Ironically, considering others reviews on more powerful rigs, this runs fine on my Alienware Alpha i5. Yes, on an Alpha of all things!!! The graphics obviously aren't at max, but still looks good and very playable. Have to run it windowed though. Tried full screen but I got crashes and had to delete my config files to force the game to build them again. Phew! There is one major frame rate issue I am coming across. Bearing in mind I played this for 5 hours yesterday, on two occasions the frame rate went really chuggy. I restarted the game to fix it. As for the gameplay, I shouldn't be enjoying this but I am. I'm not in to survival-type games and it should be boring as hell, but for some reason I found the initial learning curve really rewarding. I generally hate any kind of of inventory management and crafting activity in games but I think that 's because they usually play second fiddle to the storyline games I like to play. I can see that when it's the main part of the game, I actually enjoy it. But for how long I wonder? The music, look and scale of the sandbox environment create a subtle but unique atmosphere that I'm enjoying exploring. They way I'm playing it, it's very chilled out. The constant replenishing of materials to keep you going provides a constant sense of peril that is again subtle. For now, I'm enjoying the learning curve and soaking up the atmosphere. Key moments so far: an annoyingly aggressive scuttley stick insect type thing that kept chasing me. And then I built a gun. Not wanting to leave the first planet I'm on, because I felt there was more to discover. I understand the negative reviews people are giving, without a doubt it's definitely over priced. I went in to this purchase as a gamble and so I can't complain too much. I've given this four stars because of my generous nature. If it runs on your machine, I'd definitely recommend it (but read the reviews to make a judgement call first). But, like the majority of other reviewers, had it not run well on my machine, it would be a 1 (I'm less generous when I feel I've been conned).
