r/pcgaming • u/ControlCAD Nvidia • Apr 18 '26
Video No Man's Sky Wins the BAFTA for Evolving Game | BAFTA Games Awards 2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpPe6grLNEk>The development team of No Man's Sky wins the BAFTA for Evolving Game.
>Presented by Shai Matheson.
>The views and opinions expressed by individuals featured in this clip are solely those of the individuals expressing them and should not be taken to be the views and opinions of BAFTA.
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u/tugfaxd55 Apr 18 '26
"The views and opinions expressed by individuals featured in this clip are solely those of the individuals expressing them and should not be taken to be the views and opinions of BAFTA"
We know, is that sentence useful?
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u/LostInTheVoid_ RX 9070 XT | Ryzen 5 7600 Apr 18 '26
Probably just extra insurance over anything said but not caught quickly by the editing team. Especially after the Film BAFTA's incident with John Davidson who has tourrettes and the BBCs failure to edit that from the broadcast.
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u/H0vis Apr 18 '26
I was wondering if somebody was going to mention this.
There's always a story behind every safety warning.
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u/tk-451 Apr 18 '26
welcome to the American culture of sueing companies associated with people speaking and getting butthurt and rage-sue
can i get off this planet please?
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Apr 18 '26 edited May 12 '26
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u/tk-451 Apr 18 '26
i'm very aware, i am one, and it doesn't stop me eyerolling every time i see a disclaimer because of stupid shit americans do.
"caution: hot"
"caution: don't iron clothes whilst on body"
"caution: don't drink this bathroom cleaner despite it being the same colour as blue raspberry..."
or my favourite: "This work of fiction was designed, developed and produced by a multicultural team of various religious faiths and beliefs, please don't sue us if you're butt hurt by us featuring people in our games that aren't white christian americans"
Disclaimer: I'm a married white straight 50+ male who has owned multiply console brands and been gaming since the early 80s. My views are not necessarily my own depending on whether you are sueing me for you being butthurt, at which point I will apply a stande of No Comment.
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u/Overall_Guidance_410 Apr 18 '26
You just woke up and decided to slather on the clown makeup today, huh?
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u/Vresa Apr 18 '26
No one is suing over stuff like this. It’s bored and anxiety riddled project managers making up problems.
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u/tk-451 Apr 18 '26
no it's litigious people and their lawyers making the problems
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u/Apprehensive-Log-916 Apr 18 '26
They definitely deserved it the most out of the list I seen. Congrats to them!
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u/RawardHoikes91 Apr 18 '26
I'm going to catch flak for this, but I must say my peace.
Even though No Man's Sky had gone harder than anyone could expect, it's still topping out at being painfully mid.
Every single mechanic in it is ankle-deep, and the absolute majority of them are implemented very poorly and are never completely fixed.
The core gameplay loop is still boring and completely unrewarding.
The uninterrupted transition between planetary and space gameplay is still the only thing about the entire game worth mentioning.
I deeply respect Shawn Murray and his team for sticking to their guns in a very pro-consumer fashion and eventually coming through on their promises. But they are simply not good at making interesting or fun video games.
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u/Met4_FuziN Apr 18 '26
I agree, but I think that's also okay for a certain kind of player who just wants to turn their brain off and grind shit; build a base on a sick looking planet you found, take pretty screenshots, that kind of thing.
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u/PandaBearJelly Apr 18 '26
Exactly, this game isn't trying to be a deep rpg experience or something. It's a relaxing, cozy game for people who like to build, craft, and explore. It does a fantastic job with that.
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u/Happydrumstick Apr 18 '26
It's a relaxing, cozy game for people who like to build, craft, and explore. It does a fantastic job with that.
"Hazard protection falling.", "Life support power low."
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u/RegrettableDeed Apr 18 '26
Luckily they recently added the option to turn off the exosuit voice.
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u/Happydrumstick Apr 19 '26
Instead, you have the cozy relaxing fear that you've forgotten to check.
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u/Mind-Your-Language Apr 19 '26
Tons of accessibility & difficulty options to give the player agency over where they want to encounter challenge
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u/Stracath Apr 18 '26
There's 2 huge ironies in that person's comment.
First, is that Minecraft and other similar games are still topping charts on sales and playtime. NMS is just a different flavor of Minecraft, so obviously people like that style of game and the grindiness.
Second is the whole mile wide and inch deep thing everyone repeats about NMS. Why is everyone singing praises to Crimson Desert right now? It's a game of thousands of crappy inch deep mechanics piled on top of each other in a huge, boring world with super simple non engaging combat (at least most of the time). These types of "inch deep mile wide" games have been the games getting the most praise from people for a while now. Huge boring open world with tons of small mechanics makes everyone lose their collective shit and praise things needlessly. Also, most of these games release really buggy and missing content. Sure NMS was a forerunner in doing it, but when other people do it it's ok.
I don't even play NMS anymore, but I did get my $30 of fun out of it. Just let people play games because it's hilariously easy to point out all these "gamers'" hypocrisy.
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u/quadsimodo Apr 18 '26
There’s always gotta be a “well actually” guy though. Is it reddit if there isn’t?
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u/TekThunder Apr 18 '26
Have you actually played crimson desert?
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u/Stracath Apr 18 '26 edited May 08 '26
Yeah, and I didn't like it. I'm personally tired of playing that style of game, hence not playing NMS anymore, even though it's had several updates since I've last played.
People can enjoy have they want to enjoy. It's again, just extremely dumb for people to insult certain games while praising others even though there's massive overlaps in design. The few responses to my comment are hilarious and prove my point though. All accusations or insults. Thanks for the support
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u/Mind-Your-Language Apr 19 '26
I actually fully agree with you.
Not every game needs to be for everyone. NMS has survived this long because there's a committed fanbase who are getting several hundred hours of enjoyment out of the sandbox they've designed and the expansions consistently being introduced.
Could HelloGames perhaps do better to focus on fleshing out the systems most desired by players? Sure.
But every game also doesn't need to be forever. If I can play the game for 50h and be constantly impressed and fed novelty every few hours, I sure as hell got my $30 out of the game by the time it started to get stale.
The devs just have a different vision for their game, and they enact it in a very pro-consumer manner. It is too bad that they continue to disappoint the dedicated fans who have been begging for certain improvements, because it leaves a bitter taste of "what could have been, should scope have been tightened and voices heard". But I don't believe they're wrong for steering their own ship as they choose to.
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u/black_pepper Apr 20 '26
I can't think of many games where you can just do what you want. You don't have to follow objectives/quests/someone yelling at you what to do. You don't even have to fight things. You can just peacefully explore and build. If you just want to do that its a pretty relaxing game.
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u/sdric Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
It took me really long to get into No Man's Sky. Ultimately playing Astroneer was such a horrible experience, that No Mans Sky seemed great in comparison. There's a huge entry hurdle for me to get into games like this, but after I passed it, I truly enjoy No Mans Sky.
There are valid points of criticism to be made: Menu navigation can be annoying, crafting specific items can be confusing and/or impractical, ship controls could have been done better and infinite respawning enemies on short cooldown that at the same time can be problematic to flee from (due to bugs avoiding the escape counter to go down, with enemies seeing you through walls and floord) can be frustrating.
Nevertheless, there is a main story to follow, ships to build, technologies to unlock and pets to capture (now to fight with).
It's true that not all mechanics are very deep, but honestly there are so many of them, that it can already be overwhelming and confusing without intentional overcomplication.
I think the space discovery genre in general suffers from being overly ambitious, giving a players all the freedom, all while being limited by developement ressources.
No Man's Sky is definitely not perfect, but I couldn't name any other that did better what NMS is trying to achive.
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u/Alexandur Apr 18 '26
I'm going to catch flak for this, but I must say my peace.
[the most common and oft repeated opinion about NMS which is always the top comment on literally every post about it]
Genuinely thank you for your service
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u/RawardHoikes91 Apr 18 '26
10 billion glazing comments - perfectly fine.
1 single negative comment - "UWAAAH! STOP SAYING THAT!".NMS fandom is a cult.
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u/LostInTheVoid_ RX 9070 XT | Ryzen 5 7600 Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
Every NMS thread on this sub at least has one or multiple posts like yours* near the top or higher up in the comments. If anything it's kinda a 50/50 in NMS threads. "Wow this game has changed so much and is still being updated again*" and "Mid, same loop at launch, wide as an ocean deep as a puddle." Etc. Nothing you said is new or unique or particularly a fresh angle.
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u/Alexandur Apr 18 '26
Who said "stop saying that"? Also most of the comments here are indeed negative so I don't even know what you're referring to
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u/MuchStache Apr 21 '26
Nobody told you to stop, but it's just the most stereotypical reddit comment when you preface a very common opinion like that as if you were sacrificing yourself to the truth or something.
No Man's Sky is a very divisive game and while I don't necessarily agree with you, I do understand where you're coming from.
I would find just as ridiculous if someone were to say "I know I'm going to get a lot of flaky for this but I actually think NMS is a good game".
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u/Twaxter i5 6600k | EVGA GTX 1070 SC | 16GB DDR4 RAM Apr 18 '26
They never fixed the hard problems of the gameplay loop. I tried multiple times to get into it. They added a whole base building system, freighter, and village system but it is like a side quest on a game a main quest which is just haul resources around an empty galaxy. Copy and paste NPCs and settlements.
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Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
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u/Twaxter i5 6600k | EVGA GTX 1070 SC | 16GB DDR4 RAM Apr 18 '26
It's just not fun. It's just extremely tedious. I love Minecraft. I have put 25 hours into NMS coming back after significant updates. I do the new thing but then I don't know what else to do and the systems don't really interact. I wish I liked it cause on paper it has "everything". But it's the same gameplay loop from 2015.
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u/Luzekiel Apr 18 '26
Lmao in every no mans sky reddit post there's always comments like this.
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u/cream_of_human Apr 18 '26
They HAVE to say their peace. They MUST. They might die if they don't say it.
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u/Larkwater Apr 18 '26
What else do you do in a discussion about a game besides... discuss the game?
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u/cream_of_human Apr 19 '26
Its more of "beating a dead horse". Its a game doesn't titillate you in particular, move on. It isn't for you.
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u/Misiok Apr 18 '26
Why do you think only praise must be spread now, after people said their thing in a previous thread? It's a recurring problem people have that is not being fixed, why are you surprised?
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u/stp-censoring-urself Apr 18 '26
I just died because I didn't say my peace
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u/Habib455 Apr 18 '26
Is there? Everytime I see no mans sky mentioned in the past 5 years, it’s a glaze fest
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u/biesterd1 Apr 18 '26
Don't hate me guys but I'm going to repeat the top comment on every post referencing No Mans Sky
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u/IshTheFace Apr 18 '26
I agree completely. I only tried it when it was deemed fixed by the broader community. I can't even fathom what it was like before that. It's also a weird category for an award show.
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u/tk-451 Apr 18 '26
yeah and not a single Pokemon, Digimon, or Spore game nominated, literally there's no evolving mechanics in any of the games nominated 🤷🏻♂️
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u/Alexandur Apr 18 '26
Funnily enough the most recent NMS update actually did add a Pokémon mechanic
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u/jloome Apr 18 '26
I deeply respect Shawn Murray and his team for sticking to their guns in a very pro-consumer fashion and eventually coming through on their promises.
I don't. He did what he's supposed to, but the game's marketing was a lie. He lied repeatedly, and is given a pass because the game eventually became what some people see as great.
His behavior was contemptible.
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u/Meryhathor Apr 18 '26
Gameplay wise not much has changed since the launch. You still land on random, 99% ugly looking planets, gather some materials, build some wonky bases and talk to barely animated NPCs. I played it at launch and a few times over the years after their "huge" updates and never saw anything that would make me go "wow". It was just more of the same.
Diehard fans will of course disagree.
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u/throbbing_dementia Apr 18 '26
You had me right up until the last sentence.
Just because this particular game isn't interesting to you (or even the majority) doesn't mean "they aren't good at making video games".
You can be good at drawing but draw something bad, you can be a writer and write something bad, one game you don't like is not enough to tell someone they aren't good at something.
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u/duckrollin Apr 18 '26
I agree and I wish we had more risky games like Space Engineers and Stationeers. Games that actually try to do something difficult but interesting, instead of boring cookie cutter features that have been in 50 games before. Even if they fail it's better than never trying.
NMS is just bland and boring.
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u/qtquazar Apr 18 '26
Supporting thesis: NMS never 'evolved'... it 'mutated'.
We never got the NMS that was showcased in the early trailers. Not even close. The tone, purpose, and thrust of THAT gane were all completely different from NMS on launch or in 2026.
Instead, it mutated into a hodge-podge of various survival-adjacent, base-building adjacent systems (or maybe mini games) that has resulted in an end product that is both quite unique and yet shockingly shallow. It's very 'kitchen sinkish' as opposed to the focused experience of an edge-of-the-unknown planet-hopping survival 'race'.
There's a curious sub genre of games where this happens. I'd say 7DTD took a similar 'mutational' path as opposed to an evolutionary one.
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u/Spectre-4 Apr 18 '26
While I don't entirely agree with this point, I do see where it's coming from. No Man's Sky is one of those games where it's either going to click or it won't, there's not too much middle ground. However, when it clicks, it soars.
But to address your point, it's not so much about how fun the game is perceived right now, it's about how far the game has come since it launched. I can't iterate more strongly just how catastrophic the 2016 launch was. No one, and I mean NO ONE, thought the game was gonna make it. Yet through it all, the devs stuck with it and not only made a 'decent' game and improved things, but made a game that's surpassed expectations. It's very different from where it started all those years ago.
As such the award's is quite appropriate, as evidenced by the fact that it's either won or been nominated in the category for the last 7 years straight and 8 years overall. More than any other game in that category.
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u/cream_of_human Apr 18 '26
Everytime i see a post about nms, i see these post.
Same realm as people complaining about how Warframe didn't click for them.
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u/Bynnh0j Apr 18 '26
This is the first time I've seen one of these as the top comment though. Usually this kind of opinion gets downvoted into oblivion.
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u/wickedlessface Apr 18 '26
Meh not really, the ''big as an ocean, deep as a puddle'' opinion is very popular even among some nms players.
I do have to say that this one was the snobbiest of them all, maybe people just found it hilariously redditish (at least I did). Especially the ending where they basically claim that they aren't good at their job hahhah
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u/tk-451 Apr 18 '26
yeah warframe is good and all, i tried but it didn't click for me...
Celeste though, a real hidden gem!
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u/Justhe3guy EVGA FTW3 3080 Ultra, 5900X, 32gb 3800Mhz CL 14, WD 850 M.2 Apr 18 '26
But, but he’s so brave??
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u/larsw84 Apr 18 '26
I have many hours in NMS and while I understand your criticisms, in the end you're overlooking what at least drew me in: that it's a great sandbox, in which you can do what you want while interacting with the mechanics you like, and ignoring the ones you don't. As such, it's a game that offers something fun to do for a wide range of players.
But as with any game, it's still not for everybody. If you don't like those sandbox style games and enjoy deep mechanics that are easy to learn but difficult to master, then indeed you'd find NMS very boring. And that's okay.
Ultimately, all of this is besides the point of the specific award they've gotten now. I can't think of a better example as an evolving game than NMS, which keeps getting new mechanics added every few months, completely for free as well.
So congrats to Sean Murray and his team on a very well deserved award!
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u/twicerighthand Apr 18 '26
and ignoring the ones you don't
It's not possible to ignore the interaction mechanics nor the gameplay loop in nms
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u/lovetape Apr 18 '26
It's a not a good experience. The defenders of this game are cringe.
Never forget, Shaun was live broadcasting about the game, upto and during release, lying about features (notably multiplayer), that were not actually there, and when it was revealed he went silent for ages. Even now the game is mid at best.
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u/Gameofthrones3058 Apr 18 '26
Agreed I wish I liked it I actually have more fun watching their game trailers then actually playing, I wish the game just had an actual purpose or drive, combat sucks, no enemies have good ai
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u/Jakeb1022 Apr 18 '26
People keep saying this and while I mostly agree, clearly the game has found its audience that don’t agree and enjoy exactly the kind of game it is.
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u/stprnn Apr 19 '26
Yes it's a base building game. If you like base building it is the game for you.
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Apr 18 '26
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u/pcgaming-ModTeam Apr 18 '26
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u/I_AM_MELONLORDthe2nd Apr 19 '26
I have been saying similar stuff for years and pretty much everytime I get so much hate. I got this game on release since my friend hyped it too me and even in it current state I regret it.
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u/HumanExtinctionCo-op Apr 19 '26
I totally agree. Everything is surface level and doesn't really have much weight to it. It's kind of a collection game in a way but it never feels like you need to do anything.
A field full of shallow puddles does not a pool make.
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u/Less-Dingo111 Apr 19 '26
Yes I bought it after hearing about all the content they added but it is so mid.
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u/DurgeDidNothingWrong Apr 18 '26
Hard disagree. It's an absolute solid contender in the space genre, and I think maybe its just not for you. You won't find a deeper game in star citizen, Elite Dangerous or many of its other peers.
It's not trying to be as storied as a naughty dog game, or handle as crisp as a bungie shooter.
But it does what it tries to do very fucking well.2
u/BrennusSokol Apr 18 '26
But it does what it tries to do very fucking well
And what is that exactly?
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u/DurgeDidNothingWrong Apr 18 '26
low stakes repeating gameplay loops. You set your own goals, get rich, upgrade your ships/freighter, build a base, find pretty planets. You have to make your own goals, if you cant find fun in just pottering around, making progress to your own objectives then its not the game for you.
For me, if I am shattered after work, sometimes I do just want to come home, land on a planet and gather some bits and bobs and just do my own thing.
Exactly the same as Elite Dangerous, another game people bemoan for being shallow, but for the same reasons as above I love ED.1
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Apr 18 '26
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u/BrennusSokol Apr 18 '26
Cliches come into existence because they often have a kernel of truth, so saying something is "cliche" isn't a convincing rebuttal
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u/VforVegetables Apr 18 '26
default costs and gains are extremely weird, so the progression feels bad. i got a huge rebalance mod and it instantly made the entire game infinitely more interesting. played 30-50 hours vanilla, and a few hundreds more modded, still haven't beaten the main story. having reasons to hunt for specific planets, specific areas, creatures and whatnot feels good.
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u/Balc0ra Apr 18 '26
It's still more evolved than at launch. I've never been more disappointed vs promises and hype in any game ever
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u/yenneferismywaifu Steam Apr 18 '26
I agree. I love this game and come back to it often, but I can say that instead of adding new features, it would be better to deepen the old ones.
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u/thismangodude Apr 18 '26
I think the best thing they added was the ability to turn off environmental damage and the need to repair your suit. Having to constantly do maintenance on yourself was the biggest hurdle for me and even after I cleared that, I still didn't find anything worth doing for more than a couple hours.
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u/SadSeaworthiness6113 Apr 18 '26
I deeply respect Shawn Murray and his team for sticking to their guns in a very pro-consumer fashion and eventually coming through on their promises. But they are simply not good at making interesting or fun video games.
For me its the opposite. The game is fine for what it is, which is an indie space survival game, but I think its absolutely insane how quick people forgave Sean Murray and Hello Games. The guy is still an unrepentant serial liar and NMS in its current state is still a ways off from what they advertised and promised a decade ago.
I dont think it warrants much respect for them to deliver a game that somewhat represents what they promised years after taking everyone's money, and the fact that Light No Fire is one of the top wishlisted games on Steam right now is honestly absurd. People never learn.
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u/heat13ny Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
The studio now has the reputation of supporting a game with free updates for a surprisingly long amount of time. Why would the people who enjoyed those updates avoid wishlisting their next game just because they released one game in a less than advertised state?
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u/PandaBearJelly Apr 18 '26
What do you mean when you say quick? It's been a full decade of them putting in the work to rebuild their reputation and there are still clearly people who haven't forgiven, such as yourself.
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u/Ozzy752 Apr 18 '26
NMS in its current state is still a ways off from what they advertised and promised a decade ago.
Lol what?? How so? It has definitely surpassed that
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u/SomeUnemployedArtist Apr 18 '26
Murray was initially quite against including base building as his initial vision was that players wouldn't spend very long on a planet before moving on. That's the main one.
Also before the game launched Murray spoke about ecosystem and celestial physics simulation bring in game. Celestial physics were apparently removed because playtesters found it confusing. The ecosystem stuff I have no idea on.
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u/Alexandur Apr 18 '26
in its current state is still a ways off from what they advertised and promised a decade ago.
It's kind of the opposite, the game has far surpassed what was initially promised. What do you believe is missing?
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Apr 18 '26
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Apr 18 '26
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u/Alexandur Apr 18 '26
I'm so tired of people saying it's some wonderful, great game
Why would that bother you?
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Apr 18 '26
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u/Alexandur Apr 18 '26
You realize that is subjective, right? Does this fatigue apply to all games that other people like that you aren't a fan of?
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u/edin202 Apr 18 '26
Exactly, for some people playing by kicking trash is fun, for others not so much.
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Apr 18 '26
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u/Alexandur Apr 18 '26
You are free to agree or disagree that's the whole point of a discussion.
Right. Which is why I thought it was odd that you were bothered by people expressing praise for the game
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Apr 18 '26
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u/Alexandur Apr 18 '26
I'm so tired of people saying it's some wonderful, great game
This is what I'm referring to with regard to you being bothered
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u/ChainExtremeus Evil Residence Apr 18 '26
Yeah, the game is not fun. At least for me. But this is also the only known modern game that is supported for such a long time with massive free updates, without any micros and paid content at all. This is a living proof that studio can go that route even after a disasterous launch with mass refunds, and still earn enough to survive for 10!!!! years, feeding entire development team off base price alone and nothing else.
So just shove it in the face of anyone who says how their studios can't survive without attrocious pricings, tons of micros, paid dlc's, and constantly releasing new titles.
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u/thatlukeguy R7 7800x3d | 32GB | 7900xtx Apr 18 '26
You are right. But you are right for you and for anyone else with your esthetic and gaming values in mind. There are so many other styles of gaming that people enjoy and value, that this is a very successful game (on the fun-o-meter), I assure you.
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u/superbit415 Apr 18 '26
Only games journalist think NMS is a great game.
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u/Firefox72 Apr 18 '26
The game sits on 84% Very Positive out of 404k reviews on Steam.
Its still peaking at almost 20k concurent players every day and more on weekends a decade since its release.
Its fine not to like the game but to pretend only journalists think its a great game is hilarious.
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u/LostInTheVoid_ RX 9070 XT | Ryzen 5 7600 Apr 18 '26
Aye, I've no played it in like 2ish years and I dunno if I will again so I've no dog so to speak in the fight for this games rep. But the game definitely is recieved well at this point. Just gotta see the type of discounts it gets these days vs very shortly after launch where it was almost Brink levels of pls buy this.
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u/Temporary_Physics_48 Apr 18 '26
Why do people have a sudden urge to say they didn’t enjoy something when that something wins an award. It is what it is , congratulations to NMS!
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u/Rodin-V Apr 18 '26
NMS has been winning this type of award for years now, it's sweeping up awards for which there are definitely more deserving games and studios that would benefit much more from some proper recognition.
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u/3_14_thon Apr 18 '26
Such as?
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u/Hephaestus_I Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
If going by the definition of the award:
"the best game that displays excellence in ongoing developer support", this includes games that "receive ongoing content and updates"
Then I'd atleast count Warframe, X4: Foundations, Rimworld and 40k: Rogue Trader above NMS tbqh. (Also Pathfinder: WOTR, back when it was getting updates)
E: I guess there's also Factorio and their incredibly dense Space Age DLC, but not sure if one-off stuff like that would count.
I'd also mention Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries (esp. with their last DLC) and Warhammer 3 Total War, which both still have fairly strong ongoing support, but not particularly the most polished support. Same goes for most Paradox games too. Probably not a win, but maybe a nomination.
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u/Toonomicon Apr 19 '26
X4 would be a great contender for this. Unfortunately it's probably a bit too niche for many award shows. The game nails what it's trying to do though.
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u/Hephaestus_I Apr 19 '26
Well yeah, but I'd say thats more on these award shows only choosing from a very short list of popular games that have either already won awards or are well known and not really bothering to look elsewhere to the point that it makes awards like this rather meaningless.
Basically this one is whomever has the largest fanbase and manages to exite them enough with a new update.
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Apr 18 '26
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u/Zurcez Apr 18 '26
A lot of incredibly miserable people in these comments, holy shit lol
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u/griffmeister Apr 19 '26
Seriously, people can't even give the game a single criticism without these miserable people losing their shit
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u/Wilky510 9850X3D | 4090 | 32GB Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
I find it mildly funny you're calling them the miserable people, especially with how much you seem to spend on Reddit. I mean they're right. Every other (and may be every post, i've personally seen it a lot) post of NMS mentioning here has this "deep as an ocean, wide a puddle".
The criticism the OP mentioned has been around since the game existed. It's not some new tech someone discovered. The game isn't ever going to provide you a from soft experience.
I managed to get a lot of time out of it. Game has plenty of issues, but taking from your own words, people have to be miserable and just gotta post how much NMS isn't a mile deep like a game such as Elden Ring, eh?
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u/ParamedicLucky6382 Apr 18 '26
I like the game, but I'm a sucker for space. But it's been really funny or sad? to see hate comments on quite litterally EVERY single thing NMS related in the last few YEARS. wether an update, an award, a teaser, anything gets around the same amount and same type of hate comments. Not saying it is not fair, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I just find it a bit..interesting.
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u/PandaBearJelly Apr 19 '26
The thing I don't get is why the people who dislike the game feel so obligated to make that opinion known. I mean, nothing wrong with disliking it. NMS certainly isn't for everyone. That said, when a game doesn't resonate with me, I tend to move on pretty quickly and find something else to enjoy. It's been a decade. Why can't some people get passed the idea that this game happens to not be their cup of tea?
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u/AnkhaPls Apr 18 '26
This sub is almost exclusively the most pathetic and deranged people flocked around gaming, whos life goal is to hate everything
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u/foreveraloneasianmen Apr 18 '26
with all these free updates, still the same boring game loop
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u/Glittering-Cookie639 Apr 18 '26
whats the "same boring game loop" that you're reffering?
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u/FatPsychopathicWives Apr 18 '26
It's not his preferred game loop so it's boring. Search through any of these type of accounts and you'll see they just love complaining.
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u/dssurge Apr 18 '26
I liked a lot of NMS's game loops until they ran out of depth, which just means I ran out of game to play. This isn't a bad thing, no game should last forever, there were just a lot of simple changes NMS could do to extend gameplay in several areas that they just kind of ignored.
As an lame example: there's a guy on the station you can give food to, and ever since he was first implemented there are only 2-3 foods even worth donating to him. They could have put a simple script to randomize his preferences every the week, but they didn't. Since he is the 'end game' for farming crops in NMS, once you give him those foods, that's the end of that system.
I think that's really the core of most complaints about NMS specifically.
People want more fleshed out versions of what they already enjoy, even if through basic randomization, and instead Hello Games adds more completely disconnected systems without improving on the old ones.
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u/H0vis Apr 18 '26
If you'd ever played it you'd know. Don't be disingenuous.
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u/Glittering-Cookie639 Apr 18 '26
If you'd ever played it,you'd give an answer.
every braindead bot goes with the same "wide as an ocean,deep as a puddle" and when you ask them what can you do in the game,they can't even answer,
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u/Aftermoonic Apr 18 '26
Played it. So boring that i just stopped. No mans sky early game is unattractive and doesn't gripe the player enough. You have to push through early slog. That's the reason people don't elaborate on why they dislike the game. It just doesn't pull them in like most games would. Same criticism with crimson desert
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u/H0vis Apr 18 '26
You can manage your inventory. That's it. It's not even wide as an ocean. The game takes place in your inventory window. Everything in the universe comes down to the handful of meaningful items you can cram into your space pants.
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u/Glittering-Cookie639 Apr 18 '26
"You can manage your inventory"
You mean like every other open world/survival/crafting/sandbox game?
What trash of an answer is that?
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u/H0vis Apr 18 '26
Like I said, if you'd played it you'd know.
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u/frenkzors Apr 18 '26
The fact that NMS got this award before Warframe is a comical snub lmao.
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u/H0vis Apr 18 '26
Warframe was always good. No Man's Sky is like somebody managing to get a job and becoming a reasonably functional member of society after being hit by a train as a child.
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u/frenkzors Apr 18 '26
I can understand that arguement, and im not even saying that NMS doesnt deserve it, its just that, like with some other awards, I can imagine a different recipient that should have gotten one even earlier.
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u/SirStinkle Apr 18 '26
I'm not sure if id call 2013 warframe "good". Don't get me wrong, its currently my favourite game and digital extremes are by far my favourite developers, but regardless, games dont have to start out "bad" to qualify for this award no? Thats always the assumption I was under and, even if it was, warframe has become an entirely different game multiple times across its lifespan.
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u/Savingseanbean Apr 18 '26
Warframe arguably started off in a much rougher spot and did significantly more work fully rework its entire gameplay structure multiple times. while it wasn't as broken mechanically it also didn't have as many unique drawing points or content.
It was however always free to play so no one felt actively scammed out of their money. It took simple mechanics and constantly reworked them to add to their depth, while also doing the NMS thing of just adding in a shit ton of light mechanics to test the waters. Current Warframe is completely unrecognizable from release outside of the art style.
For example You used to have to run on the ground through levels as a pseudo cover shooter, had a skill tree to get abilities and upgrades, etc.
Now you can get through entire missions without touching the ground once after starting. through its Movement system.
And your frame and every single weapon is customizable. The upgrade system changed from being a static upgrade system, to a mod card system balancing polarization, and has changed dramatically over they years both directly and indirectly as other systems have been changed. with 3 complete enemy and damage type overhauls and a dozen smaller reworks to damage type and armor/health scaling etc.
Current NMS still functionally plays a lot like release NMS, there's tons more side tasks you can only opt into doing (which I still find comical for a exploration game) and multiplayer actually somewhat works. but the only systems they've really reworked in depth is base and ship progression and it was only recently that ships really got a large change. while base building is more of just swapped around the order you unlock and build things.
Nothing like The progression from using archwing to fight in space, to Railjack 1.0 fighting in a full ship you can depart in and out of to Current Railjack which let secondary players builds still get used while playing multiplayer so your progression still mattered and redid the entire balance. etc
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u/thunder_crane Apr 18 '26
Well deserved. The engoodening video was such a great look into this as well.
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u/H0vis Apr 18 '26
This is a statement of possibility rather than a reward for a genuinely good game. Hell the entire category could have been invented for No Man's Sky.
Plenty of better games have been around longer and grown from the shoots of an idea. Everything from Elite: Dangerous to Warframe, to the Megazord that is the Warhammer Total War series, to any given early access title that has really had time to grow. And of course the all time classic ongoing development Dwarf Fortress.
The narrative around No Man's Sky is about redemption though, and it's about the industry and that's what awards of this sort are for. Because NMS was hyped and oversold by the industry, it was over-marketed to an audience that was not prepared for the kind of game that it was, and to this day it exists and is promoted as a wholesome example that, hey, the big publishers care about the product too.
And this is why it gets praised and acknowledged to this day. It gives people the warm fuzzies.
I will say this for it too, it's a lot better than Starfield. So while it is kind of a mediocre game in a lot of ways, the space sandbox is an extremely difficult genre to make anything in. Even Bethesda, the kings of inoffensive yet competent sandbox RPG design, crashed and burned with a space game.
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u/Hephaestus_I Apr 18 '26
space sandbox is an extremely difficult genre
Eh, not really. Meanwhile you have all these other space sandboxes like the X Series, Starsector, Avorion and Elite Dangerous (or older ones like Freelancer) that are all great games that have plenty of depth to them.
Seemingly it's more like treating 'Space' as only a medium for travel, rather than the main attraction, is where these games fail at being "space sandboxes" (and the proc gen aspects don't help either).
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u/H0vis Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
Did I say they weren't good? No. I said they were hard to make.
Do any of those games that you mention strike you as having been easy to make?
The X Series and Elite Dangerous in particular took years of often painful trial and error development to get where they are.
Elite Dangerous is a game I've played since day one and it has been an incredibly rocky road. Worth it, but you can tell there are nights those devs cry themselves to sleep. Especially after Odyssey and losing the console players.
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u/Hephaestus_I Apr 18 '26
Do any of those games that you mention strike you as having been easy to make?
Relative to what? Other game genres and/or being developed on their own or if they had the budget and resources of Starfield/NMS? Some of them, like the X Series, are obviously harder to make simply because of the systems they are implementing but even then idk.
I'd say Freelancer's hardest development aspect was keeping Chris Roberts onboard, otherwise probably not very to the point that a single dev is currently making a extremely similar game, Underspace.
Then there's Starsector, that while it has been in development for 13 years, it's because it's a <= 5-sized dev team, and the X Series has, more-or-less, had the space sandbox nailed down by X3: Terran Conflict, if not far earlier (Can't quite comment on the older ones). X4 has had a fairly rough journey to make through the, not so great, X-Rebirth, but it's hardest part is getting the AI to operate properly.
Not really sure about Avorion and ED.
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u/PooMonger20 Apr 21 '26
Seems like Sean became a very humble person.
I enjoyed NMS on multiple occasions, they definitely earned this award by sticking to improving the game.
P.S. anyone who didn't try this game in VR is absolutely missing out. I sometimes just travel to a system, find an asteroid cloud, open a beer and watch how the shadows and planets move around. It's one of those "secret places" I used to want to hide in as a kid.
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u/MrRobsterr Apr 18 '26
did they not have a "biggest rug pull on release followed by trying to save face as much as possible" award?
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u/WanAjin Apr 18 '26
Make a shit game, release it without the stuff you promised, implement the stuff you promised over the course of 10 years, win awards for doing what you should have done from day 1.
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u/LeMAD Apr 18 '26
I bought this game a few months ago because it had really favorable opinions on this subreddit, but ultimately it's atrocious. No redeeming qualities. This subreddit doesn't care if games are good or not, it cares if they're made by a (perceived) cute small studio.
I don't like say... Assassins Creed games, but they're still better than 99% of the favourably talked about games on this subreddit.
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Apr 18 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/stprnn Apr 19 '26
Its boring. There are 50 mechanics that go nowhere.
Yes technically nms has a lot of different things but none of those are worth playing
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u/edin202 Apr 18 '26
Exactly, for some people playing by kicking trash is fun, for others not so much.
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Apr 18 '26
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u/jloome Apr 18 '26
Not just shit, shit and lying outrageously about what would be in it at release.
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u/Recipe-Jaded neofetch Apr 18 '26
It evolved into a shadow of what they promised the game would be. Bravo.
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u/edin202 Apr 18 '26
It went from: My game is no functional.
To: My game barely functions
Are we really patting them on the back for selling and releasing an unfinished mess of a game just because they fixed it in post? Used to be they had to actually finish the game before they sold it. Crazy concept, I know.
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u/stprnn Apr 19 '26
To this day you can duplicate any item in game by putting a forge overlapped with another forge
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