Ooooh! A Subnautica [official site] update! This one is called Silent Running and yet the trailer is VERY LOUD. I think the silent bit only applies to the Cyclops (a big underwater craft) which you can now run silently if you want to sneak around. Sneaking is now important because of the underwater jerks trying to munch on your Cyclops. That sounded wrong. Let’s move on and watch the video: … [visit site to read more]

If you’ve spoken to me for more than five minutes, chances are I’ve mentioned Subnautica [official site]. It’s an open world survival game set largely underwater on an alien planet. You explore biomes, collect resources and, as updates to the early access project add more content, start to piece together the story of the planet. I played huge amounts of the game before more significant story elements were added and my big project was my volcano lair’s garden. I collected all the weird and wonderful plants I could and cultivated them in little plant beds outside my underwater home. That’s why, when I had a chance to speak with art director Cory Strader, I immediately wanted to talk about the game’s flora.

Read on to find out how The Abyss, microscopy and a real fish with a transparent head and a visible brain all played their part! P.S. You can click on images to see larger version of the concept artwork or, if they’re game screenshots, to just see them in isolation. … [visit site to read more]

Subnautica [official site] seems like a nautical holiday wrapped inside a survival game. Swim around a gentle ocean and meet lots of colourful fish, chill out in an underwater forest, sunbathe on top of a little escape pod it all sounds very relaxing. Don t be fooled. Subnautica is, in fact, absolutely terrifying.

I can t quite remember when I realised that the sea was actually a vast world of horrors. Whenever it was, this realisation was undoubtedly confirmed when I was snorkeling off the coast of Australia in my early teens. I broke the surface of the water to be greeted by blood. So much blood. Not mine, thankfully. It belonged to a man who had bumped into some coral, which proceeded to rip open his leg.

Coral! Nobody expects this of all things to tear chunks out of them, but that s what you get when you decide to visit the utterly alien sea. In Subnautica, this is even more pronounced because it s a literal alien sea, an entirely new world, that you re exploring. You re not meant to be there and you re definitely not welcome.

… [visit site to read more]

I was wondering which games might make the “Things To Play Over The Christmas Break” list this year when the Subnautica [official site] Precursor update got released. I went through a really big Subnautica love affair earlier in the year, but decided to step away for a few patches as the game is still in early access and I didn’t want to lose the magic by mining out each update in turn. Then Precursor arrived and is tempting me back not only with alien tech and more in the way of narrative but NEW CAVES! … [visit site to read more]

If Pip were around, she’d focus on how the latest Subnautica [official site] update added a lovely big undersea tree and new glowing Ghost Rays to swim around it. She’s a peaceful one, our Pip, probably hoping to build another wonderful seabase near that tree. However, Pip is at EGX today, so Pip can’t write this. Instead, you get me telling you about the awful new hostile sealife in the aquatic explore-o-build-a-surviver’s ‘Dangerous Creatures’ update. How do you fancy meeting a humanoid cuttlefish with knives for hands? Or what appears to be an aquatic Tyranid Hive Tyrant?

… [visit site to read more]

I go away for two days and PRAWNS! arrive in Subnautica [official site]. I’m not actually talking crustaceans here, but a special suit with that acronym which arrived in the PRAWN update (Pressure Re-Active Waterproof Nano Suit). It has a claw arm and you can add a whole bunch more useful nonsense as well. This is my kind of augmentation tech. Deus Ex: Fishkind Explored.

… [visit site to read more]

A fair few people said they wanted a little tour of my Subnautica [official site] Volcano Base so I’ve made a quick video to show it off – especially the garden which is packed with bioluminescent plantlife!

… [visit site to read more]

This post was originally published as part of the RPS Supporter program>

I’m playing a lot of Subnautica [official site] at the moment, spending hours beneath the waves, doing the floaty equivalent of pottering and gardening.

I think the reason I’m having so much fun, despite being historically infuriated by survival games, is that one mode allows you to ditch the hunger and thirst constraints. I’m still surviving in that I worry about my oxygen and my health and I like how that guides and paces my exploration. There are constraints to navigate but not the constant irritant of hunger and thirst as it tends to manifest in this tranch of gaming.

… [visit site to read more]

Over the last three days I seem to have racked up 18 hours in Subnautica [official site] and several more than 2,000 screenshots. I’m playing in Freedom mode so I can ignore food and drink requirements and spend a lot of my time building little bases to act as viewing platforms for kelp forests. BUT! I also discovered the freecam command in debug mode so here is a whole gallery of undersea loveliness to try to communicate why I’m spending so much time under the sea!

… [visit site to read more]

The most important things in the world, we all know, are swimming in the great outdoors, admiring flora and fauna, and caring for plants. Subnautica [official site] already had most of those covered as it dunked players onto an ocean-covered alien world to explore, build bases, and survive, and now it’s expanded flora-fancying too. Along the journey through Early Access, the Farming Update has added horticulture for scientific, nutritional, and decorative purposes in growbeds and pots. Subnautica’s plants are gorgeous, so I’ll be delighted to plant my own alien garden.

… [visit site to read more]