New No Man's Sky trailer focuses on the fighting

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The sprawling space exploration sim No Man's Sky is built on four pillars of gameplay: explore, fight, trade, and survive. Last week, the first of a series of trailers focusing on each of those elements was released, and we Explored; today, the second trailer is out, and now we Fight.

The truth is that this video, and everything else I've seen about No Man's Sky, leaves me torn. It looks great, and I dearly want it to deliver on its promise. But it promises so much. I want to believe, as the man famously said, but a competent FPS and space combat sim layered on top of an exploration/survival game set in a procedurally-generated open universe with 18 bazillion (or whatever) unique planets, all of it built by a tiny indie studio in England? If this game can actually deliver on all that, it will be amazing.

No Man's Sky is set for release on August 8. Until then, you can get a better feel for what's coming (even though much of it is still rather vague) from our answers to ten “burning questions” about NMS right here.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.