Well, got a chance to try out X2 The Threat yesterday.
Initial reactions were "Wow!". The game starts with a pretty nice animation sequence done with the game engine. On my system it was a bit stuttering and I did fear it would be the same once in game but once in game it was smooth and good all the time without any stuttering etc..
So, basically you have the option to do pretty much whatever you want or follow the story based missions. The missions following the plot have nice animation sequences with walking characters and spoken dialogues and you even get some options to choose what you want to ask..something of Freelance feel to it actually.
The graphics are stunning, best I have seen in a space sim sofar with volumetric nebula clouds, nice lights&shadows. You have a cockpit view that can be viewed around in and also outside views.
Your first ship is a small M5 class ship that can hold less than 40 whateverunit of cargo. You can buy new ships, equipment and even factories (stations in space) and I suppose own space stations. You can have your own fleets of traders, or attack forces as well.
There are jumpgates between the different systems and navigation is pretty easy. Most of the stations are dockable, and once you are inside the station you have to park your ship by manually flying it to a docking thingie, much like Descent but in a slower pace. You can also exit from the ship and fly around in a space suite (althou I didn't try that one yet)
Apparently there are thousands of different items one can trade in or manufacture in different factories.
The flying about feels pretty ok but I had wished for more inertia as now it feels you can stop in a seconds from full speed. Definitly not as advanced "physics" as in the I-war series but it is good enough I guess.
Each station have a bulletinboard with loads of news items as well as random job offerings. Eg. someone needs a quick transport to some specific point, worth so and so much of credits.
There are several races in the game, all with their own distinctive style of stations and I suspect own cargo types. In whole, the universe seems very dynamic and a live with pirate ships flying here and there, cargo transporters on their own missions etc..
Well, after only a few hours of testing it seems to be a quite a good game. I haven't experienced any combat yet and what I have read, it might break the game...so I don't know yet if this game will be a keeper or not. If the fighting is good enough, it might be a very long appealing game where you can earn billions with your own trading empire, or you could go pirate..or hunt pirates or just follow the plot line..
Almost forgot:
www.egosoft.com
//Kee
and they are not that big IIRC
