‘No Man’s Sky’ Open For All Mankind June 2016

A new trailer for No Man’s Sky was set free into cyberspace yesterday as one of many PlayStation 4 games being showcased during Paris Games Week. Most importantly, the “I’ve Seen things” trailer reveals No Man’s Sky is scheduled for a June, 2016, release date.

The No Man’s Sky trailer shows off more of the game’s wondrous beauty, both on worlds and in open space. The game’s first-person view sets viewers in the cockpit of a spaceship as it flies through the mesmerizing galaxy, across lavish landscapes, and into perilous space battles. And that chilling voice-over? That’s the unmistakable voice of Rutger Hauer, giving a speech very similar to the one his character, Roy Batty, gave in the sci-fi classic Blade Runner.

No Man’s Sky was announced in December, 2013, and has been steadily tantalizing gamers’ curiosity ever since. During this year’s E3 in June, Sean Murray (co-founder of No Man’s Sky studio Hello Games) revealed the procedurally generated space exploration game’s massive scope, which includes over 18 quintillion worlds available to explore. Twenty minutes of multiplayer action were revealed during Gamescom 2015 in August. Earlier this month, Murray was a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where he demoed No Man’s Sky for Colbert and audience, naming some animals and a star system after Colbert.

The June, 2016, release date for No Man’s Sky is notable in itself for a couple of reasons. First, it’s set in the same month as next year’s E3, currently scheduled for June 14-16. The trailer comes paired with more details from Paris Games Week about Sony’s plans for the PlayStation VR headset, including a list of VR-capable games and movies. No Man’s Sky is not on that list, but the game certainly seems fitting for VR.

It’s safe to say that No Man’s Sky may be the largest video game ever created, in terms of in game area available to explore. And while there have been many game play videos posted online showing what players can look forward to doing in game, many of them are still wondering just how No Man’s Sky will play. Game creator Sean Murray says the key to understanding No Man’s Sky is exploration.

“We wanted to create the feeling of landing on a planet and knowing that no one had ever been there before,” he said. “That is the one thing that has been there since the very start of the game.”

Murray says he was inspired to create this exploration immersion through reading some of the best-selling books by a few of the most famous sci-fi authors known, such as Frank Herbert’s Dune, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert A. Heinlein. Not surprisingly, Murray also counts Star Wars among his influences, as seen in this EPNdotTV daily video clip.

Open exploration is indeed an excellent and necessary choice to have available in video games such as No Man’s Sky. Games such as The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim and EVE Online have proven that point emphatically. However, many games such as these also owe much of their success to having an engaging story to gently guide gamers along to some predetermined goal. Aside from collecting resources, discovery, and naming locations, flora and fauna, No Man’s Sky seems to lack a goal, except to survive. As far as Murray seems to be concerned, that is quite alright by him.

“I hope it’s the kind of game that people will play just because it’s a nice experience.”

Fallout 4,Star Wars: Battlefront, XCOM 2, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, and Tom Clancy’s The Division are other eagerly-anticipated games that are scheduled to be out before June, 2016. That is some solid competition to go up against. Does No Man’s Sky hold your interest enough to make it one of your games to play next year?

[Image via no-mans-sky.com]