This August marks five years since exploratory sci-fi sim No Man's Sky's release, and developer Hello Games says it has "a lot planned" for its fifth anniversary year - with celebrations starting today, 17th February, in the form of the new Companions update.
Companions is all about pets, and finally gives No Man's Sky's menagerie of weird and wonderful procedural wildlife some much-expanded functionality - with fearless explorers now able to tame, breed, train, and even speak to the creatures they meet.
Once a player adopts a creature it will accompany them on their adventures, travelling by their side. These companions can be petted, fed, and played with, and will react to other Travellers in different ways, based on their unique personalities - defined by their species and ecosystem. Creatures can even transmit their thoughts to players, which are translated and sent directly to their internal communication channels via a "neural harness".