No Man’s Sky’s latest and greatest update, rightly named Beyond, is releasing this week. It’s Hello Games’ eighth main update to the three-year-old game, and its, by far, the largest. At two times bigger than No Man’s Sky Next, Beyond will likely be the best update yet. With VR support, a new online update for 16 – 32 players, and the third pillar, which contains several smaller changes, like ridable creatures and denser more varied biomes, Beyond will be big.
And for something this big, it’s important to prepare yourself in more ways than just sitting there, all excited. VR-support, brand new larger-scale multiplayer, the Nexus. And a bunch of new features. That means a lot of potential bugs, which sounds about right with No Man’s Sky’s biggest update yet. And with big updates, big problems can also come. So here are a few ways to prepare for No Man’s Sky Beyond.
Beyond Will be Big
No Man’s Sky Next was a big update. At just under 10 gigabytes, it was a bigger update than expected. We finally got four-player multiplayer where you could actually see your friend’s in the flesh, as well as your own, in the third person. Not forgetting the new freighter system, unlimited base building, and a graphical overhaul, the update was a literal game-changer. It essentially more than doubled the size of the game.
Though, annoyingly for some, and myself, with my tragic 500GB PS4, I had to delete a game or two or my storage. Very inconvenient. Especially considering I only played NEXT for a few weeks and then redownloaded the games that I briefly parted with. As Beyond is apparently double the size of Next, it’s a good idea to make sure you have enough space on your PC or console or at least delegate some time for a couple of small titles to leave your library. If you don’t have enough space or don’t want to part with any game that’s clogging up your memory, then an external hard drive could be a good idea. Just make sure to have enough space for No Man’s Sky’s largest update yet.
When you have enough space for the update, it’s important to note it might take a while to download. Especially if your WiFi is anything like mine, which is barely bearable. At twenty gigabytes, its 3.3 times bigger than the base game, so just as well as enough space, if you want to play it as soon as possible, set your update status to automatic and keep your PS4, PC, or Xbox on rest modern for August 14th. If you want a top tip, leave the system overnight. It’s at this time that the WiFi will be best as the people your living with won’t be using it, and there won’t be a demand for it like there is throughout the day.
Bugs Man’s Sky
Over the last eight updates, there’s only been two that haven’t caused my application to crash. Especially after the release of No Man’s Sky Next, crashing was highly reoccurring among console owners. And rather frustratingly, right before I was about to complete a build, my game thought it would be funny to shut down. Hilarious. I had wasted three hours of my time. As a result, I was slightly more than a bit irritated. So bear in mind that you’ll want to save your game as often as possible. Especially during the early weeks of the update.
But even more importantly (if you have a PC), it’s been reported that on PC some players entire saves were lost after a crash. YouTuber, Mac Floraday highlights the issues of this here and expresses his own annoying experience after the foundation update came out more than two years ago. It seems like, with base building, if it’s done an excessive amount, it can cause the game to have difficulty staying stable with its frame rate, as well as running at all. So be extra careful that your 1000-plus hour save isn’t lost. To make sure, back up the save.
Don’t Expect too Much
Remember that time way back three years ago when No Man’s Sky was first released. There was a bit of lying involved. (I was pretty upset when I found out I was playing a single-player game after I was apparently traveling the Universe with my friends). It didn’t help that many people were expecting the best game ever to make its way to their Library. Don’t expect too much. If you expect less, you get more. But realistically, it sounds like VR, No Man’s Sky Online and a whole host of other updates are probably more than enough.
It’s also likely that loading times and loading into other servers for No Man’s Sky Online might take longer than usual. A few million people will likely pick up the game in the curiosity of this new update. So don’t expect the fastest load times or smoothest experience. They’ll be a few million people trying to do the same thing at once.
For more on No Man’s Sky Beyond stay tuned to TheNerdStash. See you in Euclid on August 14th (if you’re in my 16 player server).
