Let's Play: No Man's Sky (PS4)

Something a little different for you all today..

I recently bought a Playstation 4 with the intention of trying out No Man's Sky, the recently released space exploration game by Hello Games, a small studio from Guildford and creators of the Joe Danger series. The Unique Selling Point (USP) of the game is that almost the entire universe within is procedurally generated - the planets, the environments, weather patterns, flora and fauna - and you are free to explore at will. I thought it would be fun to attempt a 'Let's Play' video of my experience. A 'Let's Play', for your information, is where a playthrough of a game is recorded with running commentary by the gamer. The best Let's Players deliver an entertaining, insightful or humorous experience and there are many prolific Let's Players with almost celebrity status on YouTube. You probably won't find any of that here though and i've never done this before - what a recipe for success!

I appreciate my 'audience' here may not be gamers, so feel free to give this a miss. Over the next few days I'll post another Place to Visit from my weekend away, reminisce about my latest Ultra challenge, and continue my Studio Ghibli project with the next film on Sunday.

I myself rarely find the time to play games anymore and the games I do play are usually offbeat games by independent developers ('indie games') with quirky mechanics or interesting stories. I generally avoid the fast paced shooting games that line the store shelves, although some do have good stories. That said, I still have a strong interest in games and their potential for storytelling and creativity.

I had fun doing this and if you can stomach an hour of me walking in circles forgetting what i'm looking for, hopefully you'll enjoy it too. There's some jumps in the video because the Playstation only lets you record 15 minutes at a time so I had to stitch them together. Also, I did unintentionally exclaim 'Jesus' at a rather tense moment: if this offends you please accept my sincere apologies.

I'm thinking of making this a regular feature, although with shorter videos. Something for those of us who maybe don't play games, but who would be interested in having a little window on these stories. I'd welcome any suggestions for things to try next in No Man's Sky, other games to play, or improvements to these videos.

Do you play videogames? Are you a YouTube sensation?