Then there's the bigger, almost unspoken change that's been ushered in with the Foundation update. This is an entirely new universe, the algorithms that dictate what you come across on your travels tweaked to ensure more diversity, more strangeness and more believable planet scapes. It means everything that's gone before it has been torn up and tossed aside, but the sacrifice seems worth it. Some planets are entirely uninhabited, the odd feeling in the original version of coming across the same settlements on each surface ironed out as buildings are now more sparse. It makes for a tougher, lonelier game, even away from the all-new survival mode - resources are now more scarce and have to be sought out on different planets rather than all being clustered together - but it makes for a more beautiful game, too.
Skimming over the surface of a planet submerged in water with the occasional sprawling landmass, all pink grass softened by a radiant sky, was enough to make me fall in love with No Man's Sky again. Disembarking, I find myself in what seems like a small copse, until disturbingly the trees begin to move, clambering back to reveal a creature larger than anything I'd encountered in my previous 40 hours with the game. Maybe it's something that's always been possible, or maybe it's a result of those new algorithms - either way, it's nice to have an excuse to go back in and make fresh discoveries.
