TRAILER: No Man's Sky gets a drop date!

It's been quite some time since I purchased a video game--even longer since I bought a console (Wii Sports, anyone?). But No Man's Sky really has me considering a Playstation, because it is SPECTACULAR.

The release date is set for June 2016. Check out this latest trailer:

A rich and diverse universe to explore

And I'm not just talking the look of it--the developers are reviving procedural-based world building, but on a scale and breadth never-before attempted.The game has been in development for years (first posted about it here) while they've worked on the algorithm that creates each star system and planet. Approximately 10% of the planets will have life (which might seem low, but remember there's still plenty of worlds inhabited and being fought over by sentients!).

And there's a method to the program's genesis. Here's one of the developers giving a tour of how the NMS universe works:

Via IGN 

And another quick behind-the-scenes overview:

More visuals to whet your appetite!

Here's some incredible stills from actual game play (right click to enlarge):

 

I'm really digging the sleek and vaguely Z-95 look of the spaceships. Finally, here's a supercut of some previous trailers. Enjoy!

• News via Krypton Radio 
• IGN has complete coverage with many more videos

What are your rules for Space Opera?

So I've been working on some ideas for Rad Astra, which has been rattling around in my brain since the Thanksgiving holiday, today I saw this post by io9.com on the Top Ten Rules of Space Opera. It's a good start for anyone looking to flesh out a story or campaign setting. Take a look with your macrobinoculars:

1. Have a giant object in space.
2. Set the action in motion by plunging us into the middle of an extremely complicated astropolitical regime change.
3. A scrappy group of humans should be part of a rebellion that's hidden on a cool-looking moon or tricked-out asteroid.
4. There must be an enormous mothership (which must be referred to as a mothership or maybe a base ship), and it must be attacked by a bunch of tiny fighter ships.
5. Always fill your spaceships and intergalactic ports with random background aliens and weird-faced creatures.
6. Your heroes should always revisit the sites of old battles, the locations of terrible accidents, and the regions of space where their people were wiped from the face of the universe. But only if they don't want to.
7. If there is a male bad guy, he should have a ripped body or amazing weapons. If there is a female bad guy, she should have a high, sparkly collar or a sidekick named something like Tigerman.
8. There should be at least three types of weapon and three types of spaceship, each of which will be given a name that is used repeatedly.
9. There should be a captain. If there is not a captain, there should be a special agent. If there is not a special agent, there should be a cadet with a future. If there is no cadet with a future, there should be a mercenary with a dark past.
10. Somebody wise should predict something, but nobody will pay attention or be able to understand the prediction.

Compare their list with sci-fi writer Brian Aldiss' own tounge-planted-firmly-in-cheek (if oft non-specific) version:

1. Style and Mood staunchly traditional
2. Hitherto unknown places to explore
3. Continuity between Past and Future
4. Tremendous sphere of space/time
5. A pinch of reality inflated with melodrama
6. A seasoning of screwy ideas
7. Heady escapist stuff
8. Charging on with little regard for logic or literacy
9. Often throwing off great images, excitements, aspirations
10. The Earth should be in peril
11. There must be a quest
12. There must be a man to match the mighty hour
13. That man must confront aliens and exotic creatures
14. Space must flow past the ports like wine from a pitcher
15. Blood must run down the palace steps
16. Ships must launch out into the louring dark
17. There must be a woman fairer than the skies
18. There must be a villain darker than a Black Hole
19. All must come right in the end
20. The future in space, seen mistily through the eyes of yesterday

Had me wondering what might they have missed? What would you add or emphasize?