No Man's Sky Beyond to add VR support this summer
Going beyond the beyond
At least half of the joy of No Man's Sky is soaking in its strange alien landscapes that its algorithms have generated for you. I reckon that sightseeing should be all the more impressive in virtual reality. During a Sony live-stream, Hello Games unveiled one more feature of their upcoming free expansion, Beyond - full VR support. Players with existing saves can put on a pair of space-goggles and immediately go virtual, and even play with other people online whether or not they have expensive headsets, too. Take a look at the new VR mode with its new, tactile controls below.
I'm a little surprised to see them so committed to adapting the game's controls to VR here. While perhaps not as practical or efficient as just using a gamepad or keyboard/mouse, you get to fly your ship with virtual stick and throttle, gripped with virtual hands. Those virtual hands are always visible when wandering around planet-side too. You can press buttons on your multitool to switch modes on it, or reach behind you to stow it in your backpack. A little exhausting after hours of space exploration, but I can see it making for some interesting space-pioneer moments.
I'm still waiting until the next generation (or scoring a deal on a cheap-ish Oculus Rift S) to pick up a VR headset for myself, but I'm always happy to see more games patching in support. By the time I pick up on my own hardware, I'll be spoilt for choice, with dozens of VR-ready games. Intriguingly, this isn't even the end of the Beyond news - according to Hello Games in their announcement, they're not yet done unveiling stuff for the expansion. The update will include a "third major feature" that they're not quite ready to show, with the first being large-scale multiplayer.
The free No Man's Sky update, Beyond is due sometime this summer. The game itself is currently half price on Steam, bringing it down to £19.99/€27.49/$30.