No Man's Sky - Early Play Review

I spent a good six hours on this last night and discovered and explored eight planets.   I started on a nice, fairly hospitable planet with abundant gold resources which I was able to mine and sell in the market place, giving me a timely boost to funds.   The drones didn’t pester me too much, but they can be annoying.  I have a long way to go to be able to afford a decent starship, which is needed, because you soon fill up your inventory.  It’s actually quite frustrating,  I think they need to raise the maximum limit on the number of resources you can carry at a time.  For example,  a 1000 carbon instead of 250.  You soon hit maximum and end up being told ‘inventory full’ a dozen times.

Overall, it’s a wondrous game, which appeals to the exploratory nature in all of us.  Not knowing what is going to be on the next planet or moon is a thrill - I feel like I’m in Starfleet exploring for the Enterprise.  I think it is a great game to just pick up, on and off, and spend a few hours eating away at.  You could spend your hours just on one planet, or even your whole day.  When you’re not being attacked by pirates and drones, it’s very relaxing especially with the soundtrack.   Piloting your starship is an excellent feeling, even though it took a while to get the hang of the controls - be prepared to hit a few asteroids as you learn the ropes!  The graphics in the space are also mesmerizing sometimes, I spent a lot of time just staring at this beautiful, cyan aurora around one particular planet.

I’d like to see more geographical features on the planets, some higher mountains, deep valleys etc  I’m being picky though, there have been some amazing caves I’ve ventured across and even floating rocks, which were cool.   The fauna is incredible too, I came across a T-Rex like species last night which I accidentally shot and sent into a fit of rage against me.  Unfortunately I had to blow it up with a plasma grenade, which I felt bad about but it was me or him.

Some tips:

The space pirates are brutal and in the early game, I don’t see how it is doable to defeat multiple enemies.  Save your valuables in your exosuit and not your spaceship!  Otherwise when your ship gets destroyed, you will lose everything you’ve been mining the last few hours!

Be nice to the aliens, they always give you good rewards but respect the monoliths and artefacts – don’t go prying into them or you lose credibility.

You need to learn as many new alien words as you can, it’s the only way to make sure the puzzles aren’t a complete guessing game.

Verdict: 4/5

It will be interesting to see how this game develops and the patches and DLC that comes out for it (if any).  It’s got massive potential but could so easily swing the other way, in the light of all the other great games coming out soon and the next few months.  But for now, I’ll be endeavouring to reach the centre of the galaxy.

Review: The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug

I just got back from watching the film and I have to admit I have mixed feelings about it.  I’m fairly certain I even enjoyed the first one more.   It’s still one of the best films of the year, however, and certainly worth your money for its entertainment value.  As a huge fan of Tolkien and anything Middle-earth related, it was a joy to watch from a visual perspective and once again to see and become immersed in the stunning scenery and landscapes.  I just left the cinema with a few gripes and ultimately unsatisfied for the following reasons:

I didn’t like the start, as I felt it was a step back and slowed the film down.  We don’t need to see Gandalf and Thorin talking in Bree and then for it to say '12 months later'.  The Hobbit is a fast-paced, adventure tale where one chapter builds onto the next climaxing in the thrilling ending.  The first film ended with the dwarves and Bilbo being chased by the orcs, so the second film could have started with that straight away and worked, building on the breathless energy of the chase rather than making us sit through the pointless Bree scene.  The audience knows how the last film ended and why the party is heading to the Lonely Mountain – we don’t need reminding.

I thought Mirkwood lacked the atmosphere of Fangorn, while we didn’t get to see too much of the elven woodland kingdom either.  The spiders unimpressed and went on a bit long while there was also far too much Legolas time throughout the whole film.  Now I love Legolas, Gimli and Aragorn – they were the best three characters for me in the Lord of the Rings but this is the Hobbit – it should focus on Bilbo.   It is his story and how he transforms and constantly saves the day.    I got bored of watching Legolas – and Tauriel – easily slicing up orcs and firing arrows, while Legolas looked a bit fat in the face and frankly a bit weird.  

I was engrossed by the Bilbo and Smaug scenes, they are my favourite parts from the book and I thought the film did it well – just not enough! The final 20 minutes were a bit chaotic, with a lot of action but it was muddled, confusing and in the end pointless.  The dwarves go to a lot of bother and faffing around to create a gold statue, which drowns Smaug briefly before he flies away to seek revenge upon Laketown. I guess when you make three films instead of one this is the sort of thing you have to do to fill the time.  I’d have liked more Bilbo time rather than the focus on Tauriel and Kili’s little relationship as I just didn’t care about them.

I did like the film, despite my negativity.  As I said I thought Smaug was well done, and truly terrifying.  The barrel scene down the river was great and Laketown was superb.  Bard was excellent and also Beorn.

I hope the final film will be better, how can it not be?  The Battle of the Five Armies should be amazing to watch, as well as Bard taking on Smaug and the White Council kicking the Necromancer out of Dol Gildur. 

The ultimate difference for me is that I won’t be buying these films on DVD – I just don’t have any great desire to watch them again like I do with the Lord of the Rings.