No Man's Sky • Eurogamer.net

GAME's No Man's Sky pre-order bonus lets you wear Xbox One logo on your head

Looking cross.

It will have taken two years for No Man's Sky to finally land on Xbox One, but when it does arrive you'll be able to cosplay as the Xbox console logo.

No Man's Sky's next big update adds multiplayer, out in July

Coming to Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

No Man's Sky's next big update, which introduces a proper multiplayer mode to Hello Games' ambitious space exploration sim, will launch on July 24th.

The news comes via Hello Games' Sean Murray, who made the announcement during an appearance on Microsoft's latest Inside Xbox livestream. Murray also spent a few moments offering a broad overview of the update's new multiplayer features.

Next, as the update is known, was described as No Man's Sky's "biggest update so far" when it was revealed in March, and Murray says that it will fuse a "full multiplayer experience" to the game's increasingly rich blend of survival, exploration, crafting, flying, and questing.

No Man's Sky headed to Xbox One, next big update arrives this summer

The "biggest update so far", says Hello Games.

Hello Games has announced that its ever-expanding space exploration sim No Man's Sky will get its next big update this summer, and will also be heading to Xbox One.

The new update has been given the name NEXT, because, says Hello Games' Sean Murray, "it's an important next step on a longer journey for us and the community." No Man's Sky previous update, Atlas Rises, launched in August last year.

There's no word yet on what, exactly, NEXT will bring to No Man's Sky, but Murray calls it the "biggest update so far". It's seemingly so big, in fact, that it even gets its own logo.

Time to reflect?

No Man's Sky's entertainingly convoluted Waking Titan ARG appears to be back, and fans are picking apart its mysterious messages in a bid to work out what might be next for Hello Games' ever-expanding space game.

No Man's Sky save overhaul headlines a new PC and PS4 update

Ariesonable improvement.

The work to improve No Man's Sky continues with an overhaul of the save system in patch 1.38 released on PC and PS4 today.

You are now given five save slots and existing saves will be mapped to them. Each slot represents a new game and choice of mode, and has two sub-slots within it, one for auto saving (triggered when exiting your ship, dying, and buying a Freighter or claiming a base) and one for saving manually, via a save point or beacon.

The aim is to make managing saves between game modes "much easier", Hello Games said.

Found in space.

He has seen things you wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. C-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannh�user gate. Roy Batty's dying monologue is a key scene of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, its pathos buttressed by a sense of wonder in the face of things no ordinary human being will ever see.

Jelly DealsJelly Deals: Digital discounts for this week

Cut-price games from Humble, GamesPlanet, GOG and more.

A note from the editor: Jelly Deals is a deals site launched by our parent company, Gamer Network, with a mission to find the best bargains out there. Look out for the Jelly Deals roundup of reduced-price games and kit every Saturday on Eurogamer.

No Man's Sky update 1.3 adds 30 hours of story, multiplayer-lite and much more

Joint exploration shows other players as orbs.

Today's big No Man's Sky update has now been detailed in full.

The headline additions include a new 30-hour story campaign, procedurally-generated missions, and a limited form of multiplayer where you see other players as floating orbs.

No Man's Sky developer Hello Games has now released the full update 1.3 patch notes, below, after this morning's leak which pointed to multiplayer elements being added.

Together forever.

UPDATE 11.45am: Hello Games has now published the full No Man's Sky 1.3 patch notes. The update adds 30 hours of story, a multiplayer-lite feature and much more.

FeatureOne year on, is No Man's Sky the game it should have been?

Atlas scrubbed up.

When I fired up No Man's Sky last week, with an eye on today's anniversary of its release, my save file showed that the last time I played the game was in late August last year. I had reviewed it and kept playing for a couple of weeks afterwards; despite the storm of controversy and disappointment that raged around the release of Hello Games' sci-fi exploration game, some of it justified, I had enjoyed myself. It struck me as a hypnotic curio, built on moonshot technology, that deserved neither the slating it got nor the outsized hype that had raised expectations of it to the realm of fantasy.

No Man's Sky screenshot teases Stargate-style portals

UPDATE: Sean Murray confirms update 1.3 for this week.

UPDATE 9/8/17 7.45am: No Man's Sky update 1.3 will land this week, creator Sean Murray has now confirmed.

No Man's Sky community deciphers cryptic Hello Games cassette message

Welcome to your tape.

The No Man's Sky community has deciphered an unexplained message coded onto a number of cassette tapes, apparently sent out by developer Hello Games.

FeatureMicrosoft on why Xbox One doesn't need a No Man's Sky equivalent

And why indies should own their failures.

The ID@Xbox self-publishing program might be Xbox One's crowning glory at the time of writing, boasting 450 titles that have notched up well over a billion hours of play, but it could do with a crown jewel. The service has seen its share of critical darlings, from Superhot to Inside, but many of its best games are multiplatform, and many of its "exclusives" appear on PCs as well - part of a much-vaunted push towards device agnosticism that often feels like it's more in the service of Windows 10 than Xbox.

Digital FoundryNo Man's Sky patch 1.23 resolves PS4 Pro 4K frame-rate issues

And opens up new performance options for both base and Pro hardware.

Hot on the heels of the Path Finder update, Hello Games has swooped in with a new patch to address No Man's Sky's outstanding console performance issues. Patch 1.23 now improves performance by up to 5fps on PS4 Pro in its 4K mode, and also adds the ability to lock or unlock frame-rate on both of Sony's PS4 consoles.

It's a double-whammy of good news for PS4 Pro owners though. If you're playing using the 4K output mode (rendering at a native 1800p), the game now avoids noticeable dips under 30fps. It's much improved, and engine optimisations in patch 1.23 keep the game above of the 30fps line, especially useful when paired with the new capped frame-rate feature.

Until now we've no choice but to play this 4K mode completely unlocked, meaning a jarring range of 30-50fps that never felt great in motion. If you want to push the bar with performance still further, No Man's Sky still runs flawlessly at 60fps in 1080p mode, but once again, you need to set your Pro to output at full HD on the system menus. This is pretty much the only outstanding criticism we have of No Man's Sky's PS4 Pro implementation - desirable features like a 60fps lock should be available to all users regardless of how the system menus are configured.

But the Path Finder update's 4K support needs some work.

No Man's Sky's latest 1.20 patch - the Path Finder update - is the biggest update the game has seen so far, and its new PS4 Pro feature set is getting a lot of positive attention. And rightly so: couple your console to a full HD display and Hello Games' space epic delivers a nigh-on locked 60fps at native resolution, representing an extraordinary upgrade over the base PlayStation 4 code, which in turn has received some welcome optimisation too. It's not a complete success though, and the Pro's 4K resolution mode isn't anything like as accomplished.

Big No Man's Sky update out this week

UPDATE: Out today, new video shows off new features.

UPDATE: The No Man's Sky Path Finder Update comes out today. Hello Games has released a new video showing off the game's new features.

The update adds land vehicles, a permadeath mode and PS4 Pro support. Bases can now be shared online. Here's a summary, from Hello Games:

PlayStation 4 Pro Support, and 4K optimisation

Press any trousers to continue.

2016 was an exhausting year, wasn't it?

Best-selling Steam games of 2016 revealed

Mix of old and new, big and small.

Happy New Year! Valve has revealed the top 100 best selling games on Steam in 2016. And given the size and dominance of Steam in the desktop gaming marketplace, the results are worth noting.

Feature2016: A year in review

Recommended.

2016 was a strange year for video games. Recent memory is dominated by a handful of high quality blockbusters that failed to excite people. But let's not forget earlier this year, when a handful of superb blockbusters definitely did excite people. And I'm not just talking about Street Fighter, either (don't @ me).

In researching 2016, I was surprised to find it jam-packed with video game stuff. Lots of things happened. Lots of people left developers. Lots of people joined developers. Some developers closed down. Some developers sprang into life. Lots and lots and lots of video games came out, mostly on Valve's ever-bulging Steam. Most were crap. Some were good. But in the pursuit of some kind of meaning, some kind of trend, I was left frustrated. Video games continue to be very good, even though 2016, at its close, feels a little less groundbreaking than I'd liked it to have been.

January, typically a quiet month for video games, saw a number of high-profile developers move on. Marc Laidlaw, lead writer of the Half-Life series, retired from Valve. The move was seen as further evidence, not that it's needed at this point, that Half-Life 3 is just not happening. Then we learnt Leslie Benzies, long-time leader of Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar North, had left the company after a 16-month sabbatical. He later sued Take-Two for $150m in a move that's already aired a basket full of dirty laundry. Will the parties settle? I kind of hope not.

No Man's Sky patch adds epic space battles

Here's how to land your freighter on a planet.

No Man's Sky just received a new patch on PC and PS4 that will make space battles vary in size.

"Players should see bigger battles," developer Hello Games noted in its patch notes.

The update also fixes numerous bugs, like the recurring death loop that would happen if the game autosaved in Survival Mode when the player is about to run out of health.

Show, don't tell, in the post-preview world.

Love it or hate it, No Man's Sky was the most important, influential video game of 2016.

Advertising Standards rules No Man's Sky Steam page did not mislead consumers

After detailed defence from Hello Games.

The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled No Man's Sky's controversial Steam page did not mislead consumers.

The Eurogamer Podcast #22: Horse Attack!

Bad neigh-bors.

Hello! It's time for another Eurogamer podcast with two of the three Eurogamer Chrises! And oh man, the games we have been playing.

No Man's Sky files suggest land vehicles are on the way

The good kind of buggy.

No Man's Sky just received a colossal Foundation Update, drastically expanding the space exploration game's feature list, and developer Hello Games has promised much more to come. While it's been cagey on the details of what that entails, recent signs suggest that the sci-fi game will soon receive land-based vehicles.

FeatureNo Man's Sky's long-awaited update brings its galaxy back to life

Forward the Foundation.

Let's get the awkward bit out of the way first.

I liked No Man's Sky. For the two weeks just after launch when I was firmly under its spell, I really liked No Man's Sky, and was happily lost to its lulling loop of exploration and adventure. There's something soothing about the gentle brand of sci-fi that fuelled Hello Games and No Man's Sky's infectiously sanguine artwork, all hazy purples and pinks swirling together like the Chris Foss artwork that inspired it. If you've ever spent long lazy evenings leafing through dog-eared Panther paperbacks, No Man's Sky could feel pretty special; having been sucked in by the sci-fi splendour of those early trailers, it was every inch the game I wanted to play.

For many others it wasn't, though. Maybe it was the air of well-engineered enigma that lingered throughout the pre-launch process, the half-truths or, in one oft-cited example, the outright lies, but for many No Man's Sky fell well short of their expectations. Its more polite critics called it a husk, its more vitriolic an absolute sham and Hello Games' mute approach didn't help silence the almighty din that met the release. Until, eventually, it did. The subreddit slowed to a halt, charting only the number of days since Hello Games' had spoken about the game. Players moved on, and it seemed for a while that No Man's Sky was happy to be finally forgotten.

No Man's Sky studio breaks silence, announces base building and more in huge Foundation update

UPDATE: Live now, and here's everything it adds.

UPDATE 27/11/16 11.00am: No Man's Sky has now been patched with its big Foundation Update, which adds base building, freighters, farming, options for creative and survival modes and a lot more.

The download for the update clocks in at 2.7GB, around the size of the full game, and its contents have now been spilled in a fresh Hello Games blog post.

Hello Games founder Sean Murray - who shouldered huge amounts of criticism after the game failed to meet expectations - announced the update was live this morning via the following message on Twitter:

"Please show customers what your game is actually like to play."

Steam's impending "Discovery Update 2.0" will change its policy so that all images on a game's store page will have to be in-game screenshots. No more concept art or pre-rendered stills here folks.

No Man's Sky subreddit shut down, community erupts

UPDATE: Reopened. "If a community this big is in trouble, we're supposed to be here to help."

UPDATE: The main No Man's Sky subreddit has reopened.

Advertising Standards launches investigation into No Man's Sky

Do videos and screenshots misrepresent the game?

The Advertising Standards Authority has confirmed to Eurogamer that it has launched an investigation into No Man's Sky.

The watchdog launched its investigation after receiving "several complaints" about No Man's Sky advertising, a representative told me.

The ASA has the power to have advertisements it believes are in breach of its code of conduct withdrawn, and prevent them from appearing again. If an advertiser refuses to comply with an ASA ruling, it can impose sanctions, such as asking internet search websites to remove a marketer's paid-for search ads.

Sony's Shuhei Yoshida on No Man's Sky

"It wasn't a great PR strategy…"

Shuhei Yoshida, the popular president of Sony's Worldwide Studios, has said he understands why some fans were critical of controversial space survival sim No Man's Sky - and blamed Hello Games' pre-release PR strategy for building up unrealistic expectations.

Nintendo lawyers jump on No Mario's Sky parody

Relaunches as DMCA's Sky instead.

Indie mash-up parody No Mario's Sky has been squashed by lawyers.

VideoWatch: Why I'm not sticking with No Man's Sky

I can't Gek on with it.

It feels strange to say it so soon after launch, but I think I'm about done with No Man's Sky. On paper it's very much my kind of game - I'm a big Elite: Dangerous fan and very much enjoy bimbling around in open world games - but there's simply something about the experience of playing No Man's Sky that rings hollow.

A new PC mod fixes one of No Man's Sky's most frustrating traits

This is a low.

About 30 hours into No Man's Sky and I'm still loving it, even if its faults are beginning to pile up like a neat mound of Heridium. It's a soft, muted brand of adventure that Hello Games has crafted - "it is to simulated space what Finding Nemo is to the North Atlantic," said Alexis Kennedy for us on Saturday, and he's certainly got a point - so thank heavens for the PC modders who are here to serve up something for those who would like a little more meat on their bones.

Here's what No Man's Sky's PC patches have fixed

Death to stranding.

No Man's Sky got off to a bumpy launch on PC, but developer Hello Games is confident that it's solved "around 70 per cent" of current support requests with the remaining 30 per cent being dealt with as we speak.

As for the current fixes, they should help anyone whose game failed to save until they died, spawned on a space station without the means to fix their ship, or had their save data corrupted.

Common crashes have been fixed as well, so the game should no longer freeze when warping, scanning, receiving a blueprint, or setting too many waypoints in the galactic map.

"It's like they put a gun to my head."

Sony's digital video game refund policy has been the subject of investigation on more than one occasion. Now, it's come under fire again from angry customers after the release of No Man's Sky.

Digital FoundryFace-Off: No Man's Sky

PlayStation 4 takes on budget and mainstream gaming PCs.

It's pretty obvious by this point that No Man's Sky has several clear advantages on PC over its PS4 stablemate. In the best case, it gets an expected push from 30fps to 60fps (and beyond), a vastly widened field of view, plus a clearer 16x anisotropic filtering pass for textures - with a bit of fiddling. With a slight reduction to terrain pop-in too, it's undoubtedly a better-looking game, though perhaps not the radical improvement PC gamers might have hoped for.

It's not all plain sailing though. Stuttering frame-rates and even crashes, are still a problem on certain setups. However, PC offers some enhancements to sweeten the deal, and while differences in shadow and texture quality are moot, the advances in overall presentation stand out. For example, tweaking the field of view slider from the default 75 value (as used on PS4) to 100 helps remove a very restrictive cone of vision. Going one further, editing the game's .ini file in the game's Steam directory lets us push this out to 140 - maximising that periphery, at the expense of introducing a fishbowl effect.

Texture filtering also gets a noticeable boost, with the right tweaks. Sadly, even with the arrival of the latest patch, the in-game setting doesn't show much of a difference between 2x and 16x settings right now - a blurry implementation regardless of what you choose, and one that matches PS4 closely. The good news is you can force the issue with your GPU's control panel; for example, Nvidia users can override the game's setting with its own 16x anisotropic filtering. This gets great results, and textures appear far cleaner at tight angles than the stock PC or PS4 settings.

No Man's Sky's first post-launch patch is out now

Improves hardware support and framerate on PC, stability on PS4.

No Man's Sky launched to many technical difficulties on both PS4 and Steam. Crashes were common on both platforms and many PC users experienced optimisation issues that brought the framerate to a crawl. But now the game has a patch on both platforms that should alleviate many of these issues.

While Hello Games has yet to release its official patch notes, creative lead Sean Murray said on Twitter that the "PC build adds support for more hardware + improves frame rate at low spec. PS4 improves stability + lots more."

Hello Games released some PC patch notes on Tuesday that explained what the update's beta changed. So that should cover a lot of what's fixed here, though the specifics of the PS4 patch remain a mystery.

"Life support systems lommffffmfmf."

Modding of the PC version of No Man's Sky is under way, and modders have begun with a few graphics fixes, as well as some quality-of-life improvements that any player of the game will appreciate. Redditor TaintedSquirrel has a roundup.

No Man's Sky offers new PC patch beta

Here's what it fixes:

No Man's Sky had a troubled PC launch, but developer Hello Games is on the case and just released a new "experimental" Steam branch that players can implement, effectively testing out an upcoming patch before it gets implemented as the new norm.

To access it, players need to right-click on the game from the Library page and select "Properties". From there, select "Betas" and the new branch should be listed in a dropdown menu under "Select the beta you would like to opt into." The code is: "3xperimental".

So, without further ado, here's what it fixes:

Someone's done it.

Reddit user DoktorFeelgood has "maxed out" the starship, exosuit and multi-tool without leaving the starter planet No Man's Sky - proving some interesting things about the way the game systems work in the process.

FeatureNo Man's Sky is a fine example of one type of game (but many people were expecting another)

Horse face, plate face.

I'm writing this a couple of days after the release of No Man's Sky. The incandescent vapour of Internet opinion is coalescing around a cooling core of critical consensus. I imagine that by the time you read this there will have been magmatic eruptions of violent dissent, an orbit of backlash and counter-backlash. The world's telescopes will have been trained on Sean Murray as he explains in defiant, melancholy interviews and blog posts why No Man's Sky is only exactly what everyone knew it would be: the world's most ambitious, expensive and beautiful walking simulator. Except you fly, of course. I'll come back to that.

People are finding strange things in No Man's Sky PC code

Player characters? Half-Life 2? Poop!

No Man's Sky is now available on PC, and players are already rummaging around the inner workings of its code.

No Man's Sky Sony's 2nd biggest ever PS4 launch in UK

Stellar performance.

No Man's Sky has done huge business in the UK, topping the sales chart.

No Man's Sky is Sony's second biggest ever PlayStation 4 launch behind Uncharted 4, Chart-Track said. Remember, that's physical sales only. No Man's Sky also came out in download form on PS4 and on PC.

Hello Games' space title is fifth behind Destiny (PS4), Watch Dogs (PS4), The Getaway (PS2) and The Last of Us (PS3) in terms of new intellectual property across all publishers and Sony formats, Chart-Track added.

An obtrusive UI drops the photobomb on an otherwise breathtaking game.

No Man's Sky is a very pretty game. Its bold use of colour, surprising sentient life, and dynamic climate system offer vistas that stick in the mind for quite some time. While its procedurally-generated environments aren't quite as stunning as those shown in early trailers, it's not far off with each planet's terrain, skyline, flora and fauna offering a mesmerising sight for sore eyes. Some may be disappointed by its lack of thriving cities and lush forests, but for my money No Man's Sky still offers the most varied take on "barren alien wasteland" the gaming space has ever seen.

No Man's Sky isn't going over well on Steam

UPDATE: User reviews now mostly positive, but technical difficulties remain.

UPDATE 14/08/2016 11.20pm: No Man's Sky's Steam reviews have flipped the script with nearly two-thirds of users now praising the game.

No Man's Sky's PC settings revealed

Turn off the HUD! Swap button layouts! Adjust field of view!

No Man's Sky will be out on PC in about an hour and its expanded settings options have been revealed via Nvidia.

FeaturePlaylist: The games that shaped No Man's Sky

Hello games.

It's finally out, and so the mystery of what No Man's Sky is has been solved. Except there wasn't much mystery at all, it turns out - No Man's Sky, for all its soaring ambition, feels like it belongs to a long line of games that have taken the vast stretches of space as their canvas on which to work wonders. If anything, No Man's Sky feels like a game from another age, when you'd work through stacks of 3.5 inch floppy disks around a friend's house in search of something strange and new. The tension you get when a game built in the spirit of a more innocent time clashes with the suffocating hype, expectation and savage appetites of the modern age has made for a palpable tension of late, but hopefully it hasn't detracted from the marvellous achievement made by Hello Games. No Man's Sky may be on a different scale, and party to a very different audience, but it's more than worthy of rubbing shoulders with some of the following legends.

VideoWatch: Seven things we learned playing No Man's Sky

Gek a load of this.

No Man's Sky is a fairly abstruse game. While it's not shy about introducing you to new gadgets, elements and alien civilisations, it's not exactly forthcoming with explanations as to what all these things are for. As a result, the opening hours of No Man's Sky feel like one long learning experience - punctuated liberally by sections of idle pottering around and no small amount of childish naming conventions.

RecommendedNo Man's Sky review

The discovery channel.

"Undiscovered." This word, appearing in tooltips that hover by waypoints, moons, planets and star systems, is No Man's Sky's sales pitch in a nutshell. In this remarkable game of space exploration, a universe has been born by algorithm, and it's so incomprehensibly vast that the chances of seeing anything another player has seen are vanishingly small. Your starting position is randomly selected. Even the wildlife is generated from an unthinkable number of variations. Every discovery you make is logged to the game servers and reported in those tooltips, so if anyone has been there before you, you'll know.

No Man's Sky

Publisher and developer: Hello Games (with Sony on PS4)

No pre-loading available.

Intrepid explorers, No Man's Sky launches tomorrow on PC, but not until 6pm in the UK.

No Man's Sky finishers have advice about Atlas Stones

Do you want to know?

People who have powered their way to the centre of No Man's Sky's universe have some advice: keep your Atlas Stones - don't sell them despite their high sale price.

No Man's Sky has a game-breaking exploit which is letting users farm rarest items

And speed to the ending.

No Man's Sky has a huge exploit which is letting users farm the game's rarest items.

No Man's Sky limited edition has online play icon hidden under sticker

UPDATE: Sony blames "production issue".

UPDATE 5.10pm: Sony has told Eurogamer that the online play and increased age rating featured on limited edition No Man's Sky packaging is a "production issue".

Digital FoundryTech Analysis: No Man's Sky

Full dissection of Hello Games' use of voxels, procedural generation and more.

Five years in the making by indie developer Hello Games, No Man's Sky is a game of incredible scale from a relatively small team. Built on an in-house engine, the final product weighs in at a meagre 5GB on your hard drive - a tiny amount compared to any typical AAA release. This is far from ordinary, and with the game relying heavily on procedural generation, very little of the game's visual make-up uses pre-made textures or assets. Instead, the star of the show is the set of algorithms at its core - lines of code capable of generating terrain, plants and even unique wildlife on-the-fly.

How to avoid No Man's Sky's allegedly game-breaking glitch

UPDATE: Hello Games offers workaround.

UPDATE 12/08/2016 5.30am: Hello Games has offered a fix for the conundrum that has plagued many a player here.

VideoWatch: How big is the grind in No Man's Sky?

Atlas shrugged.

I think it's safe to say that No Man's Sky has successfully captured my attention. This isn't overly surprising as I'm a big fan of Elite: Dangerous, a game which scratches many of the same itches as Hello Games' colourful new release. Coming to No Man's Sky as an Elite player, however, I had one question on my mind - not 'what do you do in No Man's Sky', but 'how hard have you got to grind to do it?'

"Cosmic emperor" Bill Bailey promoting No Man's Sky in the UK

It's like looking into the eye of a duck.

PlayStation has roped in British comedian Bill Bailey to promote No Man's Sky here in the UK.

No Man's Sky players meet in same spot, but can't see each other

UPDATE: Murray hints there's more to it, but servers currently too busy.

UPDATE 8.40am: No Man's Sky creator Sean Murray has hinted there is more to players meeting in the game - although servers are currently too busy for this to show up.

Digital FoundryPerformance Analysis: No Man's Sky

Initial PS4 impressions from Digital Foundry.

We're into our first day with the highly anticipated No Man's Sky running on PlayStation 4 and by and large, in terms of performance, the game is holding up nicely. First impressions are striking: we haven't seen a game quite like this so far in this console generation - its engine relying on voxels and procedural generation to create an open-ended, unique journey for every player. And for a performance analysis, there's simply no telling what you'll find out there that we haven't. We'll continue to update with any further impressions but, we've played enough of No Man's Sky - on patch 1.03, of course - to get a flavour of how the game's mechanics all come together.

So let's kick off with the basics. The PS4 version runs at a native 1080p resolution, and commits itself to a 30 frames per second cap with v-sync engaged. And by and large, it holds up well. For any on-foot action across our very first randomly generated world, we struggled to find any drops at all. And this is really pushing the envelope here - our debut planet is high in flora and fauna, absolutely filled to the brim with tropical trees, hills and wildlife. But even with this immense density of detail, there wasn't much more than one single frame drop from 30fps across that initial hour of play.

Whether it's shooting chunks through the terrain, or sprinting around full-felt, that 30fps target doesn't waver. And from the first 12 planets we've discovered and put to the test, it doesn't appear to matter what climates or weather conditions are in play. Now the only slight downside to the frame-rate cap is the lack of motion blur to back it, in order to make panning motions appear a little smoother. But that's a nitpick: those after super-smooth motion are best advised to wait for the PC version, but for PS4 we're getting an evenly frame-paced delivery at a straight 30fps.

Blasting off from 10am.

Contrary to popular belief, our jobs rarely consist of playing games all day. Mostly it's just a rushed 10 minutes or so here and there before we slink off back to our desks to write another thousand words of copy. I'm happy to report, however, that today we'll be bucking that trend with a mammoth No Man's Sky livestream that may well last the length of the working day and beyond. Will there be mammoths? You never know.

VideoWe visit 50 No Man's Sky planets in seven minutes

A whole new world.

Players are taking their first steps in No Man's Sky - with that massive day one patch installed - and reporting back on their findings.

No Man's Sky dev apologises for erroneous YouTube takedowns

UPDATE: Wrongly flagged fan's account restored in time for 24-hour charity stream.

UPDATE 08/08/2016 9.47pm: Steven Thomas' wrongly flagged YouTube account will be back up and running in time for his 24-hour livestream for charity.

Our No Man's Sky review will be late, and here's why

An update with destiny.

You may have seen reports circulating over the last few days that review copies of No Man's Sky have been very late in arriving. It's true - we have just received our PS4 copies today, and the game is released in the US tomorrow and in Europe on Wednesday. (The PC release date is Friday, and advance copies of the PC version are unavailable at present.)

The embargo for reviews and all other coverage generated from these review copies, which were supplied by Sony, is tomorrow at 4am UK time. Unfortunately there's no way that we can produce a review of No Man's Sky that meets our standards of thoroughness, or is fair to the game itself, in that time. I'm working on this review myself; if I can, I'll update you with some impressions tomorrow, but my focus will be on producing a full review later in the week, very likely after UK launch.

With review copies originally due on Friday but then delayed until Monday, some sites, as reported by Kotaku, have obtained copies of the game via retailers who were willing to break street date, so they could start work early and bring you their verdicts sooner. This is fair game, in my opinion, and not that unusual in circumstances when publishers withhold review copies. On rare occasions, we've done it ourselves. But we haven't this time. How come?

No Man's Sky has an enormous day one patch that adds multiple endings

But anyone playing early will have to start over to see them.

No Man's Sky developer Hello Games has detailed an enormous day one patch with far-reaching changes for the game.

Your progress through the procedurally-generated universe of No Man's Sky will now follow one of three set paths. Each will have a "significant impact on what you see later in the game", Hello Games boss Sean Murray has said, and the game's story has been rewritten to allow for multiple endings.

There's also now a far higher chance of player "collision", as you can scan for areas visited by other players and drop by.

Here's how he did it.

No Man's Sky - perhaps the most anticipated game of 2016 - isn't out until next week. But one player with a copy of the game has claimed to have reached the centre of the galaxy already.

No Man's Sky dev pleads fans not watch gameplay leaks

"You've spent years waiting. Please don't spoil it for yourself :("

Some early footage of No Man's Sky has leaked and developer Hello Games strongly suggests fans not spoil it for themselves by watching.

"We've spent years filling No Man's Sky with surprises. You've spent years waiting. Please don't spoil it for yourself :(" Hello Games founder Sean Murray tweeted.

"Take a break from reading about it, and picking vids apart. You can experience for yourself so soon."

Expansive universe stretches beyond our concept of time.

No Man's Sky's PC version has been pushed back a few days.

No, you don't need PlayStation Plus for No Man's Sky

Stellar.

Universe-spanning exploration game No Man's Sky does not require a PlayStation Plus subscription to play.

There's a whiff of Destiny about No Man's Sky's menu screens

Super Good Advice.

Sony's put out a new trailer for No Man's Sky, which showcases the trade side to the space game.

Why No Man's Sky fans are worried about a patented Superformula

UPDATE: Hello Games protests innocence, accuser says he's been invited over for a "cup of coffee".

UPDATE 25/7/16 11.20am: Last week, one of 2016's biggest games came under threat from a mathematical formula created by a Belgian botanist.

65daysofstatic are touring the No Man's Sky soundtrack

"See you on the road. Unless our passports are no good anymore."

65daysofstatic have announced they're touring the No Man's Sky soundtrack.

No Man's Sky studio settles "secret, stupid" three-year Sky lawsuit

Hello Games almost forced to say goodbye to game name.

No Man's Sky developer Hello Games has revealed a three-year long lawsuit brought by broadcasting giant Sky.

No Man's Sky delayed, no longer releasing in June - reports

UPDATE: Now official, new August release date revealed.

UPDATE 28/05/2016 12.29am: No Man's Sky has just been officially delayed until 9th August, as can be seen on its new PlayStation listing.

No Man's Sky's cool soundtrack comes out alongside the game

But you can listen to the first track now.

When No Man's Sky was unveiled in 2013, one of the many things about it that caught the eye was its music. Now, the people behind the ambitious space game's soundtrack have announced it'll go on sale alongside the game this summer.

No Man's Sky gets a final release date

UPDATE: $150 special edition shown.

UPDATE 4.45pm: There's a $150 (�105) special edition version of No Man's Sky, dubbed the Explorer's Edition, which includes a model spaceship.

Just 10,000 will be available. Each set also includes a badge and an exclusive item to be revealed at the game's release. Mysterious.

This edition is available for pre-order now via IAm8bit.co.uk with either a Steam or GOG key for No Man's Sky's PC version included.

Reach for the stars: The first hands-on with Hello Games' epic.

Well over two years after No Man's Sky was unveiled, Hello Games' Sean Murray is still fielding the same question that's been circling this game from the very start. And each and every time he's answered it patiently, diligently and, somewhat commendably, without displaying any frustration at having to repeat himself all over again. So, with No Man's Sky finally available in playable form during a press event, let's run through this one more time. Just for old time's sake. What is it you actually do in this game?

PlayStation blog page suggests No Man's Sky will be full-priced release

Pre-orders look set to open tomorrow.

No Man's Sky will be a full priced release and pre-orders for the game will open tomorrow.

VideoWatch: No Man's Sky - managing the hype

Oli interviews Sean Murray of Hello Games.

During last week's Sony conference at Paris Games Week, we were finally given a release window (though not a specific release date) for No Man's Sky. While still exciting, it was hard to shake the feeling that the announcement was somewhat muted compared to the game's previous conference appearances.

No Man's Sky release date set for June 2016

My god, it's full of stars.

Highly-anticipated galactic sandbox game No Man's Sky will launch on PlayStation 4 in June 2016.

Sony just revealed the date during its ongoing Paris Games Week 2015 PlayStation press conference.

Earlier this week there were rumours online that the game would get a surprise launch this week - but it is clear that No Man's Sky studio Hello Games is still deep in development on the ambitious project.

Watch No Man's Sky wow Stephen Colbert

"And I thought Morgan Freeman was god!"

The Late Show host Stephen Colbert is no stranger to video games after having the likes of PewDiePie attend his show, an honour usually bestowed to movie stars and presidential candidates. This time the 51-year-old host gave the prestigious program's spotlight over to Hello Games, the 10-person Guildford-based studio making No Man's Sky.

18 minutes of No Man's Sky footage shows off what you actually do

And there's a five-star wanted level like in GTA.

No Man's Sky creator Sean Murray has shown off an extended look at what players will actually do in his ambitious "open universe" space game.

No Man's Sky coming to PC same time as PS4

Blast off!

No Man's Sky will be released on PC as well as PS4, and the two versions will come out at the same time.

Keep your eyes peeled for planet Sugas-Uomi when No Man's Sky comes out

"It's not the prettiest planet. I've seen better. But I've also seen a lot worse."

During Sony's E3 press conference last night Hello Games' Sean Murray played eye-catching PlayStation 4 game No Man's Sky, showing off combat, exploration and the massive scale of the space game in a five minute demo.

FeatureThe art of No Man's Sky

A brief look at the artwork that inspired Hello Games' space exploration epic.

Science fiction has always been at the core of No Man's Sky. That might seem like a superfluous thing to say, given its scope, its fantasy and its attempt to realise the awe-inspiring spectacle of a life lived amidst a near-infinite sea of stars, but it's a very particular brand of science fiction that the team at Hello Games (they're a small team, I think I've heard) have taken to heart.

FeatureSo, what do you actually do in No Man's Sky?

Sean Murray explains what to expect on your way to the centre of the universe.

"Space is big", wrote Douglas Adams in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. "You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space..."

Here's over four minutes of No Man's Sky gameplay

Time to warp.

Hello Games' Sean Murray took to the stage at Sony's PlayStation Experience event to show some more footage of the ambitious and exciting No Man's Sky.

The video, below, features over four minutes of footage of the science fiction game. We see a pilot launch, land on a planet, jump out and walk about, before we zoom out to get a glimpse of the hugeness of the game's infinite procedural universe.

We then warp to another planet.

Round grass! Space! More dinosaurs!

No Man's Sky developer Hello Games has revealed another look at its ambitious 2015 sci-fi sandbox game during tonight's Video Game Awards.

What is No Man's Sky? This is No Man's Sky

"I started out with the smallest, crappiest ship you could imagine..."

Sony has released a new video about eye-catching sci-fi adventure game No Man's Sky.

FeatureHow No Man's Sky stole the show at E3

And why it's the first game designed for the YouTube generation.

There's a time and a place for subtlety, and the stage of a platform holder's conference very likely isn't it. Having just played a starring role in Sony's E3 show, Hello Games' Sean Murray watched the rest unfold in bemusement in the green room, puzzled as to why every grotesque fatality in the newly revealed Mortal Kombat 10 was met with a cheer. "What is that about?" he asks no-one in particular. "It all seems a bit brutal for us Europeans."

No Man's Sky screenshots

No Man's Sky will launch on console first on PS4

Stunning new planet-to-planet footage arrives.

Hello Games' breathtaking sci-fi open universe game No Man's Sky will arrive for consoles first on PlayStation 4.

Studio leader Sean Murray took the stage during Sony's E3 2014 press conference to make the announcement and reveal more gameplay from the game's procedurally-generated worlds.

Most impressive is the ability to hop from one planet to another with no loading times, from ground to space and back to ground on a different place in the solar system.

"We're back, full speed!"

Over the holiday Joe Danger developer Hello Game's Guilford office was flooded with the insurance refusing to cover the natural disaster. This left many concerned that the four-person studio's highly anticipated first-person sci-fi epic No Man's Sky would get delayed. Hello Games has updated its blog to let us know that won't be the case and everything's going to be okay.

Christmas storms flood No Man's Sky dev Hello Games

Office ruined and insurance won't cover it.

Joe Danger and No Man's Sky developer Hello Games has been flooded, its office ruined.

Feature"A future that has a history": Introducing No Man's Sky

The stars my destination.

If you're on Mars next October you should probably be careful. There's a comet swinging past - comet Siding Spring - and while it's unlikely to connect with Big Red itself, it will bring glittering meteors spinning in its wake. Lots of meteors, actually - some of which - and I shivered when I read this line on the front page of the New Scientist website - "could pose a danger to orbiting spacecraft."