X3: Reunion (PC)

I've been a fan of the x series of games - and space sims in general (e.g freelancer, freespace 2, Eve online etc) although this version of the X universe is the best yet by far. For those of who who have played X2 - its very similar - although this should be no surprise as egosoft - I understand - had originally intended to make an expansion for X2 but decided to upgrade to X3 to take advantage of better graphics engines. The grahpics in this game are stunning (I mean really stunning - the best I have ever seen in a game) - as is the music that changes depending on which system your in and whether your close to a threat. I could stay in Argon Prime forever to listen to the music. I started playng this game a couple of days ago and I'm already hooked and can see myself playing this on and off for years. The options are immense - trade and build a huge empire, go off to become a bounty hunter or a pirate or follow the story line - or proabably as I will do - all of them. The biggest problem is computer power - you really do need a powerful computer - with sufficient RAM and a good graphics card and powerful processor to get the best out of this game - otherwise it can be slow. I also had to tweak my computer to stop it from continually crashing - in the end I found it was being caused by my DLA option on my CD/DVD drive. You will also need to download a patch to the version on the DVD/ROM from the egosoft site. I understand that this is to correct some bugs in the game. Veresion 1.2 is the current patch, although I understand that another patch is expected. This is very easy to do though and mirrors what happended with X2 - there were patches for that game, although its a surprise that a patch came out for X3 so quickly (ie day of realease). Dont let all this put you off though - if your into this type of game (or want to be) then this is by far the best out there in my opinion and worth the time and effort to sort out any problems and learn the controls. With respect to the latter there is a relatively steep learning curve if your new to the x universe - although if your already familiar with X2 it is a breeze - infact the controls are better - I was playing the game comfortably after about 10 minutes or so. Its much closer to Elite now - in terms of its feel (for those of who who remember playing Elite), which I imagine is what the developers wanted. The fighting in this game is superb - the space ships have changed dramatically in appearance from X2 - they now look much more realistic (at least in terms of my image of what a space ship should look like!)and the fighting goes at a quicker pace and is reminiscent of freelancer in some ways, although better and more realistic. The pirate ships also look more menacing. Capturing ships is also more complicated - they dont automatically become yours when the pilot ejects. I could go on but I wont as I dont want to spoil the expereince of others finding out whats in this game for themselves.

All in all I rate this game with 5 stars - both for its looks and staying power. This is a game for life not just Xmas!

X3 must surely be the greatest space trading and combat game ever. Yes, Elite was fun but X3 shows what 20 years of gaming development can produce.

The game shows dramatic space scenes as beautiful as those drawn up by sci-fi artists. There are systems full of spinning space stations, mighty battleships, huge transporters and swift moving patrol ships, all set to a background of stars, planets and gas clouds. But this comes at a hardware cost. To view the game in its full beauty, you need a system with 3 Ghz CPU, 1 Gb RAM and a decent 128 Mb current generation graphics card - minimum.

Now people new to the X Universe should get one thing clear - this game is tough. By tough I mean you could be flying around for hours and hours following the optional plot and end up with a damaged ship with no money to repair it. Newcomers must start on the easy option as the normal options should really be labelled hard.

The game is at heart an economic simulator, so the object is to search around the systems for goods to buy low and sell high. It can take some searching. You can build space stations to supply goods and buy fleets of transporter ships to ship those goods back and forth. Players will also need to build up formidable military forces to defend their empire from alien races and pirates. You can even take aggressive action to affect the supply of goods and swing the market their way.

What makes the game different from a strategy game, is the combat. You can only be in one place at once, so you can pilot one of your ships yourself and give orders to the rest of your fleet alongside you, or you can give orders remotely to your ships as you carry out business on the opposite side of the galaxy. You can even get out of your spaceship and float around in your space suit. In fact, you’ll need to do that to move between ships.

As an alternative style of play, players can take advantage of existing trading empires and loot and steal ships and create their own pirate organisation. This is tougher still as everyone will be out to get you.

I should add that the control system is complex even though it’s more mouse driven than before. Every key has a function and some have more when used with control and shift.

So if you like challenging open ended game play then X3 is for you. If you like a quick blast Wing Commander style then it probably isn’t.

I used to have problems with this game on my old system (2.66GHz Pentium, GeForce 6200, 512MB RAM) but on my new system (AMD 4800+ X2, GeForce 7900GTX, 2GB RAM)it runs like an absolute dream, the graphics are stunning, the gameplay is deep and involving and the other ships and characters are convincingly real.

After playing this game properly the second time I realised quite how difficult it was before not using a joystick, honestly that simple difference made a world of change as I was then capable of using all of the upgrades and features without wondering which direction I was headed in.

The interface is difficult to get a grip of- all of the menus sometimes get a little confusing and sometimes even in the way but once you learn your way around the system it's not so difficult and you can really get involved in the storyline and the game in general.

The set missions are pretty good, there is some aid along the way via the players messages although some of the time you have to remember who's who in order to get around and complete the tasks, the missions are dynamic and allow you to take time in between completing missions to set up your own factories, buy your own ships, leisurely trade for profit or whatever takes your fancy. the only negative comment is sometimes when you forget where to go to start the next mission during the 'relaxation period' and you can end up going to the right place purely by coincidence and getting dragged into a mission, this is not so bad and adds an unexpected twist to an otherwise user-made pacel.

Saving is done by a way of 'salvage insurance' and this means that you have to pay 3,000 credits (the currency of the X-Universe) to save the game or else dock with a station to auto-save your game.

I have been playing this game for an incredibly long time and have only completed something like 4 missions in my 30 hours of flying time due to my long periods of trading or fighting.

Money is hard to come by for a newbie and before emmbarking on the missions a 'police licence' is a smart move, this will allow you to gain a small number of credits for any kills you make and can increase your account for kills that you have to make in the missions anyway.

All in all, the graphics are great, the gameplay is involving, the storyline is brilliant.

Not for the faint of heart/mind.