The hotly anticipated No Man’s Sky proved to be a problematic release when it launched in August, as many players agreed that the finished product didn’t live up to their expectations of the scale and scope of the game. Now, after months of near radio silence, developer Hello Games has announced a major update. It adds new modes, and what could be the beginnings of a dune buggy of sorts for you to ride in.
“This week Hello Games will be releasing an update to No Man’s Sky,” read the post announcing the update on the studio’s website. “We’re calling it The Foundation Update, because we have added the foundations of base building, and also because this is putting in place a foundation for things to come.”
The patch was released on Sunday morning, and response from players has been broadly positive. While the Foundation Update doesn’t address every complaint about the game, it does introduce some frequently requested features among various smaller tweaks and fixes.
The Foundation Update is headlined by the addition of two new gameplay modes; Creative and Survival. The former option removes much of the challenge from the game for players who are more interested in building and exploring than fighting for their lives, while the latter does the opposite by raising its difficulty significantly.
In game, players can now build bases on planets in order to house helpful equipment and even alien assistants. There’s also the option to construct a frigate, a huge craft that acts as a base that flies between planets, according to a report from Ars Technica.
The Foundation Update doesn’t suddenly turn No Man’s Sky into the game everyone was looking forward to ahead of its initial release, but it’s a good start. If Hello Games can follow up this patch with more updates of the same quality and ambition, the studio might be able to save face after the enormous backlash it suffered at the time of the initial release.
The patch is available now for both the PlayStation 4 and PC versions of the game.
More recently, Reddit user Eegandj found a number of files that suggest there may be a buggy (a vehicle, not a bug) in the game. Alleged leaks show an unfinished 3D model of the vehicle, as well as icons, textures, and most damningly, a folder named “buggy.” But of course, that doesn’t mean such a vehicle will make it into the final cut of No Man’s Sky. That said, you can check out what the game would look like with it here.
Updated on 11-29-2016 by Lulu Chang: Added reports of a potential car in ‘No Man’s Sky’
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.