Gabriel got home from PAX South a day before I did, so he had a chance to dig into Astroneer. I don't have time or inclination anymore to play everything that Steam decides is important; I've had a very similar experience with what rises there, over and over and over, the bizarre, strappy, masochistic fetish gear that runs rampant in that space which reliably delivers experiences of the form:
1. Fail to find a server 2. Find a server, but get disconnected 3. Get connected but spawn into the world having already died
It's like, look. I'm an advocate. I advocate. It's my whole role in the social perpetual motion machine we're operating over here. But your inventory UI looks like a broken windshield and two or three vital player interactions aren't even bound to anything. I'll be back.
My time with Astroneer was very much in the "first blush of romance" phase, where my associate (CW)Gabe sailed down into my world in a pod, and then we proceeded to discover how these worlds work. No Man's Sky is definitely in here genetically, but No Man's Sky (like Skyrim, let's say) is a game that makes me long for companionship. I know that's not universal; I have friends for whom a simulation of solitude is a welcome psychic lilypad. But learning systems, with a friend, in real-time, is why I play videogames.
We gotta film a bunch of First 15s today, and Josh's new plan is that we do those on the stream, which makes the whole thing way more fun, then we can choose one of those to play a bit more. Looking forward to getting back on the couch, stop by around 2 PST if'n you need company.
(CW)TB
