The Three:
For myself and many others, it is a great time to be around as the great space game returns. In the ring the big 3, No Man's Sky, Star Citizen and Elite
angerous. Each one a unique take on the stars above.
For Realism, there can be no other than ELITEANGEROUS, my personal favorite of the three.
Eliteangerous, the child of one David Braben, cast players as a the CMDR of their own space adventure. It is you, your ship/s and the cold, vastness of space. It is a harsh world, full of political, economical and humanitarian struggle set against the backdrop of our real 400 billion star universe. There is no player story, no set path or goal. It is life in the harshness of space. How do you survive, how do you live. Are you an explorer, a miner, a trader, a bounty hunter or perhaps a pirate. You must choose your path and you must make your own story. If you can get past that barrier of hand held campaigns and scripted set-pieces you'll find an adventure that can't be beat. In it's current state it can be grindy and there is still limited activities, but the future holds great promise. Even with current updates you can see the potential and in a couple of months it look to only be getting better. This is the closest you will ever get to living among the stars and while not always full of action and excitement, like life it's those little moments in-between the monotony that make the experience worth while. No other game has captivated me quite like Elite has.
Star Citizen, what can I say, of the three Star Citizen would be considered the big budget, action sci-fi adventure. With an enormous, let's be honest ridiculous budgets raised, it has the potential to be either a great success or a huge flop. So far all signs point to success. The cries of foul play and the fear of that it'll never be complete come from the minute few. While it will take time, what it has and continues to produce should assuage all fears. If you want in your face action with a great sci-fi story and worlds crafted to be spectacular as well as fully explored, well, this is the game for you. It is the best combo of story and freedom. While the model seems a bit strange and the ridiculous prices being paid and asked for for ships that can be acquired in game baffles and reeks of disadvantage, but the positives outweigh the negatives and for those needing a break from the realness that the fully realized Elite will bring and just wants to take a nice sci-fi adventure will find themselves thoroughly satisfied.
Lastly, No Man's Sky. The little game that had the world on it's shoulders. First off, I do not believe anything underhanded went down with this game. This was an indie company attempting an experiment, one that so captivated its audience it was thrust into the light of triple A status. I believe they wanted and intended and hoped to give us all what we saw so many years ago but the lack of PR and the vagueness of what they were presenting led to empty promises and unfounded hype. Yes, features are not existent and things need to be clarified but I believe that he never intended to promise these things, or if so he was speaking as somebody excited about what they have in their head, and without the proper PR to filter those ideas, too much was let out and then it was a matter of how do we fulfill these things and can we even do it in the first place. I believe that a lot of comprises to the final product were made when this game became so popular, Sony, and perhaps even Hello Games found themselves with not just the core games or niche gamers wanting this game but everybody wanting this game that they had to dumb it down. And perhaps hardware did hinder the final product as well. While PS4 tech is great, the procedural nature, even though not taking a lot of space still needs the power to run it properly. They intended to have all this procedural generation going on, real systems, hers of animals, with their own AI interacting with other animals, the environment and the player. All this on planets with miles of grass and water and trees, atmospheres to render and the like, something the consoles just can't muster but because it needed to run on consoles things were scaled down. It is sad how it all went down, and perhaps in the future it can be remedied with updates. I myself, am enjoying my time with No Man's Sky for all it's faults it does get one thing right, and that is countless worlds to explore and discover flora and fauna. In every corner you can see the missed potential and what could have been. It is just out of reach. For now, No Man's Sky is your lazy day, don't want to play anything else just relax and see some weird sh*t game. It has potential and every once in awhile it can take your breath away and the soundtrack, man the soundtrack, that is the one thing it gets right.
What No Man's Sky does for us is one thing, it opens these games up to a wider audience, it shows them and developers the potential of this type of mechanic and with future projects and future knowledge I see these types of games becoming major game changers. The future is bright and we must stop our fighting among each other of what's better and what's worse. How bad one's failed, how shady one may be or empty another may seem. They all have potential and for the most part are being shaped by us, instead of the complaining we need to be dissecting, helping find what works and filter out what doesn't. It is our duty to shape these games into something great that can be built upon and not disappear into the darkness again.
As for me, I'll enjoy all three because it's never been better to be a space game fan.
Granted I'll enjoy ELITE a little bit more than the rest.
Right On! CMDR'S
Timothy Rawlings
MADRAPTOR
For myself and many others, it is a great time to be around as the great space game returns. In the ring the big 3, No Man's Sky, Star Citizen and Elite
angerous. Each one a unique take on the stars above. For Realism, there can be no other than ELITE
ANGEROUS, my personal favorite of the three.Elite
angerous, the child of one David Braben, cast players as a the CMDR of their own space adventure. It is you, your ship/s and the cold, vastness of space. It is a harsh world, full of political, economical and humanitarian struggle set against the backdrop of our real 400 billion star universe. There is no player story, no set path or goal. It is life in the harshness of space. How do you survive, how do you live. Are you an explorer, a miner, a trader, a bounty hunter or perhaps a pirate. You must choose your path and you must make your own story. If you can get past that barrier of hand held campaigns and scripted set-pieces you'll find an adventure that can't be beat. In it's current state it can be grindy and there is still limited activities, but the future holds great promise. Even with current updates you can see the potential and in a couple of months it look to only be getting better. This is the closest you will ever get to living among the stars and while not always full of action and excitement, like life it's those little moments in-between the monotony that make the experience worth while. No other game has captivated me quite like Elite has.Star Citizen, what can I say, of the three Star Citizen would be considered the big budget, action sci-fi adventure. With an enormous, let's be honest ridiculous budgets raised, it has the potential to be either a great success or a huge flop. So far all signs point to success. The cries of foul play and the fear of that it'll never be complete come from the minute few. While it will take time, what it has and continues to produce should assuage all fears. If you want in your face action with a great sci-fi story and worlds crafted to be spectacular as well as fully explored, well, this is the game for you. It is the best combo of story and freedom. While the model seems a bit strange and the ridiculous prices being paid and asked for for ships that can be acquired in game baffles and reeks of disadvantage, but the positives outweigh the negatives and for those needing a break from the realness that the fully realized Elite will bring and just wants to take a nice sci-fi adventure will find themselves thoroughly satisfied.
Lastly, No Man's Sky. The little game that had the world on it's shoulders. First off, I do not believe anything underhanded went down with this game. This was an indie company attempting an experiment, one that so captivated its audience it was thrust into the light of triple A status. I believe they wanted and intended and hoped to give us all what we saw so many years ago but the lack of PR and the vagueness of what they were presenting led to empty promises and unfounded hype. Yes, features are not existent and things need to be clarified but I believe that he never intended to promise these things, or if so he was speaking as somebody excited about what they have in their head, and without the proper PR to filter those ideas, too much was let out and then it was a matter of how do we fulfill these things and can we even do it in the first place. I believe that a lot of comprises to the final product were made when this game became so popular, Sony, and perhaps even Hello Games found themselves with not just the core games or niche gamers wanting this game but everybody wanting this game that they had to dumb it down. And perhaps hardware did hinder the final product as well. While PS4 tech is great, the procedural nature, even though not taking a lot of space still needs the power to run it properly. They intended to have all this procedural generation going on, real systems, hers of animals, with their own AI interacting with other animals, the environment and the player. All this on planets with miles of grass and water and trees, atmospheres to render and the like, something the consoles just can't muster but because it needed to run on consoles things were scaled down. It is sad how it all went down, and perhaps in the future it can be remedied with updates. I myself, am enjoying my time with No Man's Sky for all it's faults it does get one thing right, and that is countless worlds to explore and discover flora and fauna. In every corner you can see the missed potential and what could have been. It is just out of reach. For now, No Man's Sky is your lazy day, don't want to play anything else just relax and see some weird sh*t game. It has potential and every once in awhile it can take your breath away and the soundtrack, man the soundtrack, that is the one thing it gets right.
What No Man's Sky does for us is one thing, it opens these games up to a wider audience, it shows them and developers the potential of this type of mechanic and with future projects and future knowledge I see these types of games becoming major game changers. The future is bright and we must stop our fighting among each other of what's better and what's worse. How bad one's failed, how shady one may be or empty another may seem. They all have potential and for the most part are being shaped by us, instead of the complaining we need to be dissecting, helping find what works and filter out what doesn't. It is our duty to shape these games into something great that can be built upon and not disappear into the darkness again.
As for me, I'll enjoy all three because it's never been better to be a space game fan.
Granted I'll enjoy ELITE a little bit more than the rest.
Right On! CMDR'S
Timothy Rawlings
MADRAPTOR
