NMS Photo mode gives cause to explore again. Use the engine for endless space art.

[TechBoyJK]

http://www.polygon.com/2017/3/8/14857478/no-mans-sky-photo-mode

Seems they took a page from Star Citizen's playbook.

 

[Craig234]

It's on sale for $35.99. Hm.

 

[Ranulf]

I'm tempted to fire it up again for the first time in 6 months. I never got around to trying the first big patch/update. You can have 3 ships now, and two ground vehicles and more base stuff as well.

 

[Dahak]

The base building / freighter was part of the first update called Foundation Update and the
The new update called Path Finder adds the vehicles and such.
http://no-mans-sky.com/pathfinder-update/

I may need to take a spin back into it again as well. its a game that I usually play when listening to podcast and such

 

[zinfamous]

So it's actually fairly decent after the updates? Still haven't picked it up. was waiting for the $20-30 range. I know it's at $35 this weekend, but I am not tempted.

 

[Zenoth]

The latest update is 'ok'.

It definitely adds to the game, just like the previous Foundation Update did. However, it's not really addressing most of the [missing] / [half-baked] features that most gamers were 'expecting' due to the vague and false advertising / previews. For example, it's still not possible to actually meet and see other players (there's no real online features). The creatures variations are getting quite repetitive with only minor differences after a period of time. After 20+ or 30+ planets you've seen pretty much everything 'unique' (there's always some sort of skin color or skin pattern or general size variations but I'm referring to truly unique creature shapes and motion types). Now obviously it's not an identical discovery frequency for everyone, it might take some players only 10 planets to see everything truly unique, or might take others 50+; the gist is after a while there's only so much that the base models can offer once combined by the procedural algorithm to come up with really unique stuff. The same applies with flora variations.

The one aspect of the procedural generation that really shines, however, is simply the planet generation (the terrain, the terrain elevations, the hills, cavern networks, mountains, gigantic lakes or oceans, etc). Now, that part of the game is good. Not "great", but good, it offers a long-term exploration aspect to the game for those whom merely seek to look at new vistas regardless of what else they can (or cannot) do or see. I for one have enjoyed that part of the game quite a lot, although I stopped for a time anyway (until recently for this update of course). It's still genuinely fun to look at another planet in the sky and wonder how it's going to look like on the surface once you land on it. The first few moments when you do an atmospheric entry on a new planet is usually offering something unique enough to not quite get bored of it even after a while... although here I'm speaking for myself. It just gives me the most classic of sci-fi vibes every time I do it. Taking off with your ship and leaving your current planet behind as you look towards that next one millions of miles away wondering how it's going to be and look like on it is just something that this game definitely accomplished well. I know some people out there really wouldn't care much about how unique-looking a planet's topography is compared to the previous 60+ they have been on. But I do care about that, curiously enough though, because I wasn't expecting to enjoy JUST that part of the game.

Anyway, if the devs keep the seemingly-established momentum of updates for the coming months then I'd say that it's definitely going in the right direction. It looks like the devs are going for a major update now every three months or so. The Foundation Update was released about that much time after the initial release, and now this new Pathfinder Update is about three months since the Foundation Update. With this constant frequency (and the amount of new things they include) I can see a good year for this game coming (well, it started now with this latest update). I think that by the end of the year we MIGHT actually get real online features (they'd have to actually model the character first in order for the players to meet in person but I'm sure they'll do it eventually; maybe even with character customization to some extent so that we at least look a bit unique at least with colors on our space suits).

I know that some will disagree but now with this update, and seeing that the devs really seem to have only good intentions for this game and the consumers as well... I'd say yeah it's worth it now. The bigger picture in my book is that it's worth supporting them now. They COULD have just left this joke of an initial game that it was in the dust after making their money after release. But they didn't. They did take time, it WAS [too] silent after release, in fact. But out of pretty much nowhere they came out with that Foundation Update, which pleased most of us. It was a good sign, the game wasn't really dead, the devs took their (necessary, due to them being a VERY small team) time, but they worked on it during that radio silence when a lot (including myself) thought that they had just abandoned it because of all the controversy that surrounded the false advertising stuff (with reasons, too). Now not only once but twice they come up with a large update. They again show us, giving us a clear message here that they're not going to just let it die. They'll keep trying, adding stuff to it over time. The only thing they truly need (and are asking for in silence I'm sure) is our patience, but also our trust. It's fine now, I think they've proven their point; they're working on it. But they're a small team and they need a lot (more than usual) time to come up with significant stuff. I'm ok with that.

So anyway, it's a redemption story in my book. If you can find it cheap(er) than the normal price than yeah, sure, go for it. Do some exploration, take it slowly, don't rush anything it's not a race, it's supposed to be a very chill game (and it is, if you let it be one). If you want something more 'spicy' there's a Survival mode, which I haven't tried myself but I've been reading about it and it's supposedly pretty decent and offers a nice layer of challenge on top of the "chill exploration without a challenge otherwise" aspect of the game.

 

[Craig234]

I like the idea of the pretty exploration, however just see planet, see planet, see planet, see planet seems a bit underwhelming, and 'survival mode' not very appealing. So, hm.

 

[TechBoyJK]

If they keep at it, and finally integrate some of the multiplayer features, etc.. It could get interesting. I'm not ready to play through it yet, but I can see myself jumping in after a few more updates.

 

[gorcorps]

Anybody give this game another chance? It got below $20 on Amazon (for ps4 anyway) so I picked it up. I played it when it came out, but just rented it to get my fill and moved on. With all of the updates it's actually a more fleshed out game than it was at release. It's still repetitive, and too much was promised, but overall it's a good game and worth the money it's at now.

My only gripe is that I want to mine and explore, but I'm constantly getting harassed by the sentinals (floating robot things) so I'm having to stop and fight them off constantly. They aren't a big threat, so they're just an annoyance. I wish there was a way to clear a planet of them, like some base or something you have to find and disable a signal to power them down. I'd find that thing first on every planet just so I don't have to bother with them and explore in peace.

 

[Stuka87]

I stopped playing the game after one of the updates completely broke the game for me. It would hard lock moments after getting into the game. This was one of the updates before the foundation update. I suppose some day I will try it out again, as I know they have added a lot. But I waited for weeks for them to fix this original issue I had, I think it ended up taking them about 2 months to fix it.