Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Hang on. I just need to move all this space to one side to make space for more space. X3: Albion Prelude is a just released expansion pack for X3, bridging the gap to X: Rebirth, which should be with us early next year. The storyline of clashing corporations leads into Rebirth and there are new stations and ships to play around with. That’s why I’m posting this, to be honest, to share pictures of all the glorious new stuff that’s floating about up there. X3 is a beautiful game, one that it’s easy to admire both in motion and stasis. So sit back and feast your eyes.

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When X Rebirth was announced back in April, there wasn’t a huge amount of information to ponder so it seemed natural to expect something similar to previous games in the series. Turns out that while there will still be a great deal of piloting and trading, some things have indeed changed. The most significant shift is the focus to one ship, The Pride of Albion, which is upgradeable and customisable but cannot be switched out for a different vessel. In a forum post outlining some details about the game, Bernd Lehahn pre-empted the horror of the fanbase: “But before you get upset and complain about the lack of freedom to steer other ships, WAIT”. Are you waiting? Because that command was capitalised. OK, now click.

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Fans of the X series? Awake from your comas – the series is back with the freshly announced X: Rebirth. There’s four images, too. And a trailer!

I know there are mixed opinions of the space shopping X games (no skateboarding jokes, please), but really no one is in any position to disagree with their having named the first game’s expansion pack, “X-Tension”. Really, let’s all stop and just clap at our monitors for a moment.

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While the kneejerk reaction to this is obviously one of mild incredulity, I can see why Egosoft have chosen to release this “benchmarking” version of X3 as a demo. It must be remarkably frustrating for people who build wide-open, sandbox titles and then find they can’t adequately promote or explain their game with a demo version. Perhaps there’s no way to chop out a chunk of the universe for people to play, and there are obvious problems with putting out a time-limited version of a full game. I guess this keeps the download size down too. If you want to see how your machine renders Terran Conflict’s pretty-pretty spacemobiles then you can get it here.

I didn’t really get on with the X games. Even by my high tolerances for videogame tedium among the stars, X3 seemed to be taking the piss a little. The scope and ambition of its Elite+++++ delivery is commendable, but there was something about its humorless space trudge that put me off. I do feel like I should go back, and plenty of my space-gaming chums chide me for my lack of appreciation. What I can say that is that I am not immune to its prettiness, and this battle-trailer for expandalone Terran Conflict certainly looks fantastic.
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News reaches us that Egosoft have announced the fourth chapter of their X: Beyond the Frontier series. It’s called X3: The Terran Conflict. While details are sparse – the screen’s from the original X3 – the lack of a “4″ implies this is a standalone expansion “thing” rather than a true sequel. Egosoft have promised more missions than ever before. This is good. X fans are well known for their love of missions. We exclusively predict a high incidence of conflict in the region of Terra.

It’s at times like this, RPS wishes they still had the MP3 of “I am Elite” from the Adrian “Ian’s Brother” Bell-penned Elite musical to listen in celebration, but we’ve long since lost it. Has anyone out there got a copy? It really is a thing of wonder. Anyway – it’s looking at a third quarter release, which leaves plenty of time for X-fans to get excited in the comments thread.