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All with nary a loading screen.

I took a moment to get my bearings. Glowing, growing arcs indicated trader ships in the distance. Space rocks drifted around me, dark shadows against a colourful nebulaic background. A moon hung in the void. Several planets appeared to be within flying distance.

I started heading for one of these planets, but just as I began my trip a trio of freighters jumped into local space almost directly in front of me. I decided to make a detour, aiming my snub fighter at the nearest ship and taking aim at its bubble-like cargo holds with my weapons. (Chad Sapieha: Space pirate, I thought, doing my best Mark Watney impression in my mind.)

The tight controls – wonderfully intuitive right from the start – permitted me to deftly swoop down and grab the loot floating freely in space before burning at top speed away from the freighters, the many laser turrets of which were now targeting my small ship.

A quick check of my ship status showed I was running low on fuel, but the planet I’d originally been heading for was still within reach. I touched down on its scorched surface – some 725 degrees above zero – just long enough to scavenge the elements I needed for fuel (and also break into a local factory, where I found materials for a crafting recipe that would give me better thermal protection clothing), then shot back up into space.

I still hadn’t encountered a loading screen.

There was plenty left to see in this neighbourhood, but the limited time I was permitted with the No Man’s Sky was quickly winding down. I tapped the PlayStation controller’s touchpad to call up the galaxy map. I just wanted to see what lay beyond the local system.