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The last transmission from X Rebirth was back in 2011. Originally due out that year, we decoded juicy details about your spaceship, your drones, and the boss-around-able NPCs manning your craft. Then the space simulation vanished back into the star-womb to continue its gestation. Nearly two years later, it’s ready to be reborn, with a confident trailer and a release date of November 15 for Europe, and November 19 for North America.

The trailer shows that they’ve managed to cram everything we love about hard sci-fi into a convenient game-shaped package: space highways, intergalactic trade routes, and a cockpit that lets you fire explosion-causing lasers in a variety of pretty colors

What took so long with the whole birthing process, anyway? Egosoft head Bernd Lehahn says that it was all about embiggening the universe. “Our goal with the design of X Rebirth was to achieve a huge scale,” he explains in this video, the first of X Rebirth’s series of development diaries. “I do not mean the physical size of the universe, which is easy to increase. I am talking about a living, breathing futuristic universe crawling with life.”

You should see this as an innovative new jaunt into the X universe. As with previous games in the series, you’ll get to Trade, Fight, Build, Think, but now there’s all-new design and a significant graphical update. Also, you apparently won’t need a “PhD in advanced space game menus” to get through Rebirth, which is great news for those of us who didn’t land a scholarship at space college. The Steam page is up, too. Though there are no details on pricing yet, we are given an idea of just how much computer muscle we’ll require to run all those galaxies.

Steel wrote:I really hope that doesn't extend to the in game mission writing this time round. The previous title had such wonderful missions as "follow this guy going at very slow speed for literally an hour* until he leads you to his base, then be killed instantly as your ship is way to weak to kill the 20 pirates we spawn to ruin you (but you had no way to know this in advance)". Immense tedium followed by absurd unwinnable fight if you attempt the mission too early, immense tedium followed by trivial fight if you do it once you buy yourself a capital ship or something.

StarSword wrote:

Steel wrote:I really hope that doesn't extend to the in game mission writing this time round. The previous title had such wonderful missions as "follow this guy going at very slow speed for literally an hour* until he leads you to his base, then be killed instantly as your ship is way to weak to kill the 20 pirates we spawn to ruin you (but you had no way to know this in advance)". Immense tedium followed by absurd unwinnable fight if you attempt the mission too early, immense tedium followed by trivial fight if you do it once you buy yourself a capital ship or something.

If that's the mission I'm thinking off there's a third option you missed, something Escape Velocity players call the Not the Nine O'Clock News Maneuver. Fly away from the station to lead the pirate fighters away from it, then double back around them and scan the station while they catch up.

Granted, I've always ignored the plot altogether except for the rewards. Screwing around in the sandbox has always been the series' main attraction.