No Man's Sky

"Can we give this game a round of applause for being one of the biggest redemption [stories] in game history?" reads one of No Man's Sky's most recent Steam reviews. Having launched its NEXT update earlier this week, players have returned to the space explorer in droves—many of whom seem to be enjoying their experience.

Of the 3,432 people that reviewed No Man's Sky on Steam over the last 30 days, 84 percent did so positively. As Murray points out above, this has raised its Overall Steam review rating to Mixed. And as Chris says, it seems that, two years later, the hype for No Man's Sky is back. Compare these figures to launch day, when 15,875 Steam reviews praised NMS for what it was; while 18,663 did not.

From now through 10am PST / 6pm BST, No Man's Sky is half-price on Steam—selling for £19.99/$29.99, down from £39.99/$59.99. 

Follow the link above if you fancy it, but, before you do, check out Pip and Chris's hands-on thoughts. The former explains what it's like to explore No Man's Sky Next with three other people. The latter asks: Is multiplayer really what No Man's Sky needs?

No Man's Sky

Even better than finding an interesting planet in No Man's Sky is finding an interesting system, where the planets form something of a theme. In my early days of playing, I found an Earth-like planet with a moon that looked a lot like our own (at least from space). While exploring the Next expansion this week, I discover another cool system. It has two planets, one of which my ship's scanner considers a 'Paradise Planet,' while the other it calls a 'Forsaken Planet.' Good and bad. Goofus and Gallant.

It seems like a nice duo to compare against one another, but then I notice a third planet further off in the distance. My scanner labels it a 'Terraforming Catastrophe'. That's a designation that's been in the game before Next arrived, but I still want to check it out. So I land and discover the saddest, shabbiest planet I've ever visited.

When I enter the atmosphere and approach the surface, it's like the color drains out of the entire game. That image above, that's not a filter. That's just how it is here. It's like Dorothy leaving Oz and going back to Kansas. Here's a short video to show you what I mean:

There are plenty of lifeless, airless, somewhat dismal planets in No Man's Sky, but this one feels much different. My first impulse is to leave, but I'm sort of intrigued by the world. Not only is it colorless, it also makes me colorless, draining the vibrancy out of my ship, my rockets, even out of my own character. It's almost monochrome, except for the water which looks brown like... well, sewage certainly come to mind. Also interesting is that unlike a lot of the darker, more morbid planets I've visited in No Man's Sky is that there's actually life here, both plant an animal.

What there isn't, however, is any joy to be found, even in normally enjoyable tasks like scanning creatures and plant life. The plants are tall and bulbous and expel clouds of fumes into the sky, which is the color of a fart (if farts had a color). Storms roll in every few minutes, not dramatic ones, just a bit of wind and rain and fog that dampen what little color there is here to begin with. I get into the habit of looking through my scanner simply because it adds some green and blue tint to the world, but the moment I stop everything is dull and gray again. 

I decide to feed one of the little crab critters scuttling around just to give something on this planet a little happiness. The critter eats and the smiley face icon appears. Less than a second later he's mauled to death by another creature, which then starts to eat him. As the predator feeds on the dead crabbie, I burn it with my laser. It doesn't run away as my mining laser burns it. It doesn't even look up or care that I'm killing it. It just eats while it's dying, and then it dies. Anything to escape this planet, I guess. I feed another crab and it too is summarily killed by another predator. What the hell, man? Is happiness against the law here?

I fly around a bit more, thinking maybe I'll stay a while and scan every species, maybe even find something that appears not quite so miserable. I take a swim into toilet-water sea, finding a few drab sharks and some squids whose heads inflate to propel them around. I eventually find eight of the nine species, and head out to try to locate the ninth.

I fly around landing here and there, seeing only the same crabbies and turtle-panthers and boars and sharks, the same fart blossom plants, and not much else. I kill a few fart blossoms and no sentinels even fly over to scrutinize me. Even the extremely touchy metal guardians of galactic flora don't care about Sadworld, which is what I name the planet. Blow up whatever you like.

Half the world is brown ocean, so I check out more of the coastline and some islands. Islands are always nice, right? Even those floating in a sea of toilet water? Most of the islands on Sadworld are completely bland circles, the least imaginative kind of island you could picture. On one I find a single tree, a single crab, and a single boar. The boar promptly kills the crab. I didn't even get a chance to feed it.

One island looks just like a Google Maps indicator. It's just pointing to more brown water, though, as if to say "Want to visit? Well, this is all we've got. Toilet water, a bunch of it. It's right here. You probably don't want to visit, though. Whatever."

I finally locate and scan the final creature of Sadworld. It's half-boar, half-fish, and it's swimming in an awkward circle in the poop ocean, completely alone, which feels appropriate. I can't think of anything else to do here but leave. I climb out of the sea and pause before getting in my ship, admiring the view of the ringed paradise planet above.

Clouds immediately roll in and block it from view. Of course they do! There's no happiness allowed here on Sadworld. Not even for a moment. 

No Man's Sky

So, yesterday was weird. No Man's Sky sat atop the global top sellers list on Steam at a price of $60 while I sat there endlessly refreshing Sean Murray's Twitter, waiting for the download to begin. It was like it was 2016 again—though No Man's Sky did go on sale for 50% off and this time players could actually see each other in the game.

I wasn't the only one blasting off into the Next expansion: at its peak yesterday, No Man's Sky had 41,861 concurrent players on Steam. Naturally, that's not close to the all-time peak after the 2016 launch, which saw over 200 thousand concurrents. It's still twice as many the Atlas Rises update drew in 2017, which pulled in around 20,000 concurrents, according to Steam Charts.

With No Man's Sky selling well this week, it's impossible to say how many of these players are trying it for the first time and how many are returning after a break to check out the new features. And of course there are those who have been playing regularly all along. At this moment, No Man's Sky is the tenth most played game on Steam.

No Man's Sky

Repairing your ship is the first thing you'll have to worry about in No Man's Sky, and soon enough you're going to be tasked with finding items like a Hermetic Seal, Pure Ferrite, Navigation Data, a Signal Booster and more.

Here on this page then we'll explain exactly what those thigns are, and what it is you need to do at the start of No Man's Sky to fix your ship and get off that probably inhospitable starter planet, and beging your proper journey.


On this page:

Read more…

No Man's Sky - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

Update: GOG are now offering refunds to anyone who owns NMS there, even if they’re beyond the 30-day guarantee. GOG take great, finger-pointing pains to say that “Hello Games chose not to offer refunds over missing game content to our users” and this is “entirely at GOG’s own cost”. I have found it’s often best to brew a cuppa, have a ciggy, or stroll walk round the block before making snippy proclamations.>

Space pootler No Man’s Sky added online multiplayer in its long-awaited Next update yesterday, but what I’d missed–and don’t remember hearing about in advance?–is that this is only for the Steam version of No Man’s Sky. Citizens of the stars who bought the game DRM-free on GOG have received much of the Next update, with all its prettying-up and frigate fleets and new missions and whatnot, but not multiplayer. Online play is not in the GOG version yet, and isn’t expected until “later this year.”

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No Man's Sky

UPDATE 9.30pm: Following this morning's news that the GOG.com version of No Man's Sky won't be getting the NEXT update's much-touted new multiplayer features until "later in the year", the retailer has announced that it's now offering refunds to those affected.

In a post on its website, GOG said, "We know that many of you expressed disappointment about the lack of the new multiplayer feature in the latest update to No Man's Sky on GOG.COM. While we have limited control over games and content updates, we want you to have the best and risk-free experience possible when you buy a game on GOG.COM."

GOG continued, "Although Hello Games chose not to offer refunds over missing game content to our users and instead promised to bring the missing multiplayer content later this year, we understand that some of you might not be willing to wait."

Read more…

No Man's Sky

Update: Because of the delay in bringing multiplayer support to No Man's Sky on GOG, it is offering an extended refund policy on the game. Until 3 pm PT/6 pm ET on July 29, NMS owners can request a refund regardless of when they purchased the game.  

Original story:

Owners of the DRM-free version of No Man's Sky, which is only available on GOG.com, will not have access to the game's new multiplayer features until later this year. That's according to a joint statement made by GOG and Hello Games on the GOG forums, where the news was released roughly three hours ago.

"From launch, the DRM-free edition of No Man's Sky will include all single-player content introduced by NEXT: third-person mode, upgraded visuals, better base building, player customization, and more," the statement reads.

"However the multiplayer component will not be ready at launch; we expect it to be released later this year as full multiplayer parity remains in the pipeline."

The post goes on to explain the delay, pointing to the complexity of adding the functionality across a variety of platforms at once. The Next update has rolled out  across Steam and PS4, this week as well as launching with the newly released Xbox One version."For a small, independent studio, developing the feature across multiple platforms is a hugely ambitious and technical challenge which resulted in this delayed release," the statement reads. "Hello Games is however joining forces with GOG.COM to introduce full multiplayer via the GOG Galaxy platform. We appreciate your immense support and patience."

No Man's Sky Next went live earlier today, and Chris has already experimented with the game's frankly weird player customization feature. Expect to hear more from him on the update shortly.

No Man's Sky

The No Man's Sky Next Upate has arrived, giving us both co-op multiplayer and a third-person perspective. It's also given us something new to consider: how we look to ourselves and others. When you visit a space station, you'll find an Appearance Modifier terminal which lets you not only choose your race—Gek, Vy'keen, Korvax, Traveler, or Anomaly (boring human)—but also lets you pick from a number of helmets, heads, eyes, and beaks, plus a bunch of boots, gloves, backpacks, and armor. In the video above (and here on YouTube), I cycle through a number of the interesting options available to you.

The Traveler race, in particular, has some weird heads to consider. Also, keep in mind that playing as a Gek, for example, won't let you become instantly fluent in the Gek language. If you want to converse with aliens, you'll still need to pick up the language the old-fashioned way.

But at least now you can look the part. 

No Man's Sky - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Dominic Tarason)

Today, No Man’s Sky is one small step closer to being the improbable dream-game so many envisioned it as, in one giant leap for patch-kind. The ‘Next’ update adds full online multiplayer, third-person camera modes and a chunk of new things to do, see and explore. The graphics have received a bit of love from Hello Games as well, going as far as adding scads of pointless but cool-looking greebles all over spacecraft and structures. There’s a whole lot more, but you’re probably better off skimming the enormous patch-notes page here.

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No Man's Sky

After a bit of a delay—we were expecting the update to arrive at 6 am Pacific—the No Man's Sky Next update has arrived and can be downloaded on PC. While you're waiting for it to download, you can take a look at the patch notes to see what Next includes.

The Next update includes third-person perspective and multiplayer—still described as playable with a 'small group of friends' rather than stating the specific number of players. As Pip told us when she got some hands-on time with it last week, you can play with friends right from the start of the game, including the tutorial. As for running into other players randomly, the notes say the following:

Communicate with other players vocally using a headset, and / or converse using text chat on PC. While wandering the galaxy solo, continue to experience chance encounters with strange floating orbs.

So it sounds like you see your friends as fully realized characters, but see strangers as orbs. I think? I guess we'll find out today, as soon as two players who aren't friends run into each other.

New mission types have been added, including photography missions (which sounds like just the sort of thing I'd enjoy), hunting, archaeology, freighter attacks, and more. The patch notes state that creature movement and AI has been improved as well, and it also sounds like sentinels may now be easier to battle.

Base-building has been expanded with hundreds of new parts and teleporters can be placed anywhere on a planet. Players can also own multiple bases, and they can be built anywhere. 

Since you can now see your character in third-person view, a character creation tool has been added, available on space stations. You can play as a Vy'keen, Gek, Korvax, Traveler, or Anomaly (human). You can also customize specific parts of your appearance like your head, torso, gloves, boots, backpack, and so on. (Note that playing as a certain species doesn't mean you will automatically be able to read the language of that species. I watched a console player streaming, and he played as a Gek but still couldn't understand their language.)

Rather than a single freighter you'll now be able to command a fleet, and even conduct real-time missions with them, call them in to help out with space battles, and get their assistance while exploring systems.

Crafting has been overhauled as well, with new resources to find and a system based on a planet's biome and classification. There are also resource refineries to convert raw substances into other materials.

Visual improvements include new clouds, ringed planets, improved hazardous storms, and planetary changes that will allow for bigger and deeper oceans and buried ruins to discover and explore. There are also changes to the UI and scanner, and an improved build menu, plus enhancements to the audio and sound effects.

Hello Games is also planning weekly community events, and have set up a pretty nice looking Galactic Atlas website to pinpoint community hubs, events, and discovery stats. 

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