So after years of waiting, the moment has come (at least for PS4..)

Popped in the disc, downloaded the update - and prepared to set off on my epic space odyssey.

After zipping through thousands upon thousands (millions?) of systems, I awake from a daze to find myself on a semi-lush planet with a busted ship, a mining laser, and an environmental suit telling me that I will freeze to death if I don't find some Zinc ASAP.

My first planet was essentially a practice world, and I assume all starting planets will be relatively similar. I didn't have a ship to lose yet, the animals were passive, and as long as I didn't piss off the ever watchful floating robots, I only had to worry about keeping my suit powered up. The materials I needed to fix my ship were abundant and not too difficult to locate, so I was soon piercing the planet's atmosphere and heading for the stars.

Important note about the starting world - There is something by your ship that you can interact with that presents you with a choice that is (perhaps, because I really don't know yet) one of the most important decisions in the game. For what it's worth, I chose in the affirmative.

I checked out a few other planets, learned some alien words, equipped my ship with a hyperdrive, and blasted off to the next system...

A few notes, if you would hear them:
- Carbon is cheap, abundant on any planet with plant life, powers several of my devices, and is used to open dialogue with alien life-forms, so I try to keep a stack on me at all times
- Managing my inventory has been a huge part of the game so far, so I cant just mindlessly lay waste to the landscape and collect everything
- I was attacked by pirates and died once in my ship and lost everything, but since I reached my death location without dying again, I got my inventory back
- Mining asteroids is a good way to find a particular element needed to fuel your ship, so I would recommend that over trying to find it on planets

- More to come in later days

Upon arriving at my new solar system, I decided to mine asteroids until my ship was full, then sell my haul at the local space station, which netted me a nice chunk of change. I found a lonely Gek in the station, and it turns out they consider me a friend now (yay!). After learning a few words and giving this alien half of my Carbon, I stocked up on survival essentials, cleared my inventory as best as I could, and set off to explore these new planets.

The first 3 planets were either toxic, freezing, or radioactive, and my exosuit could only keep me alive for about a minute without recharging or finding shelter...thankfully, I never ventured far from the ship. I decided to hack into some beacon, and ask for shelter locations - and it directed me to a drop pod with a backpack upgrade in it - PROFIT. After finding a few more and increasing my inventory, I decided I didn't want to be on a planet that was actively trying to kill me anymore, so I ventured off until I found one with perfect temperature, no radioactive or poisonous air, and plenty of flora and some fauna.

Since time wasn't an issue, I just wandered around, far away from my ship, using a new trick I found to launch myself great distances to speed up travel. You sprint, then punch, and as you gain the extra momentum from punching, immediately hit your booster pack and you will launch forward at super fast speeds. Just be careful, cuz I fell off a cliff twice doing this...

So I find myself on this nice planet looking around for alien monuments to learn Gek words and looking for rare minerals. I am still in my starter ship...and I don't want to spend a bunch of cash to upgrade right now...so hopefully, I will come across a crash site and fix up a busted ship for free.

More to come...