, so even though I had just sunk a bunch of time into fixing a ship, I found myself fixing another ship.  With my new bag of tricks, fixing up my new explorer was a relative breeze.  I decided I should name it in honor of one of the most unfortunately named ships of the Mass Effect series--behold, the Qwib-Qwib.  The Qwib-Qwib is highly maneuverable and has the cargo space needed for accumulating goodies to sell.  My next goal is to find one of the coveted class S ships.

In the process of trying to spruce up my base and complete the many base improvement missions, I finally reached the point where you can build an exocraft geobay.  Running around on foot was getting old, so having a vehicle is a massive improvement.  The Roamer exocraft is fun to drive around and greatly speeds up exploration.  It's nice to drive around and find new locations and resources.  There are also aspects of the exocraft that fall into the "irritating" category.

The Irritating
I started off with the positive, but there are also several parts of the game that bug the heck out of me.  One of the big irritators has been the fact that I've begun noticing that the variety within the planets that I'm exploring seems...well, somewhat disappointing.  I can bank on the fact that if I land on a toxic planet the flora will look almost the same as the flora on every single toxic planet--there will be some type of weird mushroom plant, a tentacle-y wavy plant, a green slimeball kind of plant....  In a way this makes some sense (evolutionarily, the plants would probably develop similarly in the same climate) but it detracts from the whole concept of uniqueness which is the hallmark of the game.  I'm hoping that with some more exploration (I will admit that I really haven't been to a large number of planets) that I will see more variety.

Reaching the point of finally having a vehicle for exploration was very exciting.  I stupidly assumed that your exocraft could be summoned to any location--much like your ship.  It turns out that you have to build an exocraft geobay on any planet where you want to use the darn thing!  The materials to build the geobay are mostly commonplace with the exception of paraffinium.  This means that I've had to resort to lugging around a bunch of paraffinium so I can drop a geobay.

There's another part of the geobay that I've been really questioning--why can't I build one geobay that can summon all three of the different types of exocraft?  It seems really stupid that I have to build three different geobays to be able to utilize the different vehicles (although I could see it maybe being very exploity if you could use all three vehicles and just fill up their inventories...).  I've settled on upgrading and utilizing the Roamer exocraft and probably won't use the other two at all.

Completing missions for the various alien factions can also be irritating.  The nice part of some of the missions is that they are things that you're already going to be doing like scanning flora or minerals.  The bad part of these missions is that there is very little variety within them--scan, kill sentinels, raid planetary depots, kill critters, feed critters, take a picture...it gets old quickly.  Raising your standing with aliens is vital to your ability to trade with them, so you can't really avoid completing these dull tasks.

Something else that I discovered through reading a couple of articles (which pop up on the Steam news page--PC Gamer Article, Kotaku Article) is that the multiplayer option is not without its kinks.  Twice I had random players join my game.  I didn't give it much thought and they seemed to leave the game fairly quickly.  I had a few brief panicked moments about how exactly those players could interact with my game world.  Could they raid my storage (not like I have anything overly valuable)?  Could they destroy my ships?  Destroy my base?  What exactly could they do?

My base is finally starting to look less sad.
  I wouldn't want it destroyed by someone vindictive.

It turns out that other players can do some of those things.  No, they can't raid your storage or destroy your ships.  However, they can destroy your base.  They can simply fly to your base location and delete all your buildings.  The really stupid part of the whole thing is that they gain absolutely nothing from it--they don't get materials or units, they simply get the pleasure of being an asshat.  Another really stupid thing that players can do is to rename and upload any discoveries that you haven't already claimed.

With this knowledge of absolute trolldom, I decided to turn off network play.  I don't want all the hours I spent gathering and building to be destroyed by someone with the goal of griefing.  I think the vast majority of players out there are probably respectful and I've read some cute stories of people working together and having a great time with a total stranger.

The fact that other players have the option to perform these kind of actions definitely falls within the irritating category.  I think it would be fairly simple to make bases off-limits to interaction.

I've also been kind of sad that the last patch nerfed my favorite chromatic metal refining recipe (1 copper +1 pure ferrite= 3 chromatic metal).  Now, you only get 1:1 :(

Questioning Why
In the end, it can all seem like one giant grind.  There's a constant need for materials to fuel mining or terrain manipulation.  Fixing up a ship requires a massive amount of materials.  Adding to your base requires more materials...  I've had several points where I've felt frustrated.

The Qwib-Qwib 2.0 in its shiny glory.

I'm really hoping that with some more exploration that I will find a larger variety of planets.  For me, the jury is still out on whether or not I feel favorably about NMS.

UPDATE 8/11/2018:  The Qwib-Qwib was short lived.  Behold the Qwib-Qwib 2.0, an S-class ship that I found docked at a small trading outpost.

UPDATE #2 8/13/18:
I finally found a planet that broke out of the typical pattern that I kept seeing.  The waving blue grass, constant rainfall, and strange floating islands were a very welcome change from having every paradise planet feel like a carbon copy of the last one.

Finally, a planet with some variety!

A Sky Full of....Confusing Navigation Symbols and some Stars.

Thus far, my adventures in the ginormous galaxy of No Man's Sky has only seen me visit three different systems.  I know, I know...I should probably be making more headway into different places, but it's just so dang hard to leave a planet unexplored.  Not only have I gotten distracted by exploring, but I've finally managed to unlock base building missions and have been trying to beef up my pathetic base (which used to be a one room shack with a teleporter, but now I have a small base complex with an overseer and science specialist--it's starting to look like an actual base!).  One of the more daunting parts of NMS is deciding exactly what path you want to pursue.  I've decided to simply meander down a bunch of different paths which means that I've made a tiny bit of progress on a few of random things.

I don't have a picture of my new ship, so enjoy this random critter.

The first random thing that I ended up getting completely zeroed in on was trying to upgrade my ship.  There is basically no explanation in the game about how to get a better ship so I had to Google a few pointers.  I kept stumbling across these bits of navigation data and had no idea that I could utilize them with my signal booster.  Navigation data can be used to locate specific points of interest on the surface of any planet--you get a few options for how you want to use the data, you can search for ruins (where you can dig up keys and unlock a large, ancient chest which usually has a piece of valuable loot inside), search for nearby buildings, or search for distress signals.  I was experimenting
 and chose to search for a distress signal having absolutely no idea what it might lead to.  As far as I can tell, distress signals will lead to either a crashed freighter (where you can search for abandoned cargo pods and unearth some loot) or a crashed ship.  Once you've located a crashed ship, you have the option of repairing the ship and recovering it.

Here are a few pointers if you've been wondering about how to repair and/or acquire a new ship:

1.) If you find a damaged ship on the surface of a planet, you can repair it.  The first thing that you should focus on while repairing is getting the ship flight worthy--repair the systems that are needed to fly (thrusters and the pulse engine).  Once the ship can take off, it will automatically fly to your freighter after you change back to your original ship (or save and reload).  Your freighter can store up to six ships.  After that, it's just a matter of cobbling together the massive amount of materials that are needed to fully repair your new ship.

The ship I found is a class called a hauler--as the name implies, it has a decent amount of cargo space to transport items.  I've been seriously struggling with the inventory limitations of my small fighter and hope that having a more spacious ship will allow me to find more items during my explorations.  The downside of finding a ship with a larger cargo hold is that it is requiring an unholy crapton of materials to repair all the damaged bits.

2.) Buying a new ship is as easy as going to a spaceport (or your own freighter) and clicking on a ship that has landed and then selecting the option to "make an offer on the ship."  Once you've chosen to make an offer, you can see the specs of the ship and enter into negotiation.  You can choose to either trade your current ship (which will figure into the total value of the trade) or you can buy the new ship outright.  The advantage of buying a new ship is that there are no repairs to be made.  Remember to swap all your cargo--if you don't, you can't get it back after you've traded.

It would have been great if these two facts had been explained in any way.  They aren't, so I had to either figure it out on my own or Google it.

Much of my recent NMS time has been spent trying to cobble together enough materials to fully repair the Osarita Calculator XVIII (my semi-repaired hauler).  I've mostly been running around, mining oodles of copper nodes to try to craft the bajillion units of chromatic metal that I need to fix everything.  While I've been running around, I've discovered that the navigation system in the game is slightly obnoxious.  Symbols pop-up when you scan--you can tag them, but they don't go away after you've mined a deposit or activated a knowledge stone.  Sometimes you can tag a symbol and keep it on screen...other times you can't (it's pointless to try to tag a settlement...it won't tag it..stop trying).  Navigation symbols for other planets will appear even if you're on a different planet, which adds to the mish-mash of stuff on screen.

Another part of navigation that bugs me is the whole concept of discovering new regions.  There are markers for specific "regions" scattered around the surface of the planets.  You can activate the marker to save and "discover" a region.  Discovering a region grants a bonus of units and the data can be uploaded for nanite clusters.  After you've discovered a region, there's no identifying marker or map information added, which sucks.  It would be nice if there was some sort of marker that would allow you to return to an area or at least make it easier to identify--maybe even a descriptor of some of the resources that you can find in the area.

I can't wait to finally repair my new ship and to be able to have adequate cargo space for all my discoveries.  The inventory management aspect of the game has been a bit frustrating so far.

UPDATE 8/8/2018:  It turns out that using navigation data to find distress signals can also lead you to a distress beacon with basically nothing near it.  There might be some damaged machinery to fis (and I would recommend that you fix it--I've found some good mod upgrades).  It won't necessarily lead you to a crashed ship--but there's a chance.

Another handy tidbit that I was kicking myself for not figuring out sooner is that once you've built a medium or large refiner in your base there are specific "recipes" which can make refining metal much quicker.  I was stupidly refining copper straight into chromatic metal which is a 2:1 ratio.  A much better formula involves combining copper with pure ferrite (which is abundant on every planet but does require an advanced mining beam) which yields a 1:3 ratio!  Way, way less copper hunting!

Taking to the Sky

I've decided to give Geralt (and myself--all that clicking is making my wrist sore) a rest for awhile and started a new adventure.  Honestly, I'm still not completely sure that I made a great choice on this or not, but what's done is done--that's right, I'm playing the highly controversial No Man's Sky.  It was recently featured in the "midweek madness" sale on Steam for 50% off and sat atop the top sellers chart throughout the sale.  There seems to be a new wave of excitement about the added multiplayer functionality in the recent "Next" update--now, it's possible to explore the stars with friends!

No Man's Sky is probably best known for being one of the most notorious cases of overhype.  It was a game that featured so many amazing sounding features and it was marketed as being groundbreaking.  As it turned out, many of the features that were lauded pre-launch were missing, and people were understandably very upset.  The result was that the game got lambasted by reviewers on Steam and in professional reviews (the Steam reviews still fall in the "mostly negative" range due to the high volume of extremely negative reviews when NMS was originally released in 2016).  Personally, I had been keeping an eye on NMS but didn't fall for the hype train and could feel some sense of satisfaction that I hadn't laid down $60 on an impulsive pre-order.

Fast forward to two years later and things seem to finally be turning around for NMS.  It seems like Hello Games is serious about adding content and making efforts toward making NMS into the game that was being pitched in their original marketing campaigns.  There have been updates to add in features like base building, freighter management, and now, multiplayer.  With the most recent update, the Steam reviews have been erring toward the "very positive" rather than the "very negative" from the early days.  With this in mind, I decided that I would give one of the most hated games out there a try.

At the core of NMS is the idea of exploring a vast universe--travelling from galaxy to galaxy and mapping uncharted planets.  I've somewhat been doing that, but there's also a sort of space mystery story tucked away in there too.  When you start a new game, you find yourself plopped down on a random planet.  My random planet happened to be dangerously freezing and as I ran around trying to complete the tutorial and learn the basics of surviving in space, I got to experience my first death...from freezing.  Ugh...fortunately, when you die you can return to the place of your death and recover your lost inventory.  The tutorial is very basic and runs you through how to access the various menus and inventories and control schemes.  The opening set of missions help you craft items that are vital to your survival such as a scanner to analyze flora and fauna and help you locate points of interest on the surface of a planet.  Eventually you get to the point where you find the remains of your wrecked ship and set out to repair it.  Once the repairs have been made, it's off to space!  Piloting your ship takes a bit of getting used to, but it's fairly easy once you figure it out.

Once you've taken to space, the main storyline encourages you to find a suitable place to build your home base.  I decided to explore my home system and eventually found a paradise type planet--it has a temperate climate--so no dying to extreme exposure, like on the ice planet--and certain lifeforms produce a type of giant pearl that is a valuable trade commodity.  I landed my ship in a reasonably flat area and set down the groundwork for my base, which is literally a one-room hut with various machinery scattered about.  It's very unimpressive, but it offers shelter from the periodic superheated rain that occasionally falls.

Nighttime at Solan Base--featuring my one-room hut.

After my base was established, the game encouraged me to go back to space and locate a space station where I could trade and interact with some of the aliens who occupy my home system.  Each system is home to a different race of aliens--my home system is populated by the strange, lizard/bird hybrid Gek.  One interesting part of interacting with aliens is that you do not know their language.  There's no handy-dandy autotranslate, so some aliens absolutely can't or won't communicate with you, and others are able to convey their meaning...somehow.  One of the important exploration tasks is finding knowledge stones scattered around various planets and gradually learning words of alien language.  Some of the words you learn are highly useful...others, not so much--I learned the word "syrup," and I'm not really sure the context in which I would ever have to use that specific word.  Thus far, after learning about 50 words of Gek, I've seen at most two or three words actually translated in a sentence.

Probably the most exciting part of NMS is the exploration aspect.  The entire idea of searching the galaxy for new forms of life is kind of cool.  Part of the challenge is cataloguing your new discoveries of plants, minerals, and animals.  The animals that I've found so far range from the bizarre--a weird praying mantis/crab hybrid thing--to the oddly Deathclaw-like thing that I found on one of my paradise worlds.

At first glance, I thought it was a green Deathclaw.

There are numerous tasks that can occupy your time in NMS.  There's an entire storyline that you can pursue--something about a mysterious signal left by an even more mysterious figure--or you could simply focus on gathering materials and building an ultra-base or on the massive exploration-based task.  I will admit to clearly neglecting my base (look at my hut--it's pretty sad), doing a small amount of exploring, and also trying to follow the main storyline.

I've had some interesting things happen in my game--probably the most interesting thing had been my acquisition of a freighter.  As I flew into my home system I was prompted to help fight off some pirates that were attacking a freighter.  I decided to help, shot down the pirates, and then was directed to board the freighter to speak to the grateful captain.  It turned out that the the captain was so grateful that he decided to simply hand over the ship.  Me, space explorer and owner of the impressive one-room hut now owned a huge, capital ship and frigate!  The awesome thing about freighters is that you can send their auxiliary frigates our on different missions.  During these time-based missions your frigate will complete tasks that could gain you credits or gather various commodities or items.  All you have to do is send them out on a mission while you explore and then gather the fruits of their labor once they've completed their expedition.  The downside is that not every expedition is successful and your frigate will often get damaged and require repairs.  Repairs require gathering certain materials to fix damaged components and are another task that will suck up time.

My initial impression of NMS has been mostly positive.  I don't think it's the type of game that every gamer is going to enjoy--it's not action-packed or full of competition--but I think it is a game that people who enjoy sci-fi or the whole concept of exploration will like.  Getting accustomed to the early game can be a bit overwhelming--there's a lot to learn and not a lot that is explained--and I will admit that in the first two hours I did give some thought to refunding.  Once I found a niche, figured out some of the mechanics, and got myself established things got more interesting and I was able to pick a focus from the seemingly overwhelming buffet of choices.

For now I plan on continuing to explore the universe.  I'm not prepared to fully recommend the game yet, but I don't think it's as abysmal as many people have made it sound.

Smug City

I'm basking in the satisfied feeling of self-control as I have managed to keep myself from jumping onto a couple of recent releases that seem to be mostly a bust (for the moment at least).  It's so rare that I get to experience these feelings as I am the biggest sucker for hype and nifty, musically enhanced advertisements.  But I resisted the lure and now I can sit back and feel content that I've learned from my past mistakes and now share my scattered words of wisdom with others.

Wisdom #1--Iffith it Soundeth Unbelieveable-ith--don't believe-ith ith... (Don't Fall for the Hype!)

For the past year or so I had been keeping a side-eye on No Man's Sky.  Not hardcore tracking every Tweet or press release or new video, but just reading any articles that popped up describing the game.  On the surface it sounded like something that was going to be downright revolutionary.  Buuuuuut....there was always this part of me that was really skeptical.  How could anyone really find the time to make 18 quintillion unique planets?  Procedural generation sounds neato, but the reality is that it's still the same box no matter how many pretty colors you slap onto it.  For me, not jumping into this one was a great choice.  

Steam reviews seem very mixed between negative and positive reviews--many of the negative reviews are those who feel they were led to believe that certain things would be in the game that weren't.  I've been trying to ignore those and find the ones that talk more about the gameplay itself and it seems like many find the game very grindy and repetitive.  However, about 50% of the reviews seem to be positive with many people genuinely enjoying the game.  There's a chance I might still grab No Man's Sky in the future, but it's definitely going to be at a deeply discounted sale price.

One of the old pre-order ads from Steam.
Early release with pre-orders?  Ugh.

Wisdom #2--Don'teth Pre-Ordereth.

I am extremely guilty of not following this piece of my own wisdom.  If there's a game I really want my thinking is that I should just pre-order and get whatever ridiculous perk is being offered because I'm going to buy it anyway.  Ugh...so weak-willed despite the fact that I know I will almost always be disappointed.  Unfortunately it has become almost commonplace for big games to be released in a very poor state.  I watched from afar this week as the reviews for Deus Ex:  Mankind Divided started popping up on Steam.  And, lo and behold, there were several things that people were upset about--poor optimization, frequent freezes/crashes, and generally just the usual day one crap that seems to have become so standard.  It's really sad that this has become so standard in video gaming--when else would people accept a product that was faulty at release?

The reality of pre-ordering is that the developers already have your money so they don't feel that same pressure to deliver a product that is going to be perfect on day one.  Sucks for gamers.  On the other hand it has become almost completely unacceptable for developers to delay releasing something.  The backlash from pushing release dates back is nuts!  I would much rather have a developer push a release date back and have a playable, fun product on the very first day.  Being patient would save so many headaches.

(On a complete side-related note it seems like many people are upset about the inclusion of microtransactions in the single player campaign of DE:MD and day 1 DLC that seems at best shady and at worst very, very money grubby.)

Wisdom #3--Pre-loading is a load of crap-eth.

It...never...works.  NEVER!  There's the fake excitement of thinking--"oooh this is downloaded, I can pop right into the game the second it's officially out!."  It's a lie!  Don't fall for it!  What's going to happen is that you're going to spend a few hours downloading a bunch of encrypted files.  Then, on release day when you're feeling happy about your preparedness you're going to spend another few hours watching as those files are slowly, slowly decrypted.  Just wait and download after it's released.

So sayeth me.  Amen.  We'll see how long it takes before I break my own words o' wisdom--I'm guessing not long. ;)

Grab Bag

Lately I really can't decide what I want to play.  I'm not playing anything new but aimlessly bouncing between random games that I didn't do justice to on the first go-round.  As a result of this unsettled play I'm just going to write some random thoughts about the games I have been playing or thinking about.

1.) No Man's Sky--Hype or Hyper-tastic space game?
Unless you've been totally out of the gaming loop you know that the highly anticipated and much delayed No Man's Sky was released on consoles (and delayed but soon to be released on PC).  The concept of the game sounds pretty amazing--almost limitless procedurally generated planets to explore.  What gamer wouldn't jump at the chance to have that at their fingertips?  Well...me, for one.  I have this really deep gut feeling that this infinite universe will be nothing but a beautifully empty repetitive grindfest that will get old really fast.  I've always leaned towards games with a strong story so I won't be buying into the hype.  It's just not for me.  I hope it turns out well for those who have been anxiously awaiting it's release.

2.) Fallout 4--A love/hate relationship.
Even though I have complained about how I didn't have great feelings about Fallout 4, it has still found a way to pull me back in.  The reality is that I can always find something new to do in the massive world of the Commonwealth.  Currently I'm on a quest to find all the bobbleheads--I only need two more!  I'm also enjoying the faction change to the Brotherhood of Steel.  Sure, they are a bunch of highly armored jerkfaces, but they have a cool airship.

This go-round I decided to ditch Dogmeat (sorry boy) and travel with Piper.  I swear if she complains about how something smells one more time...she's going to get a hot shishkebab to the face.  There is one person who is considerably less annoying, Preston Garvey.  The changes to make him request your help to sort out this or that random settler who got themselves kidnapped over and over is no longer an issue.

Sigh...I've gotta find those last stupid bobbleheads.  (And no, I won't look up a guide...yet.)

3.) The Witcher 3--Toussaintastic.
I love, love, love The Witcher 3 and am now really sad that I have finished the last piece of DLC for it.  If you haven't picked up Blood and Wine yet or are skeptical about it--don't be.  Unlike the DLC for Fallout 4 (which has horribly negative reviews on Steam), this DLC is meaty and full of content that will extend Geralt's adventures for many, many hours.  If you haven't bought any of the DLC you can wait for the upcoming Game of the Year Edition which should offer the complete adventure.

Toussaint offers the chance to play a more traditional type of hero and to play even more gwent.  Geralt gets the chance to be a noble knight, to rescue a princess, and to live in his own personal castle.  There is much monster slaying along the way and plenty of new locations to explore.

I'm actually thinking of starting up another game on the highest difficulty setting.  It would be my fourth or fifth game...yeah, I really enjoy Witchering.

4.) Mass Effect 3--Garrus + Shepard for life.
Almost every summer I find myself returning to the Mass Effect universe.  I have managed to play a Shepard who has had a romantic relationship with almost every option in the game.  The one big one that I had skipped up until now was Garrus.  What was I thinking?  Garrus is absolutely the best romantic option for Shep.  Go back and play that relationship from ME2 onward and tell me that you don't love it.

I think that part of the reason I avoided it was because there was just something really weird about the alien/human dynamic.  Plus, Turians are kind of weird looking.  But, as a character, Garrus has always been one of my favorites.  He's tough and has a sense of honor, but he is also flawed.  He gets frustrated with all the Turian rule following  and is kind of awkward.  That awkwardness is definitely endearing--the early stages of the Garrus/Shep relationship involve much worry about how it all is supposed to work...awkward talks about vids and figuring things out.

The one thing that really sold me on the Garrus/Shep relationship happens in the Citadel DLC in ME3.  As you enjoy spending time with your crewmates Garrus invites you to hang out at the casino on the Silversun Strip.  In the non-romantic options you find Shep trying to set Garrus up with a lovely lady Turian.  Forget that option even exists!  Now you find yourself in the bar and the music changes to a tango (I think.....) and Garrus sweeps Shepard onto the dancefloor where he reveals that he has been taking dance lessons.  It's completely silly to see two fairly serious characters dancing a tango in the middle of a space crisis--but it's totally worth it.  In all the time that the game and DLC have been out I can't believe that I missed this genuinely awesome relationship.

Now, to just hope that Mass Effect:  Andromeda is able to reproduce all those awesome characters and moments.  Fingers crossed.

"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