MULTI [OT]No Man’s Sky coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X on launch day with free upgrade

[manigamer]

[h=2]No Man's Sky will not need a PlayStation Plus subscription to play[/h][h=3]The sprawling space exploration game is considered a single-player experience, despite its online features[/h]

No Man's Sky will not require the premium PlayStation Plus susbcription to play when it launches Aug. 9, Sony confirmed to Game Informer Australia.
There had been a concern it might be required because of the game's significant online infrastructure and the potential to meet other players in its vast space environment. However, the possibility of such contact is so remote that both Sony and developer Hello Games consider No Man's Sky to be a single-player game, thus exempting its online features from a PS Plus membership.


Sony's statement to Game Informer said that while PS Plus is not necessary, "you will need to be connected to the Internet for your discoveries to register with the universal atlas." No Man's Sky is a game in which players discover, explore and name planets and the species inhabiting them in a vast universe.
When the PS4 launched in 2013, Sony shifted its policy on online multiplayer, which had been (and still is) free on PS3, to require a PlayStation Plus membership to access a game's online features on PS4. A year of PS Plus is $49.99.
First announced in late 2013, No Man's Sky has been greatly anticipated since. It was delayed to its Aug. 9 launch date back in May, news that earned death threats for the game's creator.

• Source
• Game Informer

 

[manigamer]

[h=2]No Man’s Sky PC release pushed back[/h][h=3]What's three more days, anyway?[/h]

No Man's Sky will now launch on Windows PC worldwide on Aug. 12, according to the game’s about page. That’s three days after the game hits PlayStation 4 in North America, where it launches Aug. 9.
The game was previously scheduled to launch on both platforms simultaneously, with the website giving the same Aug. 9 North American release date for PC and PS4 as recently as last week. We’ve contacted developer Hello Games for the explanation behind the quiet, last-minute PC delay.


This isn’t the first time that the launch of No Man’s Sky has been rescheduled. The game was first set for a June 21 release, but the developer announced in May that it wouldn’t be ready until August.
Production on No Man’s Sky ended earlier this month, and today fans learned that they won’t need PlayStation Plus to access the game’s online features, which allow players to encounter each other in the vastness of outer space. The highly anticipated, procedurally generated adventure game has been in the works since 2013.

• Source
• No Man's Sky

• Via
• NeoGAF

 

[manigamer]

[h=2]Someone paid $1,300 to play No Man’s Sky two weeks early[/h][h=3]Spoiler alert![/h]

Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky won’t hit PlayStation 4 until Aug. 9, but one lucky, deep-pocketed fan is already playing the game. He apparently paid more than $1,300 for that privilege and is currently posting video of his No Man’s Sky adventures.
On Reddit, user "daymeeuhn" copped to paying more than 20 times the standard asking price for a leaked copy of No Man’s Sky. He says he bought the game from a seller on eBay and had the PS4 game shipped via FedEx today. For proof, he uploaded (vertically-filmed) video of himself opening and installing the game on his PS4. There’s even video of him popping a celebratory bottle of champagne as the game installs.


So, if you’re desperate for new footage of No Man’s Sky — or are actively trying to avoid spoilers — be aware that daymeeuhn is posting video of his exploits to DailyMotion, where just about anything goes, content-wise.
Sean Murray of developer Hello Games took to the No Man’s Sky Twitter account today to warn fans that footage of the space exploration game was in the wild — and that they should probably avoid it.

We’ve spent years filling No Man’s Sky with surprises. You've spent years waiting. Please don't spoil it for yourself
— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) July 29, 2016​

So, why pay so much for a copy of No Man’s Sky two weeks early? Here’s part of daymeeuhn’s lengthy explanation of his extravagant purchase.

I'm a lucky guy. I've done well for myself. I have disposable income and I'm happy in life. I'm in a state of being where I don't look at a purchase and determine the overall value by the price tag, but rather by how much happiness it will bring myself or the people I care about. I'm also very much in a weird state of mind half the time in that I've seen some shit, and I've dealt with loss, and I know all too well that too many of us take life for granted. I could die in a car accident tomorrow — who knows? If I did, all that money I had saved up didn't do me a whole lot of good, did it? That's not to say that I'm YOLO spending every cent every day, because I'm not — contrary to what you might believe looking at a purchase like this that some would label with the "completely insane" tag, I'm actually pretty good with money. Most of the time. But that buys me the opportunity to live on the edge a bit with more reckless and crazy purchases when the time comes.
​

The rest of us will have to be content with waiting a bit longer for No Man’s Sky. The PS4 version arrives Aug. 9 in North America and Aug. 10 in Europe, while the Windows PC version will be available on Aug. 12 worldwide.

• Source
• Reddit
• Daily Motion

 

[manigamer]

[h=2]Gamer who bought No Man's Sky early reaches galaxy center, deflating fans' anticipation[/h][h=3]Spoiler-filled post explains a shortcut that significantly reduces travel time[/h]

The person who paid more than $1,300 to get a copy of No Man's Sky 10 days before its launch date claims to have already "beaten" the game by reaching the center of its galaxy. He says it took around 30 hours.
If true, this could diminish gamer expectations set by the highly anticipated game's large-scale environment — quintillions of unique worlds and, in this interview with GameSpot, a journey of "hundreds of hours" to get to the center of the galactic map.


Daymeeuhn, the Redditor who bought the game, said his 30-hour playthrough was not simply an attempt to reach the galaxy center as fast as he could, either. (There are spoilers for No Man's Sky throughout the thread he has posted.)
"Contrary to what a lot of people think, I have done A LOT of what the game has to offer," he wrote. "I actually intentionally took time out of my warp jumping over the course of going to the middle to explore planets to break up the monotony of it. This does not mean I have done all of the major events, however."






Importantly, Daymeeuhn reached the center of the galaxy with some help. He found an in-game item that commands a steep price in the galactic market. After selling it, he put the money toward upgrades that significantly sped up his means of travel and exploration.
Daymeeuhn detailed how he was able to acquire the item repeatedly and what to buy, meaning this is not an exploit but it still is a very deliberate means of cutting down the time it takes to get to the center of the galaxy.


"PRAY for a Day 1 patch, not only to nerf the sale cost" of the item, "but also to address some of this shit [meaning bugs] too," he wrote.
On Friday, Daymeeuhn revealed that he'd acquired the game and posted several videos of it to DailyMotion, which he later took down in regret. (No Man's Sky fans still took the videos and mirrored them to other video services, including PornHub, of course.)
No Man's Sky's creator and chief developer Sean Murray took to Twitter to ask fans to stay away from whatever Daymeeuhn was posting. Many haven't listened, and Daymeeuhn's thread on Reddit is filled with gamers trying to square their expectations of the vast experience they were promised with what he is reporting.
"I'm not 'cancelling my pre-order' but a lot of what you've said has dramatically decreased my hype (which is actually great by the way, thank you)," wrote one. "Still going to buy, but I really, really, really hope they fix these problems. Almost everything you listed as a negative is one of the things about the game I was greatly looking forward to."
However, other No Man's Sky fans have been unable to handle their disappointment with a proportionate reaction. In late May, news that the PlayStation 4 and Windows PC game was delayed from its original June launch date to Aug. 9 (Aug. 12 for PC) resulted in death threats against Murray.
[HR][/HR]

• Source
• Reddit

 

[manigamer]

[h=2]No Man’s Sky servers being wiped before launch[/h][h=3]No Man’s Servers but Hello Games’[/h]

No Man's Sky developer Hello Games plans to reset the game’s servers before the game launches, meaning that everyone will start with a clean slate on day one.
Harry Denholm, senior programmer at the studio, said on Twitter today that the No Man’s Sky "servers are being wiped Sunday." Denholm included a screenshot of a Kotaku piece alongside his tweet, as if to nullify the article — the excerpt mentioned that there is a planet named after Kotaku in No Man’s Sky, and that players will be able to discover it when the game launches publicly next week.

Servers are being wiped on Sunday pic.twitter.com/JTmzabmU1R
— Harry Denholm (@HarryDenholm) August 5, 2016​

It’s possible to play No Man’s Sky offline; that’s why the PlayStation 4 version of the game will not require a PlayStation Plus subscription. Once you do connect your console or computer to the internet, the names you’ve given to planets you’ve discovered (and the species inhabiting them) will be uploaded for the world to see.
However, the server wipe means that anybody with an early copy of No Man’s Sky — whether it’s the guy who paid $1,300 for one, or press outlets like Polygon and Kotaku that obtained the game from retailers — will lose all their progress on Aug. 7. It’s unclear at this point if players will be able to sync existing offline data with the post-wipe version of No Man’s Sky; we’ve reached out to Hello Games and Sony to ask, and we’ll update this article with any information we receive.
No Man’s Sky launches Aug. 9 on PS4 and Aug. 12 on Windows PC. For more on the game, check out our opinion piece on how long the game really is.

• Source
• Harry Denholm on Twitter

 

[manigamer]

[h=2]No Man's Sky's day-one patch dramatically builds out and changes the entire game[/h][h=3]Universe generation algorithm changed, inventories expanded, storyline rewritten and much more[/h]

The day-one patch for No Man's Sky is less of an update and more of a comprehensive overhaul, according to the lengthy notes Hello Games founder Sean Murray published yesterday.
Ship and personal inventories are being expanded (by multiples of 5 and 2.5, respectively), planets have a wider diversity of creatures, and those creatures now have a diet, where proper feeding enables their assistance. The universe generation algorithm has been changed, (meaning planets will move) with the goal of bringing more variety to the galaxies, which also are "up to 10x larger" post-patch.


That is not all, by a long shot. The patch brings in three unique story paths, one of which was completely rewritten. A greater variety of ships will be found (and available for purchase) in each star system and the game's graphical effects get a polishing.






The entire notes are here but in sum they describe a game that is functionally not at all what some people or press are playing right now.
One person paid $1,300 for a copy of the game nearly two weeks before its launch date (which is Aug. 9) and began streaming his playthrough and offering detailed thoughts on how the game plays. Publications such as Polygon and Kotaku also acquired the game early from retailers and also posted streams.
Some fans eager to see the game, first announced three years ago, have responded with disappointment, particularly when one user reached the center of his galaxy — ostensibly the overarching goal of the game — in a playthrough of about 30 hours.


Sony on Friday issued a statement noting that it had been holding back review copies of the game because the patch, which goes live on Monday, would significantly alter the game some now have in their hands. No Man's Sky's servers will be wiped sometime today and any user playing the game early will lose all of their save progress.
No Man's Sky launches Aug. 9 for PlayStation 4 and Aug. 12 on Windows PC.

• Source
• No Man's Sky

 

[manigamer]

[h=2]There's a way to keep people from playing No Man's Sky early, but no one wants it[/h][h=3]Remember the always-connected console? Yeah.[/h]

Those bothered by the widespread leaks and livestreams of No Man's Sky as some retailers have broken its street date should know that there is a way to stop this sort of thing, but the cost is one nearly everyone is unwilling to pay.
That would be an always-connected console, or a console that has to check in with an online server even if the game is entirely offline.


Pete Hines, the Bethesda Softworks chief spokesman, brought this up in a QuakeCon interview with Game Informer, noting that no one (himself included) wants to see that happen.
In the run-up to the Xbox One's 2013 launch, Microsoft revealed plans to require the console to check in with Xbox Live servers every 24 hours (more frequently under other circumstances) and the core audience recoiled. Microsoft ultimately abandoned this requirement, but not before Sony pummeled its rival over the controversy during its E3 2013 news conference.
"Remember that conversation a few years ago about always online? Guess what that stops? It stops people from getting the game early and playing it before they are supposed to," Hines told Game Informer. "There are plenty of reasons to be unhappy about that, but one of the things that it actually did was prevent people from playing it early."
Hines' remarks came among a larger context of sympathy for Hello Games, having seen Bethesda products get sold early and dent the gala launch day excitement the publisher and development team hoped for.
That said, Hines didn't blame those who got their hands on No Man's Sky early. "If I walked into a store and they said, 'Here's Dishonored 2,' yeah, I would want to play that," Hines said.


Where the broken street date has made No Man's Sky fans anxious and upset is partly because of the hype preceding a game said to be nearly infinite in its scope. That's magnified by the fact the game that is being played and shown on livestreams is considerably different from the one waiting on Tuesday, after a massive overhaul of a day-one patch hits tomorrow.
That patch rewrites the universe's generation algorithm, significantly expands the size of galaxies, the diversity of lifeforms and terrain found on their planets, expands the limited inventory capacity that some players already are complaining about, introduces three storyline paths and even rewrites a good chunk of the game's story.
No Man's Sky launches Tuesday for PlayStation 4, and Aug. 12 for Windows PC.

• Source
• Game Informer

 

[manigamer]

[h=2]No Man’s Sky’s first few seconds baffle new PS4 owners[/h][h=3]No Man’s Square[/h]

No Man’s Sky threw some PlayStation 4 gamers for a loop only a few seconds into the game.
The game boots up to a blank white screen. The word "initialize" floats in the center of the screen. Beneath it is a small circle with a square inside of it. And then nothing:

No Man’s Square Some players thought the game froze. Others thought it was still loading or downloading. Turns out it was simply waiting for the player to hold the square button.
For longtime PlayStation 4 players, the square icon is an obvious direction to press the square button. But those unfamiliar with the system — and some may have bought one for No Man’s Sky, as it’s not on Xbox One — ended up waiting for something to happen. At least one player rebooted their system, thinking the game had frozen.
"Dude I thought I was the only one," wrote one Redditor. "I sat here for a good while thinking it was installing."
Redditor XxAuthenticxX created a thread on the No Man’s Sky subreddit entitled "Hold square on initialize," saving a lot of confused players a reboot or two.
Here are a few of my favorite comments:

• "Saw this guy streaming a few days back, he reset his PS4 cause he thought it had crashed lol."
• "WTF WASTED 10 MINUTES OF MY LIFE!"
• "I just bought a PS4 to play No Man’s Sky, usually an Xbox guy so when I seen the square I didn’t think of the button lol."
• "Honestly, I had to move my couch closer to my 50" TV because that square looked so tiny I just thought it was a logo and I had to wait for the game to load. After 2 hours of playing (maybe it was 3), I moved my couch even closer. They sure did make the text as small as possible lol."

Chalk it up to tired eyes and tiny icons, or maybe the excitement of finally being able to play a hotly anticipated game.
The good news is that now that you’ve read this, you won’t make the same mistake.
Of course, this is only for PS4 players. The Windows PC version will likely have its own start screen when it launches this Friday. As Redditor Chwhitby said, "Just wait till PC players have to press the any key."

Fox via Frinkiac

• Via
• Reddit/r/NoMansSky

 

[manigamer]

[h=2]No Man's Sky players travel the exact same planet without ever crossing paths[/h][h=3]They walk a lonely, single-player road[/h]

No Man's Sky is a game about exploring massive universes on your own. As two players discovered in an ongoing Twitch stream, that means it's not possible for multiple travelers to group up or even meet up, if they ever actually manage to happen across the same planet.
After discovering that a planet he'd landed up had been found by a user called Psytokat, a player by the name of TheGalacticCactus messaged his fellow space traveler to stage a meet-up. Recognizing that that's a rare occurrence in No Man's Sky, with its quintillions of planets, the pair decided to stream their endeavor. It's recommended that you watch their adventures side-by-side on a multi-stream viewer, as doing so emphasizes that, despite Psytokat and TheGalacticCactus' calculated, best efforts, the two never cross paths.


Throughout the stream, viewers have seen the players stand in the same space stations, speak with the same planetary denizens and stop by identical waypoints, only to never actually see each other. Also of note is that one player's planet is experiencing daytime while the other is venturing during the night. It's possible that they're on different servers — but it's also likely that the procedurally generated game is rendering identically named planets in unique ways.
The encounter seems to suggest there's no multiplayer in the game, as lead designer Sean Murray of Hello Games has often said. In a recent tweet, he told players that the chance of seeing one another in-game was "pretty much zero."
The game doesn't require a PlayStation Plus subscription, as Sony and the developer think of it as a single-player experience due to the great improbability of players being able to interact. That's different from what Murray said in 2014, when he told GameSpot that No Man's Sky would feature "traditional" multiplayer elements.
We've reached out to Hello Games about how and why these two players aren't able to connect, and if there's still hope for other No Man's Sky travelers out there to make their journeys any less solitary. In the meantime, check out our FAQ to answer your other questions about what is possible in the game, now on PlayStation 4.

• Source
• No Man's Sky the Game on Reddit

 

[Necrokiller]

First review on Metacritic:

The Jimquisition - 5/10

"Mediocre"

Even with my expectations guarded, however, I did not expect just another survival/crafting game that used randomization as a crutch to the point of losing all potential personality.

http://www.thejimquisition.com/no-mans-sky-review/

 

[TrueCoolGuy]

Holy shit, is this fucking real?

 

[Gizmo]

^^Probably, ratings get changed you know....

 

[Arkonov]

^^Probably, ratings get changed you know....

He's trying to show how they removed the online multiplayer thing on there, not the rating lol

 

[Gizmo]

oh..... :crazy:

 

[manigamer]

probably because it may not be as ONLINE as we thought

Update: In a series of tweets, Sean Murray reacted to the "mind-blowing" meet-up, suggesting that the unexpected number of people playing at once might have expedited this happening.


"We added a 'scan for other players' in the Galactic Map to try to encourage [players finding each other] happening," he wrote. "We wanted it to happen — but the first day?"
He clarified that all players are sharing a universe, and that could lead to some exciting discoveries — perhaps not actually seeing other players, but finding Easter eggs. But Murray remains concerned that "too many" people are sharing that universe all at once, right after No Man's Sky's launch.
"It is a testament to how amazing our network coders are that Discoveries are still working at all," he wrote. "For instance over night we hit 10 million species discovered in NMS... that's more than has been discovered on earth."
[HR][/HR]

 

[gullfounder]

I can't wait to try this game on PC.

 

[manigamer]

[h=2]No Man’s Sky special pre-order item is leaving some players stranded[/h][h=3]Stuck in a galaxy far, far away[/h]

A souped-up starship offered to No Man's Sky customers who pre-ordered the PlayStation 4 and Windows PC game digitally is leaving many stuck out in the middle of the galaxy, unable to head to another star system. Players are calling out the ship’s pre-installed power-ups as the cause of a "game-breaking bug" that could severely limit where they can go and what they can do in the game.






The pre-order ship gives players early access to the hyperdrive, a technology that allows them to hop between star systems that are lightyears apart in no time at all. Typically, players must acquire a blueprint for the hyperdrive to build it themselves; they’ll also have to learn the formula for fueling it before they can truly take off across the universe. Since the special pre-order bonus negates the need to do that, many players are skipping past those traditional requirements — they already have hyperdrive, their games recognize, so they don’t have to go searching for it.


Those who travel several star systems away from the one that’s home to their first planets without ever picking up that hyperdrive blueprint are starting to find that fast-forwarding through the early part of the game could be a bad idea. Forum posters are warning others that they’ve found themselves wanting to buy a better ship, only to discover that the newer purchase lacks the pre-order bonus’ hyperdrive — and they don’t have the means to build one themselves.


"At the space station in the system I'm in now, I saw a ship that I loved, had a bigger inventory (THANK GOD) and finally had enough money to make a big purchase," wrote user McBlurry in a detailed Reddit thread warning players against using the pre-order ship. "Before pressing the final purchase button, I noticed the ship didn't have a hyperdrive (no ships I had seen had had one other than the player's) so I assumed the hyperdrive automatically just gets moved over, whatever, another one of the countless weird obtuse UI decisions. It doesn't."
That means that the new ship requires a hyperdrive to be built. For the average player, that’s simple; they have the instructions. Those who pre-ordered and were cruising through the early game, however, are out of luck. Once a traveler switches ships, there’s no going back, and though some players said they’ve had luck finding the hyperdrive blueprints in the later part of the game, the procedurally generated worlds vary wildly; there’s no guarantee that the planet a player is stuck on has the instructions that will help them get off.
We’ve reached out to Hello Games about the issue and will update if the developer — or anyone else — is able to come up with a surefire fix. Until then, check out our No Man’s Sky guide to learn the ropes of how to play the game the standard way. Read our thoughts on the first 10 hours of the adventure game as well, ahead of its PC launch on Aug. 12.

• Source
• No Man's Sky the Game on Reddit

 

[TrueCoolGuy]

probably because it may not be as ONLINE as we thought

Update: In a series of tweets, Sean Murray reacted to the "mind-blowing" meet-up, suggesting that the unexpected number of people playing at once might have expedited this happening.


"We added a 'scan for other players' in the Galactic Map to try to encourage [players finding each other] happening," he wrote. "We wanted it to happen — but the first day?"
He clarified that all players are sharing a universe, and that could lead to some exciting discoveries — perhaps not actually seeing other players, but finding Easter eggs. But Murray remains concerned that "too many" people are sharing that universe all at once, right after No Man's Sky's launch.
"It is a testament to how amazing our network coders are that Discoveries are still working at all," he wrote. "For instance over night we hit 10 million species discovered in NMS... that's more than has been discovered on earth."
[HR][/HR]

So it's up in the air right now whether multiplayer is even a thing in this game. "sharing a universe" and "perhaps not actually seeing other players, but finding Easter eggs" is some vague as shit clarification.

And get the fuck out of here with the 10 million species bullshit. Unless all those species are the same 5 species with palette swaps I don't believe shit. This kind of retarded overblown statistics is what made me vary of this game in the first place. Talk about running away with your imagination. And now people are finally getting a nice dose of reality. I look forward to the upcoming damage control and salt mines.

 

[manigamer]

and they also mentioned that no need of psplus i mean on ps4 if u want to play online you need psplus and this game doesn't need it ! i mean how come.

 

[manigamer]

[h=2]No Man's Sky patch coming soon for the 'most critical issues,' says Hello Games[/h][h=3]Here are some workarounds in the meantime[/h]

No Man's Sky hasn't lifted off into space without some problems here and there, and developer Hello Games said today that it is making an effort on a few different fronts to address the issues quickly.
"We’re tracking a number of issues, bugs and crashes that players are reporting, and working to resolve [them] as soon as possible," said studio head Sean Murray in a post on the No Man's Sky website this morning. Hello Games has been overwhelmed by an unexpectedly high number of players and length of play sessions, and is "working quickly to adapt" to the situation, according to Murray.


A patch in the "near future" will address the "most critical issues," said Murray, although he did not provide any details on the problems in question except to say that they include crashes. It's also unclear if this, the game's first post-release patch, will bring in the previously promised base building and freighter owning features.
"We can’t give you an ETA [on the PlayStation 4 patch] as frustrating as that is, because we’re also still working to get the PC release live," reads a note on the game’s support page, where players can email Hello Games about issues they're having. (No Man's Sky is set to launch at 1 p.m. ET today on Windows PC.) "We sincerely apologise to anyone affected in the meantime," said Murray.






To handle all the problems that No Man's Sky players have been reporting, Hello Games will switch to a ticketed support system next week. The company has also hired its own quality assurance team — a group larger than the studio itself — to complement Sony Interactive Entertainment's QA operation.
For now, Murray offered a few workarounds for known issues, along with notes on a couple of difficulties with No Man's Sky's pre-order bonuses. He pointed out that if you're stuck somewhere, you can use your jetpack forever as long as you're pushing against a surface. (For instance, fly forward along the ground, not upward.) If your ship is stuck somewhere that you can't reach, head to one of the larger outposts — they'll have a beacon with which you can summon your ship (and maybe even a landing pad where you can do the same). And if you've messed up at any point, you can revert back to your two most recent saves in the Options menu.
The pre-order bonus for No Man's Sky has caused a seemingly game-breaking issue for dozens of players. It's a special spaceship known as the Domanish S84 that comes with a hyperdrive installed. Since much of the early game is focused on obtaining the blueprint for how to construct that engine, players who warp ahead with the S84 are unlikely to possess that blueprint, which leaves them stranded if they later switch to a ship that doesn't already have a hyperdrive.


Murray said that of the 135 players who have reported this issue to Hello Games so far, 107 — four out of every five — were actually able to continue on: The game figures out that they don't have the hyperdrive blueprint, and directs them to a character who will supply it. Still, 80 percent is not an ideal success rate for something that's supposed to be a bonus.
For more on No Man's Sky, check out our impressions of the first 10 hours and our comprehensive guide.

• Source
• No Man's Sky