Kurt R.A. Giambastiani

Let’s take a break from news about my career change (because there’s no news to report) and turn to a quandary solved. I speak, of course, of the answer to the crucial question: “Xbox One or PS4?”

I’ve been asking myself this question for a while now, but with the cut in income that this career change will inevitably bring, the issue has reached the fish-or-cut-bait point. In the past, “Both” would have been a viable answer, but now that’s no longer an option. I must make a choice, and soon. So…this one? The other? Or neither? (Yes, neither is an option.)

Currently, I have an Xbox 360 and a PS3, acquired over the course of several years (I am not an early adopter), and I can’t say I favor one over the other. The differences are largely insignificant to my playing style, and those differences are far outnumbered by the similarities (both good and bad). As a result, I really don’t have a preference, leaving “Neither” as the strongest option.

As an Old Man Gamer, I don’t have large circles of online friends with whom I go RPGing or MMOing or FPSing. I occasionally run with a couple of guys on Xbox Live and a couple of other folks on the PSN circuit. That’s it. I’m more of a lone wolf, in that regard and thus, when pondering the question of console upgrades, knowing what my peeps are planning to do carries some, but not a lot of weight (especially since none of them are planning to upgrade anytime soon). So, again, “Neither” looks to be the best answer.

With this in mind, you might then ask me why, last week, I suddenly decided to purchase a PS4?

Answer: game availability. Specifically, one particular game.

Since neither of the new consoles is backward-compatible, the only thing that is able to tip the scales is what new titles are going to be available and on which console. Until a few days ago, every upcoming title in which I had any interest was coming out on both systems, leaving the contenders stuck in a dead heat.

But last week, I learned of a game to be released exclusively on PS4, and once I saw it in action, the choice was made.

The game is called No Man’s Sky, from Hello Games, an independent game studio run by four guys in the UK. It’s a small, quirky little enterprise located in Guildford, which is in Surrey, which is just down the A3 from London, but don’t let their small size fool you. What they have in store for us is big. Like galactic big.

No Man’s Sky presents us with a science fiction genre, first-person POV, completely open world setting that is bigger than anything ever created. You start on a planet that is known only to you. No other player has ever been to this world; it was created solely for you, right when you logged in for the first time. This, in itself, is pretty cool–you’ve got a planet!–but you also have a ship, an environment suit, and a weapon. OK…now what?

Anything.

This planet you’re on, this brand new planet that only you have seen? It’s planet-sized, and you can go anywhere on the planet. See a mountaintop? Go there. See an ocean? Dive in. See a cave? Check it out, or dig your own. You’ll also find flora and fauna unique to the world. And lying around are resources you can mine and use to fashion upgrades or simply store to trade on the open market.

Mining not your thing? Don’t care about down-in-the-dirt exploration? Then get in your ship, leave atmo, and head out into The Black. Your little starter-model space vehicle can’t go everywhere (yet) but it can explore the stellar neighborhood, which is pretty damned big. Each local star has other planets to visit (and exploit, if you so choose). There are also stations in space, and outposts on planets that you can use for gathering information and trading commodities. Buy low, sell high. Transport goods to those who need them. Earn credits. Upgrade your ship. Travel farther, faster. Head to the galactic core. Head anywhere.

Need more action? Try your hand at pirating. Attack that freighter or that transport and gather up their goods. Warp into a system where a battle is underway and pick a side, any side. Scrounge together pieces of tech to upgrade your ship–better weapons, stronger shields, faster drives–and give the other guys a run for their money.

It is a completely open, completely destructible, completely unscripted galaxy. Still not sure?

The creators of No Man’s Sky tout the fact that this world, this galaxy, has 18 quintillion worlds that you can explore.  If you’re math-savvy, that’s 18×10^18. If you’re not math-savvy, that’s frakking HUGE! It’s so many, in fact, that if you took a second to explore each planet, our universe would end before you looked at them all.

Everything in No Man’s Sky is procedurally generated, which means it doesn’t exist until a gamer encounters it. Once you scan something, though, and then upload it to the “atlas,” it becomes a fact of the universe, available to all other players. This will (in my opinion) allow the Hello Games team to continually upgrade and tweak their creative algorithms, adding realism or variation or whatever enhancements are needed as gamers explore.

Most of a gamer’s encounters–sentinels, pirates, traders–are going to be AIs, and the intent is to start each player in an isolated region of space. You can travel the ‘verse and eventually encounter other gamer-controlled individuals, but it’ll take a while, and here’s the thing I like best about the concept: The NMS team teases us with the goal of reaching the galactic center.

Let that sink in.

There’s no “plot,” per se, and no “golden path” to follow as the story progresses, just the notion that, if you want to interact with other players, the best way to find them is to head to the center of the galaxy. It’s the place to be.

The team has dropped other hints of Elder Technology left behind by Those Who Came Before (my terms, not theirs), and these could, I suppose, lead one to take on different quests, but each and every choice you make in this game is yours, and there isn’t a “right” choice.

In all cases, you can do what you want–mine, explore, trade, fight, travel, form alliances, destroy worlds, whatever–for as long or as short a time as you want. It’s all up to you, and I have been looking for a game like this for a long time. In fact, it’s what I’d hoped Destiny (Bungie’s Halo replacement) was going to be. This is that game, and conceivably, it could be the last game I ever buy.

If you want to get a closer look at the game (and why wouldn’t you?), IGN First is running a whole month of in-depth articles and videos about it. Check out their “Everything you need to know” page for examples of gameplay, interviews, and background.

k