Amazon is offering another decent batch of games to Prime members at no extra cost for the month of April. Leading the bunch is Fallout 76, a multiplayer take on the post-apocalyptic franchise. There’s also the hack and slash adventure Chivalry 2 and around a dozen more.

Fallout 76 is just the latest title in the series to hit Prime Gaming, likely to coincide with this month’s premiere of the Fallout TV show. It experienced mixed reviews upon release, with many complaining about an overall lack of purpose in the gameplay and a blandness in the design. Other people simply enjoyed wandering around a post-apocalyptic West Virginia with their buddies.

The game’s available for PC and, interestingly, Xbox consoles. People can download it from GOG for PC and Amazon will hand out a code to Prime members for an Xbox download. Fallout 76 will be available on April 11, the same exact day all eight episodes of the show drop. 

Chivalry 2, on the other hand, is available right now. This is a modern take on the hack and slash genre, with a first-person POV, multiplayer matches with up to 64 players at once and a grimy medieval setting. There’s also crossplay for every available platform. Prime members can download it at the Epic Games Store.

Other titles coming this month include Black Desert, Demon’s Tilt, Rose Riddle: The Fairy Tale Detective Collector’s Edition and many more. Click the link above for the full list. Additionally, Prime Members in the US, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK can access some new games on Luna at no extra charge. These include LEGO Fortnite, Earthworm Jim 2 and Trackmania, among others.

There’s another Matrix movie in the works. Warner Bros. just greenlit a fifth installment of the saga, as reported by Deadline. However, neither Lana Wachowski or Lilly Wachowski will be handling directing duties. That honor falls to Drew Goddard, who adapted The Martian into a screenplay and directed the criminally underrated Cabin in the Woods. He's also writing the script. 

Goddard cut his teeth writing episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Lost, among others — you could say he knows his way around genre content. Lana Wachowski will be on board as an executive producer, so there will be some input from one of the franchise’s original creators.

There’s no word as to what the film will be about, but Warner Bros. says that Goddard came to the company with a “new idea that we all believe would be an incredible way to continue the Matrix world.” Goddard added that the original films inspire him on a daily basis and that he is “beyond grateful for the chance to tell stories” in that world.

Warner Bros. is also being cagey as to which, if any, cast members would be returning. The original trilogy featured Keanu Reeves, Carrie Anne-Moss, Laurence Fishburne, Hugo Weaving and Jada Pinkett Smith. Most of these actors returned for 2021’s The Matrix Resurrections, with one story-based exception.

Speaking of The Matrix Resurrections, it received mixed reviews from both critics and audiences. We loved the film, going as far as to call it brilliant, but admitted that it wasn’t for everyone. That’s par for the course with this franchise. Every single Matrix movie beyond the first one is divisive. We’ll have to wait and see what Goddard brings to the table.

He’s also writing a film adaptation based on another novel by The Martian scribe Andy Weir. Project Hail Mary will be directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and will star Ryan Gosling as an astronaut trying to save the planet from a star-eating microbe.

The craze around Facebook Live might be a thing of the past, but Meta is still trying to make the platform video-friendly. The company has announced a new video player for uniformly displaying Reels, longer content and Live videos on the Facebook app. 

One of the biggest shifts is that all of Facebook's videos will now appear full-screen — even landscape-oriented ones. Videos will automatically play vertically, but you can now turn your phone on its side to watch most horizontal content across your entire device. 

Like many videos on TikTok, Facebook will now offer a slider at the bottom of the screen, letting you quickly move through the video. The update also brings some of the same features streamers like Netflix offer in their apps, such as the option to jump forward or backward by 10 seconds. Meta claims that you will now get "more relevant video recommendations" of all lengths appearing on the video tab and in your feed. The company will also be increasing the number of Reels shown on Facebook. 

The video player is rolling out now to Android and iOS users in the United States and Canada, with the new controls launching in the next few weeks. The entire update should be available globally in the coming months.

Stability AI just unveiled Stable Audio 2.0, an upgraded version of its music-generation platform. This system lets users create up to three minutes of audio via text prompt. That’s around the length of an actual song, so it'll also whip up an intro, a full chord progression and an outro.

First, the good news. Three minutes is huge. The previous version of the software maxed out at 90 seconds. Just imagine the fake birthday song you could make in the style of that one Rob Thomas/Santana track. Another boon? The tool is free and publicly available through the company’s website, so have at it.

It primarily works via text prompt, but there’s an option to upload an audio clip. The system will analyze the clip and produce something similar. All uploaded audio must be copyright-free, so this isn’t for the purposes of mimicking something that already exists. Rather, it could be useful for, say, humming a drum part or extending a 20 second clip into something longer.

Now, the bad news. This is still AI-generated music. It’s cool as a conversation piece and as an emblem of a possible future that’s great for tinkerers and bad for musicians, but that’s about it. The songs can actually sound nifty, at first, until the seams start showing. Then things get a bit creepy.

For instance, the system loves adding vocals, but not in any known human language. I guess it’s in whatever language that makes up the text in AI-generated images. The vocals sort of sound like actual people, and other times they sound Gregorian chanters filtered through outer space. It’s right smack dab in the middle of that uncanny valley. The Verge called the vocals “soulless and weird," comparing them to whale sounds. That tracks. 

Stable Audio 2.0 makes the same weird little mistakes that all of these systems make, no matter the output type. Parts can vanish into thin air, replaced with something else. Sometimes melodic elements will double out of nowhere, like an audio version of those extra fingers in AI-generated images.

There’s also the, well, boring-ness of it all. This is music in name only. Without a human connection, what’s the point? I listen to music to get inside the head of another person or group of people. There’s no head to get inside of here, despite constant proclamations that artificial general intelligence (AGI) is only months away.

So, this tech is an absolute gift for those making silly birthday videos or bank hold music. For everyone else? Shrug. One thing I can say from personal experience: It’s pretty fast. The system concocted an absolutely terrifying big band song about my cat in around a minute. 

LinkedIn is testing a new feed of TikTok-like vertical videos. The feature hasn’t been publicly announced but it’s been spotted by users in recent days and the company confirmed the tests to TechCrunch.

According to a screenshot shared by Instagram employee Jenny Eishingdrelo and a video posted to LinkedIn by influencer marketing exec Austin Null, the new feed will appear in a separate “video” tab in the LinkedIn app. Users will be able to scroll vertically to move between clips, much like TikTok or Instagram Reels.

It’s not the first time the company has hopped on a trendy format. LinkedIn previously experimented with a Stories feature for disappearing posts. That feature lasted less than a year, though the professional network hinted at the time that it wasn’t done with its video experiments, saying it was working “to evolve the Stories format into a reimagined video experience across LinkedIn.”

Presumably, LinkedIn is hoping the feed will showcase content from its ranks of professional creators and thought leaders, many of whom are already posting video to their feeds. However, it’s not clear how many of the site’s users are interested in a dedicated video feed for workplace-related content.

An oddball new app called Palmsy lets you post to a social media network full of adoring followers who only exist in your imagination. Whether used as a journaling app with a fresh twist or a nicotine patch equivalent for social media addiction, Palmsy prevents the real world from ever seeing your “posts,” storing them on-device, offline and private.

Palmsy’s App Store description says it “lets you make little posts for yourself.” And, at its core, that’s all you’re doing. As for why you’d want to do such a thing, people who have trouble with typical journaling or mind-mapping apps may find it a more inspiring framework. Or, if your social posting habit has gotten out of hand (or you want a break from it for any other reason), it could serve as a way to wean yourself off and give you the dopamine hit without sharing anything publicly.

One clever wrinkle from developer Pat Nakajima is that the app imports your contacts to generate fake likes from them. As pointed out by TechCrunch, Nakajima wrote on Threads that nothing leaves your device or is posted to your contacts, the app’s servers or anywhere else. “It’s just pretend,” he clarified.

If seeing fake likes from real contacts feels a bit too weird, a recent update added the ability to limit the number of faux likes your posts get. You can also set caps on how long you receive them, ranging from a few seconds to a few days.

The app is free and iOS-only, including iPhone and iPad variants.

I had a favorite version of Mulan growing up (Anita Yuen in the 1998 Taiwanese TV series). I obsessed over Chinese period TV series like Legend of the Condor Heroes, My Fair Princess and The Book and the Sword. I consider myself fairly well-versed in Chinese historical figures, especially those represented in ‘90s and 2000s entertainment in Asia. So when I found out that a UK-based studio had made a VR game called The Pirate Queen based on a forgotten female leader who was prolific in the South China Sea, I was shocked. How had I never heard of her? How had the Asian film and TV industry never covered her?

I got to play a bit of the game this week, which was released on the Meta Quest store and Steam on March 7th. The titular character Cheng Shih is voiced by actor Lucy Liu, who also executive produced this version of the game with UK-based Singer Studios’ CEO and founder Eloise Singer. Liu and Singer sat with me for an interview discussing The Pirate Queen, Cheng Shih, VR’s strengths and the importance of cultural and historical accuracy in games and films.

Cheng Shih, which translates to “Madam Cheng” or “Mrs Cheng,” was born Shi Yang. After she married the pirate Cheng Yi (usually romanized as Zheng Yi), she became known as Cheng Yi Sao, which translates to “wife of Cheng Yi.” Together they led the Guangdong Pirate Confederation in the 1800s. Upon her husband’s death in 1807, she took over the reins and went on to become what South China Morning Post described as “history’s greatest pirate.”

Singer Studios

How did Singer Studios learn about Cheng Shih and decide to build a game (and upcoming franchise including a film, podcast and graphic novels) around her? According to Singer, it was through word of mouth. “It was a friend of mine who first told me the story,” Singer said. “She said, ‘Did you know that the most famous pirate in history was a woman?’”

Cheng Shih had been loosely referenced in various films and games before this, like the character Mistress Ching in the 2007 film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and Jing Lang in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. As Singer pointed out, Cheng Shih had also appeared in a recent episode of Doctor Who.

Singer said that her team started developing the project as a film at the end of 2018. But the pandemic disrupted their plans, causing Singer to adapt it into a game. A short version of The Pirate Queen later debuted at Raindance Film Festival, and shortly after, Meta came onboard and provided funding to complete development of the game. Liu was then approached when the full version was ready and about to make its appearance at Tribeca Film Festival 2023.

“The rest is history,” Liu said, “But not forgotten history.” She said Cheng Shih was never really recognized for being the most powerful pirate. “It seems so crazy that in the 19th century, this woman who started as a courtesan would then rise to power and then have this fleet of pirates that she commanded,” Liu added. She went on to talk about how Cheng Shih was ahead of the time and also represented “a bit of an underdog story.” For the full 15-minute interview, you can watch the video in this article or listen to this week’s episode of The Engadget Podcast and learn more about Liu and Singer’s thoughts on VR and technology over the last 20 years.

Capturing the historical and cultural details of Cheng Shih’s life was paramount to Liu and Singer. They said the team had to create women’s hands from scratch to be represented from the player’s perspective in VR, and a dialect coach was hired to help Liu nail the pronunciation for the Cantonese words that Cheng Shih speaks in the game. Though I’m not completely certain if Cheng Shih spoke Mandarin or Cantonese, the latter seems like the more accurate choice given it’s the lingua franca in the Guangdong region.

Singer Studios

All that added to the immersiveness of The Pirate Queen, in which players find themselves in an atmospheric maritime environment. The Meta Quest 3’s controllers served as my hands in the game, and I rowed boats, climbed rope ladders and picked up items with relative ease. Some of the mechanics, especially the idea of “teleportation” as moving around, were a little clunky, but after about five minutes I got used to how things worked. You’ll have to point the left controller and push the joystick when you’ve chosen a spot, and the scene changes around you. This probably minimizes the possibility of nausea, since you’re not standing still while watching your surroundings move. It’s also pretty typical of VR games, so those who have experience playing in headsets will likely be familiar with the movement.

You can still walk around and explore, of course. I scrutinized the corners of rooms, inspected the insides of cabinets and more, while hunting for keys that would unlock boxes containing clues. A lot of this is pretty standard for a puzzle or room escape game, which is what I used to play the most in my teens. But I was particularly taken by sequences like rowing a boat across the sea and climbing up a rope ladder, both of which caused me to break a mild sweat. Inside Cheng Shih’s cabin, I lit a joss stick and placed it in an incense holder — an action I repeated every week at my grandfather’s altar when I was growing up. It felt so realistic that I tried to wave the joss stick to put out the flame and could almost smell the smoke.

It’s these types of activities that make VR games great vehicles for education and empathy. “We didn’t want to have these combat elements that traditional VR games do have,” Singer said, adding that it was one of the challenges in creating The Pirate Queen.

“It’s nice to see and to learn and be part of that, as opposed to ‘Let’s turn to page 48,’” Liu said. “That’s not as exciting as doing something and being actively part of something.” When you play as a historical character in a game, and one that’s as immersive as a VR game, “you’re living that person’s life or that moment in time,” Liu added.

While The Pirate Queen is currently only available on Quest devices, Singer said there are plans to bring it to “as many headsets as we possibly can.” Singer Studios also said it is “extending The Pirate Queen franchise beyond VR into a graphic novel, film and television series.”

Ever since Tamagotchi Uni became globally available last summer, it’s felt like a product with a lot of unrealized potential.

Bear in mind, I say this as someone who loves this device and has run it daily since launch. But on top of all the basic activities one would expect at this point from the digital pet toy, the Wi-Fi capable Tamagotchi Uni promised users the “Tamaverse” — a virtual playground that would broaden the Tamagotchi experience like never before. So far, it hasn’t, really.

Sure, players could send their characters there to “meet” others, go on little vacations and buy outfits, but those small activities don’t really add much substance. The "travel" experience involved watching short animation, and occasionally getting a special food dish, item or achievement badge. Even the aspect of mingling was sorely limited, allowing players to send just one Heart (a “like” to acknowledge another player’s Tamagotchi) per day.

The Tamaverse has been slow to live up to the expectations Bandai set, despite it being the Uni’s biggest selling point. That seems to be changing in a big way.

With an update that rolled out on March 19 — version 1.6.0 — Bandai opened the Tama Portal, an area of the Tamaverse that’s been cordoned off all this time. A few days after, it dropped the first two DLC packs for Tamagotchi Uni in the form of “Tamaverse Tickets,” which allow users to travel to new locations through that portal. In a bonus, non-Tamaverse related move, the update also answers players’ desperate pleas for more item storage by adding “My Box,” where surplus items can be stowed so you no longer need to delete older goodies to make room for new ones.

Bandai

The first two Tamaverse Tickets, as the DLCs are being called, are available now. One, which takes you to Very Berry Land, is free, while the other, for the LoveMelo Concert, costs $6. Each new area comes with a slew of additional characters you can raise (including some that are brand new for the franchise), an on-theme mini-game and a shop with new food, items, accessories and furniture you can buy with Gotchi Points. 

This is the kind of depth the virtual space always seemed to imply. Now it feels like we’re finally seeing what the Tamaverse can really be. Hopefully, it’s just the start.

There will undoubtedly be some who balk at having to pay for DLC beyond the one freebie, and while I can’t say I’d blame them for that, it doesn’t bother me for what we’re getting. Purchasing a ticket gives you access to a download code that can be used three times. Once the code is registered to a device, you can visit that location as much as you want, and switch freely between the different locations you’ve downloaded. That means I was able to use the same codes to download Very Berry Land and LoveMelo Concert on both of my Tamagotchi Uni devices, and still have one use left for each ticket in case I ever have to do a reset.

As was the case with the Tamagotchi Smart’s DLC, the physical TamaSma cards, only one Tamaverse Ticket can be active at a time, so switching will wipe out any location-specific items or food in your inventory, but you won’t need to reenter the code in order to switch back. All of a person’s downloaded locations can be found in a new list called DL Area when you visit the Tama Portal. 

Bandai

It’s not just one or two characters that come with each location, either — you get six. Some people buy whole new devices for that kind of expansion (definitely not me… haha…). And the free Very Berry Land brings back the fan-favorite adorable strawberry, Ichigotchi, which feels like a win for everyone.

The DLC also reintroduces the method of obtaining specific characters by feeding your fledgling Tamagotchis certain meals or playing with a particular item three times before they reach adulthood. I was excited to try and get the new character, Tanghulutchi, that comes with Very Berry Land, and fed my teen Tama an abundance of Fruit Candy snacks in hopes that it would make her appear. It worked! (I’m now also fiending for the real candied fruit treat of its namesake, Tanghulu. Thanks Bandai). 

Once I’m strong enough to part with Memetchi on my other device, which is running LoveMelo Concert, I’ll probably try to get Drumcrubitchi, a new character that’s literally a drum kit with a face.

Photo by Cheyenne MacDonald / Engadget

All of the things you can purchase in the Tama Portal locations are as of now much cheaper than the usual Tama Mall offerings, with furniture and accessories falling between 200 and 500 Gotchi Points. It’s really nice to have some new mini-games to freshen up the daily routine, since there aren’t many built into the device when it’s offline, and the ones they’ve added to the first Tamaverse locations are great.

In Very Berry Land, you can play Cake Factory, where you have to move your character around to place strawberries on top of cake slices as they come down the conveyor belt. It’s a game style we’ve seen before, but is slightly more exciting than other similar versions because the pace really picks up in the second half of the round.

LoveMelo Concert brings back the popular Guitar-Hero-style rhythm game format we saw (twice) in the Tama Arena’s Nyanoe Dance, but the new Happy Happy Harmony features a different song for you to try and keep up with. It’s actually pretty challenging, and is the type of game I’ll have to obsessively revisit until I’ve perfected it. Nyanoe Dance was clearly well received, and I’m sure a lot of fans will be happy that a version of it has found a permanent home in the Uni one way or another.

Photo by Cheyenne MacDonald / Engadget

One of the best things about previous versions of the modern Tamagotchi, like the Tamagotchi On, was the joy of discovery when you unlocked a new location. The new Tama Portal destinations garner that same feeling, and I can only hope Bandai will keep it going even beyond the additional expansions it teased with update 1.6.0.

The announcement materials indicated that there are at least three more DL Areas on the way, including the Tamamori Fashion Show that’s set to drop at the end of May. That world introduces some more absolutely unhinged Tamagotchi character designs — like a pair of anthropomorphic work boots named, I kid you not, Bootsbrothers — and I truly cannot wait. The other areas haven’t yet been revealed.

Classic JRPGs are sort of having a moment. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has brought new life and a new generation of gamers to one of the most iconic franchises around. More recently Unicorn Overlord has given us a spiritual sequel to Ogre Battle that’s so good even series creator Yasumi Matsuno (and director of Final Fantasy Tactics) has been telling people to play it. And later this summer, Square Enix has challenged itself with reimagining one of the most beloved SNES titles of all time after more than 15 years. But now I’ve had the chance to play a preview of Visions of Mana, it feels like the developers have retained the spirit of the franchise but in a game that feels much more at home in 2024.

One of the biggest challenges for Visions is the transition from classic 2D sprites to a much richer and more expansive 3D world. And while there are some visual similarities to recent Dragon Quest games, I think Square Enix has done a wonderful job of maintaining the franchise’s identity. The game’s color palette is bright and energetic, recreating many of the pastel hues seen in previous games. Character designs skew more towards cute and adorable unlike some of its darker and edgier rivals, which gives the title a playful vibe, just like Secret of Mana did more than two decades ago.

Square Enix

Another thing that has translated quite well is its gameplay. Back in 1993, Secret of Mana’s ring menu was lauded for making it easy to switch between weapons and items (or even characters) without making combat feel stilted or clunky. And with the Mana franchise having made the jump to action-orientated gameplay (instead of turn-based) way before mainline Final Fantasy games did, Visions’ assortment of speedy combo-based attacks, spells and class strikes (which are sort of like limit breaks) are a great fit. You can even launch enemies in the sky and rain down blows while they’re suspended, which is a real treat as I’m a sucker for any game with air juggles.

Each of the four main characters (Val, Hinna, Careena and Morley) also have distinct classes like Rune Knight or Oracle, so they all have a unique style and feel in combat. I found myself gravitating towards the thief/catdude Morley, whose katana felt extremely fast and fluid. My only small complaint is that with Square also bringing back the concept of three-person parties, things can get kind of hectic when you’re trying to keep tabs on people performing multi-hit combos against large groups of foes.

Square Enix

The most important addition to Visions is the introduction of Elemental Vessels, which give you new abilities both in and out of combat. When you’re simply running around the map, similar to items like the hookshot in Legend of Zelda, vessels provide important traversal abilities. For example, the Sylphid Bommering allows you to create floating platforms so you can cross valleys and chasms or summon gusts of wind so you can jump to a faraway ledge. Meanwhile in battle, you can use the boomerang to trap enemies in the air, deal damage and blow away surrounding foes that might want to interrupt your attack. So while it’s not a groundbreaking feature, I appreciate how Visions is using new mechanics to add an extra layer of depth to multiple facets of the game.

Unfortunately, one trait of previous Mana games that hasn’t carried over to Visions is the use of a big roster with branching storylines. For longtime fans, this might be a bit of a bummer, but when asked about this change, Visions of Mana producer Masaru Oyamada told me (via an interpreter) that one of the team’s goals for this installment was a more focused story. So while I couldn’t glean much about the game’s plot during my one-hour demo, there’s still hope that Visions will still deliver an engaging narrative.

Square Enix

But my biggest takeaway from the preview is how Oyamada is trying to respect the legacy of such a storied franchise while also delivering fresh and exciting experiences for new and old players alike. Oyamada said “I really thought about the elements that I loved when I was a child, so I leaned into those feelings in order to drive decision making for the latest installment in this series.”

On top of that, I like how mechanics like the Ring menu are pulling double duty in this game. Oyamada told me that not only does this system act as a nod toward players familiar with the franchise, it also serves as an important accessibility tool that makes it easy to switch items and plan your attacks in the heat of battle. Meanwhile, to help the series grow and evolve, Oyamada said “We thought about the elemental aspect as something that was kind of under-utilized and under-appreciated in previous Mana games.”

Square Enix

And with Oyamada having been in charge of the remasters for Secret of Mana, Trials of Mana (AKA Seiken Densetsu 3) and others in recent years, even though much of the original development team for the series has moved on, it’s clear Square Enix has preserved a lot of the DNA that made previous Mana games so great all those years ago.

In some ways, I wish this game was called Spirit of Mana, as that feels like a more appropriate title for a series whose last entry was released in 1995. Regardless, I can’t wait to play more when Visions of Mana officially goes on sale sometime this summer.

One final note is that Visions of Mana is slated to be available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X and PC. Currently, Square Enix says that while "We are looking to support Steam Deck compatibility, we cannot confirm at this time as we are still optimizing the game."

A month after taking full ownership of Hulu last November, Disney started beta testing integration with Disney+. Today, Hulu on Disney+ is officially out of beta, making it easy for subscribers to access content for both services. It’s also a way for Disney to push its Hulu bundle, which starts at $9.99 a month with ads. And if you want to go ad-free and download content for offline viewing, there’s the Duo Premium bundle for $19.99 a month.

All your favorite Hulu content is in its own tab, but the big shows (like Shogun) will feature in the main show carousel too. However, if you’re a long-running Hulu viewer, you’ll lose your viewing progress on things you’ve already watched or half-watched.

— Mat Smith

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Anti-trans hate is ‘widespread’ on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, report warns

GLAAD found plenty of policy violations where Meta took no action.

Surprise! Meta is failing to enforce its own rules against anti-trans hate speech on its platforms. GLAAD warns that “extreme anti-trans hate content remains widespread across Instagram, Facebook and Threads.” It reported on dozens of examples of hate speech from Meta’s apps, between June 2023 and March 2024. Despite the posts clearly violating Meta’s policies, the company either claimed “posts were not violative or simply did not take action on them,” according to GLAAD. The group also shared two examples of posts from Threads, Meta’s newest app where the company has tried to tamp down “political” content and other “potentially sensitive” topics.

GLAAD’s report isn’t the first time Meta’s been criticized for not protecting LGBTQIA+ users. Last year, its own Oversight Board urged Meta to “improve the accuracy of its enforcement on hate speech towards the LGBTQIA+ community.”

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Marvel Rivals is a new Overwatch-like team shooter

You can play as Black Panther, Spider-Man, Magneto and more.

Marvel Games

Marvel Rivals is a third-person 6v6 team-based shooter that sounds very Overwatch-like. It’ll be free to play, and it’s set inside of a “continually evolving universe,” which probably means new levels, new characters and new gameplay modes over time. Testers will be able to play as Spider-Man, Black Panther, Magneto, Magik and eight or nine more unannounced characters. The developers added Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Hulk and Iron Man would also eventually be playable. The alpha will be available in May for PC players. There’s no word on a console release.

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No Man’s Sky gets computer-generated space stations

Eight years after launch.

Yes, No Man’s Sky is still getting major updates. Developer Hello Games’ next update, due Wednesday, adds procedurally generated space stations (so they’ll be different every time), a ship editor and a Guild system to the nearly eight-year-old space exploration sim. The stations’ broader scale will be evident from the outside, while their interiors will include new shops, gameplay and things to do, including interacting with all those guilds.

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