No Man's Sky blasted our expectations about what a space exploration game could be when it was announced at the Playstation E3 2014 press conference. While we anxiously await the release of the game, perhaps this small indie title will hold you over until then.
Space Engine
Space Engine
No combat, just exploration. In this PC only title, you can take your little space ship and travel across the cosmos to your hearts content. Using actual astronomical data, the simulator procedurally generates the universe and stars around you, and lets you explore the surface of any planet you choose, whether it be Earth, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, or any of the thousands of other lesser known objects that astronomers have discovered.
There is also a search function that will take you directly to whichever object you desire, just in case you're too lazy to travel there at warp speed.
I haven't had much time to play around with the settings in the game, but from what I'm reading on the forums, you need a bit of a beastly rig in order to handle some of the more busy parts of the simulator. I'm running a Radeon R9 290, 8gb RAM, and an 8-Core Processor, and even I experienced some frame drops while stars were whipping past at light speed. Also, keep in mind that the game is currently in beta, so expect to see some bugs here and there.
Check out some screen shots below. Enjoy.
-- Space Engine Website --