Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

You can try No Man’s Sky for free this weekend

Tomas Franzese
By
A screenshot of the Omega update for No Man's Sky.
Hello Games

Hello Games released the Omega update for No Man’s Sky today and is making the sci-fi game free-to-play temporarily to celebrate.

The main draw of the Omega update is that it incorporates cooperative expeditions into the main game experience rather than relegating them to a side mode. The Omega expedition was added to the game today, and tasks players with exploring and charting every inch of the planet Nafut Gamma. Completing this expedition will reward players with a limited-edition helmet and staff Multi-Tool, and players can carry over any resources gained during it. While this change is the biggest addition of the Omega update, it’s far from the only notable change.

The Atlas Path mission has been reworked and can now reward players with a special Atlas staff, jetpack, and helmet; several new planetary missions have also been added. Players can now take over Pirate Dreadnoughts and claim the ships or take their loot after defeating them in battle. The Altas Flightpack jetpack and Starborn Runner starship are also now in No Man’s Sky. For a full list of patch notes, check out the Omega Update’s webpage.

Recommended Videos

This is a significant update for No Man’s Sky, so Hello Games is giving people an easy way to give the game a shot. A free trial for No Man’s Sky has begun across all platforms and will run until 10 a.m. PT next Monday. During this time, players will have access to the entire game.

Related

No Man’s Sky is free to play now across PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and VR platforms until February 19.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Tomas Franzese
Tomas Franzese
Gaming Staff Writer
Tomas Franzese is a Staff Writer at Digital Trends, where he reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…
You just can’t kill the Steam Deck
Steam Deck held between two hands.

Ever since Valve released the original Steam Deck, the PC gaming world has been on the hunt for a Steam Deck killer. Asus went first with its ROG Ally, and Lenovo followed shortly after with the Legion Go. That's not to mention the swath of smaller brands that have been chipping away at handheld gaming PCs for years, such as Ayaneo and GPD.

You can't kill the Steam Deck, though, at least not with the current offerings. Valve has a particular advantage with the Steam Deck that it's been building for years, and it will be hard for a true competitor to emerge in the growing market of handheld gaming PCs.
Priced for everyone

Read more
2023 was a renaissance for strategy games. Enjoy it while you can
The main male protagonist in Fire Emblem Engage.

The strategy game genre found itself in a renaissance this year -- and you might not have noticed.

Coming off the excellent Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope and Marvel's Midnight Suns last fall, strategy games started and ended 2023 off strong from the AAA to the indie space. Unfortunately, in such a crowded year, many of the excellent games in this niche genre flew more under the radar. If you missed out on games like Fire Emblem Engage, Pikmin 4, Wargroove 2, and Last Train Home, you're missing out on a golden age of one of gaming's best genres.
Strategic moves
Many iconic strategy game franchises came back this year, starting in January. On the Xbox front, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition finally came to Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, bringing one of the best real-time-strategy titles to consoles for the first time. On Switch, Nintendo started the year off strong with Fire Emblem Engage. It served as a joyful celebration of the entire franchise, reflecting that in gameplay with the titular Engage system that allows player units to get more powerful and gain additional abilities by working with classic Fire Emblem characters.

Read more
If you love Dead Cells, you need to try this sci-fi roguelike next
A character dashes towards a robotic creature in Trinity Fusion.

I'm probably not alone when I say that I can't get enough Dead Cells. The excellent roguelike has been a mainstay on my PC and Switch since it released. I even have an arcade cabinet in my apartment that runs it. Whether I'm jumping in for a random run or checking out its excellent Return to Castlevania DLC, I'm always down for more of its 2D action formula. Of course, there's only so much of it I can play, especially as developer Motion Twin gets to work on its next game, Windblown.

Luckily, there's an easy way to fill that gap, even if its a temporary fix. Trinity Fusion is a new roguelike by Angry Mob Games that exits early access today and sticks very close to the Dead Cells playbook. It has players hacking their way through 2D environments, building a character with temporary boosts each run, and nabbing some permanent abilities with acquired currencies. Though its not as rich with secrets and certainly doesn't look as striking, its worth digging into for anyone itching for another game that'll have them saying "one more run" for hours.
Building on Dead Cells
Trinity Fusion replaces the crunchy pixel art fantasy of Dead Cells with something smoother and more futuristic -- it's as if Angry Mob Games dipped its inspiration in chrome. Players are dropped into a sci-fi story that vaguely involves the multiverse. It's a whole lot of mumbo jumbo (the 1.0 update adds even more story for those who love lore logs). Rather than going with a pixel art style like some of its peers, Trinity Fusion uses smoother three-dimensional visuals. It winds up looking like a less polished version of Metroid Dread with flat world and character designs. Though that's a bit dull, it does at least bake in some excellent, atmospheric tunes that sound like they could have been pulled out of a 2D Metroid game.

Read more