Wikipedia tells me pre-production began in 2010, with a Kickstarter in 2012. It is 2022 and the game's site claims it is actually available: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/star-citizen/play-now "While Star Citizen is currently in the Alpha stage of development, it is playable now. New content, features, and fixes are consistently added as development continues, with a major patch released each quarter."
How it compares to No Man's Sky (initial release: 2016, last update: late 2021, on its fifth anniversary) is anyone's guess, it's Windows-only and I'm a Mac girl, and even if I had something to play it on I'm not too interested in spending $45 on what is likely to be disaster tourism. (Edit: apparently it is pretty good for people who enjoy pretending to be a long-haul space pilot, so my “disaster tourism” projection was completely wrong. Yay!)
Also this made me curious what Mr. Smart's up to right now and, sigh, the latest article on his blog is him declaring the inevitability of blockchain gaming; he's even repeating the line about how NFTs will let you move stuff between different games.
SC has been a fantastic spend for $40 for my original kickstarter pledge. I even bought another ship for a 2nd account because the game is really most enojied with others.
I have 100+ hours, and yes it fracking sucks when you spend half an hour going to some desolate moon, to do the equivalent of some USPS worker, just to stub your toe on the stairs and die. Be spawned back Lorville, wait for the wrecking crew get your ship, only to realize you og ship has dsynced and every was a waste. But it is funny, or at least maybe I enoji that masochism of it all. Besides that the game is actually really beautiful and weird, and vast, and lonely, all in one.
When did the internet or HN in general become the gatekeepers on what people are allowed to enoji or spend their money on. We all do stuff than anyone else can call out as wasteful.
I wish the game was in a better state but I can't say the $5/mo or so I spend on it has been wasted. I play with a friend and I upgrade my ship every couple months (hence the $5).
If they got rid of the forced slow play where you have to trek from apartment (or hospital) to the ship request terminal I'd be a lot happier. Or at least they could let you request a new ship using your mobiglas wherever you are.
I dont do the subscription, but i do install once or twice a year. Usually after a rebuild or reinstall to use as a benchmark. It's my current "Can it run Doom?" s/Doom/Star Citizen/
I see a lot of people only showing the albeit awesome footage of space battles. The game also comes with a FPS, and even some missions in the main game where you need to inspect some derelict ship or space station are missing.
NMS has done a good job addressing their shortcomings in the last years, but it still is no where compared to the detail and fidelity of SC.
And then I wanna mention the other weird fun tech they have. They have face point tracking for your avatar. That have done crazy stuff with spatial audio. Im not trying to stan them, but theres way more under the surface of than the game.
I ain’t gonna yuck your yum, I’m writing this comment while waiting for Elden Ring to reload after yet another stupid death. :)
I am glad people who enjoy pretending to be a space pilot are enjoying this one, all I know about it is it’s long-standing status as one of the biggest Kickstarter vaporware stories, which I guess is a list it can finally come out of after about a decade of development!
I dunno, it sounded good while I was taking a brief break from pretending to be a barefoot waif in a nightgown who’s wandering around a post-apocalyptic fantasy land waving a wand and making rocks smash monsters. shrug
Clearly it's time for me to move Star Citizen from my mental bin of "lengthy crowdfunding horror stories" to the one for "games that actually exist"! Spaceship sims ain't my thing so I don't keep track of them. :)
I've played NMS pretty much since release, off and on. First on Playstation, but I then bought it on Steam for Linux and plan to get it on the Switch when it drops.
It's a fantastic game if you have friends to play with, or are interested in joining online groups. There's thousands of planets out there and I still get excited when I'm in a random galaxy and find something awesome I can share with the community.
The single player in NMS is less fun than Multiplayer, but if you are down for what is basically space minecraft I still would say it's worth it!
And for anyone wondering, it works great on Proton and the devs are maintaining support for Proton as well (thanks, Steam Deck!)
I think I was one of few people not disappointed by NMS, I have it on Playstation. I just saw it come up on the store, it looked like something I'd like and bought it and I was pretty happy with it. I had no idea about all the press around it. I still play it on and off. I hardly ever play anything multiplayer, I was just enjoying flying around all the planets.
Serious question - mind sharing what you enjoy about NMS multiplayer? I tried it recently but the mission goals weren’t shared. So basically, we were playing two “solo” campaigns next to each other and got bored. Is there more to it?
I've played SC on and off. I've gotten my money's worth for sure.
The dogfighting module is pretty polished, it's fun to run on the flight simulator and VR headset. It's my go to space sim as there's nothing that compares even though it's not done.
The persistence module is fun to dick around with, the seamless landing on a planet and exploring is cool as shit.
I don't have a rig to power the FPS module very well so I can't give a fair review, but the mechanics and controls seem fine.
Love the immersion and I follow it asynchronously. They're still going at it and I applaud the effort. Would rather have a great game eventually than a shit dead game a year ago.
My favorite part of the flight sim is how ships take damage. You can lose various RCS thrusters and still fly, but obviously it's more difficult. Landing can be a fun ordeal without thrusters in every direction.
How it compares to No Man's Sky (initial release: 2016, last update: late 2021, on its fifth anniversary) is anyone's guess, it's Windows-only and I'm a Mac girl, and even if I had something to play it on I'm not too interested in spending $45 on what is likely to be disaster tourism. (Edit: apparently it is pretty good for people who enjoy pretending to be a long-haul space pilot, so my “disaster tourism” projection was completely wrong. Yay!)
Also this made me curious what Mr. Smart's up to right now and, sigh, the latest article on his blog is him declaring the inevitability of blockchain gaming; he's even repeating the line about how NFTs will let you move stuff between different games.