![]() Okay, so that's mostly all the stuff you'd normally expect in these kind of games, at least with games by Chris and Erin Roberts (e.g. However, space trading sims usually have other pursuits such as piracy, where you can actually steal the goods from the traders and bounty hunters who hunt down criminals, for a price. Using the powerful forces of supply and demand, a savvy trader can make decent profits by knowing where to buy low and where to sell high. Space trading sims allow you to fly spaceships around between star systems mainly in order to trade. For those of you who don't, here's a quick rundown. If you're no stranger to space trading sims then you'll already know what most of Elite: Dangerous is about. Sadly, since the game is more of a sandbox space sim than a game like Wing Commander or even Privateer or Freelancer, the game does lack that epic story where you save the universe - but that's totally fine if you're content to be one of the grunts fighting in one of the many power struggles across the galaxy. Thanks to the provision of daily GalNet News Reports in-game, this lets players keep in touch with what's happening around the Milky Way and since the game is based off actual star systems (or at least with some of them) it makes the game feel more realistic which helps immerse the player into the game. There are three major factions that control known space, two of them returning from Frontier: Elite II: Firstly you have the democratic, yet corrupt Federation heavily influenced by megacorporations, the Empire which seems heavily modelled on the Roman Empire except in space (slavery is legal in Imperial space), and the equivalent of a Non-Aligned Movement called the Alliance which has many Independent star systems as its members who neither like the Federation or the Empire. Humanity has colonised the stars like crazy and there are literally hundreds (maybe thousands) of worlds that are now colonised. ![]() So Elite: Dangerous takes place far off in the future in the 34th century. There is apparently a lot of fan fiction revolving around the Elite universe that is available but I've never personally read any of those books so all I've got to judge the plot by is what's actually in the game (and what I remember from Frontier: Elite II). Some have speculated that the release was rushed but is that actually the case? Has the game's quality been compromised by the rush to finish the game this year (just under two years since the end of the Kickstarter funding campaign)? So was my trust in David Braben misplaced or did he manage to make a game that is a worthy successor to that game I played of his, more than a decade ago? Also, this year marks the 30th anniversary of the original 1984 Elite which is probably another reason why Elite: Dangerous was released this month. Maybe not, but if I'm backing a developer I think I can trust, then there's a good chance. a game I'll actually like to play)? Maybe. Will I make a good return on my investment (i.e. ![]() ![]() You can't always expect things to go to plan which is why whenever I donate (yes, I used the word "donate") to a project I consider myself to be a venture capitalist of sorts. On one hand I can appreciate people becoming angry but then again, this was a Kickstarter project and a game development project at that. Many fans considered this an outrage and demanded they receive refunds although some have found it rather difficult to actually get any response from Frontier Developments. Originally the game planned to have an offline single-player mode (although if you read the FAQ carefully you can see they were originally not planning it but then updated the FAQ to indicate they would) but a few months before release, Frontier Developments stated they wouldn't be able to considering the way they designed the game. In early 2013, Frontier Developments was able to successfully raise more than their target with £1.5 million being raised by Kickstarter backers. In order to talk about recent events though, we need to go back to the beginning of this game's development - when it was still a Kickstarter project. I've read quite a bit of negative press and commentary amongst the common gaming folk about Elite: Dangerous prior to its release - which is a pity since to some the first experience they'll have with the Elite franchise is all this negativity.
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