No Man's Sky just got a huge patch which brings in all manner of goodies.
This is the 'Worlds Part II' update (which follows up, yes, you guessed it - 'Worlds Part I') and it expands the game's universe with new stars, planets, terrain and environments to dive into (literally, in the case of the deep oceans that have been introduced).
The developer tells us:
"Explore ancient ruins, gas giants and water worlds, and discover strange creatures, varied biomes and dramatic terrain. Featuring new gameplay, huge improvements in lighting and water rendering, and much more."
In short, it's a big content drop, as Hello Games continues to impress with the amount of effort put into a game that was released the best part of a decade ago now.
There are, in fact, billions of new solar systems to explore, and trillions of new planets. So that should keep you busy for a while...
The terrain is now more detailed, and epic in scale, from towering mountains to the depths of the oceans, which are suitably dark and eerie, and show off fancy new lighting effects.
Also expect new creatures, and these are "probably weirder than ever before" we're told. We can imagine that some of those deep water dwelling entities will be true oddities, as we see in real life, here on planet Earth.
In terms of additional gameplay content, there's an introductory expedition that consists of a tour of all the new worlds, and also a "huge quest that ties together some strands that we've been building for years."
What's particularly interesting here is that these upgrades for No Man's Sky are based on work with the in-development title, Light No Fire - so we're also getting a glimpse of what the engine of that inbound game will deliver.
'Worlds Part II' is officially known as update 5.50 and if you're a No Man's Sky addict, you should obviously grab it as soon as possible (indeed, doubtless you already have). The rest of us can marvel at how such an old game is still getting beefy expansions, and perhaps be tempted to dip our toes in these new deep and dark oceans.