Hello Games has fully detailed No Man’s Sky Update 1.2 (aka the Path Finder Update) for PlayStation 4 and PC, which includes PS4 Pro support, a permadeath mode, base sharing, planetary vehicles, and much more. You can see a preview of some of the features in the above trailer.
And here’s the patch notes for the new No Man’s Sky update:
PlayStation 4 Pro
PS4 Pro support has been enabled allowing 4K resolution gameplay. 4K rendering on PC has also been optimized. Together with visual improvements for all versions, No Man’s Sky has never looked better:
- Support For PS4 Pro 4K Rendering
- Support For PS4 Pro Delta Colour Compression
- Support For PS4 Pro automatic Depth Buffer decompression
Visual Updates
- High and ultra resolution textures
- More accurate Ambient Lighting
- Horizon Based Ambient Occlusion
- High contrast lighting effects
- Crepuscular Rays from the Sun
- Improved post-processing with several filter options
- HDR mode for compatible monitors and televisions
Online Base Sharing
- Bases can now be shared online, allowing other players to discover and explore your outpost.
Own Multiple Ships
- Use the enormous hanger in your Freighter to purchase and store your own collection of starships.
- This is even more meaningful with the introduction of ship specialisation, classes and the ability to trade in previous ships against new purchases
Starship Specializations
Find and collect the perfect starship with new specialisations and classes:
- Each starship has a specialisation (Shuttle, Fighter, Hauler or Science) that improves performance in specific areas.
- Shuttles are all-rounders, Fighters specialise in combat, Haulers have expanded cargo holds and Science vessels feature increased warp capabilities
- In addition to new ship types, all ships will now be class-rated: A, B, C or the ultra rare S class.
- When purchasing a new ship, you’ll now be given the option to trade in your current ship for a discount.
New Vehicles – Exocraft
Master the surface of your home planet using new Exocraft. These land-based vehicles give new meaning to planetary navigation, combat and mining – and can be summoned from anywhere on the planet they were constructed upon:
- The smallest Exocraft is the Nomad. What it may lack in cargo space, this hovercraft makes up for in speed, agility and its ability to glide over water
- The mid-range Exocraft is the Roamer, a great all-rounder capable of quickly crossing rugged terrain and adapting to most situations
- Finally, the Colossus is the largest of the Exocraft. This lumbering behemoth offers an enormous cargo hold perfect for those looking to harvest resources
Acquire Exocraft by hiring a Vy’keen Technician for your planetary base and completing a new series of missions:
- Mount powerful mining lasers and harvest resources with far greater efficiency
- High-intensity long-range scanners aid the discovery of distant buildings, objects and resources
- Equip weapons and eliminate threats with increased firepower
- Boost your vehicle’s speed with the acceleration module
Exocraft Races
Hone your driving skills by building your own race circuit on your home planet. Find the most interesting planet, create a time trial and challenge others to beat it:
- Obtain the Race Initiator and place it inside your Base Building zone
- Hop into your vehicle and drive the route you’d like to map out, dropping checkpoint markers anywhere on the planet
- Once a circuit is complete, race the track over and over to set an unbeatable lap time
- Players visiting your base via Base Sharing will be able to race using the circuit you created, challenging themselves against your split times.
New Shops and Traders
New traders have been added to space stations and bases, as well as a new currency:
- A valuable new currency called Nanite Clusters can be found in various locations including abandoned bases and cargo crates
- Blueprint stock will refresh periodically, so check back from time to time to see if any new or rare blueprints have become available.
- Traders aboard space stations will exchange Nanite Clusters for your choice of blueprints
- Your standing with the three NPC factions is now more important, as traders will only sell the best technology to their closest allies
- Your standing with a faction can be improved by offering relics and curiosities to their representatives, or through conversation choices
- Seek out Vy’keen traders for Multi-tool technology, Gek for ship upgrades and the Korvax for Exosuit improvement blueprints
- A new building trader will now visit your home base, and will sell new base constructs in exchange for credits
Base Building Variety
Customisation options for your base have more than doubled:
- More than 40 new base-building parts have been added, including coloured lights, stairs, observation domes and more
- Personalize your base further with new material aesthetics including Wood, Stone, Metal as well as several new colours
- Put the finishing touches to your home, choosing from an array of new furniture finishes
- Decorate your walls with dozens of new decals. Earn extra decals by visiting the bases of other players
Multi-Tool Specialization and Classes
Multi-tool specializations and classes have been introduced. Choose between pistol, rifle, experimental and alien specializations:
- Pistols offer increased mining capabilities, Rifles provide combat advantages and Experimental weapons are attuned to scanning. The rarest and most powerful are Alien Multi-tools
- Similar to starships, weapons are also S, A, B or C class-rated
- When purchasing a new Multi-tool, you can now trade in your current model for a discount
New Weapon Modes
Three new weapons can be installed into Multi-tools alongside the existing Boltcaster weapon. Each weapon provides a unique combat style:
- The Scatter Blaster is most effective in close range encounters, able to damage multiple foes at once
- The Pulse Spitter is ideal for mid-range skirmishes, particularly against fast moving opponents
- The Blaze Javelin is a long range weapon, capable of eliminating enemies from afar
New ship weaponry offers advanced tactical opportunities:
- The Cyclotron Ballista fires a concentrated ball of charged particles at forward targets, causing heavy damage
- The Positron Ejector shoots in a wide cone of destruction
- The Infra-Knife Accelerator releases a sustained burst of rapid fire
Permadeath Mode
- A new Permadeath mode has been added, offering the greatest challenge yet. The consequences of death will be absolute.
- The difficulty level of Permadeath mode mirrors Survival mode
- Survival mode difficulty has been further increased. Dying in space will now restart you on the nearest planet’s surface, away from your crashed ship
- Prove your mettle by unlocking new survival and permadeath Trophies
Photo Mode
- Find the perfect angle for your shot in free camera mode, revealing your Starship in third person
- Pause and change the time of day for the perfect lighting conditions
- Change cloud layers and fog density to take the most atmospheric shots possible
- New photo filters can be used to add ta finishing touch
- Share your favourite screenshots with the community using PS4 or Steam sharing functionality
Discovery Menu
- Your home planet is marked on the Galaxy Map, giving you a clearer feeling of your place in the universe
- Use the discovery page to easily browse planetary information, including resource and biome data.
- Previously visited planets can be marked with Waypoints, simplifying return navigation
Music From 65daysofstatic
- Our favorite band 65daysofstatic has been back in the studio recording 8 new soundscapes for in-game, as well as lots of new loading music.
Quality of Life Improvements
- It is now possible to skip the ‘Journey Milestone’ black bars, and these have been reduced or removed in many areas.
- NPC interaction text now appears faster, and can now be skipped.
- The option to return to ‘Game Mode Select’ has been added, allowing players to quickly change game mode
- A Mission Log has been added to allow players to track multiple objectives
- The user interface has been made easier to read in many places, and background graphics have been added
- Atmospheric low-flight has been adjusted and improved
- Ships, weapons, vehicles, freighters and bases can now all be renamed.
- Long-clicks have been removed in many menus places to allow for faster interface navigation
You can learn more about the Path Finder Update over here.
At the end of the trailer, Hello Games teases that more is on the way for No Man’s Sky.
Will you be revisiting No Man’s Sky this week?
[Source: No Man’s Sky]
No Man's Sky Info Dump
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No Man's Sky - Everything You Need to Know
Scrub up on your knowledge of Hello Games' space oddity in time for its long-anticipated release.
Your universe awaits.
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First Gameplay Revealed
Six months on from its show-stopping unveiling, Hello Games took to the stage at E3 2014 heralding the first look at No Man's Sky in action.
It proved a defining moment in the game's development arc, not only wowing the industry with tangible gameplay, but aligning it closely with Sony and PlayStation 4. Which brings us to...
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Why PS4?
Despite some confusion at first, No Man's Sky will be releasing as a timed PS4 exclusive, expanding to PC soon after its debut early next week.
But the power of Sony's system effectively shaped Hello Games' approach to No Man's Sky from top to bottom -- be it design, control or performance.
Said Sean Murray at the time: "We’ve always had PC in mind but in my head [console-y] means solid framerate and immediate controls."
During production, it's understood NMS had the "full weight of PlayStation" behind it.
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Expect Journey-esque Multiplayer
In adding a sense of order to the chaotic cosmos, Hello Games is eager to implement seamless multiplayer that will evoke memories of thatgamecompany's Journey.
Given the sheer scope of No Man's Sky, the odds of you crossing paths with another player are seemingly "really, really small."
But that doesn't mean you're totally alone, with Murray revealing that, "you get a sense that you’re playing with other people, and you can see the actions of other people, plus you’ll share things that are significant – if you take out a space station, we’ll share that, and that’ll be shared across the entire universe."
In space, no one can hear you, ahem, gather resources. Whatever the case, let's hope the prospect of running into potential allies offsets any boredom.
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No Load Screens to Report
Tedious or no, one thing Hello Games is confident about is its game engine, which all but negates the need for load screens.
That allows you to jump from planet to planet without interruption, with Sean Murray noting that the studio "demoed this at gamescom, just jumping round the universe to different planets. There are no load times, because nothing needs to load, as the planets are entirely computer-generated."
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More Than Meets the Eye
Unbridled exploration isn't the only selling point of Hello Games' new IP, and as development wore on, new details began to emerge regarding combat and the in-game wanted system.
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One Year Later
A lot can change in a year. By 2014, The VGAs were now known as The Game Awards and No Man's Sky, commemorating 12 months since its reveal, unleashed a new gameplay clip that thrust viewers out into the far reaches of space.
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No DLC Plans
As things stand, Hello Games currently has no plans for downloadable content, and appears to be angling No Man's Sky to be more of a platform.
Besides, with upwards of 18 quintillion planets to explore, is add-on content really necessary? In fact, the game is so big that Hello Games had to employ probes to oversee creation.
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Too Big to Spoil
Even if you watched every single YouTube video for No Man's Sky -- of which there will surely be thousands -- it's virtually impossible to spoil the entire experience.
That's a point of contention that re-emerged quite recently, too, with Sean Murray asking early adopters to refrain from delving too deep and instead waiting to experience those surprises for themselves.
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Hands-On Impressions
Putting Hello Games' epic to the sword, our own Chandler Wood went hands-on with No Man's Sky at E3 2015. It nabbed one of PSLS' coveted Best of E3 Awards, too.
Fast forward some nine months and we got our hands on a more complete build of the studio's space title. There's also a chat with Sean Murray himself.
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Virtual Reality Not Off the Table
During our chat, the prospect of VR support inevitably came to the fore. That's something that Hello Games has flirted with before -- it could be the "perfect fit" -- even when the PlayStation VR was still referred to as Project Morpheus.
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Smooth Sailing on PS4
Despite reports to the contrary, No Man's Sky allegedly runs smoothly on PlayStation 4, and Sean Murray has allayed fears that the game will be hamstrung by frame rate issues and other technical hiccups.
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Lore, Languages and Alien NPCs
That's reassuring, too, considering the amount of lore here to discover. From NPC interaction to alien languages, No Man's Sky comes packing a rich, unfathomably complex universe to explore.
It's an interstellar narrative mapped out by the talented duo of Dave Gibbons (Watchmen, Kingsman: The Secret Service) and James Swallow (Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Star Trek).
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Planetary Weather
Such a boundless scope entices you to jump in the nearest spacecraft, right? Not so fast. Whether it's scorching hot temperatures or bitter-cold lows, many of the planets found in No Man's Sky are inhospitable.
"There are things like rain, dust storms, snow, blizzards, storms and a bunch of other things possible. There are also more alien weather types, effectively like radioactive and toxic hazards, and atmospheres made from different compositions to ours."
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Prolonged Development
First showcased in the latter stages of 2013, it's fair to say No Man's Sky has been a long time coming.
Confirming initial reports to be true, Hello Games announced plans to postpone its hotly-anticipated title back in May, pegging No Man's Sky to the now-final release date of August 9 in North America.
If you're wanting to delve a little deeper, check out our piece recounting the road so far.
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Hello Games Came Close to Pulling the Plug
Fearing that the game wouldn't garner much interest, Sean Murray admitted that Hello Games came close to never revealing No Man's Sky in 2013.
That wasn't the only time when doubt was cast over the ambitious space sim. Only a few weeks after said announcement, the studio's home base in Guildford, England was hit by a devastating flood.
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The Flood
Christmas Eve, 2013. It's a time when Hello Games should have been riding high coming off the back of The VGAs. But a cruel flash flood brought that fairytale down to earth, with the studio revealing at the time that a significant chunk of work and development tools had been lost.
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Legal Tussles
Hello Games' struggles stretched beyond natural disasters, too, after the developer was forced to settle a "secret" dispute regarding the No Man's Sky title, not to mention the allegations made against the patented superformula. Both were settled with relatively little fuss.
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Most Anticipated Title of 2016
It makes for quite the comeback story, though; according to a straw poll conducted by Amazon, No Man's Sky stands as the most-anticipated title of 2016.
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Soundtrack
Featuring music from instrumental band 65daysofstatic, the official No Man's Sky soundtrack will be released in tandem with the game next week with the promise of additional music further down the line.
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No PlayStation Plus Necessary
Though it's recommended to get the full experience, PlayStation Plus is not required to play online in No Man's Sky.
The only drawback is that you can't contribute to the in-game Atlas: "PS Plus won’t be a requirement to play online, however you will need to connected to the internet for your discoveries to register with the universal atlas." Speaking of which...
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The Atlas
It's the floating translucent diamond that has been synonymous with No Man's Sky from the start, but that symbol actually represents The Atlas, the mysterious fixture of Hello Games' universe that is seemingly harbor a secret or two of its two.
Players will use the Atlas to chronicle their discoveries -- be that planets, flora, animals and everything in between.
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PC Version Pushed
Once set to launch alongside its PS4 brethren, we learned recently that Hello Games had postponed the PC version of No Man's Sky by three days.
It'll now arrive on August 12, though the studio failed to explain its reasoning behind the last-minute delay.
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6GB on Disc
Though the digital size is yet to be determined, No Man's Sky will weigh in at 6GB on retail discs.
Although it seems someone paid an exorbitant amount of money to get their hands on an early copy...
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$1,300 on eBay
eBay user daymeeuhn forked out a whopping $1,300 for an early retail copy of No Man's Sky.
That's quite the headline, but in responding to questions via Reddit, the user posted a fairly reasonable response.
"I’m a lucky guy. I’ve done well for myself. I have disposable income and I’m happy in life. I’m in a state of being where I don’t look at a purchase and determine the overall value by the price tag, but rather by how much happiness it will bring myself or the people I care about."
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Done Deal
In a second update, that same flush eBay user claimed to have beaten the game. That is, reach the center of the universe. Mild spoilers within.
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Top 5 & Trophy List
In anticipation of the No Man's Sky's arrival, we here at PSLS ran through the Top 5 reasons why we can't wait to delve into Hello Games' procedural universe.
The Trophy list has also popped, revealing the game's wealth of sci-fi inspirations.
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Four Pillars & First Post-Launch Update
In educating would-be explorers about the moment-to-moment gameplay of No Man's Sky, a recent four-part video series covered the primary pillars: Survival. Combat. Exploration. Trading.
Beyond that, there's also word of the first post-launch update. It'll add "new features, balancing and content."
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Rated T for Teen
Citing laser blasts and explosions, the ESRB has officially rated No Man's Sky T for Teen.
Here's the rundown:
"From a first-person perspective, players travel between planetary systems to explore alien worlds for resources, upgrade equipment, and discover unique life forms. As players pilot spacecrafts to different planets, they can engage in space combat against enemy ships and space pirates; combat is accompanied by laser fire and large explosions."
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Limited Edition & Faceplate
Priced at $79.99, the No Man’s Sky Limited Edition bundles together the game itself, steelbook, art book, comic, and more.
There's also a sleek faceplate to add to your PS4.
