'No Man's Sky' Update News: 'Atlas Rises' to Bring Improved Story and Quick-Travel Portals

One year after its release, the controversial action-adventure survival game "No Man's Sky" is getting its third major update. Developer Hello Games announced "Atlas Rises" for the game and it comes with two new features.

The first is the addition of an improved story element to give some sort of direction to the vast sandbox universe. The second is the ability to quickly travel between planetary portals — something that has been the subject of rumors for some time.

As with past updates, "Atlas Rises" will be free and will be available on both the PlayStation 4 and Windows PC this week.

There are questions whether this update will make the game live up to its potential. After it was released with so much expectation in August 2016, the final product was quickly slammed as a sham that had none of the features that were promised.

Hello Games founder Sean Murray received a great deal of criticism for failing to deliver, with some even accusing him of outright lying. Despite this, however, "No Man's Sky" was still a success albeit not as good as many had hoped for.

Fast forward to one year later, the present game is a far cry from the one in 2016. Subsequent updates improved the game to some degree bringing back disenfranchised players slowly but surely.

The community has also calmed down in the months following the controversial release. No longer the toxic spaces full of criticisms and death threats aimed at Hello Games, online forums are now much quieter in discussing the game's features and offering tips to players.

"It's been an exciting, intense, and emotional year for us at Hello Games," said Murray in the update announcement. "What we do is much more important than what we say, but since launch we have sometimes focused too much on that."

"No Man's Sky" is currently available for PS4 and Windows PC.