https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAkYuldX1Kw
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Advertising Standards launches investigation into No Man's Sky
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The Advertising Standards Authority has confirmed to Eurogamer that it has launched an investigation into No Man's Sky.
The watchdog launched its investigation after receiving "several complaints" about No Man's Sky advertising, a representative told me.
The ASA has the power to have advertisements it believes are in breach of its code of conduct withdrawn, and prevent them from appearing again. If an advertiser refuses to comply with an ASA ruling, it can impose sanctions, such as asking internet search websites to remove a marketer's paid-for search ads.
The investigation is on-going, and so the ASA declined to comment further, but one of the complainants revealed details of its response in a post on Reddit.
The investigation revolves around No Man's Sky's Steam store page, which includes assets some believe misrepresent the controversial space game.
The ASA has contacted both Hello Games and Valve and asked them to respond to a raft of questions relating to No Man's Sky advertisements.
Complaints centre around screenshots and videos that feature more advanced animal behaviour, large-scale combat and ship-flying behaviour than ended up in the launch version of the game. Complainants also say screenshots misrepresent the graphical quality of the game.
There are also complaints around the Steam store page's reference to a lack of loading screens and factions that contest territory.
While the complaints target Steam, the ASA said any ruling would apply to other advertising for No Man's Sky, such as official YouTube videos and the game's listing on the PlayStation Store.
No Man's Sky and its chief developer Sean Murray have come under fire since the August launch of the hotly-anticipated game, with some players feeling it did not turn out as promised.
"AzzerUK", the Reddit user who issued a formal complaint to the ASA, told me he doesn't feel enraged at No Man's Sky, Hello Games or Steam, but felt the need to contact the watchdog "after seeing just how vastly different the trailers for No Man's Sky were from the actual released game".
AzzerUK did not request a refund for the game, "but I did feel personally misled", he said. "The marketing of the game was very different to the end game. The end game is a shallow screenshot generator, and in some ways it reminded me of Spore.
"I figured that if we want Steam store pages for games to start falling in-line and stop misleading consumers, then it would take consumers to point these problems out to the ASA, rather than all sit around on Reddit complaining to each other but assuming that it'll all get sorted by itself eventually."
AzzerUK said he hopes that his complaint could spark Valve and other companies in control of video game storefronts "to start forcing publishers that use its platforms to show realistic, actual, genuine, non-pre-rendered or scripted gameplay trailers and footage, and screenshots actually taken in-game from real game code that is going to be what the consumer purchases".
AzzerUK's actions were met with a mixed response on Reddit, with some expressing anger, others concern that the ASA investigation could hold up Hello Games from improving No Man's Sky with updates. Some wondered why someone would go to the trouble of complaining about video game screenshots and videos in the first place.
"I feel most people on the Reddit thread wanted to see Hello Games 'punished' directly though, rather than share my more generalised view that the game's marketing needs to be brought down to earth a bit more," AzzerUK added.
Players discovered No Man's Sky's distinct lack of multiplayer, despite Murray's comments in interviews that the game would feature a mechanic in which two-players could see each other - however unlikely it is that they would meet.
In August I reported on disgruntled No Man's Sky players who tried - and failed - to get a refund from Sony.
Sony's stringent refund policy is in stark contrast to that of Valve, which sells the PC version of No Man's Sky on Steam. Steam gives players a no questions asked refund if the request is made within 14 days of purchase, and the title has been played for less than two hours.
Interestingly, there's a note on No Man's Sky's Steam store page that stresses that the standard Steam refund policy applies to the game. "There are no special exemptions available," it reads.
At Tokyo Game Show this month, Shuhei Yoshida, the president of Sony's Worldwide Studios, told Eurogamer he understood why some fans were critical of No Man's Sky - and blamed Hello Games' pre-release PR strategy for building up unrealistic expectations.
Sony told Eurogamer that Hello Games was the developer of the game and the publisher of the PlayStation 4 digital and PC versions. But Sony was the publisher and distributor of the Blu-ray disc version of the game.
In declining refunds, Sony has told No Man's Sky players that the game changed over the course of development, to expect patches to address glitches, and said the game will continue to evolve and benefit from new features over the coming months.
Eurogamer has contacted Hello Games, Valve and Sony for comment.
Average player numbers on Steam has been under 1000 for at least the last few days.
Another awesome game idea that flamed up and burned out quick.
Is it onsale yet? ;)
What The Hell Is Going On With Sean Murray And Hello Games?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP8x2ZXQkvA
Just putting this out there, but "blank was a mistake" is a fairly common internet meme. I think this is what happens when games press is too eager for a story. This certainly wouldn't be the first time one of them embarrassed themselves using twitter as a source. The obsession with finding the truth is just damage control, as the situation really isn't that interesting, or rare.
Use different passwords for different services folks. Don't let your identity(tm) be protected by a chain of dominoes.
So after almost three solid months without solid communication from the publisher, this weekend they posted "Hey we're going to update the game with the building blocks of the base building update, and this will be called the Foundation UPdate, version 1.1".
And today it went live.
http://www.no-mans-sky.com/foundation-update/
Huh.Quote:
Originally Posted by page
Download was about 1.3GB.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI9PvjJJijY
Pathfinder Update
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDNtbosTCvo
http://no-mans-sky.com/pathfinder-update/
Highlights:
Planetary vehicles (exocraft)
Own multiple ships via the freighter
Ship, weapon, item classes
Online base sharing through Steam Workshop
Quote:
Originally Posted by patchnotes
... but still no multiplayer?
Patch 1.3 went live today.
https://www.nomanssky.com/atlas-rises-update/Quote:
Originally Posted by patchnotes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5328iuzHw-w
Includes rudimentary multiplayer.
I was really disappointed when my pre-1.2 game save I put at least a hundred hours into was all but useless with the new update. (Note: I had in fact opened my save after 1.2. I just didn't play more than a half an hour at that time.)
All the Gek and Vykeen words I'd learned (nearly the full dictionary of each)? Gone. Couldn't buy suit upgrades. Couldn't find crashed ships. Couldn't earn nanite clusters. Couldn't get missions to progress in my base.
But I've put about a dozen hours into a new save and, while I wish I could "enhance" my situation with a few million U of "consolation insurance" (so to speak) I've got a fully scanned planet (with over 30 waypoints uploaded), a 45-slot ship (with 18 slots repaired at the moment, and have nearly bottomed-out the price on Emeril)... I think I'm enjoying it a bit more having started over fresh. Now I just need to get my Wandering tuchus out into space to see what's out There.
As far as "the game changes" are concerned...
I don't know when they changed it, but the original 1.0-1.1 method of "finding a crashed ship and simply swapping up to it because it had more slots" to upgrade your ship fell by the wayside because now, in addition to repairing the ship devices (launch thruster, pulse engine, et al) you need to repair a random number of the cargo slots. And you can't do it with resources, oh no, you need to use cash (units) to do it. And, like the exosuit upgrades, the slot repair costs exponentially increase in cost depending on ship class (C-A/S) and type (explorer/hauler/fighter).
So the first crashed ship I found, which was a C-class hauler with 25 slots, had 1 extra slot over my default 15 slot ship "free and usable" so I figured "why not". Then I discovered you could repair those damaged slots using units... the first was 20k. The second was 34k. The third 72. It didn't seem like a linear progression. I unlocked enough to keep me progressing until I found a B-class hauler with 45 slots and 19 repaired slots, so switched over to that. (It's one of those big flying air-conditioner jobbies.)
Unfortunately, the economic changes they implemented kind of suck. No more farming a planet of all its Emeril and dumping it on the market to fill your coffers. No, instead I made around 540k with my first dump, which also tanked the price of Emeril from ~670 unit/per down to 270/per. And no one's yet figured out how to make it bounce back. If I'd have known it was going to tank that badly, I'd have trashed all the resources in my ship and filled it up and dumped 12k pieces and earned a lot more.
Oh well.
Oh and you can't just "open" the crashed pods for resources anymore. Like the damaged trunks and stuff. Now you need to "repair them" to get anything out of them. And the reward isn't usually worth the resource expenditure.
Anyway.
I'd like to mention these three. Note however I've not yet left my Starting planet. But this has bugged me, because it seems like they're either forcing you to leave your starting planet - which has been a little rough, and I'll explain why below.Quote:
Originally Posted by notes
On my starting planet, which has a constant daytime temperature of 72C (yes, I chew through Zinc like it's candy) the little grass I see - around buildings - is much more dense and not as "let's paste a splotch of grass here" as it was previously. So that's nice.
However, "building distribution" is really kicking me in the ass. I used to be able to wander for an hour and get resources or goodies from all manner of buildings. I spent 3 hours walking between waypoints and mostly I found crap. A couple aliens (not nearly as many aliens, I've found, due to the building "distribution"), only two multi-tool upgrades (both costing 2+million U), and not a single damn blueprint. I did find a player base building, which I declined to use (because I don't want my base on a toxic planet*) and a couple trading posts but that's it.
*So zinc is the hazard protection repair now. Okay, fine. Except, my starting planet has *very little zinc*. I have to do a fuckton of walking to find any. And by the time I walk far enough to get 50 pieces of Zinc, I may as well go into a building to recharge it (which is what I've been doing). Thamium is hard to come by as well.
Also, the "find heridium" thing = yeah, not quite so easy, at least on this planet. You can no longer "burn down" the big heridium towers. I've found three - instead all I've managed to do is skirt the top edges and pull out a hundred or so heridium. Again - it might be different on other planets, and perhaps ten planets down the line I'll be like "wow I'm so glad I've had this rough start because now I can enjoy the fruits of my labors" but if I'd had this rough-ass start at last year's release without the knowledge I have now, I might not have played it for a hundred-plus hours.
But yes, I'm enjoying the new update.
An Annual Review of No Man's Sky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdS7Os7u4dY
lol
The video is pretty good. But why the FUck isn't this game a $2.99 steam special yet? I might actually purchase it then.
$3 seems a little harsh, but I do think this game probably should have started off at $30-40 and had sales at least as low as $10-15 by now. The historic low seems to be $24 or so.
My theory: they are a small studio not beholden to a publisher's stockholders. They probably made more than enough money from pre-release hype to keep working without being pressured to lower the price.
Yes, my 2.99 comment was a little tongue and cheek, and more of a reaction to the fact that it's price is still $59.99;Quote:
$3 seems a little harsh, but I do think this game probably should have started off at $30-40 and had sales at least as low as $10-15 by now. The historic low seems to be $24 or so.
and even their recent reviews are "mixed".
Once Bitten, Twice No Man's Sky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-uPXY0KomE
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No Man’s Sky NEXT is the next big free update for Hello Games’ sci-fi exploration game on PC, PS4 and, surprise, Xbox One! NMS will be heading to Microsoft’s console with some lovely enhancements the Xbox One X like HDR and 4K support. Sean Murray made the reveal on Twitter.
Trailer for the next release (coming in about a week) hit the web today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3HphgSn0o4
Quote:
Originally Posted by changes
Trailer for the next big update (adding underwater content) hit the web today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIrCX5PomuA
Trailer for the next big update hit the web today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM7ArMxUFR0
Includes VR, better multiplayer, and a whole lot more.
Update comes 8/14 (next Wednesday)
Update 3.0: Origins
live now
https://www.nomanssky.com/origins-update/