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'No Man's Sky NEXT' Impressions: A Beautiful Game, But A Good One?
Facebook launches the group watching feature Netflix needs to add
Technology trickles down from above to make the new 2019 Audi Q3 smarter

'No Man's Sky NEXT' Impressions: A Beautiful Game, But A Good One?

Posted: 25 Jul 2018 05:45 AM PDT

No Man's SkyHello Games

It was a little hard to believe that I was sitting around, eagerly awaiting the release of a No Man’s Sky update yesterday in 2018, something I never would have considered two years ago after the game launched. Regardless of No Man’s Sky’s initial issues, in no way did I think the game would still be getting updates this big this late in its release, and with NEXT, we’re at the point where the game has essentially transformed into a sequel of itself.

It has been heartening to see Hello Games slowly march toward redemption for No Man’s Sky, a game that launched without a number of promised features, and one that became cautionary tale about hype and expectations.

And yet, I was one of the game’s biggest defenders at launch. Yes, it was a missing a lot of things, but what was there was something I found strangely soothing all the same. Playing No Man’s Sky to me is like video game meditation. Finding beautiful worlds and creatures, and doing so alone in a vast, nearly empty universe. Sure, I wished there was a little more to it, but I did appreciate what was already there as well.

Well, now there’s a whole lot more there.

This is actually the third or fourth major update to No Man’s Sky at this point, as past ones have added base-building, ground vehicles and story quests and active missions. NEXT adds almost too much to even keep track of, and you can read the thousands-of-words-long patch notes for a full accounting if you like.

No Man's SkyHello Games

I have only spent a day with No Man’s Sky NEXT so far, and mostly in creative mode so I could do as much as I could without worry about grinding for fuel materials and such. There’s a lot more to experience, but so far my impressions of the update have been…somewhat mixed, actually.

One of the biggest changes to the game has been visual. Planets are supposed to be more diverse both from afar (they have rings now!) and when you get down to the surface. Visual fidelity has been increased everywhere, which you can especially see on ships, wildlife and even the ground itself on planets.

This can result in the game looking as gorgeous as I’ve ever seen it. All you have to do is search the #NoMansSkyNEXT hashtag on Twitter to see some absolutely stunning shots from the game, and yet the game has always been capable of producing some pretty gorgeous imagery, even before photo mode was even added.

But I keep running into some pretty severe technical problems with this update. Visual pop-in is now worse than ever for me, with objects springing into existence when you’re even just a few meters away from them. And while everything looks great up close, the new volumetric clouds in the game look horrible, like giant, blurry blobs of color that feel like you have macular degeneration or something. It was in the patch notes that they’re being updated at some point, but for now, they’re just terrible looking and can ruin any screenshot you find them in.

No Man's SkyHello Games

Past this, the game keeps doing this weird thing where every time I use my pulse drive to go into hyper speed, the sound on my game glitches for a few seconds spitting out a loud BRRRRRRRR at me, which was enough to make me jump the first few times. And it happens every time I fire up the engines. And more generally, playing No Man’s Sky makes my PS4 sound like a dying 1994 Geo Metro, like it’s constantly on the verge of overheating with the fan working overtime to play, no matter what I’m doing in it at the time.

As for all the other stuff? The best way to experience No Man’s Sky at this point is probably to simply start over from scratch, which is sort of a bummer to the account I put 100 hours into around launch and for the first base-building update, but so much has changed there’s really no point in continuing. New currencies, new materials. The elaborate base I constructed on a planet I loved was broken thanks to the entire planet changing with the new update.

So it’s probably the best plan to say, be an Xbox player, having never experienced the game before, starting from the ground floor in what is essentially a totally different title than the one that launched in 2016. But I can never have that experience, not really, so it’s a bit tough to judge what’s changed, what it would be like to experience all of this fresh.

I will have to gather further thoughts as I try and do a new “story run” without infinite resources and such, but I will say that some of the stuff being added isn’t anything I particularly care about. This relentless focus on multiplayer, for instance, has no interest to me, as if I’m playing No Man’s Sky, it’s certainly not with the desire to “squad up” and start waging war on other players I come across. To me, that’s sort of contrary to what NMS is, despite the fact that no multiplayer was such a big sticking point for people for so long. I also personally don’t really care about a third person camera, as the character models in this game don’t look great, and I’d rather not see them most of the time, in truth.

No Man's SkyHello Games

Similarly, while I think NMS could have benefitted from a little more structure than what we saw, gather quests and an increased focus on combat also doesn’t really amplify the aspects of the game I personally care about. If I want to farm materials for weapon upgrades and shoot at robot aliens, I’ll play Destiny, and no matter how much combat improves in No Man’s Sky, it’s never going to be a true shooter, and really, it shouldn’t be. That was never the point of the game.

I guess it all depends what you want out of No Man’s Sky. At this point, I think I’m mostly content to just sail around trying to find beautiful planets and landscapes, secure myself the coolest ships and freighters, and not really worry about much else. I guess I could throw another 100 hours into the game trying to do a bunch of missions and follow story quests, but after two years, I’m just not sure I have that in me, so a lot of what’s been added to the game in NEXT isn’t stuff I especially care about.

I do have to give it more than a day though, and I plan to. But I don’t know how I feel about NEXT overall so far, between its technical issues and the addition of aspects like multiplayer I never really needed to see in the first place. And yet, there’s a lot more here to discover, so I’m going to keep digging for a while.

Follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Pre-order my new sci-fi novel Herokiller, and read my first series, The Earthborn Trilogy, which is also on audiobook.

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Facebook launches the group watching feature Netflix needs to add

Posted: 25 Jul 2018 07:40 AM PDT

Facebook has officially launched a new feature called Watch Party that will let users simultaneously watch Facebook videos together. Their streams will be synced so they can comment and react while the host adds videos to the watch queue and controls playback. Multiple people can "host" the Watch Party, which gives them the ability to choose videos to add. Attendees can suggest videos but not actually play them. For now, Watch Parties can only be started within Groups — not Pages — and the videos have to be hosted on Facebook itself, although they can be Live or prerecorded. The company first announced and starting testing Watch Party in January.

This type of feature is one I've heard lots of people request from Netflix and Spotify. People want to enjoy content with friends or family even when they're apart. Facebook has invested heavily in its Watch content, so it's not surprising to see the company building out additional features. I just don't know how many people want to sit on Facebook and watch videos with their random Groups. Facebook says it built the feature to help video streaming become more of an experience than a passive action.

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Technology trickles down from above to make the new 2019 Audi Q3 smarter

Posted: 24 Jul 2018 10:37 PM PDT

Audi wasn’t kidding when it said 2018 would be one of the busiest years in its history. The company has unveiled the brand-new 2019 Q3 a week after it introduced the updated TT range and a few short weeks after it expanded its SUV lineup with the range-topping Q8.

In America, where we don’t get the pocket-sized Q2, the Q3 will continue to occupy the bottom spot in Audi’s crossover and SUV hierarchy. Designers gave the second-generation model a bolder, sharper look that borrows styling cues like a thin, wide grille with a chromed frame and vertical slats from the aforementioned Q8. Flared wheel arches and contoured taillights add a muscular touch to the design.

The Q3 follows Audi’s shift towards more high-tech interiors. It’s offered with a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, called “virtual cockpit” in Audi-speak, that the driver can configure using buttons located on the multi-function steering wheel. The center console houses a more basic version of the excellent MMI Touch Response infotainment system found in bigger models, including the A6 and the A7. The graphics and key functions look the same, but the big difference is that the Q3 has one screen instead of two so it retains manual dials for the climate control. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility both come standard, and internet-connected navigation with Google Earth integration is offered at an extra cost.

Audi notes it made the Q3 nearly four inches longer than its predecessor. The extra sheet metal won’t bump it into the next segment up but it’s enough to clear up more space for passengers, especially the ones sitting in the second row. Properly configured, the Q3 offers a reclining rear bench that slides by about six inches. Trunk space checks in at 23.8 cubic feet with five occupants on board and 53.9 cubes with the rear seats folded flat.

Audi hasn’t released powertrain specifications for the American-spec Q3. With that said, our version of the SUV will likely receive a turbocharged, 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine tuned to provide 230 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque. It will spin all four wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission and Audi’s quattro all-wheel drive system. Expect a hotter SQ3 and, if we’re lucky, a high-performance RS Q3 to arrive later in the production run.

The 2019 Audi Q3 will reach showrooms across Europe before the end of the year. Dealers in the United States will begin receiving the model in 2019. And, believe it or not, the Q3 isn’t the last new car we’ll see from Audi this year. The brand is putting the final touches on the e-tron quattro, its first series-produced electric model, and will show it to the public before the end of the year.