Everyone else is scared of being compared to the X series and coming up severely short.

Oh, someone else still remembers that. I played multiplayer in tachyon for several years, untill people stopped coming online at all.

I loved ship movement and controls there, made me always wonder why all these newer simulators could not implement same 'keep turning to pointer' mode rather than 'keep pointer in the center' b-shit.

Tried to find some good space sim month ago, seems there wasn't anything worthy released at all. Well, there is X3, but I'm tired of X universe.

That's why I am picking up Sword of the Stars.  Granted it's nothing like this, but it will have to do.

Reviewers have been pretty kind to indie games that are actually done well you know. Recettear has an 83, and that is not a triple A title with a lot of wow in the graphics department. It is, however, fun to play and charming.

I understand your point, but here is what I don't quite understand. Are you saying that if a triple A company released something like Reccetear, it wouldn't get a high score? That doesn't make sense. The game is either good or it isn't. It doesn't matter who makes it. You're talking score as a reason for them not doing these niche type games, I think it has nothing to do with score and everything to do with not being able to charge 50-60 USD and sell millions that is the real barrier.

Well what you said is they wouldn't make them because of something related to the metacrtic scores. I am not disagreeing with you in that a triple A wouldn't make it, because they won't. I am disagreeing with you as to the reason they won't make it. It's not the score.

Egosoft, the developer behind the X-series is currently working on what they call "the ultimate space-sim". No other info, but still something to look forward to.

so after starting this, i reinstalled x3 and instantly realised why i hated it. i don't think you can seriously promise people a snadbox game and then force people to use gates to move from planet to planet. in the modern age i think you have to give people the ability to fly anywhere within a solar system, of their own volition. x does what it does pretty well, but it's not what i want, and i don't think i'm alone in this,

as for more action oriented games, i remember starfox and rogue squadron both doing well (critically and commercially) on the n64 with analogue control, so it's definately possible. i knew loads of people who played those games.

and yet nintendo is doing two zelda games AND two mario games before making a wii starfox game? (or a wii f-zero game, may i add). what gives?

And TC has the "TM" mini carriers for people to get a taste of this for a pretty trivial sum.

I liked wing commander, but i played it on SNES. I think really that was the last time I played a game like that was on SNES. I would be open to a nice one on PC though. I am not sure Bioware would be the right choice. I mean story is nice, but I would have to have Bioware run around for 2 years talking about story and then throw a space combat onto rails.

The original wing commander was a pc game.  As they evolved they got more and more storey elements. By 3 and 4 they used full motion video better then just about any game up to then.  You get a decent team to put together the space combat sections and use biowares no how to develop the storey and plot = pure gold.

Bioware, a space flight simulator .. NOOOOOOOOooooooooo.  No thanks.  Story, they could handle that part, but I just can't see them creating a good space flight sim.  The user interface is so critical in a space flight sim, and they don't think in those terms.  Not to mention that they have created not one strategy style game I can think of(please correct me if I am wrong).

Now, the X series by egosoft has many good things about it, but their control system has it's problems also.  X would be so cool if it had both 4x strategy game style controls and flight sim controls.  It would be kinda neat to command a ship from the bridge/cockpit, or an external view like eve and be able to utilize a virtual war table (think battle star galactica's bridge only with a lot more holographic capability) to control fleets /task forces. 

Independance War ... Now, a remake of that would be awesome.  In my opinion it is the best capital ship command game ever.

A really great space simulator is long overdue.

That virtual war table idea is really cool!  X3 in particular could benefit from it...and a general UI overhaul for that matter.

If you want cockpits, there is a great mod that creates a cockpit / bridge for almost every ship in the game.

Ultimately, EvE and X3 are the best we have at the moment, with Black Prophecy heading into port soon (the open beta is tentatively scheduled for November).  Ironically, each seems to offer something really good, but none of them have everything I want in a space game.  Hence, why I swing between the two (and soon, three?).