X3: Reunion

[KG_AGCent]

I picked up this game from Steam for a reasonable price, around $40. It is a sci fi trader game in the tradition of FreeSpace and others. Essentially you start as a lone freetrader aboard your own little freighter and your goal is to build an empire. The game takes place in a fully interactive 3D universe in outer-space with 5 other races in control of the various sectors. There are ships ranging in size from a small single person fighter to a large Destroyer class ship. Each ship is appropriately scaled. If you take your 1-man fighter and fly along side on of these beasts it truly is a kilometer long with all the detail one would expect to see from a pass like like that. Each ship, regardless of class is capable of being commanded and piloted by yourself provided you have the resources and good graces of the people you wish acquire the ship from.

The economic model is quite sophisticated but not overly complicated. You have basic resources and finished product and high-level product. Resources are required to manufacture finished product. High-level product require resource as well as finished product eg. Microchips require silicon and energy and produce. Silicon comes from mining asteriods and energy comes from Solar Power Plants. Computer components requires Energy, Microchips and Ore.

Anyway with many different products and resources involved and various factories needed certain resources, there is always a way to make a $$ because after you make your $$ you get to play with these, this is all in-game footage:

http://dl5.egosoft.com/Xtended07_trailer.rar

Fleet battles are a blast! Each ship is individually playable, customizable. You can capture enemy ships, haul them to a dockyard, repair them up (at the cost of $$ and resources) and use them against your foe!

This movie is actually from a fan-made mod called X-tended.