Hello Games just added a bunch of new features to its space sandbox with No Man's Sky Next, and here I come to ask for one more. I'm requesting a remote camera I can place on a planet so that after I've left it light-years behind I still can turn on a monitor in my ship and take a peek at what's going on. I made a video above (also here on YouTube) of a planet I visited that had some of the most constantly terrible weather I've seen, but it's a planet I still wound up exploring for days and not wanting to leave.
When it comes to No Man's Sky, I'm not a base-builder. I've been to a lot of planets but few that made me feel like setting up shop. I take some pictures, maybe do a little documenting (as I did on the colorless planet I named Sadworld this week) and move on forever. There's a few quadrillion other planets to visit! I've got no time for sentimentality.
That's why I was a little surprised to get so attached to a planet named Obosthom Gaur. First of all, it's in a system that seemed cool the moment I entered it. Just look at these beautiful babies all lined up in a row for me to land on and criticize (there's even a fifth planet in the row, but way too far off to fit into frame):
The purty one in front? That's Obosthom Gaur, and I landed there first. At least I tried: the planet was gripped in a storm so impenetrable I couldn't see more than a few feet in front of me. At first I couldn't land at all: it turned out I was over an ocean I couldn't even see. On my second try I wound up plunging into a cave. My third try got me onto solid ground, but I still couldn't see with the exception of a bunch of enormous alien plants waving around in the wind and rain.
A lot of planets in No Man's Sky look weird, but this is the first one in a while that felt truly alien to me. The weather was just the start, hiding the planet from view most of the time but then allowing a glimpse of startling sunsets and the rest of the solar system before it began to storm again. I'd be looking up at the blue-tinged ringed planet in the sky, and then clouds would pass in front of it, and when they cleared the rings would be bright amber. The enormous plants writhed and waved slowly as if they were kelp caught in an ocean current. Despite yellow clouds and pink rain the oceans were bright blue. Storms would come on in an instant, turning the world a blinding white for ages, then clear just as quickly. Half the time I couldn't even tell if it was daytime or night.
So, yeah, I guess I'm saying I would love a little remote camera I could leave behind so that while I'm making long trips from planet to planet in the future, I could just turn on a monitor in my ship and see what the weather is like on Obosthom Gaur. In the meantime I think I'll actually break my own rule and build myself a little base with a teleporter. Just in case I've gotten a little sentimental and want to come back. I have a feeling, somehow, I'll wind up missing all that rain.
(Just for fun, here's a little outtake from my weather footage, because this one alien creature wouldn't stop messing with my car.)