Dude, I am *there*!

Wherever there is. Will, since you'll be the one with the Switch, I suggest we go to somewhere convenient to you (obviously). But I don't know where that would be.

I am game for anywhere in the Portland metro area that would be a good environment for a meetup. I don't go to a lot of bars, so I don't have any ideas off the top of my head.

I'm partial to the Original Taco House. They host Hearthstone meetups/contests there, so they would likely be cool with us playing the Switch there. And the tacos are good :)

Mmm tacos. I am down for that place.

Yep let's do it there, I love that place.

The event has been updated with The Original Taco House.

Reason #65 on why you shouldn't eat my games while at the Taco House: http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/03/02/nintendo-switch-cartridges-taste-terrible

Can you please come up with a list of the previous 64 reasons? :D

Switch!! https://www.instagram.com/p/BRMl7x-lI4L/

Sweet! My son is playing Breath of the Wild on the Wii U right now.

Is your son enjoying it GregoPeck?

Yeah, he's pretty excited about it. We have the Wolf Link and regular Link Amiibos, so now he has Wolf Link in his game. Are you enjoying the Switch?

Yeah, the switch has been cool so far! I have noticed some slowdown in Zelda, but I was expecting that based on reviews. It is nice to be able to play on my tv, or around my house.

Vinny turns 13 this month, so I told him this is an early birthday present. He didn't know about the Wolf Link Amiibo feature.

Slowdown docked or undocked?

It was while docked. Haven't played in much undocked at this point.

Framerate issues while docked? That sounds bad. Maybe they will have a patch for that. I'm interested in the differences between the two versions. Vinny started playing on the TV, but he's since move to playing on the game pad. I'm looking forward to playing it, but I'm not sure when I will get to it.

Yeah, they were at the start of the great plateau when rotating the camera.

Interesting video on docked vs undocked zelda here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpqaTdflkNU

I found a video showing the Wii U and Switch versions of the game. I think the difference is difficult to see, maybe I just don't have the eyes for it. https://youtu.be/eUSKTp_uvHQ

The resolution is the most obvious difference. For me, 1080p to 1440p is sometimes hard to distinguish but that jump from 720p to 900p between the WiiU and Switch is a nice boost.

I have found out that I suck at hunting.

Boogie2998 had a pretty good review of the Switch. Apparently he is a bit too negative for Nintendo though, so his review is of a Switch he bought himself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYmu_liF2wM

Odd. I don't consider Boogie that negative but Francis is

Speaking of Boogie, his funeral for the WiiU is pretty good. Not the usual amount of funny but it has a good payoff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2PcAsMTBzg

Heh. I saw that and thought it was fun too.

So Adam and I were talking and thinking of seeing Logan after the meetup. If you want to come see the film let us know, it looks kickass and should get an award for best use of a Johnny Cash cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Div0iP65aZo

It is good.

I agree with Will_Ball.

I propose we go to Regal Cinemas Division Street 13, there are showtimes for Logan at 9:00pm and 10:00pm, after we're done with the Switch and tacos :)

Tomorrow is the day! Is everybody on this list going to make it? Is anybody going to bring any guests?

I will definitely be there :)

Yep. I may have one other person join us depending on if he can make it in time.

My brother is going to join us as well :)

To save everyone from tasting my carts tonight, I just tasted mine, and they don't taste good.

Biggest disappointment of the year.

Can't have a group kart tasting tonight.

Sometimes life just hits you with a gut punch that smarts a bit more than the others.

I'm still going to try and sneak a lick

> I'm still going to try and sneak a lick

http://i.imgur.com/QQeZcZL.gif

I will be keeping an eye on you Adam.

It was good seeing you Jon & Adam! We should do this again some time!

Yeah, we should. Thanks for bringing the Switch Will!

So what did you all think about the Switch? Did playing around with it convince you to get one or are you going to wait or pass on it? I'm going to wait for now. I did see something about a new Smash Bros. game for the Switch...

It was great hanging out, thank you Will!

I don't know when, but I'd say there's a 90% chance I get a Switch now. It was amazing!

> So what did you all think about the Switch?

It's a cool system. Feels good in the hand it's much larger than I thought it would be, which I like. It feels like a proper tablet and the touch is just as responsive as everything else i've used (iPad, whatever else). The only thing I didn't love was the Switch Operating System. It was fine, but it wasn't as fun or even as useful as the Wii, Wii U or 3DS. It launches games just fine but it's missing any kind of "Nintendo charm." That said, it gets out of the way and isn't busy, which is a nice bonus.

> Did playing around with it convince you to get one or are you going to wait or pass on it? I'm going to wait for now.

I'd say it make me want to pick one up a bit less. Don't get me wrong, the Switch is great and i'm going to get one I just don't think i'm as interested as I was. Zelda Breath of the Wild is good but it didn't blow my mind out my ass like I thought it would. It's a survival Zelda game that is quite difficult and it doesn't hold your hand but it isn't a mind boggling revelation at least it wasn't in the 10-15 minutes I played it. It was fun though and I am looking forward to when I can play it and I bet it opens up a ton.

In the end it seems the Switch is the actual delivery of what Nintendo wanted to do with the Wii U. True portable next level games in a really solid form factor. Looks like tons of Indie games are jumping on the Switch, which should be great for it. But again, it's not a must have for me anymore but I hope we have another meetup and I get to play it again.

We really should have played 1 2 Switch to see the uniqueness of the Switch.

Also, the starter area of Zelda is a pretty lousy advertisement for the game. My first day playing it was somewhat disappointing, but it's been pretty great since then. I've found my first "dungeon" of the game and rage quitted last night at the boss, but I'm looking forward to getting back at it lol

Next meet up, 1 2 Switch. :)

What did you guys think of Logan? We just saw it last night and loved it.

@Travis I was going to ask that question! I probably won't see it until I can rent it.

2017's Feel Good Movie of the Year!

But really, it was a great movie. I probably won't watch it again, as I was pretty depressed by it. Between Logan and Deadpool, I like seeing comic book movies branching out and doing things differently.

I watched Manchester By The Sea and Logan on the same day. 😐

I'm glad you're still with us!

(So we can play on your Switch)

I didn't get depressed by it, probably because of all the people talking about how depressing it was. I was prepared! But yeah it wasn't a feel-good movie.

I specifically avoided all review/commentary on it so I was going in blind. I knew it was going to be violent, but that was it lol

I'm completely blind about it, except for what I've read here. I think I saw a trailer for it. I have no idea what happens (except something obviously depressing). It surprises me that Logan/Wolverine had another movie, in a way. However, he really is the star of the X-Men (other than Xavier). He's definitely one of my favorite comic book characters.

You can sign up and try to win a Switch. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-switch-giveaway/1100-6448812/

11pm EST?! Why are they streaming this so late? And on a Thursday, no less?

It'll be interesting to see the price. I'm expecting around $300. A list of launch games would be nice, as long as they actually launch with the system, and not in the "launch window," which could be months later.

Have they shown anything on whether the controller has a headphone jack? That's another thing that I feel like they must have.

It will cost 10 million Nintendo coins. Better start saving up with SMR and Miitomo.

It looks like Zelda: Breath of the Wild is coming to North America and Japan with the launch of the Switch! Months ago it was reported to be delayed until June or this year's holiday season. http://www.gamespot.com/articles/zelda-breath-of-the-wild-coming-in-march-alongside/1100-6446647/

I'm still not sure whether to just get the new Zelda game for the Wii U, since I already own that system, or get it with a Switch. I'd like to see or know the difference in the game on both systems with the assumption that the Switch version will be better, at least performance wise. I am interested in knowing more about the Switch and games that will be coming out for it. Other than Zelda, I am interested in what I found to be a possibility of a Pokemon Sun and Moon game called Star (or Stars?).

Looks like the Switch will be powered over USB C so no more proprietary Nintendo cables!

http://m.ign.com/articles/2017/01/05/6-nintendo-switch-accessories-announced-by-hyperkin

No power adapter for you Jon!

Price and release date leak? The price seems about right for what I've seen of "leaks" or guesses (around $245). Somehow the date seems perfect. Have I known 3/17 for a while and for how long? I'm not sure.
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-switch-release-date-and-price-leaked-poss/1100-6446696/

But will Nintendo make enough of them to keep up with demand?

> But will Nintendo make enough of them to keep up with demand?

Hahahahahaha, no. I mean if the Wii & NES Classic are the model then no. You can get one eventually and that might be OK for me. I bet if you pre-order you could get one but i'm not sure I want to get one launch day. I've never got a system that way before.

Launch day used to be a rad time to get consoles. Now I just shudder at the thought of the constant patching and upgrading that will happen within the first week/month of launch these days.

Yeah, the ability to patch after the fact is a great advancement but it also seems to have lead to less complete releases. It may not be causal, but I'm with you. I want to wait.

I will get it at launch day if possible. I will do a CG Switch tour where I will bring it to all your houses to try out. :)

I'm holding you to that Will!

Two days!

Any last minute predictions?

I was thinking that Miitomo would come standard with each Switch.

That would not be surprising. It might actually get people to use it!

My last minute prediction: It will be revealed that Nintendo Switch, and components, are made entirely from recycled Starbucks cups, and, when powered on, will give off a slight aroma of roasted coffee beans. Starbucks will sue, take claim of the new system, and ramp up production. Not only will they turn every Starbucks retail shop into a low-key, hipster version of Dave & Buster's, but they will also finally have a way to mold children into future coffee drinkers by making the constant aroma of coffee a thing of nostalgia.

What was Nintendo, having lost all rights to their entire catalog of IPs, and even their very name, finds their senior officers wading in the shallows of Lake Biwa for seven days, weeping, wondering what went wrong, ashamed of not seeing this coming. On the eighth day, the floor of the lake opened up, and an object was released, floating to the surface where it stayed anchored like an ancient buoy. It will be Susumu Tanaka who finds the object and brings it to the attention of the remaining officers. From the secrets within this seed they will grow into a new company, and they will be called Matakondo (which, in it's Japanese translates to "maybe next time").

Fast forward ten years: War. The Matakondo Corporation's immediate success riles Starbucks into a foamed frenzy. The Internet explodes with hate campaigns against Matakondo, and for three weeks they take the beating. At the end of the third week, not coincidentally, at Matakondo's E3 event, they announce their new project, something they have been slowly working on over the last 10 years. Matakondo will announce that they will start making coffee. This coffee, which will be available to the world in November of that year... all of it will be brewed from a single bean. An ancient Japanese coffee bean, which had been kept secret even by the Dutch, unearthed by the salt of the tears shed that day, long ago, in Lake Biwa. Everyone will drink the coffee, Starbucks will cede with awe and humility, and there will be global peace for a thousand years.

A subscription service to their back catalog! Hopefully a better friends list. Friend codes suck.

Will it have 3D for 3DS games?

scrypt, /r/writingprompts needs you.

> Everyone will drink the coffee, Starbucks will cede with awe and humility, and there will be global peace for a thousand years.

That would be great even if Nintendo loses all of it's IP.

@Travis, I've had WP bookmarked for a while, but have never really taken the dive to see what it's all about. Might be a good time to do that!

Boogie2988 has some interesting commentary on the Switch the night before the conference and wraps up the rumors. It appears some of the rumors are the Switch will lock in at 720p 60FPS which seems like a reasonable choice given the hardware of the system. It's not cutting edge 4K but I imagine later Switch revisions will get graphical upgrades.

Boogie also wants Nintendo to allow streaming and not take the revenue. I think that's a pretty good idea and I hope Nintendo chills out it's streaming policy too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlo27GPCfE8

Shovel Knight & Shovel Knight Treasure Trove is coming to the Switch:

http://yachtclubgames.com/2017/01/switch-up/

I'm waiting for Shovel Knight to release on my toaster at this point. It's everywhere!

Just so everyone is ready, the link for the Nintendo live stream event is below. I'll also put it on the main page before it happens so you can go there to watch it too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuC4YLLkqME

My sources, which are really reliable (they aren't in my head, I swear), say that the Switch will have a snow cone maker feature!

> will have a snow cone maker feature!

I just changed my mind. Pre-ordering this.

50 second countdown! Woot!

3/3/17 $300

The one thing I don't like is the bottom thumbstick on the right Joy-Con. It looks like it would get in the way of the 4 buttons above it.

Yep, the part Joy-con does look a bit cramped.

The system looks much more technically sophisticated than I anticipated. It makes sense, though, looking at the evolution of Nintendo's console (including hand held). I mean, it can do a lot more than I anticipated. One little Joy-Con can do so very much!

Skyrim confirmed! No mention of release date.

Zelda launching the same day as the Switch (3/3/17)! Woot!

No snow cone maker!!!!

@Will_Ball, yeah but you can pretend the Joy-Con is a glass and you can tell how much water is in it along with how many ice cubes are there, too! LOL

Honestly, I may just pre-order a Switch. Something about Breath of the Wild makes me want to weep for joy. It's intro music alone gives me sweet shivers!

Breath of the Wild looks amazing.

(Insert expansion or new game speculation here.)
Hell, maybe we'll just hear about another Diablo III update. Also, maybe they'll tell us when the new StarCraft II: Covert Ops pack is coming.

(Insert what you want to be announced here.)
It'd be nice to know when that new Covert Ops pack is coming. Otherwise, I don't know. More Diablo would be nice in any form.

You know, I know a guy that performs here regularly. Ben Stewart. Lead singer of Songhammer. Pretty awesome guy. I met him through a friend back when he was in his old band, Conspiracy of Thought.

Here is some information about how to watch Blizzcon for free(unless you have a virtual ticket and if you do let me know, wondering if it's worth it).

https://blizzcon.com/en-us/news/20352061/blizzcon-2016-where-to-watch-11-2-2016

Watching the opening ceremony now.

Unless others disagree, keep us posted, please. :)

A few take aways i'll post on later:

* They are remaking Diablo in Diablo III
* New Necromancer class in D3 in 2017
* New Gadgetzan Hearthstone Expansion coming soon

Sweet! Did they mention when that Diablo remake might become available?

I checked in on the Twitch channel and it was like watching ESPN, but for gaming. They were talking about tournaments going on today. So, I tuned out.

They mentioned the patch going live in the public test realm next week. So not too long it seems.

Whoa, it's a patch? So that means it's free for those of us who already on D3?! Pretty cool! I never played the first one, so I don't mind that they're remaking it. I've barely played the 2nd, so I wouldn't mind them doing that one, too.

I wonder what the Necromancer class is going to be like, but I bet it's going to be pretty cool, maybe similar to the Witch Doctor (which I really enjoyed).

I tuned back into the Twitch link provided in the link you gave us, but it's still like ESPN doing Overwatch tourney talking. Am I watching the right thing?

> Whoa, it's a patch? So that means it's free for those of us who already on D3?! Pretty cool! I never played the first one, so I don't mind that they're remaking it. I've barely played the 2nd, so I wouldn't mind them doing that one, too.

This is nice because the old game is somewhat long in the tooth and i've wanted to come back and play it myself so now is a good time.

> I wonder what the Necromancer class is going to be like, but I bet it's going to be pretty cool, maybe similar to the Witch Doctor (which I really enjoyed).

Yeah, it was my fav class in D2. Lots of Skeletons and various evil incarnations. I bet they will drop more information soon.

> I tuned back into the Twitch link provided in the link you gave us, but it's still like ESPN doing Overwatch tourney talking. Am I watching the right thing?

Yeah, the opening ceremony is over and it's now eSports for the rest of the day.

Some details...

Diablo news:
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/diablo-3s-necromancer-and-excellent-new-armory-fea/1100-6445142/?utm_source=gamefaqs&utm_medium=partner&utm_content=news_module&utm_campaign=homepage

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/diablo-3-adding-a-retro-diablo-1-style-mode/1100-6445132/?utm_source=gamefaqs&utm_medium=partner&utm_content=news_module&utm_campaign=homepage

Starcraft 2 news:
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/heres-all-the-starcraft-2-news-from-blizzcon-2016/1100-6445136/?utm_source=gamefaqs&utm_medium=partner&utm_content=news_module&utm_campaign=homepage

I'm stoked about the new Diablo stuff. The necromancer is great but the D1 remake? That's just cool and unexpected.

Actually the more I read about the D1 remake the less interesting it sounds. It's not a remake, just a filter over an already existing map it seems. :/

But this new armory is really amazing. People have been wanting a way to save builds for ages now.

Check out the new Necromancer video:

https://youtu.be/rt1bLufR-VA

:( I was hoping for something sooner.

The Darkening of Tristram is on PTR and it looks like it may go live in January: http://www.shacknews.com/article/97674/diablo-3-update-243-on-ptr-with-original-darkening-of-tristram-content

As for the Necromancer it's coming out "some time in 2017"
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/20324407

Yeah, the Necromancer isn't soon, which I think is fine. The Necromancer was my favorite D2 class and if it came out tomorrow I wouldn't have time for it anyway. 2017? Sounds better to me. I think by then I wouldn't mind heading through the story again too.

I went through the story multiple times too recently, so I don't plan on doing that again (at least for quite a while). One of the articles I posted mentioned a recommendation of creating a new character for The Darkening of Tristram. I'd like to jump back into the game, there's still a lot I haven't played around with, which is something I intend to do with a Necromancer. Right now, I'm ready for it.

I wouldn't buy it for full price but since I'm getting it for free, woo!

Saves should transfer so that's good: https://twitter.com/DCDeacon/status/743170497752371200

And both consoles are getting mods, PS4's are just more limited because Sony has crazy restrictions for add-on content like this. They can't include any new assets, just modification or re-use of existing ones.

Physics issues are just par for the course in Bethesda engine games, but this is a newer engine so some may be fixed.

I went pretty far in Skyrim and sort of stopped playing it.

Thinking this might get me back in it.

Is anyone planning to play the game differently than before? I first played as a Nord and sided with one major "faction," on the PS3. Then on Steam I played as an Imperial and sided with the other major "faction." In both games I played as a warrior with heavy armor and two-handed weapons, particularly war hammers. I'll probably repeat what I did on Steam, although I'm not sure which side I'll ally with.

@Travis thanks for the additional info! I did see something about the PS4's limited mod support. I haven't paid attention to console news much.

I have played Skyrim as various races and classes, but I can't honestly remember what most of them were. I know I went stealth archer once and that was my favorite way to play.

My Steam play-time on it is very low, but that's because I transferred my Xbox 360 save over to PC. Nearly all of my Skyrim time (and it's a lot) was on the 360.

I still have yet to play the last DLC. Generally by the time the last DLC is out I've mostly moved on and can't get back in the mood for it.

With all that I've seen about Khajiit lately (especially the stuff I've seen posted on FB and our No Man's Sky funny), I'm tempted to use that race. I've only played as a Nord (Skyrim) and Imperial (Oblivion and Skyrim). I think I tried out a Dark Elf on Morrowind, but I didn't play it long and I tried it out a few times, so I'm not exactly sure. I know there are races (like Khajiit) I haven't played before.

Make a punch cat. A Khajit will kick ass in melee. Follow this (hilarious) guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhBiNx749Zw

Language warning on that video, but I love it.

Damn that's pretty awesome! But, I love my warhammers and two-handed swords.

I'm looking forward to buying this game for a 3rd time. Buying this version will mean I have spent $200 on Skyrim. Not counting DLC (of which I bought all on Day One).

I have edited this event's time and description showing the updated release date and time along with a link to the news on the Store page. I have also added the system requirements along with it's link on the Store page.

You edited the start time to later this month. I think you want the end time then right?

It starts on 10/27 at 8pm EST and ends at 8:30pm on the same day. If you look at the event the only part of the end you see is "8:30pm" although I did selected 10/27 at 8:30pm for the end time.

I get that, that's what I'm saying. I mean is that game release "events" here have historically started when the person creates the post, and ends shortly after release. As it stands, this is a 30 minute event. Take a look at the Civ event-- it's months long. The "event" is us discussing it before launch, typically.

But ultimately I guess it really doesn't matter since it's here for everyone to chat about til then anyway. Whether you start the event now or 5 minutes before it ends. Game releases don't lend themselves well to the timeframe portion of the event system since it's a countdown where people talk about it. There's no clear spot for the event to start. Something we play together has clear limits. Something like Blizzcon has a set start and end. Countdowns are always going until they stop.

Actually, I said "have historically started when..." but that's not true. There's no real clear precedent for either. Some are months long, some are a couple of days.

Yeah game event times are strange but even a 30 minute event works when we can discuss it all the way to the launch.

I finally just looked at the system specs for it. I have the recommended on everything and only just on the video card. So it should look pretty good!

Initial impressions: Wow it's pretty. And somehow loads faster. I have no idea how but it seems to perform better than normal Skyrim.

The models don't seem to be improved from normal Skyrim but the lighting, shaders, shadows, depth-of-field, that's all obviously the Fallout 4 engine. The colors seem to pop more.

The same crappy either/or thing with keyboard/mouse and joystick applies. You can't do both. So if you have a controller connected it can tell and you have to turn it off *with* the controller before you can use the KB/M. But that's just a Bethesda thing that probably won't change. Maybe with Elder Scrolls 9/Fallout 8.

Weird, Alt+F4 doesn't exit. I always quicksave then alt+F4

Do you think they put it on the Fo4 engine or just updated the Skyrim engine a bit? Seems like a ton of work to upgrade engines unless they are super compatible.

I was going to ask you, Travis, what you thought of it since I saw that you were playing it. I'm planning to get it downloaded and installed tonight so the download doesn't interfere with my YouTube watching. I might check it out in the morning, but the Ark Halloween event is supposed to happen in about 12 hours.

> Weird, Alt+F4 doesn't exit. I always quicksave then alt+F4

It's F5 now.

@jon -- they said in early interviews about Fallout 4 that the first thing they did to start making Fallout 4 was to bring Skyrim to next gen. Back then it was just to get a handle on the new tech, they hadn't planned on releasing it.

But this new Skyrim has identical mod download functionality as Fallout 4, and if you've looked at the lighting effects enough in Fallout 4 you can kinda start to spot them.

But also, I don't think it's a NEW new engine. The Fallout 4 engine is just a new iteration of the Skyrim engine, since they ported Skyrim and its engine to next-gen and then built Fallout 4 on it. Same as Oblivion -> Fallout 3 I guess. Iterative changes.

@greg-- I think you misread that comment a little. ALT + F4 exits Windows programs by default, unless the developer has overridden it. I know F5 quicksaves, Alt + F4 exits Fallout 4. It does not exit Skyrim SE. My habit is to hit F5 to save, wait a couple seconds, then hit Alt + F4 to exit.

It's possible they are overriding that because people were quicksaving then not letting enough time pass before Alt + F4ing and corrupting saves.

Yeah, I forgot about that Windows shortcut because I almost never use it. I did, however, notice that one of my favorite Windows shortcuts Alt-Tab doesn't work in the game. :( Also, the sound seems low, even with the in-game settings maxed.

Alt+Tab too? Huh. I know there are some games that break when you Alt+Tab.

Oh, it looks like there's a patch for Alt+Tab. Maybe it fixes Alt+F4 too.

I haven't seen a patch yet and I've restarted Steam, though I haven't tried playing the game since my last comment.

I realized why I decided to be an Imperial, because their special ability is a charm, which I think is greatly helpful. Although I haven't really tried most of the races, so I can't quite speak for their abilities other than they didn't look as significant to me. Granted, if I played them I'd probably find more value in them.

Well don't take my word for the Alt+Tab patch. I just saw someone on Steam say that alt+tab was working now.

This is another game that Geforce Experience just balks at on my system. The game itself autodetected Ultra quality, and it runs flawlessly with everything maxed, even maxing things *past* Ultra. But Geforce Experience wants me to turn everything down to low or medium.

The game detected my hardware and set my settings to "Ultra," it looks like all the settings are at their max. I just checked Geforce Experience and it says the game is optimized. This is the first time I checked the GE settings for the Special Edition of Skyrim.

However, I did load the game back up, went to options, and clicked "reset" since I thought it changed my settings to "Ultra High" instead of just "Ultra." I obviously misread it the first time. Then, I went back into Geforce Experience and it said the game wasn't optimized. The "Grass Fade" setting was at 7 and GE said optimal was 7000, so I clicked "optimize."

I saw that you were playing Skyrim earlier and it didn't seem like the Special Edition. I'm tempted to jump in between the versions and see if I notice any difference. I think that when I played before, I was using a high quality mod or something similar.

If you did indeed pop into the original game earlier, did you notice the difference?

Also, Alt-Tab works...kind of...it seems you have to hold the Alt key and it works, sometimes. Windows-D works, taking you to your desktop. I'm also monitoring my GPU temp and with the fan on auto it looks like about just less than 1900rpm (a little over half) and 52c. Normally when I play Ark, I max out that and my PCIE fans and my GPU gets into the low 80s, which is still ok for my card.

That's exactly what I was doing-- using the same save file and checking the differences as I went to different locations.

It's still really weird to me that SE performs better with better effects. They obviously aren't going to re-make all those textures so the real differences are in lighting and shadows. The God Rays, just like in Fallout 4, are killer on the video card apparently but mine is handling them like a champ.

My GPU fan isn't even noticeably speeding up. The 960 runs so cool, it's amazing how far they've come with keeping the chips cool.

There are a few settings in-game that you can change that aren't in the launcher, that's what I was talking about boosting past ultra.

Looking forward to either or both of you reviewing it. I decided to pass on getting this for now but am looking to in the future.

It's kinda hard to review. I mean it's just Skyrim with a shiny coat of paint. But I'll definitely write up some thoughts.

What will be interesting to see is whether they treat this like a game release and fix bugs and stuff that have been around since the original release, or add new things to it. A patch released long after the game's release added horse combat, for instance.

@Travis that's great that that's what you were doing.

I agree it is strange that SE performs better with better effects. That doesn't make face value sense, but I guess maybe it's better optimized "under the hood." The game also gave me "Ultra" quality settings after detecting my system, with the 690, the first time I played it (on Steam that is) and it ran fine, though I didn't monitor my temps.

I also agree that "it's amazing how far they've come with keeping the chips cool." I know when I ran Ark with the 690 it reached the 80s mark and performance suffered, however even though my 980 Ti gets there, performance doesn't suffer.

@Jon I'm looking more at Travis to tell us his thoughts on it. I'm still busy with Ark, so I'm not sure when I might actually sit through the full game again, but we'll see. Also, why didn't you get it? Do you not own all the DLC? If you do, it's free.

I also agree with Travis's statement about "it's just Skyrim with a shiny coat of paint." I'm also hoping to see some bugs fixed, which might be what I notice and actually look for more than the fresh "coat of paint." Physics in the game on PC and PS3 were a bit wonky. I also remember at least one quest that I ran into an issue with. Even though I'm hoping the things I noticed were resolved, I thought they just gave it a visual upgrade and left everything else alone.

One thing I read about why things might run better is the benefit of the Fallout 4 engine. Because of the new needs in Fallout 4, Skyrim can handle way more going on at once.

I just have base Skyrim on steam so I didnt get the HD version. Reason I didn't pick up the DLC is that I have a couple other games I'm playing right now and if I was going to play a larger open world game I'd finish up Fallout 4, which I've been wanting to do lately.

That said the rest of the DLC was like $28 bucks so I imagine I can pick up the new version at that price when I'm looking to play it again.

Skyrim is a really special Elder Scrolls game so it's nice they upgraded it this way so it can be enjoyed for long into the future.

@Travis Sweet! I haven't really read anything about it yet. I noticed some things in the game's Steam News section that I was going to check out, but I think I got distracted.

@Jon That's understandable. I skipped out on Hearthfire on the PS3 because I didn't really think it added anything to the game I really wanted or needed. I already owned multiple properties in the game. I did, however, get it all for PC and I enjoyed it.

I agree with your statement about Skyrim being a really special ES game. However, when I read or heard about the rumor that there was going to be a remastered ES game, I was hoping it would have been Morrowind or Oblivion. I only tried playing Morrowind a few years ago after I had played Skyrim (on the PS3 at least). It was kind of difficult and no where near as beautiful. I later (again after playing Skyrim) got Oblivion (on the PS3) and I fell in love with it. In fact, it's difficult to say if I like Skyrim or Oblivion better. I read some reasoning behind giving Skyrim the face lift and it was understandable (popularity and ease of doing it). Still, it'd be great if they could give those older ES games a bit of the same treatment. I saw some videos about them working on the next game in the series, but it seems their waiting on technology to catch up to what they want to do.

Paying $28 for the DLC and thus getting SE doesn't sound like a bad deal.

Since you mentioned Fallout 4, I still haven't tried Nuka World.

Ok I just read this article (link below) that's included in the game's News section on Steam. The only mod I used was the high-res texture pack from Bethesda, mentioned in the article. If anyone has more articles to share, feel free! Also, if you want to keep talking about it and perhaps with more ease, I can extend the event, just let me know.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/10/28/skyrim-special-edition-pc-changes/

Yeah, I was hoping for Morrowind or Oblivion as well but their reasoning makes sense. With Skyrim, it's just a matter of porting the game. With the others they'd have to re-create the textures and everything, and it would be nearly the same time investment as a new game, at least for some departments.

Plus honestly, some of the charm of Oblivion is those faces, right? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bja-UQTsgQw

Anyone play with Skyrim mods? If so, let us know which.

I decided to check out the physics issue I noticed before. This is particularly noticeable in the first house that you visit. At the table where two characters sit and talk with you, you will see the food and plates jump around like crazy, at least that's how they behaved on the PS3 and the original version of the game. In SE, during my one time experience in that scene, at least one vegetable moved a little bit back and forth, but it wasn't crazy like before. I could do more testing by trying it out again on the old version.

Looks like they are going to fix some issues. http://kotaku.com/bethesda-says-its-going-to-fix-skyrim-special-editions-1788365568

I read a similar article last night. I'm glad they're working on fixing it, I noticed the volume is too low.

@Greg "I noticed the volume is too low."

The audio in general is overall worse quality now, not just too low. It seems (as the article Jon posted states) they compressed the hell out of the sound files. It isn't very noticeable if you haven't gone back and forth between them but it's definitely not the quality of the original. It's just weird that the PC version is the one struck by this, since it's the one where disk space matters the least.

Doesn't look like the console port is going well:

http://kotaku.com/skyrim-special-edition-is-too-janky-1788491838

FWIW the PC port is also janky according to some reports. It seems a lot of the bugs on console are similar to bugs on PC when the framerate is uncapped.

Thought this was funny: http://i.imgur.com/IIVGGCo.jpg

Everyone wanted to bash that kids face :D

Skyrim SE patch in beta, along with some details.
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/skyrim-remaster-patch-fixes-audio-downgrade-and-mo/1100-6445093/

Patch live, check out description below taken from Steam:

Skyrim Special Edition 1.1 Update Live on Steam
posted by gstaffBethesda @ 04:07PM on November 07, 2016
Skyrim Special Edition 1.1 Update (All Platforms Unless Otherwise Noted)

Fixes

General performance and optimization improvements
Fixed rare issue with NPCs not appearing in proper locations
Fixed an issue with interface elements not appearing correctly on certain
displays (Xbox One and PS4)
Fixed issue with saves erroneously being marked as Modded, even though no mods are active
Updated some sound files to not use compression

So, I mentioned that I thought SE was too quiet. I did some testing after the patch and it seems as though SE and the original are both more quiet than I'm used to. Ark, on the other hand is much louder. Perhaps it has something to do with my sound settings within Windows, or perhaps it's just how the games are. In both games, I have the sound settings maxed.

Other than that, I didn't notice any other issues with sound quality. Travis, obviously did, but I know he has musical aptitude that I lack and I imagine such people have a better ear for sound differences. Still, I'm glad they released a patch. I'm not yet ready to dive back into the game, but I intend to do so, it's now on my short list of games to play.

Patch 1.2 in beta now, which includes a fix for the Alt-Tab shortcut:
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/new-skyrim-special-edition-patch-arrives-on-pc/1100-6445293/

FYI I fixed my sound volume issue by enabling Loudness Equalization under Enhancements in Speakers/Headphones Properties. It didn't sound loud enough until I enabled that.

Oh and can someone explain to me why Run is Shift, but it makes me walk slow? Also, Alt-Tab is working perfectly.

Run doesn't mean the same as sprint. Run is on, shift makes you un-run. It's weird terminology that I've always hated in Bethesda games.

Sprint is alt I think and uses your stamina.

Yeah, I have auto-run on and Shift by default makes you walk slower. I decided to switch Shift with Alt, so now, like any other game, I run with Shift.

Yeah I think shift was sprint in Fallout 4. It threw me off when going back to Skyrim.

Oops, I thought the Imperial special ability (Voice of the Emperor, I think) was to charm, but it's calm, there's a big difference. Still, it helped me out in one mission when I had to get into the Dwemer Museum and all the guards were after me and I had a 1k+ bounty on my head. Once I got outside and surrounded, I used the Voice and was then able to Fast Travel out of there. I went back to pay my bounty, but after I stored my stolen goods so I wouldn't lose them. I stole my Ebony Warhammer, so I definitely didn't want to lose it.

@Travis, thanks for the Quicksave (F5) tip, it's real handy, I'm not sure I used it before.

It's cool playing Skyrim again. I'm not sure I notice the Special Edition visual bonuses, but perhaps. It does look really good, but it did before although I was using the High Resolution Texture Pack DLC. I'm getting tempted to play Oblivion again, but I was thinking about that before I started playing Skyrim SE.

Nova dropped today and Blizzard has a post up about the patch, it's a big one.

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/20059667

So far i've played a mission and I like it. It was short but I should have my review of the first 3 mission pack up when i'm finished with it.

1) Thanks for posting this event. I neglected to pay much attention that there were/are 4 events open right now, so I thought I'd check them out when I noticed, that's when I joined this one. :)

2) Thanks for letting me know, I'll open up Battle.net, get it downloaded, and give it a try. I'll look for your review. :)

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/529136/no-mans-sky-a-vast-game-crafted-by-algorithms/

I love this article. It's over a year old, but still a solid summary of what to be expecting.

Newer article. Lead developer hints at their take on a more sci-fi solution to fetch-quests, and future support of the game through iterative updates, rather than DLC.

http://www.pcgamer.com/no-mans-sky-interview-sean-murray/

This game is one of my most anticipated. It's so ambitious, though. I really hope they pull it off!

A couple things from the article.

“If you were to visit one virtual planet every second,” he says, “then our own sun will have died before you’d have seen them all.”

I hope they make the planets more interesting than Starbound beta did. They were really all very cookie cutter and exploring them wasn't fun. They had limitless planets, which was cool but after a couple it wasn't that interesting. In the end i'd rather a really interesting one shot world like Terraria than infinitely boring ones. Not saying No Mans Sky will make them boring, but it's a potential issue with this sort of thing.

That said, this project is really ambitious. It's like Minecraft universe with way better graphics.

This presents numerous technological challenges, not least of which is how to test a universe of such scale during its development – the team is currently using virtual testers—automated bots that wander around taking screenshots which are then sent back to the team for viewing.

Holy shit. That's a really creative solution to the problem.

Ok so in reading the second article.

No Man’s Sky procedurally generates a galaxy of some 1.8 quintillion planets, and even if the game attracts millions of players who spend months exploring, most of the galaxy—99.9% according to Murray—will never be seen.

Then why make it that big? I mean it's impressive but if no one will see it then why build it?

I've heard that No Man Sky uses a shared planet system, is that true. Where two people could theoretically meet somewhere?

One of the surprising things we saw earlier during the No Man's Sky presentation were intelligent alien NPCs that players can trade with and interact with. The more you encounter these aliens, the more words you learn in their language and the easier it becomes to deal with them.

Holy shit. That's incredible.

I agree with all y'all! This games seens ambitious and impressive, I'm just hoping it actually is!

It's like Minecraft universe with way better graphics.

That seems to be what the devs want us to at least think about No Man's Sky, in terms of the scope of the game, though respectfully humble in staying away from any other Minecraft comparisons (i.e. it's insane, industry altering success). I just hope enough people give it a chance without expecting it to be more than it needs to be, so that it could have the right atmosphere to mature, possibly evolve into that thing (as Minecraft did). Not that it will need to. I mean, I don't know. June 21st can't come soon enough!

If it does a slice my space toast then... Total failure!

News of the soundtrack, how it will be available on June 17th, and a sample track: http://65daysofstatic.com/

Looks like it will release as a double album set. The first album seems like traditionally structured songs, whereas the second seems to be more ambient soundscapes (which I'm personally looking forward to).

One thing of special note: "And the idea was to create an audio engine that also generated unique instances of music, albeit from a central library of sounds."

Infinite procedural soundtrack?!

That's rad. Back before I even knew what "procedural" meant, I had wanted to record an album, where all the songs flowed into each other, and each time you listened to it, you could put the album on Random (I had the thought for a CD, but I suppose it would work, probably better, for digital music) and listen to a different experience each time.

I'm guessing No Man's Sky's music will be much more ambitious than what I could have done, but reading "Infinite procedural soundtrack?!" made me remember an old idea of mine.

This game seriously just keeps sounding cooler. I hope it doesn't disappoint!

The IGN First video from April 11th: https://youtu.be/D-uMFHoF8VA

Sean Murray gives us another spin around a local system, offering more mind-blowing perspectives of what kinds of things to expect in No Man's Sky.

The more I see the more I need to see! I really can't wait for this game. I feel giddy like I did before Spore came out :)

So giddy! I've heard some cool stuff from people that have playtested, and it makes me want to keep a notebook of my travels.

Have you guys thought about what you'll use as a naming convention for planets/systems?

EVERYTHING is going to be named "Adam"

I wonder how long the naming experience will be novel? Since there's such a small chance someone else will come to a planet you've explored, I wonder if naming things will be ignored after a while?

Maybe the experience will be less like Star Trek, and more like Moon?

I'm hopeful that, with the support of the devs and the nature of the game, the intrigue of discovery won't wear off anytime soon. If naming is totally optional, then, yeah, I could see it possibly being ignored after a year or two(?).

I am going to name everything cheerfulghost.com

Ha! Good call!

> I am going to name everything cheerfulghost.com

Get this guy a copy of the game STAT!

This has been out for a while now, but thought it was worth noting: http://www.no-mans-sky.com/2016/04/the-lore-of-no-mans-sky/

Sean Murray talks a bit on how No Man's Sky will be rich with lore, rather than the linearity of a specific story. Sci-Fi heavy hitters James Swallow and Dave Gibbons also speak on their contribution: a story within the game's universe, told in comic form, which will be included with the Limited Edition of the game.

Is everyone getting the PC version?

I'll be getting the PS4 version. Since they are making it cross-play between PS4 and PC, I'm going with my most powerful system ;).

I will be getting the PC version, since I don't have a PS4. Looking forward to it! I've actually been watching No Man's Sky videos all this morning!

PC version all the way. Glad we'll be able to play with you scrypt, whatever that means. It's still unclear how much playing together we'll actually be able to do.

I am wondering if I should preorder via steam. I am kind of hesitant, just in case this game is a stinker.

It doesn't look like a total stinker. I think at worst it may not just be as fun as it seems, it doesn't look like it would be total trash just not be able to live up to the hype or be merely OK.

Nah I really doubt it'll be a stinker. I guess that depends on your definition of "stinker" though. I'm trying not to get hyped so that a non-amazing game doesn't disappoint me.

Ok, you all twisted my arm and I preordered.

The thing that stirs my interest the most with the idea of No Man's Sky, is the mystery of discovery within such a beautiful universe. I expect that there will be a number of planets without anything of interest, or, possibly, anything at all (Besides the terrain, that is. I suppose it will all depend on the parameters set on the procedural content). Even that possibility is fascinating, to me. My thinking, is that I want to role-play in No Man's Sky as much as anything. If there is a planet of nothing, I want to experience that planet within that universe, because I know there will be other planets with a great deal of something to discover. The contrast makes it interesting. Compound that with a deep rooted lore, and I can't help but think they have something magical. I suppose we could get a shit game. I don't think it likely, though.

As far as pre-ordering goes, the only benefit to a Steam pre-order is the upgraded ship (unless you're going with the Limited Edition). I don't think that alone is a significant push to order now. The path to building that ship from scratch would probably be more interesting. While I have pre-ordered the Limited Edition, I'm debating whether or not to use the upgrade tokens. What I really want is the art book and comic, and the PS4 theme. If none of that interests you, @Will_Ball, then you should be feel safe in holding off purchasing until after the game is out.

Not sure how far this delay pushes this back but one is coming.

http://kotaku.com/sources-no-mans-sky-delayed-1778797365

Oh snap. Well, I'd prefer they get the game right before releasing. Games that struggle to hit the release date can suffer significantly.

We don't know there is a delay. Everyone is reporting on Kotaku's story, which is based on a "source" and a random Gamestop employee. I'd wait until it's official before spreading this around (not that it isn't already spreading...).

Fair point. It's not a done delay until it is.

IT'S A TRENDING TOPIC ON FACEBOOK NOW BECAUSE OF YOU JON.

(Figures an Episode 1 lover would spread rumors like this)

Jon will never escape that :D

I'm willing to bet that the other "secret source" of Kotaku's is also a GameStop employee. It's interesting that all of the news outlets are only reporting on Kotaku's rumor. A delay may well be true, but this is all very poor journalism. Click-bait FTW!

Listen everyone the truthfulness of the delay aside...

JarJar Binks really *makes* the entires series. Before that it was just stumbling along then it really got OKEE DAY!

Their site still says June 21st, so I am sticking with that. :)

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2016/05/27/no-mans-sky-coming-to-ps4-in-august/

Just came to post. At least it's confirmed, and by Sean, no less. That's good. They're making an epic game. Another month-ish is worth the wait.

Agreed. Hopefully the team is doing well. I know how much pressure can get to people when stuff slips the deadline.

A collection of typically beautiful screen grabs to ease the pain of the delay (or make it what much worse): http://imgur.com/a/rkJeh

Some of these are older screenshots, but it's interesting to see the varied views from the cockpit of different ships. I wonder if there will be more than the four different archetypes (one style per alien race?)?

Waiting is difficult :(.

http://www.kitguru.net/gaming/development/jon-martindale/no-mans-sky-gets-to-keep-name-after-sky-settlement/
Looks like possibly the delay was because of a lawsuit over the name of the game. Thankfully it's still going to be called No Man's Sky :)

Stupid lawsuits! Stupid trademarking single words! It is curious the coinciding of this news and the timing of the delay. That might have been part of it. Why explain the delay as a point of polishing the game, if that's the case? Could be they didn't want any more public attention to the lawsuit. I'm sure we'll get a documentary about it sometime next year :). In any case, I'm glad they get to keep the name. I heard the alternative was "Make Rocket Go Now", which had already been cleared with Matt Groening, but didn't test quite as well with focus groups.

If you're not following Sean Murray on Twitter (@NoMansSky), you should. Things are...happening... https://twitter.com/NoMansSky/status/751128456138747906

He got some Linux in his text there.

Gold! The game has finally gone Gold. Jeebus. A hair over a month until release. Finally. For real, this time. (Hopefully)

Can't wait...

New trailer from the Playstation Blog: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2016/07/14/what-can-you-do-in-no-mans-sky/

If your desktop is in need of a change, I've posted a few screenshots here: http://imgur.com/a/evfK6

The Playstation website is blocked for me at work, but here's the trailer from YouTube as well (I'm assuming it's the same one)
https://youtu.be/7AVmI73va4g

Yeppers. Same vid. Thanks, Adam.

Scratch that previous link to screenshots. Sorry about that. Imgur is difficult when you want to add to an existing album :(. New link, for a new, expanded album: http://imgur.com/gallery/bO0vB

Just watched the new trailer. Drool.

I seriously feel like this:
http://i.imgur.com/FjH6BaK.gif

Only a few more days!

I'm trying to distract myself with The Witcher 3. The wait is unbearable O.o

I'm distracting myself with survival mode on fallout 4. I picked it up in June after the disappointing push back on NMS. It's been a good distractor, though.

You should probably bump the event a bit.

https://twitter.com/NoMansSky/status/761694858562207744

Looks like August 12 before every version is released.

Thanks, Travis. I was trying to create a sub-Reddit for post release, but I don't have the cred :(.

A subreddit for No Man's Sky? It looks like there's already one.

I meant one for CG. Or maybe that's a misuse of reddit (I'm still new to that environment...). Our comment sections (this one in particular) can become unmanageable the longer they get, so I was hoping to create/find a place for our lot to share experiences (videos, screenshots, stories, etc.).

> can become unmanageable the longer they get

Hit me up with some suggestions for this offline. Even though we can get into the hundreds of comments I don't get(right now) how that's unmanageable.

Does it take too long to load? Can you not understand the context of people commenting? Is it a usability thing? Curious to know more so I can think of a way to fix it.

Thanks!

August 12th??? Nooooo!

Last I checked, my PS4 downloaded content and will let me play at 9 PM PST (so midnight EST) tonight!! I am so ready OMG OMG OMG

#SoJealous

I blame sony for PS4 coming out first!

Getting disc copy tomorrow (hopefully?) sometime before 8pm. Also in the #SoJealous camp.

So who got the PS4 version? How is it?

Ok, so... I got to play for 4 hours last night.

My thoughts: WHY, WORK?? WHYYYY YOU GOTTA BRING ME DOWN












So, I've read a first impressions article this morning by a guy that is bummed that "survival" is a key component to the game. I'm just a bit lost on that, because resource gathering was def a key component sold on the game.

I quite enjoyed my time. It's a little slower going that I thought it would be, but that's just needing to learn how things work and being at the beginning of the game.

So, you do need to manage your inventory space and keep resources handy for refilling your suits power reserves and your multi-tools power reserves.

You need to find resources to craft repairs for your ship before you can fly anywhere. But that gives you time to learn.

Apparently some people got put on bad random first planets, but mine was fairly hostile and I did fine. The temps were 70+C (so like 158+F) and there were these damn drones attacking me for some reason. It's recommending not engaging them, because they will call backup, but I've killed 10 so far and either ran away or upgraded my damage output (I found outpost that had a better multi-tool for sale and I bought it). So now I kill the drones and I get cool schematics for making other upgrades.

Traveling long distances on planet can be a bit daunting. It tells you how long it will take you to get somewhere (not how far it is in meters/miles, but how long at your current speed until you get there). And I needed to go to this outpost, I decided to walk instead of liftoff, because it takes 25% of your thrust power to lift off and I just landed on this planet and wanted to explore anyways.

Well, that "16 minutes" walk time was a bummer. It took a long time and I didn't see too much new stuff along the way. This planet was pretty similar to the one I had just left, hot and rocky. (Mars-like).

I've upgraded some stuff, learned alien words, traded with an alien, killed drones, killed an animal, made friends with animals, come close to dying by drones, almost burned up when my suit stopped protecting me, and I just love this game.

I love that you have limited slots for deciding on whether you want to install an upgrade to help you explore, or help you mine, or help you scan, or leave it empty so you can just have more inventory space.

Game is meeting my expectations.

Exploration, survival, combat, trading.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask, I don't want to just throw everything I learned out at you.

Thank you JaBo! I too read the reviewer who was disappointed and was a bit worried, but your write up has me pumped again. Just a few more days!

Do you have any friends playing on the PS4? Are you able to see where they are on any kind of map?

Thanks JaBo! It sounds like just about what I was expecting. Can't wait. AdamPFarnsworth, it sounds like you may never see other players in the game: http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/08/08/no-mans-sky-is-not-a-multiplayer-game-hello-games-founder-says

My brother is picking up a disc copy for ps4, but he wasn't able to play last night. I'm hoping to see how that works, because yeah, I heard you could see them on a map, or something. Would be cool to share discovered info (alien words or animal info). Cool not to share and just see how far away he is too.

I'm dying to play some more. We have out of state company tonight though, so we'll see..

I think they just want to quell expectations completely about playing with friends, but it seems like technically everyone is exploring the same universe, and it is possible to run into someone. Sure, the chances are practically zero though :)
I'm just wondering if it'll be possible to know where others are or not.

Apparently two Twitch streamers were able to "find each other," though not able to see each other : https://www.reddit.com/r/NoMansSkyTheGame/comments/4wxydf/im_about_to_meet_another_player_seriously/

The servers have been wonky since launch, with the substantial load put on them (more than expected), and Sean Murray implied this was why they couldn't see each other (maybe...). Interesting few tweets here from the team: https://twitter.com/NoMansSky/status/763270259080097792

JaBo, that's crazy awesome that you started out in the environment that you did, and hearing about what you had to do to survive! I want to hear more about others experiences!

My planet was rather peaceful, and the sentinel presence was limited. All of the wildlife were herbivores, and the temperature was comfortable. Starting the game, I was crashed on a plateaued-ish area, on the side of a small mountain. I was gathering my bearings, searching the ship, crates, debris, etc., then turned and walked toward the cliff. When I looked out over the land... I got goosebumps. My brain started to remember the context of my situation, and where I stood in the universe, and then my goosebumps got goosebumps.

This game, is huge!

My sky had four planets in it: one by itself in one corner, and three others clumped together, as if I was witnessing a millennial convergence. Once I was comfortable with the basics of moving around and interacting with the world, I went exploring. Something interesting in the distance... A cave entrance! I was hesitant at first, but decided to dive right in. Word of caution: Cave systems can be quite expansive! I thought I remembered where the entrance was, but then every turn looked the same, and I soon found myself to be very, very lost. I kept roaming, in what I thought was a systematic pattern, starting to panic, and feeling a genuine sense of claustrophobia. I didn't have the tools to make my own "door" at the time (also a word of caution: Go prepared!). I thought "I guess this cave doesn't look so bad. At least it's illuminated. It'll be a nice way to spend the rest of the game." Thirty minutes I was trapped underground. When I finally saw the light of the outside world, I let out an audible sigh of joy and relief, and vowed not to go in another cave (at least for another hour).

Scrypt, sounds awesome!

I've uploaded my first steps, which is pretty boring until the last couple of minutes. https://youtu.be/tpE_kwd6AmQ?t=7m43s
That link starts near the end, so not spoilery. The beginning of the vid is from the very beginning of the game, so don't watch it if you want to go into your game untainted ;).

Looks awesome scrypt! I see you scared some poor wildlife. :)

I was just reading the 1.03 patch notes (http://www.no-mans-sky.com/2016/08/update-1-03/) and at the end Sean says, "I grew up reading Carmack’s .plan files for Quake, so it’s fun to be writing one of my own :)". I totally forgot about those .plan file updates. I used to read them too! Good times!

I was holding off reading the 1.03 patch notes until I started playing the game. Now that I've put a few hours in, reading it is like reading a Christmas list of evolution!

So how does the online work exactly? Is it just seeing where people are in the universe (but apparently not being able to see them even if you're in the same place) and naming planets?

I ask because GOG will have this, which means many people will be pirating it. I just wonder how different the experience will be.

Also I have a download cap and the Olympics are this month so my bandwidth is going nuts. How big is it? It won't be the same for PS4 and PC but it'll be close I imagine.

Think of the online as just a cloud sync for the universe. Everyone is discovering, renaming (optionally), and uploading to the central server (Atlas). Multiplayer was never a promised feature, only a theory, and supposedly a very, very unlikely occurrence (obviously not). This game is intended to be a solo adventure with shared experiences, but not shared gameplay. I'm sure that will come in the future (the devs have indicated), in a similar way that Minecraft evolved to have multiplayer (though probably not in that form). People playing on pirated copies shouldn't introduce problems into game environment (how would it?), unless they start hacking, which, I trust, the devs are going to try their hardest to stay on top of.

File size for PS4 is 6gb, plus the 800mb day-one patch. I assume it's a similar size with the PC version.

It was very much talked about as a multiplayer game. Sean Murray said that you wouldn't be able to see yourself, the only way to know what you look like is for another player to find you and see you. The game was simply so vast, that the odds of running into another player was almost non-existent. But then on the first day, two Twitch streamers were on the same planet? Obviously, the majority of players aren't going to be on Twitch, so the odds of two Twitch players on the same planet is even more minuscule...

The fact that they were on the same planet, and couldn't see each other makes me suspicious of Hello Games. I don't mean to be negative, but this game is feeling like it could be the next Spore for me.

Looks like it will be release tomorrow at 10am pacific on steam. No preload option.

Haha, that's awesome, Scrypt. Those caves can be huge and often come up in a different place. Oddly the caves have all been friendly on your suit. You'd think some would be too cold, or filled with toxins. But generally, going underground protects you from the environment and sentinels. I did get attacked in a cave by some hostile creature tho.

I've gone to 9 systems so far, 2-3 planets a system and I've seen a good spread of planetary features.

The moon I'm on right now is actually one of the best I've found so far. It's loaded with gold and plutonium, both lucrative. The environment is freezing, but I acquired a suit upgrade that nullifies the cold. The problem there, it requires resources to stay functional too lol. Although it lasted quite a while before needing fill. I did come close to dying for the first time. My child protection ran out, my basic environmental protection ran out, my shields drained, I didn't have the excavating grenades installed, and I needed titanium, which I had two stacks of on my ship... Lol.

In my panic, I tried installing a system on my tool to add the excavator, but I lacked resources. I finally found a cave that I hid in and recharged my shields in, then sprinted back to my ship. I thought I was done for.

I still have my starter ship which stinks. I've come across a couple opportunities I could have switched, but wasn't quite worth it. One was an small ok upgrade but it would have cost all my credits, the other two were +1 and -1 inventory space crashed derelict ships. So while the +1 would have been ok, every system was damaged, and the planet I found it on was extreme. Toxic, radiation, thermal storms. I couldn't stay there long.

I've come across one system that was discovered by someone else so far. That was kinda neat.

It sounds like you are still enjoying it JaBo. How much time have you spent with the game?

Only about 12-13 hours so far. I've had company staying over and I'm going out to the coast for the weekend tonight.

Yeah, still really into it. It does have a more casual feel, and I definitely see some things being repetitive or a waste, but it's still really addicting and pulls you to keep making progress, whether you decide that's cataloging every species on the planet, or learning all the alien words, or modding up your weapons/ship, exploring, trading, I mean, I go through it all and I'm still ready to keep playing and know I haven't made a dent.

@Adym with regard to "the next Spore" I'm holding off judgment. I never had any desire, really, to play with people, since they said the chances were minuscule anyway.

But it is weird that a lot of things they said are turning out false.

Ultimately if it's a fun single-player game I'm happy with it, I don't care if I can run into you. It would be neat, but it also wouldn't make a lot of sense for them to code a feature that has a minuscule chance of happening.

Even if it did happen the first day, and I don't know what's up with that.

> But it is weird that a lot of things they said are turning out false.

I'll admit i'm not really following this very well, but beyond multiplayer not working as people expect what else has been false?

"A lot of things they said" was in reference to the multiplayer only, or the multiplayer aspects I guess I should say since it's not exactly multiplayer. I didn't mean that in reference to anything else about the game.

• It's likely nobody will ever run into each other (this has happened: proven once and anecdotally a few other times)


• But if you do, that's the only way to tell what your character looks like, because the characters will see each other (they didn't. They were at the same space station and they couldn't see each other, it wasn't even the same time)


• They've made conflicting claims about whether they think the game is or is not multiplayer

Still, like I said, I never cared about the multiplayer aspects so that's no problem for me, but some people were looking forward to the infinitesimally small chance of seeing someone.

> but some people were looking forward to the infinitesimally small chance of seeing someone.

My thought was that a few people would make it job #1 to find someone else as they said the chances were extremely unlikely. That said, balancing adding a feature statistically no one will use is a thing. I wonder if traditional multiplayer is actually supported or just buggy and wasn't tested well? I think I read somewhere they said it was the latter?

Yeah, it seems like the fact of seeing each other would probably not be a high feature on the list given the small chance of it actually happening. T-minus 40 mins until steam launch.

"Bracing for impact on PC. We'll do our best to keep servers online. Be aware there is a lot of you."

https://twitter.com/NoMansSky/status/764139431984926720

Hope things go OK. I dislove getting a new game, starting it up and then derping over server issues.

Who's playing on PC today?

jdodson: me! 3 mins until I try to download

Download started. 2.5 GB

Installed. Looks like it may have native steam controller support!

I'll be downloading it today, but trying to hold off on playing until next week, as my wife is going on vacation, and I promised I wouldn't ignore her before she left lol

Apparently it works even if the servers are down-- you just won't get to see what people have named planets and such.

Anyone playing on PC, I'm interested in hearing how it works for you. TotalBiscuit, who you'd think would have a beefy PC since he does this for a living, did a Twitch stream where his FPS was so bad it was unplayable. He compared it unfavorably to Arkham Knight at launch.

Seems like this could have been a prime candidate for Steam's Early Access to help work out the bugs.

Apparently you need to upgrade your graphic card drivers. Maybe they messed up and didn't include something to make that all run smoothly.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/275850/#app_reviews_hash

Oh.

"47% of the 11,257 user reviews for this game are positive."

Oh.

"Positive (5,312) Negative (5,945)"

Oh my. Maybe holding off on buying it then?

I checked for Nvidia updates a couple of hours ago and there hasn't been an update in almost a month (7/14/16).

Although I've known about this game, my recognition of it has been by name only and here. I just finished going through these comments and I'm think I may jump on board.

Steam reviews are becoming less and less effective for me. Metacritic is the same way for that matter. I'm not saying there aren't legitimate issues with the game, and the PC version seems to have problems that are affecting specific setups (largely, it appears on point with the PS4 release). However, it's really easy to tip the ratings in an unfavorable light.

I've had a handful of crashes since launch, more than is usual for any game. That aside, this is one of the best experiences I've ever had playing a video game. Maybe I'm right in the target demographic, and I'm biased, because I want them to succeed, but it's absolutely stunning, what they've been able to accomplish.

In this case, I'd take those negative reviews with a grain of salt.

> Steam reviews are becoming less and less effective for me.

I really only consider them for one thing. Is the game buggy? In this case it seems for some, it is, which is fine because I bet they'll get it all patched up by the time I play it(way later, which is fine I don't buy most games at launch anyway).

Doom had some PC issues and Rage had more and I consider those both good games. Bugs don't mean the end of the world but if you read the Steam comments, yowza. I can see being very disappointed, I totally get that but some people. Wow.

> In this case, I'd take those negative reviews with a grain of salt.

Totally.

The other critique I see is that it isn't living up the hype people built up for it. More than just the multiplayer thing I think people were expecting this game to give them 20 orgasms a minute for months. Whereas I bet with some, that may have happened I don't find that kind of thing sustainable for a game.

That said, the screenshots I've seen have been incredible and the game really looks like a nice walk through space. Which, you know sounds like a great time to me.

I am still loving the game. I don't know what I'd want changed. Maybe the ability to hold two multitools (geared for mining and combat).

But it's so good. Look up Starflight for Sega genesis. I played that game a ton, so this is miles above that

It looks like it's about a 50% chance you'll be able to play it. From my reading, it seems the big culprit is that their system requirements don't match the compiled code, and from what I gather from people who seem knowledgeable, they can recompile it with different compatibility and fix a ton of the problems people are facing, but yeah it wasn't quite ready.

I initially got a crash upon launch. Some of the fixes posted got me to the Hello Games logo before it crashed. I've seen others who have similar hardware with the same issues, and others who have similar hardware who are able to run it. Granted, I've only spent a short amount of time with it. I've been out most of the day, got it downloaded earlier and tried to launch recently. Even if those fixes had worked, it's hunting around in config files that people usually shouldn't have to touch.

Steam reviews should always be taken with a grain of salt, but in this case it's more like a giant block of salt.

This is a AAA priced game, which is significant. It's an indie studio playing with the big companies. They should, and that's awesome, but they have to be held to the same standards. This kind of thing just isn't acceptable. Imagine if a game like, well Arkham Knight launched like this. Remember the whole debacle there, where they went so far as to remove the game from Steam? This seems like roughly the same success rate.

I'm sure they'll get the issues fixed, and I look forward to that, but it wasn't ready for release. They should have taken their time and released when it was actually ready. I'm not one of those I'LL NEVER BUY YOUR GAMES AGAIN people, but this is a major mistake.

Oh I meant to mention, basically the same as Jon's reply.

@scrypt: in this case the Steam reviews aren't "this is a terrible game," they're "I can't get this game I paid $60 for to work." That's a significant difference. It may be that many of these people are also right there in that target demographic. They just can't tell yet.

I've been keeping up with it on /r/nomansskythegame too and it appears that even if you CAN launch it, it has many other issues plaguing it. Someone with a GTX 750 may be able to play fine, whereas someone with a 1080 might get 20fps max.

OK Further info on what seems to be plaguing people who can't even launch the game.

SSE 4.1 support.

Intel has had it for longer than AMD so many AMD processors (like mine) aren't working. i3 is listed as the lowest processor that will work. Mine is faster and better, but is missing the SSE 4.1 instruction set.

HOWEVER, apparently some i5s and i7s don't even have SSE 4.1 support depending on when they were made. So their minimum requirements are WAY wrong for Intel, and don't even mention AMD.

Good news is that it's probably an oversight. They obviously targeted the PS4 first and the PC was a port (since some PS4-only libraries are present in the game files on PC, and a few other little quirks). PS4 has the SSE 4.1 instruction set so if we're lucky it's just a compile flag that they have to check to support other processors. If we're unlucky they have specific methods that require SSE 4.1 and they just update their system requirements or release a statement and people who expected to play it won't get to.

Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain had the same problem on launch. BUT they had a fix in place 1 hour after launch.

> HOWEVER, apparently some i5s and i7s don't even have SSE 4.1 support depending on when they were made. So their minimum requirements are WAY wrong for Intel, and don't even mention AMD.

HEY YAY my CPU has SSE 4.1! Easy way to tell is in Steam hit "Help/System Information" and it's listed under "Processor Information."

I didn't mean to conflate the current batch of PC issues with people otherwise disappointed with the game. The crashes and frame rate issues that are occurring are frustrating, and far more frequent than any game I've experienced in recent years, and this is even on the console version (that's the beauty of consoles: games hardly ever crash). Also didn't mean to imply that you weren't a fan of the game because you're having issues playing it, only that, all things being equal, the game isn't for everyone.

Hopefully they'll get patches in place soon.

(Phantom Pain was developed by hundreds of people. No Man's Sky, by 11. I'm sure they'll get a fix out as soon as they humanly can.)

That hundreds vs. 11 thing is where I was going with the AAA price point. It's not that the game doesn't deserve to be priced there, it's just that if you're paying that much for a game, you expect that level of support.

I'll add that at least some of the bad reviews are from people who don't think they can play because they get to the white screen that just says "E" and nothing else. You have to hold E, not just press it, but there's no indication of that. I seemed to pick up on some confusion on that point in your gameplay video scrypt, but you worked it out. I was thinking "surely he's pressing X but nothing is happening... oh."

Looks like an all nighter tonight!

http://steamcommunity.com/app/275850/discussions/7/360672137536640057/

Ok, I verified that my CPU has SSE 4.1 (using Google), in fact it has up to SSE 4.2. I also verified this on Steam as I saw Jon's comment. I went ahead and changed my resolution to 1920x1200 and full-screen. I left v-sync enabled and increased the max FPS option to 60. I also went ahead and put all the graphics settings on high. I can't say the game has run 100% smoothly, but it's pretty damn close. At least it runs great while I'm playing, it was only during the loading screen and initial in-game that I noticed a little bit of lag. Maybe I was lucky enough to get it after it was patched. I think it's good that I was informed before playing. This meant that I knew to hold the E key when needed. I read a lot of the Steam reviews (mostly bad) and even the posts on the Steam forums by Hello Games. All aboard the hype train!

If you have a normal 1080p monitor 1920x1080 would probably look better. 1920x1200 would scrunch things. That said, you may not have a normal monitor.

They haven't patched the issues yet but some people don't have them and it looks like you win the lottery!

I guess I should say, a normal 16x9 monitor.

1920x1200 is my max resolution, which is what I've been using since I got this PC. I have a Dell u2412m monitor, see link. Windows says my refresh rate is 59Hz. From what I've read, I shouldn't really expect more than 60fps and from what I've experienced, that's just fine. :)
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=210-AGSS&ST=dell%20u2412m&dgc=ST&cid=253603&lid=5433907&acd=12309152537461010&ven1=sNnL9UiKR&ven2=e

Steam says I've played for 3 hours. The game runs very well, much better than I expected after reading all those bad reviews. I find it hard to believe so many people are having issues, I guess their PCs just don't have the tech to handle it. Someone said they have a GTX 1080 and are still having issues. All of this makes me believe that even though my PC maybe 4 years old, it's still pretty damn good. Although, I did upgrade from the GTX 690 to a 980 Ti Classified a few months ago, which I'm so glad I did. :)

Ah, then yeah ignore my comment. That isn't an oddball resolution but it's not exactly common, thus my comment.

" I guess their PCs just don't have the tech to handle it"
That's not the case. The GTX750 seems to perform the best on this based on anecdotal polling I've seen. Again I'll reference TotalBiscuit who does this for a living and has a beast rig.

They've found the problems causing the framerate issues (at least most of them, we hope) and are working on them-- so it's definitely a game problem.

I played it for about 3 hours last night, jumping back in soon. My only problem has been my graphics card overheating when I first launched the game (can't really blame the game for that). After restarting a few things, I haven't had any overheating problems.

I am loving this game. I love the exploration part, and identifying new plants, rocks, animals. So much fun. I can see how a lot of people could be disappointed if they were expecting more of an FPS/Space Combat type of game. I was not expecting that at all. This is a take your time and enjoy the sites type of game.

My starting planet was pretty toxic, so I had to manage that resource along with trying to fix my ship. Once I got my ship off planet, I noticed that the next planet was 2 hours Real Time away. Yikes! Luckily I found a way to make that quicker. :) I have been enjoying the fact that there isn't a heavy tutorial at the start of the game. Part of the exploring is figuring out how to do things.

I haven't paid attention to my PC temps while playing this game. Although, when I play Ark: Survival Evolved, I turn my PCI, hard drive, and GPU fans up to max because I know it all gets hot playing that game.

I recently started playing with the scanner, so I've been scanning things. It seems you earn money when you scan animals. You can then upload your scan data. I was thinking that when we discovered things that we got to name them, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Everything already has a name, even if I just discovered it. However, you can rename things you've discovered, it seems.

I started out on two or three different planets at first because I was making adjustments to my graphics options before I actually started to play. I know one planet was toxic and I think one was hot. I didn't stay on my starting planet very long either, like Will_Ball, I got what I needed and headed out to my next destination. I've been doing a bit of planet hopping. I'm pretty much going wherever the game tells me I need to go. I've noticed there are plenty of other things to discover and different technologies that help you see something you might want to check out. Once instance was when I hacked some kind of sensor. I think I told it to find a shelter and it did, but I didn't get to it. Then I noticed if I wanted to use it again, I'd have to create another hacking tech (chip). I thought once you used one and hacked it, you'd be able to continue to use that device, but that was wrong. Those chips are for one use only apparently.

Since the game's received a lot of bad reviews, I thought I'd add to the good ones. Feel free to check it out:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/gregopeck/recommended/275850/

Just read your review Greg: You might want to uncap your FPS even though you'll only get 60 natively. Apparently that slider is inaccurately displaying the values, or is otherwise broken. A ton of people were getting worse framerates and framerate drops when setting it to 60. It would usually hover around 40 with drops to 20. But uncapping it got them a steady 60.

I tell ya, when I can finally play this I'm going to know exactly how to get the best performance! :D

I haven't adjusted my graphics settings. It is running fine and looks good to me at the default settings.

Thanks, Travis. I didn't realize I could select higher FPS than 60, but of course when you want to do something in this game you have to hold the button for it to change. I put it on "Max."

Oh and Will_Ball, mine ran fine on default settings, too, but I wanted it full-screen in the resolution I'm using. I changed the other graphics settings because I wanted to push it to the max to see if my PC could handle it. The game runs just fine and looks pretty good, so I really have nothing to complain about.

I think I read through our comments correctly, but is anyone here who purchased the PC version having major issues at this point?

@scrypt: Not I! :)

Yes.

I just bought it. I'm a little nervous. My computer should be able to run it, but I can't install the latest driver because it's not compatible with Windows 10.

Honestly I wasn't even aware I had Windows 10 lol (I don't use my PC often apparently)

Adam what GPU do you have? I'm sure the drivers should be available for Win 10

I'm not at my computer right now, but I think I have a nvidia geforce gtx 670mx

Ok, which one of you named a star system "FartNugget"? Fess up! :P

Adam, if you have an nvidia the driver is definitely compatible with Wondows 10. Not sure what you're seeing but GeForce experience can do it for you automatically or you can get it from the website.

There's also a beta driver you can seek out that may or may not improve performance

I tried downloading the driver update earlier today and I got an error message saying that it's not compatible with Windows 10. But I'll keep playing with it :)

http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/105037/en-us

That's the Windows 10 driver and I confirmed that it's compatible with the 670. What's your CPU?

OK so further info for AMD users. Before, the game was a 2gb Hello Games logo that crashes after displaying itself. They've fixed the SSE 4.1 support issue in an experimental branch, but for the most part that just makes it a Hello Games logo followed by a No Man's Sky logo that then crashes itself.

Now they're working on SSSE3 support. Yeah it gets confusing. They say the Havok engine requires this, but that doesn't actually seem to be the case.

Communications are kinda limited on exactly what's going on there, but they're working on it.

Sorry, Travis! For some reason I thought you hadn't picked it up yet. Didn't read that well, apparently ;).

Yep! And combine that with the fact that I'm using the GOG version, not the Steam version, and I can't even get this experimental branch. I'm just reading a lot about what's happening, hoping that it gets sorted and the patch gets GOG'd soon.

Ah, I think my problem was that I downloaded a driver specifically for Windows 8.1, not realizing my computer upgraded to 10. Downloading then new one now!

HOLY CRAP THIS GAME IS FUN!
I've barely out any time into it yet, but am already loving it. I haven't messed with any settings yet, but it seems to play pretty smoothly.

I just found a monolith!

I agree with something Adam (I think) said earlier that this would have been a good candidate for Early Access. If it were in EA it probably would have been cheaper, but the thing I love about EA is that developers seem to often listen to the community regarding issues and suggestions. Right now I'm not having any issues, but I do have a couple of suggestions, one is just something I wish for.

It doesn't make sense to me that it tells you "life support is low" when it's at 75%. I'd expect that at 25%, maybe even 50%. I think it should just tell you that life support is at 75%. Right now I'm on an irradiated planet and while I don't like the radiation, I'm finding it easy to deal with and able to constantly recharge my hazard protetction. I've probably been on this planet longer than any other because every time I discover one "?" on the map, another one or two shows up, so I've been footing it a lot and I still haven't made it to the alien ruin I saw a while ago, but I'm making my way there.

My wish is that I had some kind of ATV so I could travel on land faster. Maybe a ship that had some kind of tech to do this or just a big ship that held a small ATV would be freaking sweet. Luckily I did find a small depot or whatever and was able to craft a bypass chip and interact with a device and call my ship there, so now I don't have to walk all the way back to get to it.

I am enjoying this game. It has a lot to do with discovery, exploration, mining, and crafting which has become the kind of game I've been seeking for quite a while now.

I did feel rich at one point when I had just over 400,00 units, but then I saw a big ship and chose to "make an offer" on it, but the alien wanted more than 1 million units for it, so I wanted to save my units. However, in my travels, I've found many more exosuit upgrades, which get more costly and thus I am poor again. I like how you get units by discoverying (scanning and uploading) animals and plant life. There are other ways to get units like selling things, NPC interactions, and I've found a few devices that just give them to me.

That alien ruin I mentioned turns out to be a castle! I grabbed a screenshot I'll upload later.

400,000 units? You are rich! I want to see the castle.

Well I only have over 100,000 now. I'll share the screenshots later. I can't Alt-Tab in the game because it won't let me back in when I do. So, I'll try to save and quit sometime to get those uploaded and shared. I've now learned over 50 words.

The castle:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=744364928
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=744364981
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=744365065

*Extra* I found this device on the desk in a small building, it gives you units:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=744365093
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=744365159

Awesome GregoPeck! I did not know that there were castles.

Me neither, until I made that discovery. :) It had Stones of Knowledge in it, that's about it other than pots I couldn't break.

I just recently noticed that the previous planet I was on was already discovered b someone. I still discovered many outposts/waypoints, animals, and plants though.

I found another castle on another planet.

A tip for moving faster over the planet surface without your ship: https://youtu.be/mVb63OPLk5E

Basically, it's using the forward momentum of a walking melee, followed immediately by a jump (boost). In the video, the guy says you need to sprint first before executing this move, but that isn't necessary. As long as you are walking, your melee will cause your character to lunge (the lunge animation is the important part). If you time it right, you can get around substantially faster than running or boosting alone. Really good maneuver for clearing chasms, or getting out to the deep end of a large body of water (so you don't have to waste Aeration Membrane charges). Also, since you can use this laterally as a strafing technique, it becomes essential in avoiding hostile Sentinels.

A word of caution with that: Keep an eye on your jetpack energy bar, and watch your landings!

Well crap, scrypt, I didn't know there was a melee attack! Hahaha. I'm often using my jetpack for jumping up mountains. I think I've installed boosted stamina (and maybe jetpack) tech.

Aeration Membrane charges, I assume you're talking about tech (that I didn't pay attention to the name of) that helps you breathe underwater. I'm sure I have received the blueprint (or two) for that, but haven't installed it. I just swim along the surface and if I run out of too much air, I jetpack over the surface until I'm full of air again. Still, I think swimming could be improved.

Thanks for the tip!

That melee dash is going to help a lot!

I feel like a prohet of No Man's Sky today at work. I keep telling coworkers about it, and how awesome it is. I keep sending people the link to Sean Murray's interview on Stephen Colbert's show, since that's a pretty concise and entertaining explanation/demonstration of the game (I don't remember if it's been linked to before here, so here it is again https://youtu.be/ZqeN6hj4dZU )

Greg, yes, Aeration Membranes make it a lot easier to explore the deeper waters, which sometimes hold some very interesting things...

Adam, I know what you mean. It's hard for me to not completely lose my composure when I'm raving about the game :).

You guys are a bunch of showoffs :D

I'm hoping something gets moving tomorrow.

Sean tweeted today that patches for PS4 and PC are both going through testing right now. I assume that means it's just a matter of days?

@scrypt I finally installed that Aeration Membrane tech because I landed on a planet that's mostly ocean. It didn't last very long. Although, I realized if you don't press anything you don't move, so I probably could have recharged it while I was swimming. It's really freaking cold here, especially during these storms, it gets to -102.4C. I remember in one of the interviews someone shared here, Sean said they'd make the temps in Fahrenheit for us in the US, but I don't see that in the options menu.

I wonder what's in the patches, but I expect resolutions to whatever issues people are having.

@Travis, why did you buy the GOG version and what issues are you having w/ the game?

@Adam, thanks for posting the interview, I'll check it out later when I'm not playing. I'm glad you guys are exciting about the game and loving it. I'm glad that I finally jumped on board and I probably wouldn't have if it wasn't for my fellow Cheerful Ghosts!

I am currently back in my original star system exploring a planet there. I have 85% of the planet identified according to the Discover panel.

Impressive and cool. I'm 11 systems away from mine, so I've discovered 12 of them so far. I haven't discovered everything on any planet, but I'm discovering a lot on many of these.

I bought the GOG version because they have a 30 day return policy if you can't get it to work, and Steam just has a policy that if you haven't played it for over two hours you can get a refund. Since Steam counts a launch/crash as one minute (they just don't count seconds I guess) and I could imagine testing and tweaking to try to get it working quite a bit, I wanted to play it safe.

The issues I'm having are well-documented above. It crashes on launch for about half of the AMD processors people use for gaming these days.

Sorry, I forgot that you wrote about the issues you were having. I don't know how or why it slipped my memory. I see your comments above and remember reading them, they just didn't stick for some reason. I didn't realize you had an AMD CPU. This is the first computer I've had in a long time that I went with Intel. I'm not sure why I switched, I guess whatever "Googling" I did convinced me to buy this Alienware PC with an i7. As you know from our college days, I was building my own PCs and price was always a factor, so AMD was the CPU brand I went with as it seemed cheaper and even better than Intel at the time.

Anyway, I hope the issues that plagued your game play get resolved very soon. I think you'll really enjoy it, just like the rest of us.

Sean Murray is adding to the controversy a bit. In an interview he said...

"We do want to add a ton of features, like we’ve just discussed: Freighters, bases, these type of things. But we want to do it for free. You’ve paid for the game, so you should get this stuff without paying even more money. So no, there will be no paid DLC, just patches."

Then in a later interview:

"Maybe in the future there’s some reason why we just couldn’t possibly afford to do a certain feature without charging for it"

I certainly get what he's saying, but if you aren't absolutely sure about your intentions, you shouldn't say outright "no paid DLC."

So people are pissed yet again! I imagine he said that while heavily sleep-deprived, and equally hyped because of all the people playing his game and bummed because of the issues they're working on. So it probably wasn't the greatest headspace to do an interview.

And reality around DLC starts to set in. Given the small size of the company, this doesn't surprise me all that much.

Lol, he just needs to stop talking. The game is amazing, but people will always find something to complain about.

Justin Bieber just deleted his instagram account.

The dilemma of No Man's Sky, and having an engineer as your PR person. I think the hopes that Sean Murray had, was that more people would be in favor of his vision of the game, and there is quite a vocal group that isn't on that page. I think he assumed that the hype that was being built, was genuine hype based on what he was showing off, and not the rampant imaginations and possibilities that people were bringing with them. I believe his original statements were true, in saying that there would be no paid DLC, if they stick with the intended vision of the game.

Something like...:

ENGINEER: I made this car for you, and I hope you love it! It costs $XX, and all the future updates will be at no cost to you!
PERSON: Can you make it fly? I want it to fly!
ENGINEER: Well...yeah...I technically could do that, but that's not what I designed the car to be. I would have to charge extra for that.
PERSON: No, no!! That's an update! You said it would be free!
ENGINEER: Okay, but it's a feature that I never envisioned adding, and I would have to make major modifications to the game to get that to work...
PERSON: Wait. Game? Who... is this Sean Murray?! You made that piece of shit No Man's Sky, didn't you! OH MY GOD, You lie about EVERYTHING!
ENGINEER MURRAY: *sigh

When Sean uses words like "maybe" and "possibly," I take them more in the literal sense than in the slick salesperson sense. I also think that Sean assumes people want No Man's Sky for the same reasons that he built No Man's Sky, but it's become abundantly clear that some people do not. And maybe he should, as you said, Travis, take some time off before doing anymore interviews.

So it looks like the patch is up on Steam's experimental branch. Anybody wanna buy me a copy :D Patience, I know but, damn I suck at patience when looking at all these screenshots.

OK so I processed the refund with GOG, bought on Steam. I'm on the experimental branch now.

Not only does this game work. It works perfectly. I've maxed everything and it's buttery smooth.

GLORIOUS!

But also, WTF! I expected to have some hitches since my computer couldn't run it from the start. This just makes the fact that it was broken even more annoying. Some simple testing on AMD would have solved this before it was a problem.

Anyway, I'm a happy camper now

Enjoy Travis!

Welcome to the game, Travis! Say goodbye to the rest of you life. Hahahaha

@Travis, did the game work for you outside of the experimental branch or only with it?

OK so I'm annoyed with what everyone is annoyed with. You have to hold E to do anything, not-Glados thinks 75% is YOU GONNA DIE... but this is so immersive. I think the lack of narrative may get annoying later but for now I'm in love.

Greg-- only with it. They've fixed the AMD support.

Yeah you pretty much have to hold the button for nearly ever selection, including in the menu. Right-click (for those of us on PC) gets you out of menus.

Holy cow! http://www.pcgamer.com/no-mans-sky-player-maxes-out-ship-exosuit-and-crafts-an-atlas-pass-without-leaving-his-starter-planet/?utm_content=buffer1efae&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=buffer_pcgamerfb

Yeah, I think he did a little research before playing the game.

I'm playing with a controller, not a keyboard, and I kinda like the holding the button down to select/confirm something. Maybe it's more natural on a controller than a keyboard though.

The game was definitely designed around controller input. Highly recommend using that instead of keyboard/mouse.

I think the game works great w/ the keyboard and mouse. :) That said, I was going to suggest to at least Travis to scan things with "F" then press "P" to upload your discoveries to get some units (currency). Hover over them (the ones w/ red icons) and press the button to upload or rename and upload.

I'm wondering if piloting the ship in space would be easier with the controller. However, it got better when I upgraded the Pulse Engine's manueverablility. Still, I think I suck at space fights. I fight better on the ground.

Oh and you don't have to hold the button (Shift) to sprint, just press it once to enable it and you can free up your finger.

I've been playing with the steam controller and I am loving it. I may need to remap the sprint button though; it is currently mapped to holding down on the left thumb stick as you are using it to run forward.

Will_Ball, the PS4 control has run mapped as a toggle on the move stick. Do you have to keep holding the stick down on the Steam Controller?

I wish it was left thumb stick on ps4. It's the right stick, left does a global scan.

But, otherwise, I really like the controls for ps4.

I want to add markers or flag places to come back to. Sucks to find a cache of good stuff, but be full. Then you can't find it again.

My brother lost a whole ship that way, to date it's better than anything he has. He spent over an hour searching.

Just shows you the planets are big.

Yeah, I thought about custome markers, too, I think it'd be really helpful.

I've started putting together some spreadsheets for crafting recipes. Feel free to contribute, if you like :)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cEsda8gd8CnPcRWrJLCzRDs7pyVWv5geqoRwuEt32bk/edit?usp=sharing

Anyone have a favorite race yet? So far I I'm very much aligned with the Korvax. I've apparently been on more of their planets and explored more of their things. Therefore, I know their language most and have read more of their story than any other race. Personally, I view them very favorably.

I think it's interesting how much or how little time I spend on a planet. I came to the one I'm currently on earlier, didn't find much, and decided to explore other planets or moons within the system. However, I ended up back here trying to get to the planet or moon that I now think was behind it. But, I've found a whole lot more here than on my first visit and I'm therefore spending a lot of time here. There are elements I need, like Zinc and Thamium9 can't find here, so I'm buying what I can from the Galactic whatever terminals that I can. I could take my ship above the planet and shoot asteroids for Thamium9, but I don't want to lose my space as I'm walking around discovering lots of things. I may get to a point where I don't see anything around to discover and go grab some and return because I have a few places here I need to visit, at least 2 ruins and a couple of shelters that have aliens for me to meet. I have these marked because I've activated some beacons.

I don't know how often I've taken a crashed ship as my own because I've done it a few times now, especially on this planet. I really love the last one I found. I took some screenshots I'll upload when I'm done. Perhaps I'll share those here. Feel free to share pics of the ships you're using.

I got nearly fully aligned with the Gek before leaving my starter planet (panickedworld) but I've barely left that planet. I found a moon (Dat Moon) with a beacon that gave me some coordinates, and quit for the day.

So the Gek are the only other race I've met.

Also as for Thallium 9, I've only gotten that from asteroids, but it seems literally every asteroid is full of it. I've never found it on a planet but I found so much from asteroids I never thought about seeking it out.

I've met a few Geks. So, you're renaming stuff? I haven't renamed anything, not sure that I will. Thamium9 can be found by harvesting some red plants, but none of them are on the planet I'm on.

Here's a screenshots of my newest lovely ship. For some reason it makes me think of a duck.
http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/492402910685413501/7FE9C3A06D5E2759FD22824F06B1962490979FDC/

Scrypt, yeah the configuration I downloaded for the steam controller makes it so you need to hold the left stick down and forward to run. As soon as you let it up you stop running. Given that the steam controller is 100% configurable, I will probably change this.

Also, cool spreadsheet!

I believe the only way to get Thamium9 planet-side, is to harvest from plants (Zinc can also be harvested this way), but the most efficient way is blasting asteroids.

I like the Korvax a lot, but I haven't really run into any Gek yet. The Vy'keen don't like me very much.

Greg, renaming stuff gets you units... unless renaming auto uploads and that's what I'm seeing.

Discovering things and uploading them gives you units, too, without renaming.

Yeah I can't tell if you get more for renaming or not.

Renaming doesn't give additional units. The UI around uploading discoveries is a little confusing, though. You can upload individual discoveries (planets, flora, fauna), but once you start making discoveries, you can also upload your "library" (for lack of a better word) of findings, which sometimes does, or doesn't (I can't figure this part out), give you a substantial lump of units. Here's images showing the comparison I've come across: http://imgur.com/a/PNx1h

In order to process that function, you have to cursor over that bar, and hold down the X (or E, I guess, on PC) button, which will trigger the library upload. I've only tried this when the discoveries on a specific planet are at 100%, as this is one of the Milestone activities in the game.

Also, I'm pretty sure that whole process is bugged. When I upload one planet at 100%, it seems to lock out all the other planets from being uploaded (it actually shows them all at 100% complete temporarily), until I visit another planet, or jump to another system. It eventually unlocks, as I've uploaded several planets now, but I can't tell what does the unlocking.

Oh, and here's a shot of my current ship! http://i.imgur.com/Bvt9a1G.png

I love the style and colors too much to upgrade, which sucks because I could really use more space right now.

Your ship looks cool, Greg! Kind of X-wing-ish.

Cool ship scrypt!

Neat ship scrypt, it looks bug-eyed. LOL Is it a Gek ship?

I wanted to share another tip. It seems that if you're in space and want to visit a planet, move your sight dot to the planet and engage your pulse jump. Once you hit the atmosphere, you're pulse jump will automatically disengage. Then, once you get low enough to the planet's surface, your ship will automatically pull up and aligned with the surface. So, you won't crash into the planet.

Still, I think an auto-pilot option would be great.

Wow GregoPeck, great tip!

No Man's Sky doesn't support mods, but of course people have modded it already anyway. I'm running one that gets rid of the instagram filters. I don't want to do anything that messes with core gameplay because an update might screw something up, otherwise I'd be using the one that removes the button holding for everything.

The PC version has instagram filters?

All versions have Instagram filters! It's that weird hue over everything. It mutes a lot of the amazing colors.

http://nomansskymods.com/mods/instagram-filter-remover/

Instagram filters? WTF? Ok, reading the comments of the mod makes it more understandable.

You're basically disabling planetary atmospheric effects, but whatever :).

Anyone else notice that after loading the game the camera shakes a lot while using stamina initially, but then stops doing it after a while? I might have to post the issue on Steam forums or submit an email to Hello Games about it.

Actually I posted the wrong one. This is the one: http://nomansskymods.com/mods/chromatic-aberration-vignetting-scan-lines-removal/

You still get the atmospheric effects without the other stuff.

Now THAT might be nice. I don't mind the vignette or scan lines, just attributing them to character visor effects. It would be nice to turn that, and all other UI, off for screenshot purposes, though.

The chromatic abberation is what gets me. It blurs things and sure, it creates a neat cinematic effect, but it's constant and just annoys me.

If a game has the option to turn it off, I do. One of the first things I did in DOOM. First, I just don't like it on all the time. It's an effect that I think works really well when used sparingly but I hate it when its constant. Second, I've found I get less motion sickness.

I never EVER got motion sickness from games until heavy post-processing became common. I wasn't thinking about that when I started using this mod but I can handle space way better now.

The scanlines are fine, I don't even notice them, but the vignetting I can do without. Not a major thing, it's just obstructing a very small part of the view for a cinematic effect. I just find things like that take me *out* of a game, rather than immerse me even more.

I just wish that all these things had toggles in the settings!

I hardly even know what you're talking about, except for what I read in the mods comment sections and thus screenshots. The only time I recall a game giving me motion sickness was way back in the mid to late 90's when I played Wolfenstein 3D (the original) with a mouse. Otherwise, I haven't had any issues with any games. However, recently when I went back to playing some Ark: Survival Evolved after not having played it for a while, my eyes had to adjust to it, it was kind of like putting on a new pair of glasses, but my eyes quickly adjusted.

I decided to send an email to Hello Games about the mostly minor issues I've found. I thought I'd share it with you since I got two automated replies, which you may find helpful if you're having issues. I had to break my comment up because it contained over 3,000 characters.

Subject: No Man's Sky Issues (mostly minor)
Sometimes my game takes me back to my desktop and stops running (a crash I assume). I have all my graphics settings maxed and framerate unlimited. I am running full-screen at 1920x1280 (or 1920x1200).

It seems as though when I load the game and use stamina, the screen (or camera) shakes quite a bit. It doesn't take very long before it stops doing this though.

I've noticed some strange things, not all of which I have screenshots for.
Here is a floating cargo box: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=746545871
Here is a fish-like creature doing a head stand in shallow water: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=743164929

I'll try to take screenshots of some of the other anomalies I've noticed. Sometimes I see a medium sized cloud of pixels as though it was a swarm of bugs. It disappears quickly though. I've also seen structures that generated in the terrain and I wasn't able to get them. I've also seen structure pieces floating like the above floating cargo box screenshot.

I wrote a positive review for the game and am enjoying it. Thanks for a fun game!

My computer specs are:

Computer: Alienware Aurora-R4
OS: Windows 10 (64 bit)
CPU: Intel i7-4820k (3.7GHz)
RAM: 16GB
GPU: EVGA GTX 980 Ti Classified

Their first automated reply:
Thank you for emailing Hello Games Support.

We have received your request for help and the ticket number is (24718)

Please refer to this post, with common workarounds:
http://www.no-mans-sky.com/support/

For PC Users - please refer to this post first, which we will continually update:
http://www.no-mans-sky.com/2016/08/pc-support/

For gameplay issues on PC and PS4 - please refer to this post, with common workarounds:
http://www.no-mans-sky.com/2016/08/gameplay-support/

If you are still experiencing difficulties, please provide us with more details including:
- A description of the problem, including if the issue repeats itself or just happened once.
- What platform you are playing on (PC, PS4, Steam, GoG)
- Any relevant screenshots and links

PC users - please provide your PC specifications:
1. Click "Help" in the top left corner of the steam client,
2. Click system information
3. Right click in the system information window and select "Copy all to clipboard"
4. Paste into your response email

PC Crashes - please attach the following:
You will hopefully find a crash dump here:
C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Temp
(it will be called something like NMS_crash_1471005374.dmp)

We are a small team, so unfortunately we won't be able to reply to general messages here but we'll try and get to all urgent game queries within 48 hours during office hours.

Please do not send repeat emails unless in direct response from us as this may risk your email address being marked as spam and blocked.
To add additional comments, reply to this email.

Thank you

Here's the second auto reply:
Hello !!

First of all, we are thankful for all your love, support and affection towards our dream project ‘No Man’s Sky’. At the same time, if you have mailed out support address, we are extremely sorry for any issues you are facing playing our game.

Please be assured that we are working literally around the clock to resolve the most critical issues for players. We are collating all the data and support requests you have sent, and it is helping us to develop fixes. Sincerely thank you for your help.

Many people have waited so long to play the game, and we know how frustrating it can be to have problems. We hear you, and we humbly request you to wait a bit longer as we try to get these fixes tested and rolled out soon.

A patch for both PC and PS4 will be released this week. These will fix the most urgent and critical issues for all our players. Then next week another patch for PS4 and PC will be released which will help to improve the experience further for players. We will keep you updated.

In the meantime, please find a list of the most common issues and workarounds here:
http://www.no-mans-sky.com/support/

No Man’s Sky is a vast journey, we intend to continually update and improve this game and we look forward to working with you to provide the best gameplay experience we can.

Thank you for understanding,
Hello Games

Update 1.04 is live on PS4, coming in at 605.4mb. Downloading it now. Don't see patch notes yet. This must have just gone live within the hour, because I just actively checked for updates earlier this morning.

I got an update this morning, it was about 20mb. No patch notes.

Yeah that's the second auto-reply that seems to be coming to everyone nowadays. I imagine they're up to their eyeballs in issues.

Looks like the "unofficial" patch notes are a ton of stability improvements and bug fixes, mostly for PC but some crash fixes for PS4 as well. Some people on PS4 are crashing every five minutes, some don't crash at all. Seems weird with targeted hardware like that.

Speaking of updates, Nvidia has an update.

Found some patch notes:
http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/gaming/701333/No-Man-s-Sky-update-3-REVEALED-No-Man-s-Sky-Patch-notes-for-PS4-and-PC?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+daily-express-entertainment-news+%28Daily+Express+%3A%3A+Entertainment+Feed%29

I think those might be the experimental patch notes, since it doesn't mention anything about PS4. We know those should be in this patch but there's more as well.

I would go through plays where it wouldn't crash all day, but then the next day it would crash frequently, sometimes in immediate succession (load/crash, load/crash,...). Seems to be going much smoother now with the patch installed.

Oh and Greg, what driver are you seeing from Nvidia? The most recent one I see was four days ago: http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/105851/en-us

Aaaand it crashed. Well, f#[email protected]

I am running the 4.0 Firmware Beta, so maybe that might have something to do with it. *sigh

@Travis 372.54 I only noticed it today because I was looking at the Steam forums for patch notes and someone mentioned Geforce Experience settings.

@scrypt My game crashes, too, sometimes. I guess that's why it's good that every time I access a waypoint, it saves. Pretty much that's what I'm doing anyway, bouncing from one waypoint to another on my way to whatever I'm trying to get to.

So far, how is everyone's play style? Are you completionists, staying on one planet to discover all you can, or do you hop around a lot? Currently I'm trying to buy a new ship, so I've been playing as a commodities trader, buying low and selling high lol

I go to a planet, see what I need, see what I can find, and if I can't find what I'm looking for or any "?" on the map, I jump to another planet and repeat. Right now, I'm hopping from each of those points on the map trying to get to the locations that have been added by beacons. I'm not a completionist and I've travelled far, at least to 12 different star systems. I'm still on the same planet as I was yesterday (or even maybe the day before), but I've found one or two new ships, so I don't have that nice one I posted anymore. There's very little to scan on this planet as there's very little planet life and no wild creatures. Resources are a bit scarce, too, so I'm buying from whatever traders I can to get my ship fully repaired.

I did a lot of commodities trading too. But you don't need to buy starships, you can find them by using the orange beacons that pop up. Can't remember exactly what they're called.

Inventory was getting to me, so I kept doing that until I got a 48 slot. Now I'm using my riches from commodities to pay for suit upgrades (which you can also find with those beacons).

I'm not staying on planets for long, though, unless I really like them. The moon I'm on now is my favorite place yet, but there's only one biome per planet so you've pretty much seen it all in a few minutes. Sean Murray has said that this was intentional, to get people to focus on planet-hopping.

I just realized that you can't rename things you've already renamed. I found this out because I was trying to name this moon "That's No Moon." But instead, I hit enter instead of the apostrophe. So it's now called "That" forever.

I haven't really done a whole lot of trading. I mean, I look to see if they have what I need and buy what I can. If I have free slots in my inventory and am near a trading post terminal, then I'll open up those green cargo boxes and sell what's in them. One of my favorite YouTubers mined a lot and sold it to a nearby terminal to get some money. That's a good way to make money, but not something I feel like doing.

I feel like I pretty much have all the tech blueprints as it almost always now says "already known." I know there are some recipe ones I'm missing. I do have an Atlas Pass v2 now, which is cool.

I keep going from "?" to "?" on my way towards my desired location. I've found beacons that have added points on my screen for Advanced Lifeforms. Ruins, and crashed ships. I'm try to go to the crashed ships as soon as I can to see if it's something I want to upgrade to, that will require more work to repair. I also try to go to Ruins first because those often contain a few Knowledge Stones, so that way when I talk to the aliens, I'll be able to understand them. Most of the Korvax I run into now are only missing a word or a few, so I can usually figure out they're saying. There are also a couple of "lore" (stories) that I think are now repeating for me (especially the Korvax).

The beacons that unlock after you input the right code make me feel like I'm taking an IQ test. Luckily many of them have been relatively easy, although there have been some I had to figure out or just guess.

One more tip, when you die you lose your inventory, but a grave marker will appear where you died and you can go there to get your stuff back. It may not initially show up on your screen, but when you get close enough to it, you should be able to find it. If you die in space you'll wake up in a space station, if there's one near.

Oh and @Travis, that's why you should always proofread what you write. :) LOL Granted, "That No Moon" doesn't sound too horrible, at least it wasn't something a lot worse.

No it just says "That" nothing else. I hit enter instead of apostrophe so it accepted what I'd already written, which was just those four letters. I didn't have a chance to proofread