No Man's Sky v2a: Hatred Edition, Public Burning of NMS Thread (Critical Discussion of Marketing)

[DoMeFavors]

A reddit thread with a list of things promised to be in the game, but are not.
https://m.reddit.com/r/NoMansSkyTheGame/comments/4y4i3a/wheres_the_nms_we_were_sold_on_front_page/

No Man's Sky is the second biggest PS4 launch game in the UK

No Man's Sky has become Sony's second biggest PlayStation 4 launch of all time, with only Uncharted 4: A Thief's End performing better during its first week in Britain. The game outsold Bloodborne to become the fastest selling new intellectual property published by the platform holder, and was fifth on the list of new IP from all publishers on PlayStation platforms. These are frankly staggering statistics.

No Man’s Sky hasn’t had an smooth launch on PC. But in terms of sales, it’s already one of the biggest launches ever of a game on Steam. Steam Stats, an official resource created by Valve, shows that 212,620 people were simultaneously playing No Man’s Sky on launch day so far. In North America and Europe alone the Steam servers were serving a combined 4.7 terabits per second as people downloaded the game.

You might be thinking: “Eh, that’s far less than Dota 2,” which is drawing just over 1 million concurrents in the middle of its biggest tournament of the year. And you’re right. But consider this: 212,620 players is at least 46% more than what was achieved by every other 2016 release at launch, and it's possible that more people will boot up No Man’s Sky on Saturday or Sunday, when Steam activity is typically at its weekly peak.

Here are the peak concurrent players for some major games that released on Steam this year:

• XCOM 2 133,022
• Dark Souls 3 129,975
• Total War: Warhammer 113,019
• Starbound 62,301 (after leaving Early Access)
• Doom 44,271
• Hitman 12,582

And the all-time highs of breakout, surprise hits from 2016:

• Stellaris 68,602
• Stardew Valley 64,632
• Factorio 16,281
• RimWorld 15,063

And the all-time highs of other, longer-standing popular games that aren’t Dota 2 or CS:GO:

• Rocket League 103,129 (during a free weekend)
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 92,267
• ARK: Survival Evolved 84,961 (during a free weekend)
• Rust 64,982

All concurrent players figures via steamdb.info, which compiles Steam Stats data.

Again, these aren’t sales figures, and different games inspire different levels of urgency to play at launch. But concurrency numbers are representative of how popular a game is. Skyrim touched 280,000 concurrents during its launch week in 2011, and went on to sell more than 3.5 million on PC and console in its first two days. GTA 5 hit 364,000 at launch. I just wish we compare these games to Overwatch, which already has 15 million players across all platforms.

Link of best mods so far
http://www.pcgamer.com/no-mans-sky-mods/

Previous thread
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/no-mans-sky.2759617/page-55

 

[EzFlyer]

Also can confirm that if you get on a planet with zero wildlife, you can turn it in towards the discovered all species goal. Won't get any units but still

Yep I'm rank 10 now, was gonna come say the same thing...didn't realize you had to press X on the %complete message previously

 

[EzFlyer]

So I figured out the "extreme survival" thing.

It's terribly dumb...

You have to do it all on one planet. If you take off or if you die, it resets. So when I was stuck at 3.8 sols and it said "need 1.2 more sols for rank 3"... The reason it never budged was it needed to go from 0.0 to 3.8 on one session and then to 5.0.

So in order to get rank 10, one must literally stay on a planet for 8ish hours without dying or leaving the planet. You can even stand in a shelter as long as it's in planet (but not in your ship)

I have never "platinum's" a ps4 game.. I was gonna do it with this one... Now, nope, f that!

 

[EzFlyer]

Ok this is some major bullshit. One more warp. The closest star to the center is 6,000 light years from the center and with all three warp drives the max I can go is 1,600. So I can't reach the center. I tore apart my warp upgrades and am going to try to rebuild them in another order to see if that makes a difference.

Wth? And yea I max out around 1600, too. Im still over 150,000 away. Need to warp 100x still. Its so ridiculous

 

[Madmick]

well, if you've put 60+ hours into it (i have no way of knowing how many hours i've played.. there is no counter, is there?) -- and your stuff is maxxed out (besides starship, but who wants to farm like 50 million to get the 48 slot ship)... what else is there?

What was the coolest and most fun part of the "game"?

Space pirate battles? Discovering some obscure planet or element or hyperspace route? What is the appeal?

 

[Eazy123]

Ok, hit the center this morning. Turns out you have to have a 100% full hyperdrive to make that final jump.

I won't spoil the ending, but what happened AFTER was kinda shitty:

Spoiler

You keep all your shit, but everything - ship mods, suit mods AND tool mods, are broken

But as far as my take on the ending, I've played games with actual STORIES this year that gave me a dull 1-minute ending (Dark Souls 3 - and I got the ending with all umbilical cords too), and THAT is a disappointment. A game that has no story - like NMS - I can't really expect a mind-blowing ending, so did I think it was lame? Yeah. Was I disappointed? Nah.

Overall thoughts: BUGS NEED TO BE FIXED. As I mentioned, crashes usually happened for me while warping, and that's a necessary thing to finish the game. Also, the glitch that launches you completely off the planet when you take off is incredibly annoying. Draw-in didn't bother me at all, really.

Yes, Sean Murray lied. Landing on asteroids and other things he's said, being able to see your friends etc...I think he was overly excited and let things out he didn't mean. Still no excuse. Also, I blame a lot of the hype on review sites. Seriously, how are you going to give a game a "best of" at a show and tell your readers it was amazing, then rate it a 6?

That said, I enjoyed this game much more than Uncharted 4 (comparing only because it was another big title this year and the last game I finished), but I enjoy exploration and this game isn't for everyone - 90% of people may disagree with me. Gonna get the platinum now. As long as I have all the health upgrades I can do the survival achievement by checking in every so often and letting it run on a weekend or something.

 

[EzFlyer]

What was the coolest and most fun part of the "game"?

Space pirate battles? Discovering some obscure planet or element or hyperspace route? What is the appeal?

man, i can't even answer that...

space battles kinda suck...combat in general sucks.

maybe getting a new ship was cool the first couple times? going through black hole(s) for the first time?

i think my favorite part is the taking off / landing on new planets, just the sheer scale of it and the amazing feeling of "i can land anywhere i want on any planet" is amazing.

i also kinda like managing resources in games in general, and that's a huge part of the game, at least early on when you are limited in space

 

[EzFlyer]

Ok, hit the center this morning. Turns out you have to have a 100% full hyperdrive to make that final jump.

I won't spoil the ending, but what happened AFTER was kinda shitty:

Spoiler

You keep all your shit, but everything - ship mods, suit mods AND tool mods, are broken

But as far as my take on the ending, I've played games with actual STORIES this year that gave me a dull 1-minute ending (Dark Souls 3 - and I got the ending with all umbilical cords too), and THAT is a disappointment. A game that has no story - like NMS - I can't really expect a mind-blowing ending, so did I think it was lame? Yeah. Was I disappointed? Nah.

Overall thoughts: BUGS NEED TO BE FIXED. As I mentioned, crashes usually happened for me while warping, and that's a necessary thing to finish the game. Also, the glitch that launches you completely off the planet when you take off is incredibly annoying. Draw-in didn't bother me at all, really.

Yes, Sean Murray lied. Landing on asteroids and other things he's said, being able to see your friends etc...I think he was overly excited and let things out he didn't mean. Still no excuse. Also, I blame a lot of the hype on review sites. Seriously, how are you going to give a game a "best of" at a show and tell your readers it was amazing, then rate it a 6?

That said, I enjoyed this game much more than Uncharted 4 (comparing only because it was another big title this year and the last game I finished), but I enjoy exploration and this game isn't for everyone - 90% of people may disagree with me. Gonna get the platinum now. As long as I have all the health upgrades I can do the survival achievement by checking in every so often and letting it run on a weekend or something.

i just don't get it, man. i've warped more times than you have and i'm still 100 warps away. wtf.

 

[EzFlyer]

oh, and yea, the review sites are kinda full of crap. the review system is the problem, though.

like, take gymnastics in the olympics (hehe).. the routine has a maximum possible score of xxx, depending on the difficulty of the routine. so a harder routine, even if it has more mistakes, can still receive a high score.

so a tiny indy game can get a 10/10, but a huuuuuge endeavor that has some flaws, but achieves soooo much is a 6/10? it's nonsense

call the indy game a 10/10, call no man's sky a 25/35.. its' still a more impressive game and you can get more out of it

 

[FootstompShonie]

Lmao holy shit that Reddit post eviscerated the game. Even hardcore fanboys had to admit they really shone some light on how many features were lied about and taken out.

Also to the person saying people have given the game "best of show" and then gave it a 6/10 is because they were playing a completely different version of the game. Even in July they were demoing a way more robust version with more features that were all cut out.

I'd say reviews are accurate, 7/10, the launch on PC was a complete disaster, there's no multiplayer, and a ridiculous amount of features are not in the game that were promised. It's a decent survival/exploring game that deserves 7/10. If they didn't lie so much and over promise I'd bet it would get 7.5-8/10 and not so viciously bashed by fan reviews.

 

[EzFlyer]

Lmao holy shit that Reddit post eviscerated the game. Even hardcore fanboys had to admit they really shone some light on how many features were lied about and taken out.

Also to the person saying people have given the game "best of show" and then gave it a 6/10 is because they were playing a completely different version of the game. Even in July they were demoing a way more robust version with more features that were all cut out.

I'd say reviews are accurate, 7/10, the launch on PC was a complete disaster, there's no multiplayer, and a ridiculous amount of features are not in the game that were promised. It's a decent survival/exploring game that deserves 7/10. If they didn't lie so much and over promise I'd bet it would get 7.5-8/10 and not so viciously bashed by fan reviews.

no issue w/any of what you said

i just think this is a game that's super difficult to score.

i'm not trying to justify / validate my purchase & time played in the game when i say: it's hooked me. i'm not someone who feels he has to force himself to play a game if i buy it.. in fact, i have like 40 games on steam that i own and haven't even played.. i buy every new game for $60 if it's appealing even if i'm not gonna play it.. and i'm not proud of this paragraph, lol, it's pretty stupid.. it's just to illustrate: "6/10" etc is kinda nonsense and totally subjective.

the game has a ton of problems. but the bigger any game gets, the more likely it will be to have problems. you can't just ignore all the good cause of a few bad things.

the biggest issue w/the game, hands down, is the crashing. it's supposed to be a 'survival game' ... and it achieves that fear/feeling not through the game mechanics... but thru: "jesus christ i hope i can save soon so i don't have to do that 15-20 mins over again"

i've had about 20 crashes. on ps4. and apparently yea, the pc is worse.

 

[Eazy123]

I'd say reviews are accurate, 7/10, the launch on PC was a complete disaster, there's no multiplayer, and a ridiculous amount of features are not in the game that were promised. It's a decent survival/exploring game that deserves 7/10. If they didn't lie so much and over promise I'd bet it would get 7.5-8/10 and not so viciously bashed by fan reviews.

That's all relative, though. I don't feel the reviews reflected how I personally felt and that's what matters. I guess I'm the target audience.

 

[Madmick]

oh, and yea, the review sites are kinda full of crap. the review system is the problem, though.

like, take gymnastics in the olympics (hehe).. the routine has a maximum possible score of xxx, depending on the difficulty of the routine. so a harder routine, even if it has more mistakes, can still receive a high score.

so a tiny indy game can get a 10/10, but a huuuuuge endeavor that has some flaws, but achieves soooo much is a 6/10? it's nonsense

call the indy game a 10/10, call no man's sky a 25/35.. its' still a more impressive game and you can get more out of it

Yeah, that's why I love the concept of the "sliding ruler" as devised and employed by Roger Ebert in film criticism. I love criticism, which I consider to typically be of a more educated and serious caliber than traditional word-of-mouth, also usually consisting of the perspective of someone far more steeped and educated in the particular culture he is reviewing, but one must always be aware of the context-- even in metacriticism-- when looking over things like numbers.

Numbers are like guns. It's all about the person using them.

 

[FootstompShonie]

no issue w/any of what you said

i just think this is a game that's super difficult to score.

i'm not trying to justify / validate my purchase & time played in the game when i say: it's hooked me. i'm not someone who feels he has to force himself to play a game if i buy it.. in fact, i have like 40 games on steam that i own and haven't even played.. i buy every new game for $60 if it's appealing even if i'm not gonna play it.. and i'm not proud of this paragraph, lol, it's pretty stupid.. it's just to illustrate: "6/10" etc is kinda nonsense and totally subjective.

the game has a ton of problems. but the bigger any game gets, the more likely it will be to have problems. you can't just ignore all the good cause of a few bad things.

the biggest issue w/the game, hands down, is the crashing. it's supposed to be a 'survival game' ... and it achieves that fear/feeling not through the game mechanics... but thru: "jesus christ i hope i can save soon so i don't have to do that 15-20 mins over again"

i've had about 20 crashes. on ps4. and apparently yea, the pc is worse.

Yeah I actually liked the game more than I thought I would when I got to play it for a couple hours, but to be fair my friend had already gotten a lot of upgrades and such so I was more just going around exploring.

The one annoying thing for me is the movement speed is too slow for a game about exploring and the resource management is just a chore. And like you said for a survival game there's not much fear of dying more of crashing the game lmao.

I'll definitely buy it if they add some more layer of complexity, like building or maybe farming or something. Just some sort of goal to work towards.

As it is the type of gamer I am I'd get bored just flying around learning languages and upgrading inventory and making discoveries, though I know tons of people like that.

 

[method115]

oh, and yea, the review sites are kinda full of crap. the review system is the problem, though.

like, take gymnastics in the olympics (hehe).. the routine has a maximum possible score of xxx, depending on the difficulty of the routine. so a harder routine, even if it has more mistakes, can still receive a high score.

so a tiny indy game can get a 10/10, but a huuuuuge endeavor that has some flaws, but achieves soooo much is a 6/10? it's nonsense

call the indy game a 10/10, call no man's sky a 25/35.. its' still a more impressive game and you can get more out of it

I stopped taking reviews sites seriously at the starts of this gen. Just couldn't trust them anymore. For instance the Thief remake was amazing if you played it as a straight up stealth game. Anything else and it was subpar. They even had boss battles setup so that you had to use stealth to beat it. Amazing game.

 

[Eazy123]

I stopped taking reviews sites seriously at the starts of this gen. Just couldn't trust them anymore. For instance the Thief remake was amazing if you played it as a straight up stealth game. Anything else and it was subpar. They even had boss battles setup so that you had to use stealth to beat it. Amazing game.

Is that so? I liked Deadly Shadows a lot and am big on stealth games, but the reviews on the new Thief put me off it. I'm gonna have to take another look at this.

 

[EzFlyer]

I stopped taking reviews sites seriously at the starts of this gen. Just couldn't trust them anymore. For instance the Thief remake was amazing if you played it as a straight up stealth game. Anything else and it was subpar. They even had boss battles setup so that you had to use stealth to beat it. Amazing game.

i thought i was the only one who enjoyed that game (altho i didn't get terribly far, i got side tracked with other games and didn't go back)

definitely a subjective medium.. we're getting lost with x/10 too much

 

[method115]

Is that so? I liked Deadly Shadows a lot and am big on stealth games, but the reviews on the new Thief put me off it. I'm gonna have to take another look at this.

Yep the reviews are shit for this game. I love stealth games and we get so few. So it was disappointing to see reviews putting it down. In a way they were right the combat is shit and there are some other bugs. If you setup the game to be pure stealth (even if your seen it's game over) then it's awesome.

 

[echohead]

The problem is that review inflation has made it so B- or a 6-7/10 is considered garbage when it should be above average.

I like no man's sky, it's neat, fun, and fairly rewarding but it has technical issues and they missed a few huge obvious points (IMO).

But I don't think this is a game anyone involved in should feel shamed about.

 

[tru3f4n]

I got stuck in a hole anybody have any ideal how to get out of a deep hole?