5punk

Rarely do I get excited by a new game in the offing these days, but this latest effort in the long, long running X series by Egosoft has me twitching in my pants.

For those unfamiliar with the X series, it is basically a single player Elite clone with a smattering of Freelancer, huge flyable capital ships and player owned stations. Massive depth (tnwss) coupled with an infuriating UI and a hopelessly bad plot made X a terribly addictive niche market for a small number of space loving OCD sufferers.

But Egosoft have a reputation for actually listening to their player base and taking the time to develop games in the way they want. If the dev blogs are anything to go by, this total revamp of the series could well be...astonishing.

Summary of stuffs:

- Player bound to one ship, but it will be modular and you can walk around giving orders to your crew
- Remote control drones which you will be able to control from your ship whilst your crew runs things
- Modular capital ships and stations, with targettable sub structures
- Stations built in real time where you can see and influence the design and development
- Able to land on a capital ship and stroll around, giving orders to the crew - no more flying caps like giant fighters.
- No more SETA (fast game time) but local highways which allow your ship to move faster to certain spots in the universe (Freelancer style)

That sounds rather lovely! The X series has always been something ive been tempted by, but ive never given it a proper go. I might get around to it this time.

I also have always wondered about the X series and fancied a go but never got round to it. The Star Wars mod you mentioned yonks ago looked interesting. I might have a look at this one.

I played X:2 for a short while, started game, flew backwards and forwards between a few stations. Argued with my keyboard, then my joystick, then finally the UI. Gave up and went to the pub insead.

If they have improved the UI, and by that the playability, then I can see me giving this a go. After all, it wasn't the plot that drove me forward in Freelance - it was the "I gotta get me one of those" feeling that kept me flying.

I bought the series when it was on one of the Steam Sales, it is good but as has been mentioned numerous times the UI is a nightmare.

Looking forward to this new one now though.