Saying, "I grew up reading Carmack’s .plan files for Quake, so it’s fun to be
writing one of my own,"
Sean Murray announces
a new patch for No Man's Sky. This is
the expected
update to pave the way for this week's release of Hello Games' space opera. He
also explains the promised server wipes, saying beside today's there will be
another tomorrow. The full post contains some spoilers, but this part seems
unspoiled:
When we went gold five or six week ago,
we posted on
twitter, and literally every reply was like “hope you are going on a nice
holiday!”. Some of us have, but I didn’t want to, not yet. I pictured myself
somewhere staring out the window thinking about this game I’ve been working on
for five years.
We’re under a pretty intense spotlight right now, and hopefully it’s easy to
imagine how hard it would be to switch off from that, or how deeply we care
about people’s first impression of the game.
In fact most of us were back here the day after we went gold,
working on
this update. We’re already proud of what we put on a disk, but if we had
time, why not continue to update it?
Hello Games will continually update No Man’s Sky this way. This is the first of
many.
It will be available on Monday for press for review once it exits submission,
and on launch for public on PC and PS4. We expect future updates like these to
continue to be free.
For 99.9% of people, all you have to do is install the update before you begin
to play.
If you had an early copy somehow, your save game will technically work post
update, but you will miss out on new content and experiences if you don’t delete
your save before updating (should be obvious why from notes below). We highly
recommend deleting your save if you have played before updating your game (we
won’t do this in future, but it’s a day zero update).
Servers will be wiped on Sunday and again Monday in the lead up to
launch.
A new
Star Citizen Newsletter has word that alpha 2.5 for
Star Citizen
nears. Cloud Imperium opts for a "road" metaphor for a space flight game and
offers some details on the new version. There's no word yet on when the game
might reach beta. Nor is there a release date for the new alpha, though it
sounds close. Here's word:
As I write this, the team is putting Star
Citizen Alpha version 2.5 through its paces. We’ve recently released it to the
first wave of PTU testers, who are helping us identify bugs to smash and
improvements to gameplay for the upcoming live release. Once that happens,
you’ll be able to explore the Grim HEX outlaw base, fly the community-selected
Reliant and try out the brand new Argo shuttle. This will be the first time in
the mini-PU that we have different spawn locations and I’m excited to see what
happens now that Citizens and outlaws have their own bases.
Recent developments are making it harder to use Xbox One controllers on
Windows PCs, according to
Ars Technica. In spite of Windows Bluetooth support, new Bluetooth-powered
controllers for the Xbox One S are part of the problem.
This support thread has details, and Ars says, "Some games no longer
recognize when Xbox One controllers are connected via Bluetooth or through the
official Xbox One wireless adapter. Other games, as well as Steam's Big Picture
mode, think a single Xbox One controller is two controllers simultaneously." At
the same time, the recent Windows 10 anniversary update seems to have broken
homebrew workarounds for third-party controllers. Finally, they also note only a
single Bluetooth controller can connect to a PC at once, and this must be
running Windows 10. Here's a summary of the mess that leads them to suggest
gamers uninstall the Win10 anniversary update:
Another issue is less
likely to receive an update: the new Xbox One controllers' Bluetooth support is
severely limited. As in, only one pad can be connected via Bluetooth at once.
Microsoft isn't advertising this limitation, but
an official Xbox Support page confirms it: you can only connect one
Bluetooth pad to a Windows 10 PC at a time, and those Bluetooth pads require
running on Windows 10 with the Anniversary update. If you want to use more
wireless Xbox One pads on a single PC, you'll need to purchase the official Xbox
One wireless adapter. Otherwise, don't rush out and buy a bunch of updated Xbox
One pads expecting them to sync up to any laptop for the sake of wild, on-the-go
multiplayer sessions of Push Me Pull You or Towerfall: Ascension.
The situation gets worse. Your sole Bluetooth controller won't even function in
Windows 10's Anniversary update until you update the controller's firmware,
which users aren't told when they connect the pads. Instead, users must manually
find and install the Xbox Accessories app from the Windows Store. Boot that with
the Xbox One pad connected via Bluetooth, and you'll then get the prompt to
update the pad's firmware. The new Xbox One controller does not include
instructions to this effect, possibly because Xbox One consoles automate this
process in a way that Windows 10 PCs do not.
Until Microsoft announces an update to these controller-based woes, the gaming
geeks at Ars recommend that you avoid the Anniversary update. If you've already
updated and want to return to the "it just works" days of XInput support on
wireless controllers, toggle to the "revert to your previous install of Windows"
option, which isn't hard to find in the options menus.
Here's Valve's accounting of the 10 bestselling titles on
Steam for last week:
- No Man's Sky
- DOOM
- ARK: Survival Evolved
- Fallout 4
- Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
- RimWorld
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- Batman - The Telltale Series
- ABZU
- Grand Theft Auto V
Today is a big milestone on the NFL calendar, as the first preseason game is
tonight. The Hall of Fame game will be a matchup of two of the NFL's most
storied franchises, setting the Packers against the Colts. I'm somewhat excited
about the coming of the football season, which is telling. The amount of
attention I pay to the preseason generally reflects the fortunes of the Mets.
The team is still hanging around the playoff hunt, but if things were going
better in Flushing, I'd be a lot less concerned with the NFL right now.
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