X3: Albion Prelude
 

Whoops, where did THIS spring from!? While everyone has be clamoring for X: Rebirth news, Egosoft suddenly announces another X3 game! It sounds like it's going to be an expansion to X3: Terran Conflict but saves in X3:TC are not compatible with X3:AP. If you got the Superbox then this game will be free. Otherwise it's €9.99.

The main point of the game is to act as a bridge between the old X series and the new X series. I suppose we'll be finding out why some races aren't around in X:Rebirth.

Oh, and when will it be released? On the 15th! Of December! Of THIS year! (You know, right when I'll likely get invited to start playing Star Wars: TOR. And about six months before I get that friggin' HUB plot finished.)

Basic info: http://www.egosoft.com/games/x3ap/info_en.php
A big FAQ here: http://www.egosoft.com/x/xnews/201112_1_44News.html

And it has been released! I found a nice little bonus in my steam list today (they even made a spiffy new icon for it, which looks like it says X^6)

It requires steam FFS
If you intent to buy take a long look in E's forums first since the release has some issues

Yeah, they always have issues on release. These games are huge and Egosoft isn't so bugs are pretty inevidable. They've shown that they can and will fix issues. While I might buy X: Rebirth on launch day, I don't really plan to play it until a patch or two gets out the door. (Just like I'm doing now with Skyrim!)

Can you play this if you've never played an X or X3 game? Or what game is best to start with?

Oh, nevermind. The tiny unreadably font that plagues most RTS games, space exploration games and turn-based strategy games on PC will make this unplayable on my TV. :/

I take it you're sitting far away from this TV? Many programs of all kinds are going to have issues with that.

The entire X series is 75% off right now on Steam. I just bought the X SuperBox for $9.99 :)

Well, it was nice having you here JDR…with the X SuperBox, I don't think anyone will hear from you for months, possibly years! :)

About that deal, I don't think it's possible to get more gameplay out of $9.99 if one finds space sims even remotely appealing.

Maybe if I ever get around to actually playing it. :)

I have original box versions of all the X games already, but I bought the Superbox just to have the updated versions of X:BtF and X-tension, and the X Encyclopedia.

Ah, I see. For that price it's not a bad idea to get them for the updates you mentioned. The X series is a bit difficult to get into at first, but it becomes pretty addicting once you do.

Yeah, some programs/games give me trouble… I sit about 2-3 meters away most of the time. Browsers, etc. can up the font size easily and most games with a console version these days have big enough fonts. But there are some that are pretty much unreadable, even on some computer monitors. Sacred 2 is an example.

The X games are dirt cheap now on Steam, too. Sigh.

Ah yeah, been there, done that Thaurin - though for me it was running at 2048x1536 on my old CRT monitor. I could just dumb down the resolution to fix it, though. A few folks did complain about it on the forums but not many, I'm afraid.

In other news… the Bonus Pack has been updated to work with Albion Prelude.

Indeed, and on an LCD screen, of course, lowering the resolution beneath its native one makes it all look pretty bad. Besides, most games nowadays scale their UI, anyway, so it doesn't make a difference.

But I wouldn't want to lose it for anything. I've never been this relaxed playing games when I was sitting on a chair behind a desk! Although for real work, a desk is pretty much required. (hehe, that's probably why RTS/MMO/TBS games don't work as well, they are more like work… ;))

I also have the X Superbox, and have put a few hours into X3TC…I'll probably restart for AP…but I still wonder if I should play the older games first. Do any of you X fans have an opinion on this?

I remember getting pretty deep into x2, took a lot to get into it. I'm hoping they revamp the interface in the new version.

Anyone played this yet?

I haven't played enough of any of the X games to really form an opinion, but a lot of fans I've talked to say that X:BtF is still one of their favorites. I've played the first few hours of BtF, and it still holds up well, imo.

I played the crap out of X2. Loaded up X3 a while back and fought with the new interface for a while before giving up. The X2 interface was a total kludge, but once you got to used to it, it's hard to change. Supposedly X3 incorporates all the features that were popularly modded into X2 (fan mods that became official), so it should be a "better" game in theory.

I played BtF last night, and I agree. For a 12 year old game, it holds up very well. It took me awhile to figure out how to save my game, though, since Steam doesn't bother to give us a manual. I suspected I had to do it at a station, but didn't put "Salvage Insurance" and "Save Game" together right away. It was pretty fun, so I think I'll keep playing BtF before moving on to the sequels.

I'm surprised Steam doesn't include the manual on PDF. Kinda lame…

Here.. http://replacementdocs.com/download.php?view.7870

Salvage insurance isn't the same as a save game. It's more like a quick save. There's also a "normal" save command in there somewhere (unless BtF is radically different from X2).