No Man’s Sky – First Impressions

No Man’s Sky, the game I’ve been waiting for my entire life to play. When I saw gameplay several months ago, I wanted this game so badly, I thought time would go by too slowly. Well, it came out last week. And this morning, I got to play it for myself for the first time.

What I’ve Done So Far

I started out on a rather hot planet with strange fan-like plants and active volcanic vents near my damaged ship. The fissure gave off a smoky gas once. The sky was often yellow with dark clouds. I searched the area to find resources and repair the ship. I walked to a shelter, found some new technology, gathered carbon, plutonium, and iron, then found I needed some zinc. It took me a long time to find that. I eventually got my ship repaired, and I could fly around.

During my exploration period, I discovered several shelters, a mining facility, and a few other things that weren’t manned. I was able to fly to space, but I didn’t have fuel for my pulse engine. Thamium9 was hard to find! I looked around, found a couple ruins where I learned some Gek words, classified a couple of animals, and noticed several ship going in one direction. I followed them, got lost for a few minutes, then found where they were going: a manufacturing facility. It was manned! And I finally had some new technology and access to the galactic trading system (can’t recall what it’s called at the moment). I bought some Thamium9, then found out that there’s a ruin nearby. I flew to the ruin, and learned several languages. I am in very good standing with the Gek. They have partner status now.

So, after that, I flew to space and went straight for a space station where I did some trading, and located a beacon on another planet. On my way to that other planet, I ran out of Thamium9. But, I discovered that the asteroids are made of Thamium9. Lucky! I eventually made it to this new world, which has a lot of water on the surface! Lakes! I landed, and that’s where my game ended.

I’ll be playing more this week. My next objective is to build a hyperdrive and be able to fly to other star systems. However, I’ll explore all of the planets in my home system first. I want to be thorough. And I’d like to discover all of the animals, too. I’m an explorer. I want to know everything there is to know in each system I visit.

My First Impressions

Be prepared for repetitive actions! The mining and searching for resources may bore some people, but I have no problems with that. I love exploring, and that’s what this allows me to do. Some of the landscapes are incredible. The first time that sentinels came flying around me after I mined some plutonium, it felt quite creepy.

It’s a beautiful game, and I’d love to play it in a full VR environment. That would be incredible! The chance to discover new worlds and animals, as well as aliens is so fascinating. I’ve only scratched the surface of this game, but I’m loving it. The time I played passed so quickly, I didn’t realise how long I’d actually played. It’s addictive.

I can see myself spending hours on this game. It’s too easy to get immersed in it. I have to watch the time I spend on it. I could live in it all day. If I were to give it a star rating for the limited time I’ve played, I’d give it full 5 stars. It’s that good (at least for me).

How About You?

Have you played it yet? What have you done so far? Let me know in the comments below.

Reading Shakespeare with a Speech Jammer

Have you ever used a speech jammer? It’s an app that you can download onto a smartphone that will delay the playback of your voice by a split second. It’s supposed to mess with your speech, making you sound drunk. So, I decided to try it out while reading Shakespeare!

I found that if the delay was too long, it didn’t affect me. If it was too short, it also didn’t affect me. But I found a good delay that really affected me. And this video is the result. Just a warning, I sound like an idiot.

As you can see, I did some tongue twisters, as well. They were difficult! If you’re adventurous, I’d love to see some of you trying it out on video. I’d also love to see some comments.