I can’t wait to see what comes of this game. Egosoft has had lots of experience now with space sims. I hope they can pick and choose the best bits of each game.
This is one of the few remaining IP’s that we can count on to have a deep complex living universe.
This looks pretty awesome to me.
Also, they need to add STD’s like in Fable.
Re: living complex universe, I want the Xenon or whatever baddies there are to actually take over sectors and set up shop there until the forces of good take them back (with or without the player’s help), not just have a mass of their ships spawn at a gate and try to kill everything in sight.
Yeah, the X games are crying out for a more dynamic universe so that when you build your vast empire you can see it have a real effect. It needs a diplomacy engine and a living galaxy, then you have something to aim for beyond earning money for money’s sake. Become a power and what it reshape the galaxy.
So what is “taking all that money, buying an absolutely ENORMOUS fleet, and then sending it out to do whatever you want it to” – chopped liver? Sounds like power and reshaping to me, far more than a lot of sandbox games. Enough time and effort, you really become the capo in the X universe. Try that in GTA :)
I love the X games (played them all since X-Tension) but never got anywhere NEAR that powerful BECAUSE IT TAKES FOREVER. Seriously, unless one plays this exclusively for like 6 months for three hours a night, I can’t see how one accumulates the necessary credits.
There are way too many good games to have this take that long. And I speak as someone who put over 100 hours in GTA: SA and Oblivion each (never finished the latter), so I’m not shy about dedicating some time to a game.
That’s so true Papageno. I would have loved to have played a game like the X games during my teens, when I wished every game would last as close to forever as possible. Nowadays, I’m always hoping that every game is able to be finished a.s.a.p. Mass Effect, for example, I absolutely loved, but it took me months to finish it because it took me 40 in-game hours to finish. Mass Effect 2, it took me even more months because it took me 70 hours to finish. And neither of those games hold a candle to how long it takes to build an empire like the one we’re talking about in the X games.
Are there any good space sims which are available on steam? I looked for Evochron, but alas steam knows nothing of this title. After portal 2, I am going to be a bit bored and a good space sim with lots of exploration would be ideal.
Well seeing as we are in this thread, there is the X Superbox available on Steam which includes the bonus content that comes with the boxed version (just have to look in the tools area of Steam).
Space Rangers 2: Reboot is also available on Steam.
Otherwise, personally I’m drawing a blank. There really isn’t that much I can think of to be honest.
Space Ranger 2: Reboot is an excellent game, and if you want something a little more less industrial or slow I’d highly recommend it. It’s dynamic universe is exactly what I hope to see in the X game.
SR2 is great, no doubt, but is it a space sim? Edit - I also enjoyed Star Wolves, but it’s not for everyone (and also not a sim)
I’d love to play a good X game. Interface issues got in the way of all my previous attempts at this franchise. It’s unfortunate that it seems to aim for a “oil-refineries-in-space” look instead of something a bit more adventurous.
I’m not entirely sure I want to label the X games as pure space sims either. Surely the interface was from a sim, the industrial aspects, managing your wings. But the space combat? Pure arcade. Some of the ship mechanics are were simy as well, but not as in depth as I would have liked.
SR2 definitely isn’t a space sim, but the dynamic universe set the bar pretty high for space/sandbox games.
Yes, because the universe doesn’t notice that you did it. In Space Rangers 2 if I built an army of rangers and declared war on civilisation, civilisation notices. In X, no one does anything about it, no one moves to fix the economy, no one rallies their allies to counter me, they just fight me as I come.
It’s a sandbox, but a dead one. I want it to work without me. As I recall, in X2 the entire economy was actually broken and required you to step in and fix it.
Yeah, the economy-being-broken think was something that always bugged me. I guess the idea is that it presents money-making opportunities for the player, but the thing is, if it’s too broken, it makes the game harder.
I absolutely love the X games, so this is great news. I do agree with some of the complaints, though, mainly the ones about how the universe is kind of static.
Also, if they’re keeping factory complexes (which I hope they are), I want to be able to connect my factories in a way that doesn’t look like it was done by a 2 year old, without spending hours of trial and error. It seems like a small complaint, but all those connection tubes turned my game into a slide show, whenever I entered a system where I’d built a complex.
Hmm. I’ve been cruising around the Egosoft forums, having just recently gotten back into the X games.
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=306576
Umm… Rebirth only lets you be in one ship? The Pride of Albion? I’m not sure I’m a fan of that.
Aaww shit, they’re going the Dark Star One route! Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Hmmm, you mean that other ‘game’ route?
However I think they have the eXperience to pull this one off.