Elite: Dangerous

[Krynn72]

We should probably have a thread on this game. Comes out Dec 16th, a few of us on VT.net have already pre-purchased it. Its a space flight MMO (No subscription) and its really good. I've played a bit of the beta and the flying mechanics are awesome even with just mouse and keyboard (will probably get a flight stick after x-mas just to complete the experience). Lots more to come from this game in the future too.
http://elitedangerous.com/?gclid=CPiTvOjXscICFWIA7AoddWsAvg&gclsrc=aw.ds

In Elite: Dangerous, the player will be able to explore a 1:1 scale Milky Way galaxy of around 400 billion star systems, complete with 1:1 scale planets and moons that rotate and orbit in real-time, resulting in dynamic day/night cycles, based on procedural generation according to real scientific models, of which around 150,000 star systems are taken from real-world astronomical data. The developer stated: "It’s quite common in space games to fudge the scale to make things look good and work, however this results in spatial locations being condensed. In Elite everything is the scale it should be, so the planets are the correct size and distances between objects are also correct. Using the Cobra engine means that we can tailor our solutions to fit the game rather than the other way round."

Planned updates to the game include allowing the player to seamlessly freeform land on 1:1 scale planets with cityscapes, as in the last two Elite games Frontier: Elite II and Frontier: First Encounters, and walk around in first person perspective on entire surfaces of populated, living planets, with wildlife and go big-game hunting, with Braben wanting to ability to chase "big dinosaurs around". Updates are expected to allow the player to drive vehicles around on the "huge great surfaces" of planets, and stash materials such as cargo there. Other planned updates will allow Zero-G first-person shooter combat, multi-crew boarding, the theft of other ships and other interactions with other players and NPCs inside ships and the internal areas of space stations, and space-walk around the exterior of ships to effect repairs. Other planned updates will allow players to operate ships with multiple players, and make available giant "executive control" capital ships to players.

Elite: Dangerous features a massively multiplayer, persistent universe, with an online-only single player mode. The actions of players will affect the narrative story of the wider galaxy within the game, such as the type of missions and quests that will generated by the event system. The developers have often noted how the previous games lend themselves naturally to modern online gaming - for example, destroying an innocent ship has always led to a criminal record and to police attention in systems rich enough to afford law enforcement, which would provide a powerful anti-griefing mechanism in a multiplayer game. The developers have also considered allowing players to play within small, trusted groups, so that any in-game encounters are only drawn from that group.

Elite: Dangerous will be set in the year 3300, around 45 years after the events of Frontier: First Encounters, the previous game in the series. The Thargoids, the warlike, insectoid aliens from the original game, are due to make an appearance.

 

[Vegeta897]

It's a really cool experience with a HOTAS and voice-activated commands.

I stopped playing the beta because there wasn't quite enough interesting things to do, and very little player interaction or ways to work with your friends. Also the whole dynamically player-influenced universe thing wasn't "active" yet. Hopefully it's a more full experience on release, though IIRC there will be more features coming post-release.