It showed up on Steams coming soon list so i looked it up further. If i remember some people said x3 was good. I dunno if i should get this latest one when it comes out.

I know Skillers has this. It's meant to be graphically taxing. But then again that was when he had his 6800.

I have X3: Reunion (and X2: The Threat, which came with my 6800GT and got me into the X games). It's a fantastic game, and it is graphically taxing, but one of the best looking games of the past few years (even though it's about 3 years old it looks fantastic, proably easier to make space graphics).

It has a lot of gameplay and a huge world. There are hundreds of systems, each teeming with NPC activity and you can do what you want. The story is a bit naff, but the freeform is great. I tend to build a massive business empire, with loads of stations raking in the money while I go pirate killing in a fighter. It's quite hard to get your first station (in X2 your best bet was a Solar Power Plant, X3 was a Silicon Mine), but once you have it you'll soon start making money (if you automate it) and build up big complexes.

Lots of people make plugins for it, which make the game better. These can be anything fron extra commands for your ship turrets (typically speaking, the larger ships get, the more turrets they have and the less front mounted weapons they have, dogfighting is for fighters and below, capital ships bring loads of firepower) or wingmen, right the way up to entire new fleet control systems, ships and mission packs.

X2 and X3 were fantastic games, and I will definitely be getting TC on Steam when it's released. For those who haven't played X2/X3, get the $25 double pack (though just checking it appears to be cheper from places like Play) and playing them, or getting TC on release. I can say you need some patience to play this game to it's full extent, but the rewards are great. If you like combat flight sims or business games, you will find something for you in this. If you like both, well, then you've found the best game for you.

EDIT: Just adding to this, I forgot to mention it has RTS like elements aswell (like fleet control), plus a trader element (you can go around in industrial ships trading to make money). and I can't stress how amazing the graphics are. It is probably the only game to have ever stunned me with it's looks, I personally think it looks better than Crysis (I know it technically isn't, but just what I see in it).

Fantastic game.

Only thing it lacks is multiplayer, though that would have to be MMO or GTA style to work properly.

I stand by my old statement of it's like Eve, but different controls, and not nearly as big, singleplayer, and a few other little things like story etc. Time to play x3 demo

It's only kinda like Eve, in that it's in space and you can do lots of different things. The controls alone make them completely different, but you can have a much stonger empire and control a lot more. It's a lot easier to do what you want, aswell.

easier?!

1. I'd have better luck growing extra fingers to pilot the ship than getting used to it

2. I'm auto-targeting everything and getting pop-ups, reminds me of the internet in its beginnings

I assume you mean Eve's GUI? Yeah, it can be a bit complex, but I meant it was easier to achieve goals, such as getting a set of stations or a capital ship.

I was reffering to X3 ^_^.

WASD to move up down left and right, QE to roll, ZX to go forwards and backwards o.0 i can't do that with one hand.

Get a joystick. Seriously, makes the game so much better.

Also, if I'm right in thinking it's still mouse look, you don't really need the WASD unless you are really pushing the boundaries of dogfighting, the strafe module isn't that good, I rearely, if ever, used it.

I'm still looking forward to this, should be great.

For anyone who hasn't played an X game yet; http://www.gametap.com/play/gameDetails/000311350 TRY IT!

So I can actually play it for free?

I still don't understand this gametap thing...

Yes, it's free on GameTap. GameTap is a bit like Steam with some free games.

This has now been moved to New Releases but doesn't ahve a price yet. Should be available for preload tomorrow.

Well it's available for preorder on Steam now for $40, which comes to about £28 with tax. That's £10 more than on Play, dammit.

buy from play, run through steam. sorted.

You can't activate store bought games on Steam. Well, you could with Prey and Valve games, but no others (I even tried X3R). If by running through Steam you mean adding to teh games list as a non-steam game, that's not what i want it for. I want it on Steam for the noCD and autopatching.

oh very true i forot about those nice features :O (shows his lack of steam knowledge)

This is out now. Still not sure whether to buy it yet, think I may get it off Play later.

I got this a few days ago (XMas pressie from Demonata ).

I must say it's brilliant, it's a huge step up from X3R, there's so much more stuff available in the game. The plot is a little weaker, but that's not the point of the X games. It's easier to make money, though that's being tweaked a bit, though it will still be easier. The interface is vastly improved, no longer requiring you to dock to get missions and other general improvements.

Unfortunately it is a bit buggy, but nothing too serious. There are couple of performance issues, but my computer handles the game fine maxed out, with a few pauses (which is apparently a bug). THe controls were vastly changed and this was annoying to begin with, but I've worked them to how I like it now. If you fly stick (like I do) combat will be really hard to begin with. As soon as you can, get "Fight Command Software MK1" and press K until it says "autoaim: On" in the bottom left. It makes a huge difference, as the gun moves slightly (a couple of degrees) so you can actually hit stuff.