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The sheer number of games available to PC gamers is mind-boggling. So, while recently considering my favorite genre, which is survival, I found myself staring at my library and wondering. “What if I’m missing a hidden gem?” or, more importantly, “What if there are upcoming games I’m just not aware of?” And if there were, how would I know? Well, I turned to ChatGPT to figure out exactly what I was missing out on.
ChatGPT’s survival recommendations #
However, while it’s true that knowledge is power, and that’s AI’s great strength, there can be complications in knowing things. Or, in the words of English musician Paul Weller, “the more I know, the less I understand”. Regardless, after asking ChatGPT, “Which upcoming survival games should I keep my eyes on?”, it curated a wishlist from a longer selection, and one name stood out.
Alongside some canny advice, “wishlist aggressively, buy selectively after updates”, the already known Subnautica 2, Enshrouded, The Last Caretaker (which is excellent, by the way), and State of Decay 3 appeared. But there was a title I’d not heard of. A title not yet in early access. A title with no release date, called Light No Fire. Intrigued, I hopped over to the Steam Store page. The description is intriguing, but the details are yet to be fleshed out.
What is Light No Fire? #
The brief synopsis is that Light No Fire is “A game about adventure, building, survival, and exploration together. Set on a fantasy planet the size of Earth.” The game’s world is procedurally generated, it is a multiplayer title, and the adventure is seemingly yours to create. However, the Hello Games (No Man’s Sky) creation has no release date (TBA), and its system requirements section offers: “OS: To be confirmed.”
Yet while there are very few details available, it is clearly being worked on. After all, there’s an official announcement trailer available. Yes, except this announcement trailer is from December 2023, which is two and a half years ago. So, have there been any updates? Rather than ask ChatGPT for a follow-up, I did what any 40-something person would do and hammered search terms into my browser, feverishly looking for information and similarly suffering gamers.
What came back wasn’t encouraging. One of the top video hits is ‘WTF Happened to Light No Fire‘ from YouTuber Force Gaming. The slight spoiler is that we don’t exactly know. However, the more in-depth answer is slightly more intricate. As Force Gaming points out, Hello Games’ Managing Director Sean Murray has mentioned Light No Fire side-by-side with No Man’s Sky. The mentions arrive this way because the two games run on the same engine… which is cool.
Lightning striking twice? #
Now, a shared engine is excellent in one way: No Man’s Sky has matured into a hugely impressive title with a ‘very positive’ review label on Steam. However, that’s taken years of updates, and it came to market in August 2016 as a pretty underwhelming package. And now that I know Light No Fire exists, I’m having concerns of a lightning-strikes-twice variety. And I’m clearly not alone.
From Reddit jokes about why Light No Fire is never coming out to suggestions that it may not get a release date until 2027 or 2028, the future is uncertain. In fact, the community has taken to speculating when the next official update may be. Meanwhile, Hello Games remains quiet, leaving believers (and those newly arrived via ChatGPT recommendations) with more knowledge about the game but less understanding.
And in case you wondered, the last official update mention of Light No Fire was back in February of this year. It came as the footnote to a 10th-anniversary update for No Man’s Sky. Which at least gives hope that in another ten years, Light No Fire will be somewhat established. But until then, thanks for nothing, ChatGPT. Now I have a previously unknown game to be invested in, and another thing to needlessly keep an eye on when I should be taking a break from social media [Callback 8020 article link]. Curse my curiosity.