NervousPete wrote:
That's why I'm so relieved my favourite open world survival simulation The Long Dark doesn't use procedural generation for its maps. The map design really is quite wonderful and memorable in the game. It'll take about eighty hours of game play to explore everything at least. There are folk posting on the steam forum that it should be infinite procedurally generated, which I think is just a terrible idea. The developers keep releasing a new big map every six months, eventually there'll be a massive island created and it'll really feel like a real, meaningful place.
I'm very impressed technically with No Man's Sky, and I dig the art design and concept. But I just can't figure how it'd keep me hooked. Beyond a certain number of stars surely scale becomes meaningless? If it weren't for Spore I'd be combusting with excitement, but the disappointment bit deep with that shallow game. Don't get me wrong, I reckon No Man's Sky is certain to be a better game than that. But I'm not convinced the mechanics of each planet will be variable enough to keep it interesting, and with each planet essentially disposable... where does the wonder come in?
Watched a live stream of it, and although the visuals are beautiful, I also found it lacking in diversity. It seems to be one smudge coloured planet with chicken-like creatures after another. I'm not sure what the motivation to play is.