Sandbox game
A game wherein the player has been freed from the traditional structure and direction typically found in video games, and is instead given the ability to choose what, when, and how they want to approach the available choices in content. The term is in reference to a child's sandbox in which no rules are present and play is derived from open-ended choice. While some sandbox games may have building and creation aspects to their gameplay, those activities are not required. Sandbox games usually take place in an open-world setting as to facilitate the freedom of choice a player is given.

- Wikipedia.

But you`re right; NMS has nothing to do with Minecraft (or even some of the Terraria-likes) where you build stuff just for the sake of it and not for gameplay reasons (which is how most of the kids "play" Minecraft).

Mr. Tact wrote on Aug 9, 2016, 12:40:
Sandbox implies a building aspect.

Last I checked GTA was a flagship sandbox game. You ever built anything in there?

Baristan wrote on Aug 9, 2016, 13:03:

Creston wrote on Aug 9, 2016, 11:40:
...
Also... ick. From said article: And, in very bad news, NMS has already proven itself a major content recycler. Every planet I go to has the same "settlement" and "mural" structures, right down to the north-south-east-west positioning of iron-built buildings in a mountain's pit. The dynamic content generators have their limits, and it didn't take me long to find them.

I watched a few hours of streams and saw the same handful of buildings over and over and over again. They are everywhere. It's like searching for a Starbucks in Seattle. You'll find one on every corner and they all look the same.

One would think such learned font of gaming knowledge as Ars should know better. I suppose, for example, that in The Witcher the reason every thug in Flotsam looks like a clone of another is "artistic vision"...or something. Never mind every other game that "recycles content", which indeed is just about every single game out there.

Silly Hello Games...how dared they generate an universe in which every single leaf on every single tree isn`t different from another one? 3.5/10, wait for the bargain bin.

DangerDog wrote on Aug 8, 2016, 21:22:
Probably won't last long, kickstarter roms seem to be still guarded by the current owners of Amiga operating system.

Archive.org is pretty immune to BS. All the DOS games are there already and ton of other "copyrighted" stuff too.

Angrius Maximis wrote on Aug 9, 2016, 10:09:
Rage was fun. It was like Fallout 3.5

Made my day

So glad this circus will be over soon.

Mr. Tact wrote on Aug 9, 2016, 10:56:
Where is the "sandbox" portion of this game?

You mean, being free to do what you want to do in a universe-sized environment isn`t sandboxy enough?

Lol. It doesn`t matter anyway, the devs can break it down for the hundreth time, yet some folks will still see what they want to see.

CJ_Parker wrote on Aug 8, 2016, 13:56:
I'm sure they will have promos again where you can buy S42 and the PU together for the price of one or a pretty significant discount. It's CIG. They are very creative when it comes to fleecing people and making them feel like they got a good deal even when they got ripped off.

The zillion packages/pledges/subscriptions shenanigans is awful, no doubt. Also 54$ is way too much for the starter one, at this point in time.

Though Elite also had super pricey Beta. I think what it costs now is pretty fair thou: 30$ for the base game and another for the expansion.

Tipsy McStagger wrote on Aug 8, 2016, 13:02:
Isn't it just a massive procedural galaxy with no real content

No. Unless by "real content" you mean storylines.

As for gameplay, it has more systems than GTA/Mass Effect.

Your call

Bundy wrote on Aug 8, 2016, 12:04:
I was on an Eva to find a block box in debris. Turned around d and my ship was flying away. Well fuck. But then a starfarer showed up and I hopped in that. Was worth it.

This kinda stuff is what makes me really interested, it`s just awesome. That`s why them including the whole EVA and FPS element is spot on, even though some people don`t get it. Full immersion and so much more gameplay possibilities. I love Elite, but it`s scratching different, galaxy spanning/lone ranger itch. This could be more local, chaotic and fun too.

I`m not a fan of Mr Roberts and his business tactics are shady...but in the end, it`s the game that counts. So far it was similar with Project Cars and Elite, but they turned out all right. If I (and most of you too) was about to follow strict moral code regarding people who make the content I consume, I`d have to threw out huge chunk of my collection, starting with Led Zeppelin probably.

The only problem is the price - not sure where did you see that 20$ entry level? It`s 54$ here (UK)...or am I looking at some wrong package? (sure as hell they made it rather unclear)

"Hello Games will continually update No Man’s Sky this way. This is the first of many."

Good to hear. These guys sound genuine too, unlike some other indie devs. Think Rimworld, not Mighty No9.

There`s no way you can get project of this scale and scope "right" on the first release, not even 5th. So hope they stick with it for a bit. At the moment they should concentrate more on balancing issues rather than adding new stuff, though I suppose they`re waiting for player feedback to kick in.

One thing that worried me that I read somewhere was that it`s "hard to die". That would be a serious damper...sure as hell first thing I will try to do is actually die in as many ways as possible to gauge it

But, with updates, rebalancing difficulty or adding some harder tiers a la Survival or Ironman shouldn`t be a problem. In fact Ironman with randomized spawns after death is what I really wish for...

Bundy wrote on Aug 8, 2016, 10:43:
I'm surprised someone even tried playing SC with a gtx 760. It was always advertised as a high requirement game, especially in its unoptimised and unfinished state.

It sounds crazy even to myself since I`m an ex-hater, but I`m actually considering buying it. Problem is, it`s nigh on impossible to find out what this thing really is, since most people are either rabidly opposed or blindly enamoured with it.

So, has anybody without heavy bias played it? How bad are the framerates? I`m on 780ti + i7 2600k and 1080p Gsync monitor: Elite works flawlessly. I`d be reluctant to play under 60 fps.

Also how big (small) is the "universe"...read somewhere it`s a star system atm?

PHJF wrote on Aug 7, 2016, 06:30:
Yeah we were fed this line with Elite Dangerous as well and the game is BORING AS FUCK. There have to be adequate SYSTEMS in PLACE to ALLOW that, which NMS seems completely lacking.

E:D is a good call - it gets similar complaints, which I find completely unwarranted. If you find it BORING AS FUCK that`s okay, but you`re probably playing the wrong game.

As for the lack of SYSTEMS, well, that comment could be on point back in 2014 - I was also similarly skeptical back then. However in the last year they have shown a FUCKTON OF SYSTEMS relating to trade-exploration-survival-aliens-combat-so on and ignoring that is just lame.

These systems might be messed up and flawed and the game might suck, but at this moment in time you do not know this. However again - if you`re looking for different experience, a la Mass Effect, it`s just not a game for you. Move on, save energy, hate Trump

Quboid wrote on Aug 7, 2016, 09:59:
Urban Dictionary says that Guffin means to choke on a penis so, to be fair, that isn't something I really need. I need that even less than an item that only serves to drive the plot forward ... whatever that may be called.

But hey, it's much easier to pretend doubters are idiots who need their hands held and that I'm clever in comparison, even if I do confuse MacGuffins and oral sex. Who hasn't?

Is it as easy as carefully scanning a post to find something completely unrelated to the topic, but what you can use to show how clever`n edgy you are in comparison? If so, 5/5 buddy - even if you`re shooting blanks (sometimes I just get bored of cliched syntax)

Shame you have nothing to say about the game, but that`s a bit higher hanging fruit, so it`s fully understandable. And please, spare me the "doubters" high horseplay - it`s just a good ole hatewagon here, set off by codewords indie/SONY/hype/procgen and so on. True doubters would respect the facts and kept an open mind until the release, not engage in "There Can Be Only One! (Gameplay Style)" circlejerk.

Cutter wrote on Aug 6, 2016, 15:03:
Said it was a great game if you just want to have a few beers and fly/walk around looking at stuff but there isn't really anything to do per se, at least nothing that means anything. Which is what I thought it'd be.

Bias confirmation is a powerful trip.

It`s quite sad to see that majority (at least judging by comments here) of once-leading in innovation PC gaming community are locked in a baseless hate exercise, which stands against all the previous achievements. Funny times, huh.

But, well, whatever. To those who are still on the fence and/or confused by the naysaying barrage, let`s dispel few of the more thirsty/dumbass claims:

- there is actually a point/ending to a game - if you really need this sort of Guffin and don`t just enjoy roleplaying/creating your own stories in an infinite sandbox, which to me is the major selling point here. The goal is to reach the center of the universe. What`s there? Who knows, and, why should we know? I mean, would you like to know the ending to a game you`re just about to play?

-comparisons to "minecrafts" are ridiculous: this is an actual game with bazillion gameplay systems, Minecraft has a "game" mode but is more of a digital Lego where you just build stuff. Here you need to do things in order to survive and go further: just like in any normal game.

-this is mainly single player OFFLINE game. Online component is just charting the galaxy and possibility of meeting other players. It`s also completely OPTIONAL.

-things you won`t find in here: Miranda`s ass and million-polygon Z-tesselated LMFASSAO+ spaceship, corridors/invisible walls, hand-holding "tell me a story Mommy" plot, autopilot "no need to think, you`ll progress anyway" gameplay. Sorry! There`s plenty of other titles that do that sort of thing though.

Is this some kind of a joke? I see updates from programs like Avast trying to force Chrome on me all the time.

Mordecai Walfish wrote on Aug 5, 2016, 23:08:

Cutter wrote on Aug 5, 2016, 18:50:
It'd blow my mind if Musk could deliver some of this mind-blowing tech at prices most normal mortals could afford.

I thought that was pare of the "plan"? Introduce the tech in premium models in order to fund bringing it to more economical choices to come. I'd say he's well on the road towards achieving that.

I`ll believe that when his operation stops teetering on edge of bankruptcy and becomes a healthy business.

And oh, admitting that the Libertarian Code is a pile of BS and that he would be nowhere without government grants would be nice too

Yawn. Much more interesting is the fact Kenshi just appeared on GOG - finally some EA -sorry, In Dev - game with substance.

PR people...where`s Bill Hicks when you need him? Though I suppose writers are also responsible for this mess.

It`s wrong on multiple levels: "X Lives Matter" became mostly a snarky joke for people who oppose BLM, so really a poor choice. But even if it`s supposed to be a deep and thoughtful allegory of modern problems it is anything but - just a typical PR BS conjured in between fat coke lines.

And digging his hole even deeper by pretending it`s a "coincidence" is just laughable. Unless they think such controversy is actually good marketing...

That doesn`t look too bad indeed. Shallowrun was extremely disappointing but maybe they can do better this time.

Winter is coming=Vikings, get on with the mental shortcut program for the masses.

Even Kratos changed allegiance to Norse Gods and grew a beard. Of all things.

Gfx very basic. New studio, release date in few months, only 2 campaigns - red flags aplenty, looks more of a quick cash in with upcoming zillion DLCs than a serious W40K game.

Hopefully I`m wrong, Battlefleet was pretty cool...