No Man's SKy, Madden 17 Deal

No Man's Sky (PC)

The much hyped and long awaited game finally released last week.  Is it worth your $60?

• This is a tough question for me to answer.
• Initially I thought the game was amazing but after 8 hours my interest is starting to fade, but there is still a part of me that wants to keep playing.  
• The game boasts a huge procedural generated world with a quadrillion or more unique planets to explore which is an impressive technological feat.
• Even though each planet is "unique" so far they have all felt the same. The atmosphere, plants, and animals are all different looking, but since they are generated they all pull from a repository and that repository isn't as varied as it needs to be.  
• As an example the creatures look like they came out of the game Spore.  In Spore you could create some cool characters but after awhile the novelty wore off as you would see the base parts just moved around in different positions.  

• So what do you actually do in the game?  That is the most asked questions and the answer is relatively simple.  
• You mine for resources to build parts so that you can go to the next planet and repeat.  It's basically a resource management sim. 
• For many hours I was fine with this loop, but after awhile it hit me that I'm not sure I enjoy it anymore.
• The tasks that I'm performing on each planet are not varied, I've done the same thing on the 20th planet that I did on the first one maybe just a bit faster since I have better items.  
• There are NPC's on each planet but they are basically vendors that will sell or give you items.  They do speak in a language that you don't understand at first, but you can learn their language one word at a time by finding pillars.  
• There are no quests to undertake other than upgrading your items, you won't be asked to go kill 10 animals or anything like that. 
• You have a limited amount of inventory slots in the beginning so I spent a major chunk of time mining gold so that I could buy a new spaceship with 5 more slots. 
• You can name any planet, animal, or plant which is uploaded to a database so anytime another player explores your planet they will see the name which is awesome.  The problem is there are so many to name that you will quit naming them after an hour.  

• I did mention that there was a part of me that want's to keep playing and since I've only played 8 hours there is always a nagging feeling that the next solar system will be amazing and could totally change my viewpoint. 
• So I'm not sure if I'm going to keep playing or not.  I may wait and see if they are planning to add any extra content to the game, but with Deus Ex and Madden releasing next week my playtime will be limited to the rest of this week if any.  
• So is the game worth $60?  I've read many user posts and they are all varied, some have the same views as mine and others can't get enough of the game.  If you like to create your own fun and want to explore and don't mind repetitive tasks then this game could keep you busy forever. 

Madden 17 Deal

• You can trade in your 2016 copy of Madden at Best Buy and get $15 for the game and a $10 coupon towards the purchase of Madden 17.
• If you are a Game Club member that means you can get the game for around $25.