No Man's Sky Update Goes Beyond

It's fair to say that No Man's Sky has had an interesting life-cycle, from its troubled launch three years ago through Hello Games' impressive support in the intervening years that has culminated in the newest update titled, Beyond.

In the run-up to the update Hello Games were tight-lipped on what was to be included. They made a point of saying it would include full VR support on PC and PS4 and significant improvements to multiplayer but outside of that they stayed silent. The patch notes have been released and it's clear to see that this is the biggest update the game has ever received.

Almost every area of the game has seen significant attention and there are also a number of new features. On PC, there is full SteamVR support with touch controller integration, this also applies to the PS4 version with full PSVR integration. This has resulted in new cockpits and visuals for all the vehicles in the game as well as unique animations when interacting with objects.

The hinted at multiplayer changes are significant too with the Space Anomaly now functioning as a Social Hub where players can meet friends and strangers to group with to take on missions or just have fun together. Party limits have been raised from four to eight on console and from four to 32 on PC. The new hub will also make it easier to visit other people's bases and generally get around.

As well as these two major areas, the whole game has had some love applied to it, with some nip and tuck work done in areas like recipe and technology management, there is now a research tree style system in place where you can see at a glance what you need to obtain to get to the things you want rather than it being down to chance. Other areas like tutorials and the visibility of objectives have been streamlined and improved to make mechanics and goals more obvious.

Totally new features include the ability to tame, ride and harvest cooking ingredients from wildlife. A new power system for bases along with logic switches and new parts to allow construction of light displays and contraptions. The update also brings with it new industrial base building so you can survey and automate extracting resources from planetary hotspots.

There are a lot of changes, this list barely scratches the surface as there are too many to list here so you should check out the full notes here but Hello Games have certainly continued to put a lot of effort into supporting the game.

The Beyond update for No Man's Sky is live now. No Man's Sky is available on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.