X: Beyond the Frontier

Rating:
Summary: X Beyond the Frontier
Review: An awsome game for those who like trading commodities, exploring new universes, solving mysteries and shooting down bad guys. Super relistic graphics accompanied by great background music. Trade until you have enough credits to build your own factories and improve your ship. Plenty of online support/hints from private websites too.

Rating:
Summary: Long. Dull. Looks nice.
Review: An odd, new-age space-trading game in which very little happens - at all. Having played it all the way through I can appreciate the feeling of place, whilst deploring the fairly poor voice acting and lack of much to do. Apart from the business of trading, which is made dull by the immense distances you must cross, the 'plot' involves ferrying things backwards and forwards from one of the galaxy to the other, and quickly becomes boring.

Still, on the other hand, it's hugely atmospheric - whilst the 'plot' is a big cliche, the feeling of flying through an alien universe is conveyed effectively with absolutely gorgeous, state-of-the-art graphics and some enjoyably 'epic', Jean Michel Jarre-esque synth music. The vastness of space sets it apart from the jump-point riddled likes of the 'Star Wars' games. You really do have to fly manually from place to place, and it takes a long time. Despite the hushed tones with which 'Elite' is still mentioned, 'X - Beyond the Frontier' (a transparent reference to the 'Elite' sequel, 'Frontier') is one of a handful of modern children. In fact, if you like this kind of game, there's the old, fun 'Privateer 2', and the older, less fun 'Battlecruiser 3000AD', and that's about it.

The pace is refreshing, too - for a few days the glacial slowness of the game is a nice change from the hectic blasting of 'Quake 3'. This kills it, though - after a short while you realise that there isn't really much more to the game than just flying from X with cargo Y and back again, and if you're into combat, forget it - you can't even afford a gun until several days of play, and you won't be able to use it until much later. This would be forgivable if the rest of the game was gripping, but it isn't, so it's not. Nice try, though.

Rating:
Summary: I admit it..
Review: I cheated because I got very bored. I hacked into the game and gave myself a million credits after an hour. The good thing about this game is that it plays just like "Elite", one of my first and favorite games; and that is one of the bad points as well. Playing the original Elite game took weeks, time I just don't want to spend playing a game anymore. This game looks nicer than Elite and the money-gathering schemes are more complex but you spend a lot of time doing nothing. Too much time.

Rating:
Summary: I admit it..
Review: I cheated because I got very bored. I hacked into the game and gave myself a million credits after an hour. The good thing about this game is that it plays just like "Elite", one of my first and favorite games; and that is one of the bad points as well. Playing the original Elite game took weeks, time I just don't want to spend playing a game anymore. This game looks nicer than Elite and the money-gathering schemes are more complex but you spend a lot of time doing nothing. Too much time.

Rating:
Summary: last reviewed by me in 2000
Review: I last reviewed this game in August of 2000, I didn't like it because it was unplayable with a TNT2 card, however, I have a different system now(one that I worked very hard to get) and can play it to the saving place. You must buy your saves with credits as you would car(ship) insurance. The game is gorgious, like traveling in space for real, and the music is nice if a little slow, but the gameplay is tedious and slow. Go to factory Alpha pick up a box of space candy(or whatever) deliver to Space station Beta get money then get six loads of jupiter woopie cushions and deliver to factory Delta(or whatever). It is tedious, and it is uninteresting after a while. I stopped playing after an hour of traveling at 6 Km's per hour in a 'high tech' space ship that traveled slower than a bicycle.
Why 4 stars? Because it is gorgious and it does feel like your in space, or at least in an episode of Carl Sagan's Cosmos.

Rating:
Summary: An Epic Space Romp
Review: If you were ever a fan of Elite you'll love this one. Classic space trading, fantastic slick graphics, epic space battles involving lots of ships. Build an Army then crush the rest or trade peacefully (build your own factories!) to make your fortune - either way the choice is yours. Ongiong storyline built in that follows you through your life in the new "X" Universe. An easy way to loose yourself for hours.

There have been a few bugs, but the recent v1.96 patch sorts most of this out (available from www.egosoft.com). There is also an excellent friendly and very active "X" Community Message Board on EgoSoft's site - a great source for help in a strange universe.

Check out "X-Tension", the not-very-well-publicised sequel to X-BTF. Fixes most of the major rants about the game and allows you to fly almost all the ships, new factories, larger universe, badder enemies and new tactics - they've even managed to top the graphics in X-BTF!

Elite for the new Millennium...Get it...Now...

Rating:
Summary: An Epic Space Romp
Review: If you were ever a fan of Elite you'll love this one. Classic space trading, fantastic slick graphics, epic space battles involving lots of ships. Build an Army then crush the rest or trade peacefully (build your own factories!) to make your fortune - either way the choice is yours. Ongiong storyline built in that follows you through your life in the new "X" Universe. An easy way to loose yourself for hours.

There have been a few bugs, but the recent v1.96 patch sorts most of this out (available from www.egosoft.com). There is also an excellent friendly and very active "X" Community Message Board on EgoSoft's site - a great source for help in a strange universe.

Check out "X-Tension", the not-very-well-publicised sequel to X-BTF. Fixes most of the major rants about the game and allows you to fly almost all the ships, new factories, larger universe, badder enemies and new tactics - they've even managed to top the graphics in X-BTF!

Elite for the new Millennium...Get it...Now...

Rating:
Summary: Succeeds at what it sets out to do.
Review: This game has limited appeal to those who want non-stop arcade action. But if you like to spend hours on end in front of your computer immersed in an alternate universe, then I cannot recommend this enough! This game's universe is huge and beautiful, and requires dedication on the part of the player. It is obviously inspired by the old classics, Elite, Frontier Elite 2, and Frontier First Encounters, which are some my all-time favorite games. The only problem with X: BTF is that you cannot actually land on the many planets like you could in those older games. I imagine this has to do with the limitations of the game's engine, but I was disappointed, since I figured if you could have a game that allowed seamless transfers from planet into space back in 1993 when Frontier Elite 2 came out, why couldn't such a feature have been put into this game? But aside from that quibble, I have none with this game. A first-rate effort by a fine company. Get it while you can! These sims are a dying breed. I also recommend the sequel, X-Tension, which is not available in the USA, but can be ordered directly from Egosoft in Germany at egosoft.com. The sequel updates the graphics even more and fixes many problems and adds many features.