ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY

Ubisoft went the full RPG route with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and in doing so, made sure that the Origins formula, that was already brimming with content, would become even more packed. Ancient Greece is an astoundingly large setting, full of beautiful locations to discover and sights to see, with a plethora of quests and side quests waiting for you around every corner. The Aegean Sea is a vast and open environment for you to sail about in, engage in naval battles, and dive underwater to discover hidden secrets. The Cultists system is intricate and expansive, and it’s very easy to get lost in the loop of identifying targets and tracking them down before moving on to the next one. On top of that, there’s tons of smaller activities to indulge in, such as killing mercenaries, gathering loot, upgrading your ship, clearing out forts and fortresses, and so, so much more.

Hello Games dropped the biggest update for its space exploration/survival title No Man’s Sky with NEXT a couple months back. Since then, we’ve had other updates that added weekly events, discovery leaderboards, body shape customization, the Pilgrim for appropriately speeding around planets, and much more. Yet another update will be coming up soon, called The Abyss.

On the game’s official website, the developer stated, “We’ve been listening intently, and are hard at work on fixes and improvements. We wanted to share a little news from behind the scenes. Whilst most of the team have been busy on weekly updates, a handful have been working on something else, our first titled update since NEXT.”

This update is The Abyss, and will be free next week for all players. Why “The Abyss“? “Because it focuses on some of the eerier elements of No Man’s Sky, in keeping with the theme of this season,” says the developer. We wouldn’t go expecting space Cthulhu to make an appearance, but new content that takes a look at the creepier, more terrifying things lurking in the universe would be pretty neat.

In case you missed it, No Man’s Sky NEXT brought true multiplayer to the franchise for the first time. It also added a third person perspective, character customization, the ability to build bases anywhere, and significant graphical improvements. The grind is still very real, especially for new players, so check out GamingBolt’s official review for more details before hopping in.

Have you ever felt like planetary travel in No Man’s Sky was a little… slow? Have you ever felt the need for speed? Fortunately, Hello Games has heard you loud and clear. Update 1.63 is now available, and it’s focused on “improving and extending planetary exocraft”. To that effect, it’s also added the Pilgrim, a faster, more rugged exocraft.

Simply buy the Pilgrim Geobay blueprints from the Blueprint Analyzer and you’re good to go. Other changes in the update include Exocraft Technicians, who will provide new upgrades. These include customizing grip and drift levels, colours, decals, and much more. Furthermore, multiplayer racing should now be better, and inventory sizes have been increased.

You can check out the full patch notes below. In case you thought support was beginning to wane for No Man’s Sky, Hello Games’ Sean Murray has confirmed that “another large update” is in the works. What could it be? Murray is hoping to share some previews for the same in due time.

Patch 1.63

• Added a new Exocraft, the Pilgrim. Purchase the blueprints for the Pilgrim Geobay from a Blueprint Analyser.
• Added an Exocraft Summoning Station that once built on a planet, allowing all owned exocraft to be summoned from anywhere on that planet.
• Purchase the blueprints for the Exocraft Summoning Station from a Blueprint Analyser.
• Increased the inventory size of all Exocraft.
• Increased the base speed of the Colossus.
• Added upgrade modules for the Exocraft, similar to the modules available for ships, Multi-Tools and the Exosuit. Upgrade Modules are purchasable for Nanites from the Exocraft Technician once their quest chain is complete. Modifiable stats include top speed, boost power, fuel efficiency, gun damage and more.
• Expanded the Exocraft Quick Menu options to allow all owned and in-range Exocraft to be summoned, not just the current primary Exocraft.
• Added the ability to customise your Exocraft with unique paint, decals and boost particle options.
• Added specific technology to customise Exocraft handling, allowing drivers to spec their vehicles for grip or drift.
• Added a speedometer display to the HUD while driving an Exocraft.
• Fixed a number of issues with vehicle races, particularly in multiplayer.
• Fixed an issue where Exocraft with laser upgrades could still not mine substances that required an Advanced Mining Laser.
• Fixed an issue where Exocraft could not mine terrain resources.
• Fixed an issue where the Race Initiator was not available at the Blueprint Analyser.
• Improved the performance of terrain tessellation on PC (EXPERIMENTAL).
• Improved the visuals when highlighting objects with the Analysis Visor.Fixed an issue where players could not lose a 5-Star wanted level.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the Blaze Javelin from firing while zoomed in with the Combat Scope.
• Fixed an issue where players who were on the other side of a portal at the launch of NEXT would see their portal return marker in an invalid position.
• Fixed an issue where NPCs could use the wrong audio.
• Fixed an issue where frigate cargo would be lost if inventory space wasn’t available upon landing on the frigate.
• Fixed an issue where expedition upgrades were not refunded when the expedition was cancelled.
• Fixed an issue where players were unable to land on frigates owned by other people in multiplayer.
• Added the ability to cycle between frigates when viewing the fleet.
• Fixed an issue where freighters could not be purchased with other players on board.
• Fleets can now be seen from the planet surface.
• Fixed an issue where frigates would revert their colours to blue and white.
• Added display of planetary coordinates to starship dashboard.
• Fixed a number of issues with player position being saved incorrectly while on the other side of a portal in multiplayer.
• Fixed an issue that caused players returning to a Base Computer via a teleporter to spawn inside the Base Computer mesh and be violently ejected.
• Fixed an issue where players were being asked to build a beacon for the Base Scientist but didn’t know the blueprint.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Delivery missions to require the wrong substance at the hand-in step.
• Fixed an issue that could cause missions that involved bribery to request an invalid item as the bribe.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the Atmosphere Harvester to collect an invalid substance on specific rare biomes.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Atmosphere Harvesters (and other similar remote gathering technology) to run out of fuel and empty its collection hopper when the player left the system.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Automated Mining Units to mine an incorrect substance from terrain resource deposits.
• Fixed an issue that caused base building warning messages to be displayed immediately after correctly constructing a building.
• Fixed an issue that caused the ‘Find nearest building’ signal booster option to find only buildings of the same type as the nearest building.
• Starships will now be placed upon available landing pads when teleporting back to the player’s base.
• Fixed a number of other issues affecting starship landing and collision.
• Fixed an issue that could allow multiple starships to be docked on the same landing pad in multiplayer.
• Non-primary player ships are returned to the freighter when the freighter is called in, preventing them becoming permanently lost or broken.
• Further improved the system to remove irrelevant bases from the teleport list.
• Fixed an issue that could cause starship engines to sound too loud.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the camera to swing wildly when launching the starship.
• Prevented Quick Menu hotkeys from taking effect while other UI panels are open (eg during text chat).
• Fixed a crash related to the Quick Menu.
• Fixed an Xbox One-specific crash in networking.
• Fixed a crash in AI ship behaviour.
• Fixed a crash in the terrain system when reloading an autosave.
• Fixed an issue that could cause poor performance on the Discoveries menu.
• Fixed an issue that could cause excess memory usage on some AMD systems.

Rust

Before people associated “building” and “killing random strangers in a wide-open map” with Fortnite, they were doing these things in Rust. Many of Rust’s structures can be fairly simple, usually ramps, ceilings, doors, gates and so on of different materials. However, these can be combined in different ways to craft absolute fortresses full of storage boxes with code locks, automated turrets, barricades and much more.

To me, the term “indie” developer is equal parts counter-culture and unfettered creative vision. However, they are not on a different level from triple-A studios – really, the only things that separate them are bigger budgets and more marketing. Just like indie games are not by virtue worse than triple-A titles because of the lack of money, so too are they not superior because of their unique ideas (which come down to proper execution at the end of the day). I’m not a fan of the “triple-A” or “indie” moniker when it comes down to great games. Because great games, at the end of the day, are great games. And 2018, for all its typical franchises, has seen a lot of great games.

"Developed by Matt Thorson and friends aka Matt Makes Games that brought us the wildly entertaining multiplayer-centric Towerfall: Ascension, Celeste turned out to be one of the biggest surprises of the year."

Let’s start with January. It was a cold, dark month, punctuated by the impending release of Monster Hunter World. For me, the month was important for two reasons – Cellar Door Games’ Full Metal Furies and Konjak’s Iconoclasts. The former, obviously, is due to the developer’s amazing Rogue Legacy. Full Metal Furies has been in development for a long time and while its beat ’em up mechanics were decent, the overall gameplay and structure felt a bit wanting. It came and went but thankfully, the same didn’t apply to Iconoclasts. This years-in-development action platformer from Joakim Sandberg culminated in a colourful adventure with a deep story, lovable characters and excellent boss fights. It’s coming to Nintendo Switch as well, making it the perfect title to have on the go.

However, between these titles and Unknown Worlds’ Subnautica finally leaving Steam Early Access amid much fanfare (rightly so given how excellently the development was handled), there was Celeste. Developed by Matt Thorson and friends aka Matt Makes Games that brought us the wildly entertaining multiplayer-centric Towerfall: Ascension, Celeste turned out to be one of the biggest surprises of the year. It overtook a number of other indie titles by coming to the Nintendo Switch at launch but otherwise, it was a great game in every aspect regardless of the platform.

Mechanically, the platforming and variety in level design was compelling, fresh and organically challenging at every turn. The music and visuals were suitably retro but embodied a surrealistic flavour that felt unmistakably contemporary. I would give the most credit to composer Lena Raine for the sheer perfection that her soundtrack serves in setting the mood but everyone who worked on the game, from the artists and programmers to Thorson as designer and director, deserves the highest praise.

Even as Monster Hunter World was setting records and stealing many players’ hearts, Celeste was already my personal Game of the Year.

"Even though there wasn’t a ton of competition, the best new indie game of February was undoubtedly Into The Breach."

Surprisingly, February felt uneventful in comparison. Aegis Defenders from GUTS Department had a certain appeal to its gameplay with the mix of tower defense and 2D platforming but ultimately remained a niche title. February was mostly the month that numerous titles like SteamWorld Dig, Owlboy, Night in the Woods, Layers of Fear: Legacy, Outlast and much more released on the Nintendo Switch. The Nindies program was starting to pick up momentum.

Meanwhile, EA’s Fe was probably the biggest new indie release of the month simply based on the EA Originals label. Was it really exceptional? Did it push any boundaries, especially after January’s cavalcade of great releases? Not really but it was a solid title from the studio behind Stick It To The Man and the upcoming Ghost Giant. Moss was the other big title, simply due to the pedigree of its developer Polyarc (whose team had worked on titles like Guild Wars 2, Halo: Reach, Red Dead Redemption and Dragon Age).

Whether it was the instantly recognizable protagonist Quill or simply being one of the best VR titles ever made, Moss ably established its presence. There was also Where The Water Tastes Like Wine that sadly was proclaimed as a commercial disaster by the developer. Nevertheless, its gorgeous art-direction and strong cast, intermixed with interactive stories, was a welcome offering. An offering that will hopefully receive more appreciation down the line.

Even though there wasn’t a ton of competition, the best new indie game of February was undoubtedly Into The Breach. FTL: Faster Than Light developer Subset Games took a semi-rogue-like approach into the turn-based strategy genre, evoking an aesthetic similar to Advance Wars with intriguing gameplay and squad possibilities. The procedurally generated nature of maps, scaling difficulty and challenge completion required for new units ensured multiple playthroughs. But it was the deceptively simple yet complex gameplay that cemented it as one of the year’s best. There was just something so sweet about knocking an enemy unit into another while their attack kills a third. The ripple effect that this would have on surrounding buildings and other enemies was also worth watching out for at all times.

"Though ultimately falling back on the “one big twist” style of story-telling and having no single-player option, A Way Out’s characterization and strong mechanics allowed it to sell exceptionally well."

The scene started picking up again with all kinds of releases in March. Evoland developer Shiro Games returned with a completely different offering in Northgard. The strategy title focused on settlement building and exploration, as players managed resources and set out to conquer the immense campaign. Despite the strong critical acclaim, Northgard didn’t get too much appreciation but saw a number of updates to extend its life.

Other standout releases that didn’t get too much attention include Ghost of A Tale, a stealth fantasy game focused on a mouse named Tilo as he explores the history of a strange, anthropomorphic inhabitated kingdom; Q.U.B.E. 2, a puzzler in first person that involves the manipulation of cubes while one navigates an immense maze to survive; and of course, Hazelight Games’ A Way Out. Published under the EA Originals label and hyped up thanks to the antics of creator Josef Fares, A Way Out imbibed the couch co-op experience with a compelling story and gameplay situations. Though ultimately falling back on the “one big twist” style of story-telling and having no single-player option, A Way Out’s characterization and strong mechanics allowed it to sell exceptionally well. It crossed 1 million units sold in just two weeks.

April started earnestly enough with Minit. The game focuses on a mystery but much like Half-Minute Hero, a limited time period is provided to accomplish solve it. In between these sixty-second lives, players gather items that are shared across different lifetimes and advance forward (ideally). Though Minit handled its concept well, it was ultimately overshadowed by Harebrained Schemes’ BattleTech and 11 bit Studios’ Frostpunk, not to mention Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice finally coming to Xbox One.

In terms of heavyweights, that’s a pretty solid list. BattleTech became quite successful and Harebrained was acquired by Paradox Interactive. The developer announced future updates and more content (the recently revealed Flashpoint is the first paid expansion). Frostpunk, meanwhile, has been releasing free updates and quality of life changes besides prepping a new scenario for release later this year. Whether it was a tactical turn-based strategy with mech-building and customization or city-management with survival elements and an aspect of humanity, PC players weren’t wanting for unique experiences in April.

"Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire, despite having a budget that could dwarf other indie titles, presented an old-school approach to computer role-playing games in the vein of Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale."

Of course, there was also Pizza Titan Ultra, an action platformer which featured giant mechs rampaging through cities to deliver pizzas. Why? Because of course, the mech owners ran a pizzeria! It’s crazy and bizarre but combines the over-top style of Crazy Taxi with the destructible landscape of Blast Corps. It’s nuts and yet extremely endearing.

In May, the flow of indies picked up. Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire, despite having a budget that could dwarf other indie titles, presented an old-school approach to computer role-playing games in the vein of Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale. The addition of piracy, ship combat and exploration made it a fun romp even if, like the first game, the writing could be less than quaint. Titles like Omensight and Wizard of Legend also rose to prominence. The former was developed by Spearhead Games of Stories: The Path of Destinies fame. It saw players reliving the same day in Urralia, attempting to solve a murder to reverse the land’s destruction. Time manipulation, hack and slash combat and the ability to influence key characters all created a unique experience (plus the art-style was pretty good looking).

Wizard of Legend took a more straightforward rogue-like approach. Players explored a fixed number of dungeons with procedurally generated elements but the real hook was developing and combining magical spells together. Combat was fast, and the number of spells and items helped provide enough variety for a few repeat playthroughs.

Then there was Moonlighter, a much-anticipated pixel-art dungeon crawler that combined the combat of Zelda with the item shop management of Recettear. While its shopkeeping elements didn’t feel as dynamic, Moonlighter still had an enjoyable loop of combat, upgrading, dungeon looting and selling that was insanely addictive. Did we also mention the art looks simply gorgeous? It’s since been updated with over a hundred new rooms, various quality of life improvements and more interesting twists to the item store.

"July belonged to two major releases – The Banner Saga 3, the climactic conclusion to Stoic’s excellent trilogy, and No Man’s Sky NEXT."

Other titles that stood out in May include City of Brass, a first person rogue-like themed on Arabian Nights where players must venture into a dangerous city for the promise of treasure; FAR: Lone Sails, a linear adventure game where players embark on a sea-faring adventure of mystery, braving hazards and attempting to keep their ship going; and Yoku’s Island Express, a charming side-scrolling platformer that incorporates pinball into its core gameplay. Seriously though, if nothing else, try out Yoku’s Island Express. It’s a ball (I know, I’m sorry).

June and July were relatively quiet, though E3 2018 saw a number of titles either announced or outright released. Unravel Two debuted at EA Play 2018 and while it wasn’t as intriguing as Sea of Solitude (which is out in 2019), the sheer charm of the first game was unique. Plus, there was co-op this time. EA further surprised us by releasing the game as soon as it was announced because…well, why not? Nintendo followed suit. It released the Switch port of Team Cherry’s acclaimed Hollow Knight during its Direct presentation. Hollow Knight has since gone on to fame and fortune, selling over 1 million copies since first launching for PC last year.

Dontnod’s Vampyr was the other big indie release for June. While it seemingly flew under the radar, only slightly buoyed by reviews that praised the story but criticized for its combat, it managed to sell 450,000 units in a manner of weeks. July’s releases were pretty straightforward – This is the Police 2 released and alienated a few fans, though its shift towards a more XCOM-style tactical game wasn’t terrible. Chasm finally released after years in development and while it wasn’t bad, it did average slightly higher than “okay”. At least its 2D art maintained its appeal after so many years.

Honestly, though, July belonged to two major releases – The Banner Saga 3, the climactic conclusion to Stoic’s excellent trilogy, and No Man’s Sky NEXT. The latter technically wasn’t a new game but a large update, overhauling a number of features, adding new ones like co-op multiplayer (and PvP for the more violent-minded folk), and significantly improving the visuals. It did mark the game’s debut for Xbox One but perhaps the most significant development was Hello Games co-founder Sean Murray finally speaking out and admitting to the numerous problems at launch. The commitment to keep improving the game, especially with weekly events, continues.

"Perhaps what impresses me most about this year thus far is how many indie titles seemingly came out of left field and proved to be compelling experiences."

We hence come to August which saw the incredible Dead Cells finally leave Steam Early Access and become a fairly big hit with critics. I’ve waxed eloquent about how brilliant the game is, nailing its core gameplay loop thanks to a striking yet organic aesthetic. And really, it’s tons of fun to kill stuff in that game. No joke.

Guacamelee! 2 wasn’t a revolutionary leap over the sequel but it’s still an excellent follow-up, celebrating Mexican culture and folklore while embodying the very best of Metroidvania gameplay. Death’s Gambit, a 2D Souls-like, also released after numerous years in development. While I personally had a few qualms with it, the combat is fun and challenging to engage with as are the boss battles. Overcooked! 2 brought a whole new meaning to hating your friends with its cooking-based missions (and that odd design choice of only the hosting player receiving progress should be fixed by now). Even Donut County, a game where you control a whole that’s swallowing things up and increasing in size, looks bizarrely fun.

Perhaps what impresses me most about this year thus far is how many indie titles seemingly came out of left field and proved to be compelling experiences. For as much hype as there was for Iconoclasts, Celeste simply came out of nowhere and became known as one of the very best games ever made. Likewise, with August coming to an end (as of this time of writing), Sabotage Studio’s The Messenger has released and proven itself to be an excellent homage to the old-school Ninja Gaiden.

Even without the direct comparison, it’s still proven to be a fantastic 2D action platformer. For The King, IronOak Games’ tabletop roguelike RPG, was also pretty good and despite leaving Early Access with very little fanfare, it’s been well-received by both critics and regular fans. The same goes for Event Horizon’s Tower of Time, a more story-centric RPG dungeon crawler with some compelling combat and decent story-telling.

"Not everyone may find success but each title has earned its place in the hearts and minds of its fans, no matter their number."

Though the Fall and Holiday seasons are known for their triple-A releases, there are a few awesome indie games to look forward to. InExile’s The Bard’s Tale 4: Barrows Deep will arrive on September 18th, introducing a new generation to the dungeon crawling, RPG excitement that permeated old-school titles. Secret of Mana-style action RPG CrossCode will also finally release, exiting Steam Early Access on September 20th, and I couldn’t be more excited about finally playing the game through from start to finish. A number of titles like This War of Mine, Hyper Light Drifter, Everspace, Beat Cop, Moonlighter and much more will also be making their way to the Nintendo Switch, which has proven to be a premier destination for indie titles. Just ask anyone still addicted to Dead Cells on the go.

Frozen Synapse 2 is also probably still coming this year. It’s really hard to say at this point.

The industry has seen its ups and downs throughout the years. Whether it’s last year’s hefty push for loot boxes and reinforcing essential gameplay elements with loot boxes, or the constant nagging about the Battle Royale genre this year, there will always be some kind of pervasive cynicism. That doesn’t mean that some great games – even those seemingly “ruined” by microtransactions – aren’t available to indulge in but that’s beside the point. Through all the twists we’ve seen the industry take, the indie development scene continues to push forward. It may not always be easy or lead to returns as exemplified by Zeboyd Games (Cosmic Star Heroine) or Infinite Fall (Night in the Woods). Some developers like Hello Games may be forever marred by their past failures. Others may be defined more by their explosive personalities than their actual work like Josef Fares.

At the end of the day, the market has proven receptive to indie games and fresh experiences in general. Not everyone may find success but each title has earned its place in the hearts and minds of its fans, no matter their number.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Since the launch of the NEXT update for No Man’s Sky, Hello Games have been steadily releasing new updates to the game, bringing various changes, big and small. Now, another brand new update has been released, and along with this the first season of the game’s community events have begun as well.

With this new community event, Specialist Polo and Priest Entity Nada are looking for all space travellers’ assistance in finding something out for them. Basically, the story is that there is a “glitch in reality”, and it’s up to the explorers to find out what has happened. Some strange objects have begun spawning underground in a particular area of the galaxy, and players who excavate  these objects and bring them back will receive Quicksilver.

This stuff will also be turned into some neat collectibles by Polo’s robotic companion. To participate in these community events, players must have finished the first Space Anomaly mission. Just by participating in the community event, you will be able to get some cool stuff, like base-building materials, an emote, customization options, and more.

Beyond that, the new update brings a whole other bunch of changes as well, including visual improvements, bug fixes, and more. You can check out the entire patch notes below (as provided by Hello Games). No Man’s Sky is currently available on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

• Added user permissions for multiplayer, on a per-save slot basis. Settings for visibility, damage + base editing can be customized to apply to all players, friends only, or no-one.
• Improved the terrain edit saving system, reducing the chance of terrain regenerating. Further improvements to this system are in progress.
• Improved the visuals of player starship trails.
• Added archaeology missions to the available pool of missions from planetary NPCs.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent players with very large save games from saving.
• Fixed a number of issues that prevented save games from loading.
• Fixed an issue that incorrectly synced information in multiplayer.
• Fixed a number of issues that could cause mission markers to be attached to the wrong destination.
• Fixed a number of issues around the refiner and general inventory systems. Improved the pick and drop system of inventory management.
• Fixed an issue that caused visual glitches in clouds at higher resolutions.
• Fixed occasional crash in geometry streaming when exiting planet atmosphere.
• Fixed issue where cloud shadows would interfere with reflection rendering.
• Improved consistency between tessellated and non-tessellated terrains.
• Improved performance when leaving planets.
• Various memory savings, improving overall stability.
• Various performance optimizations.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent players from going through black holes.
• Fixed an issue where players were able to warp and get stuck on the other side of a portal.
• Fixed an issue where players were able to enter their freighter base when it was not loaded in memory.
• Fixed an issue where players could start their game in inappropriate systems when starting in multiplayer.
• Fixed an issue that could cause vast numbers of Sentinel Drones to spawn.
• Fixed an issue that prevented players with pre-NEXT saves from fully upgrading their Exosuit.
• Fixed an issue where freighter crew would change race on warp.
• Fixed an issue where player ships could spawn on the same landing pad in multiplayer.
• Fixed a number of cases where freighter battles were not correctly synced in multiplayer.
• Fixed an issue where players were not able to land on other player’s freighters.
• Fixed a number of issues affecting the interaction with captains of freighters not owned by the player.
• Fixed an issue that caused expedition length, difficulty and rewards to scale incorrectly relative to the power of the player’s fleet.
• Fixed an issue that caused players to exit their ships/exocraft while tagging a marker.
• Fixed an issue where ships landed on freighters to be labelled ON PLANET.
• Fixed an issue that caused player ships to have incorrect information when viewed through the Analysis Visor.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Sentinels to appear as undiscovered creatures when viewed through the Analysis Visor.
• Fixed the axes used to calculate planet coordinates shown on the Analysis Visor.
• Prevented players with freighters from warping other players in multiplayer to systems they would get stuck in.
• Fixed an issue where the freighter dock lights were not correctly lit/unlit when a save was loaded on a freighter.

Ever since the NEXT update, Hello Games has steadily been releasing new updates for No Man’s Sky to improve the game in various ways. Now they’ve released a brand new patch, which is an experimental one, and offers some visual improvements and also improves the game’s initial loading times by 30%.

The patch also brings a lot of bug fixes and performance improvements, not to mention several visual improvements, such as improved appearance of the HUD marker on players’ ships, visually improved exotic biomes, and also better looking clouds in 1440p and 4K resolutions.

As we mentioned earlier, this is an experimental update, which means that it won’t be automatically downloaded. Instead, you’ll have to choose to download it yourself through Steam’s Betas library setting. Hopefully, the team at Hello Games continues to regularly release such patches for the game to keep improving it.

Also, as you may have figured out, this seems to be exclusive to the PC version of No Man’s Sky, since you voluntarily have to download it from Steam. We’re assuming once Hello Games are satisfied with how it’s doing in its experimental phase, they will roll it out on the PS4 ands Xbox One as well. If you want to know the full list of changes that the new patch brings, you can check out the entire patch notes below. Also, be sure to check out our No Man’s Sky NEXT review.

Patch notes:

• Fixed an issue that prevented planets from being added to the Discovery timeline when exiting certain ship models
• Fixed an issue that prevented players from using the Pulse Engine to escape between waves of Sentinel space fighters
• Fixed an issue that could cause base NPC workers to become unresponsive after moving / deleting your base
• Substantially increased the length of time fuel lasts in the hydroponic trays
• Prevented an occasional crash on Xbox One X in scenes with a high node count
• Fixed a crash related to creatures
• Fixed a crash related to terrain generation
• Fix for an issue with PC shader compilation when the game is first booted which would occasionally result in a crash
• Various performance improvements
• Various improvements to load times (approximately 5-10% improvement to warp times, 30% improvement to initial game load)
• Fixed an issue that incorrectly limited the number of storage containers that could be built on the freighter
• Fixed an issue that could prevent construction in the freighter base
• Fixed an issue that could cause the ‘Nearby buildings’ scan on the signal booster to fail
• Fixed an issue that prevented exploration-focussed frigates from charging their scanners
• Fixed an issue that prevented damaged frigates from being completely repaired
• Fixed an issue that could cause the lobby not to display all available games on PS4
• Marked icons are now automatically cleared on arrival at the marked target
• Fixed a number of cases where the HUD would prompt to mark icons that did not need marking
• Improved target locking for ship PvP
• Improved the appearance of HUD markers on player ships
• Fixed a number of visual issues around using the Analyser Visor in very specific circumstances
• Improved the mapping of the Steam Controller
• Removed an obsolete building product from the blueprint analyser
• Combat music now triggers when fighting biological horrors
• Slightly increased the damage dealt by biological horrors
• Fixed an issue that could cause expedition rewards to artificially increase after save/loading
• Fixed an issue where the Personal Forcefield could be deployed on 0% charge
• Fixed an issue where the Mining Beam and other weapon effects displayed the wrong colour in multiplayer
• Fixed an issue where the screen on the Multi-Tool would display the wrong ammo count for the Blaze Javelin
• Fixed an issue where the Multi-Tool was invisible in Photo Mode
• Fixed an issue where the Personal Forcefield would remain in-world forever when cycling Alt Weapon modes
• Fixed an issue where meleeing while sprinting could cause an animation glitch
• Improved the appearance of clouds in 4K/1440p modes
• Visual improvements made to some exotic biomes
• Visual improvements made to the space station technology merchants
• Increased the visibility of underground toxic hazards
• Visual improvements to buried technology modules

It was promised that No Man’s Sky would be receiving weekly updates after the release of the huge NEXT update, and now, true to their word, Hello Games have put out a brand update for the PS4 version of the game. It’s not a huge update, mind you- the new patch brings the game version to 1.56 and it brings along fixes for a few of bug fixes with performance and stability improvements.

The official patch notes have also been released and we learn that among bug fixes are included a fix for an animation issue, and one related to the base archive quest has been added for old saves. It’s great to see Hello Games hard at work on fixing some of these issues with the game to provide a better experience overall for the players. The NEXT update has significantly changed so many things about the game and hopefully, the developers will continue to support the game with new content down the line to keep players engaged.

You can read the entire patch notes for the new update below. It’s as of yet unknown when this patch will be released for the game’s PC and Xbox One versions. No Man’s Sky is currently available for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

• Fixed an animation issue.
• Added the base archive quest for old saves.
• Fixed an issue that prevented pre-NEXT saves from accessing the Base Computer Archive missions.
• Addressed an issue where some non-existent base parts were showing in the Guide.
• Addressed a bug that made melee boost jumping overly hard to do. Texture quality and streaming improved.
• Made further adjustments to the farming timers.
• Added fixes for crashing issues.
• Added fixes for stuttering and lag issues.
• Various performance and stability improvements.

Hello Games’ NEXT overhaul of their space sim No Man’s Sky is ambitious, if still a bit flawed, but for many, it finally realizes the full potential and vision of the game, as was promised to us all the way back in 2016, when the game finally launched after years of hype.

That said, it’s still not perfect- and I don’t mean just in terms of content or quality, either. I just mean that there’s actually quite a few bugs and glitches in the game, although to Hello Games’ credit, they’ve been working overtime on quashing them over the last few days, ever since the NEXT update relaunched the game late last month.

Update 1.53, which is available to download now for all three platforms the game is on, is a part of that initiative. It includes a lot of bug fixes, such as improved animations while jetpacking, improvements make to exocraft laser damage, as well as a preventative fix for a “potential stability issue” that concerns mission handling. There’s other stuff as well, but nothing in the way of major new features- which, come on, we just got NEXT. Don’t be greedy.

No Man’s Sky NEXT is available now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. You can see the full patch notes for the update below.

Bug fixes:

• Fix to restore savegames for players affected by a specific issue with freighter expeditions
• Fix for an occasional white screen crash during loading
• Fix for frigates not reporting their damaged state correctly
• Fix for an issue that could block players in the “fuel the warp drive” stage of the tutorial
• Fix for repairing broken ship slots in Creative Mode
• Improvements to exocraft laser damage
• Improvements for animations while turning, jetpacking, and standing on objects
• Memory optimisations to improve stability
• Preventative fix for potential stability issue with mission handling

Of the many, many changes and additions No Man’s Sky NEXT brings with it to the base game, among the most noticeable have to be the visual upgrades. No Man’s Sky, even when it launched back in 2016, had some truly excellent and eye-popping art, but now it also has the tech to back that up- for the most part, at least. The third person view, which serves as the new default camera for the game, allows you to take in more of your surroundings, so anything you see is immediately more impactful, since there’s just, well, more stuff to see. At least in the very beginning stages of the game, landing on new planets and witnessing their strange new environments for the very first time can truly leave a lasting impression.

The new third person view also allows you to see your character model and, when you’re in flight, your starship. Thankfully, these models are quite well detailed. You could, of course, see your ship in the game’s earlier build as well, and viewed side by side, it’s easy to see that ships are just much more detailed, with a lot more visible parts, than they were in the original No Man’s Sky in 2016. Everything is also just much sharper. With better lighting and improved rendering, not to mention sharper textures, the overall quality of the visuals pops a lot more than it did in the past.

Lighting also works quite well in conjunction with the game’s weather effects to produce frequently beautiful results. At a distance, everything looks suitably crisp and beautiful- though it should be noted that up close, the game does begin to reveal some low resolution textures every now and then. Terrain looks much better than it did in the base game, thanks to improved procedural generation, and water surfaces also benefit from the significantly better assets the game uses.

Improved draw distances are also among the visual upgrades that come with NEXT. This is, of course, a game about scale, so better draw distances go a long way toward helping you take in the sheer largeness of your surroundings. And even though there are still a few instances of pop-in every now and then, they’re either in the distance or not all too frequent, so they don’t ever become too much of an issue.

As for the features specific to each of the platforms the game’s on- one of the notable things about this update is that it also spells the game’s debut on the Xbox One, coming pre-installed with the base game, and the Xbox One X version of the game is quite an impressive one. “Quality” and “performance” are the two modes the Xbox One X version of the game comes with, with the former focusing on resolution and the latter on frame-rate. Quality mode boasts native 4K resolutions, with the frame rate being 30 FPS. Though there are instances when the frame rate drops especially when you’re entering planets.

Performance mode, on the other hand, promises a frame-rate of 60 FPS, while running at a 1440p resolution. Even in this mode, though, the frame rate is far from stable at times. No Man’s Sky NEXT does allow you to turn on an option that caps the frame-rate at 30 FPS, so if you’re looking for a smoother and more consistent appearance, that is the way to go. On a 1080p TV, the game runs at 1080p resolution on the Xbox One X and targets 60fps and for the most part delivers that target with minimal frame rate drops.

On the PS4 Pro, frame-rate is much less of an issue. It, too, has two modes, and the performance mode that promises 60 FPS does so much more consistently than the Xbox One X. Sure, the resolution in this case is knocked down to 1080p instead of the One X’s 1440p, but there is little to no screen tearing, and very little frame-rate dips. An alternative mode targets 30 FPS at an 1800p resolution, and the frame rate here, too, is more stable than the One X’s quality mode- though, of course, the lack of native 4K resolutions is also obviously noticeable.

No Man’s Sky was a pretty beautiful game to begin with, but with NEXT, it becomes even more so. While there’s still a few visual bugs, and some occasional instances of distant pop in, the overall quality of the technical side of things has definitely been cranked up, while the art in general remains as eye popping as always. Native 4K resolutions on the Xbox One X are a bonus, of course, while the PS4 Pro’s more consistent frame-rates are also appreciated, so depending on whether you prefer performance or resolutions in a game, either one of those two versions could be more to your liking. But from a pure technical standpoint, the Xbox One X is quite clearly leading the chart here.