Today I browsed the local newspaper Helsigin Sanomat’s newest news and read their editor’s review about No Man’s Sky. The game sounds perfect for our family. I’ll come back to the arguments in a minute.
No Man’s Sky was published in Europe on Aug 10th, 2016. It is available for Windows and PS4.
For PS4, the price was 59.95 euros, and the game fits in 3.7 GB. My children commented that the file size sounds quite small taking into account the idea of a universe-sized game.
While downloading the 3.7 GB, my daughter decided to continue her quests in Metal Gear Solid V. While Snake and his sniper Quiet have a mission in Afghanistan, I’m trying to vision how No Man’s Sky might feel like.
No Man’s Sky was made by Hello Games. They are a British game developer house based in Guildford, England.
Originally, No Man’s Sky had been set for release in June 2016, but a month earlier, their founder Sean Murray announced that the game had been delayed due to need for last minute fixes and polishing, and would launch two months later in August. This sounds very good. Having lately played the all too buggy prototype of Pokémon Go – which they launched a month ago – I do value mature software.
The first time Sean Murray wrote about No Man’s Sky publicly was at Playstation.blog in August 2014, so at least two years they’ve been polishing the execution.
In No Man’s Sky, there are 18.446.744.073.709.551.616 unique planets to discover. In the 2014 post, Sean explained how this is done:
“Every planet has a single number, a random seed, that defines everything about that planet. A single random seed generates every blade of grass, tree, flower, creature. There are no load times, because nothing needs to load, as the planets are entirely computer-generated.
We’re working to a 64-bit system, 2 to the power of 64. That is 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 possible planets. Even if a planet is discovered every second, it’ll take 585 billion years to find them all!”
So that explains the small sounding 3.7 GB. By the way, 585 billion years is about 42 times the age of our own Universe. 13.8 billion years. Yes, also last night I was reading John Gribbin’s book “13.8: The Quest to Find the True Age of the Universe and the Theory of Everything“. My colleague Mikko gave me this book as a present for summer holidays. There are three days left of the holiday, and 40 pages to finish. The story is still in the question of Age, without any notion towards the Theory of Everything. I still recommend the book. Check its review at goodreads.com. And I also recommend supporting the ongoing research work to create the Theory of Everything: Check this Indiegogo project.
Returning back to arguments that I promised to provide: Why is No Man’s Sky a perfect game for our family? In our family, there are three active gamers: a daughter, a son and myself.
No Man’s Sky is about the Universe. It is about collecting resources and building the needed out. And about space battles.
In my childhood, I read and enjoyed all the books of Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. When No Man’s Sky was unveiled in the press conference of 2014, Sean Murray told that No Man’s Sky was “inspired by the kinds of sci-fi he grew up with, including Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke.” Match.
Looking at No Man’s Sky in PS4 Store, its buyers are linked strongest to Metal Gear Solid V. Second match.
According to game reviewers like Digital Spy (No Man’s Sky preview, posted two days ago on Aug 9th), No Man’s Sky shows some characteristics of Minecraft. And my son happens to be a Minecraft man, publishing also his own YouTube channel on Minecraft. Third match with our family..
My wife is not an active player. Instead, she often proposes that we enjoy another space movie. Also during the past year, we have watched once again all the Star Wars, Galacticas, Star Treks. We have seen them all, several times. Travelling through the galaxies. Going where no man has ever gone before. Fourth match.
My hope is that during the coming months we could all enjoy No Man’s Sky. Either my son or daughter will be flying the ship and building the planets, my wife can enjoy this as a movie, and I’ll be collecting ideas for future user experiences to be utilised elsewhere.
I just have one question: What will No Man’s Sky offer for our fifth family member, Cindy? She is a Laplander dog, seven years old. Could we perhaps grow dog-like animals on some planet?
So far, we are still running in a desert in Afghanistan. Quiet has been captured by the Soviets.
Related reading:
ign.com: “no-mans-sky-everything-you-need-to-know“, posted 4.8.2016
digitalspy.com: “no-mans-sky-tips-tricks-secrets-cheats”, posted 11.8.2016
forbes.com: “ten-things-i-wish-i-knew-when-i-started-no-mans-sky”, posted 11.8.2016 by Paul Tassi. This one’s good!
playstation.blog: “No Man’s Sky: A Whole Universe to Explore“, posted 26.8.2016 by Sean Murray himself