No Man's Sky Story, Space Combat, and Exploration Changed Ahead of Xbox One Launch

No Man's Sky had a rough launch when it first released for PS4 and PC back in 2016. Since then, developer Hello Games has made a host of changes in the run up to the Xbox One release of the game. Some of these include new music, freighters, and biomes, while others are lot more sweeping. For one, the story has been expanded with an additional 30 hours of content that was a part of the No Man's Sky Atlas Rises update. It involves a new inter dimensional race and brought a quest system, and branching narrative.

Space combat has seen improvements as well including an overhauled enemy AI, ship manoeuvrability tweaks, as well as a new HUD to improve the experience. This includes a communicator, which can be used to advance mission steps, or even to hail pirates before they attack.

Furthermore, planets can be explored further with Exocraft. These are land-based vehicles that allow for planetary navigation, combat, and mining. They can be summoned from anywhere on the planet they were build on.

These are just some of the big changes the game has seen since its 2016 debut. No Man's Sky has an Xbox One release date of July 24. The game will be enhanced for Xbox One X as well with 4K and HDR support. Perhaps more importantly, No Man’s Sky on the Xbox One will include all of the previously released content on disc. This is unlike the retail version of the game on PS4 thanks to the numerous patches and updates No Man’s Sky has seen since its launch in August 2016.

Also, the game will get a free update for PS4 and PC on July 24 to allow online play. The Xbox One version will launch with this feature, no update needed. According to developer Hello Games players will be able to "explore together meet random travellers, build shared bases, dog fight, race vehicles".

In fact, the forthcoming update to No Man’s Sky is already in the works. Called No Man’s Sky Next, it follows past updates Foundation, Pathfinder, and most recently, Atlas Rises — all of which refined No Man’s Sky’s core gameplay in meaningful ways.

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