huh.  I have this, and it is a great game. iva seen a few thread on these forums as well.

I will have to relook into this.

yeah - x: rebirth makes me less confused. 

Heard of these X games but never played them. Too many good games to care about games with tough userinterfaces.

I could never get into these games. It's too open and there's too much stuff to do other then flying around dogfighting, which is all I really want out of a game like this.

Someone remake TIE Fighter and I'll give you money right now.

Combat should hopefully be improved, as well as ship fitting (actually taking up slots in weapons interface instead of sitting in a cargo hold).

As for the hopes of some players, cockpits may return, based on one blurry screenshot from a demo video posted. (X3: Reunion and Terran Conflict did not have cockpit displays, the camera was positioned right outside the ship, though there are mods available.) I'm not too crazy about cockpits. They may be more realistic, but with Reunion and Terran Conflict it was much easier to see around the sector and fight other ships.

lol well yeah I slipped up, brain said rebirth and I typed reunion....

I have stronger associations with reunion.... association failure!

sorry for the mix up

I have played X2 and X3, both games are phenomenally intoxicating games,,,, but they do not have much replayability, for me it was about 3 games each and then I'm done with it (one game occupying you for months tho). Even trying to come back after a long time away dousnt work... i tried that just last week, got overwhelmed by a massive 'been there done that' cloud.

I havn't gotten round to playing sins of a solar empire just yet. But overall, my love of the X games was greatly assisted by having played Freespace/freespace2. And still there are plenty if good ideas in Freespace that could have made X games even better!

Ah I don't think I was clear enough on what I meant by dumbed down.  I meant oversimplified, like having fewer options customizing fighters, fewer tactics, and simpler flight controls, with more mundane ships.  You know, add a little bit of wow's "mediocrity of experience with shiny exterior".

Fixing the static nature of the game (lots of wasted time, little to no AI initiated action) is necessary... Honestly the best mod I ever had for X3 TC was cykur's gateless hyperspace jump mod...when it worked.

I used the crap out of that mod and loved every second of it, it opened up the whole universe and my brain said goodbye to the annoying jump gates.

I recommend starting out with an older X title if you want to learn the ropes. I started out with X2, back before they added production chains and a lot of other stuff, so it was easier to learn. Then again, Rebirth will probably reboot the gameplay as well.

What is the difference between X3 - Reunion and X3 - Terran conflict? Terran conflict sequel/better/successor? Or just an expansion? If expansion, can those two be played together somehow? Thanx

I wouldn't say that they dumbed down the game, but I agree that it is it much easier to get stuff in that game. Mission rewards are a lot higher now. Hell, by the time you complete the main storyline (very lame and leaves a lot of unanswered questions), you have a small fleet of ships. I played Reunion for months and managed to have one or two stations and a small collection of ships. I got to that same position in TC in a few weeks. Haven't restarted since I lost my savegame. [e digicons]:'([/e]

Hopefully Rebirth will be what I hope it is. Egosoft really needs to ramp up the testing, because they always let serious bugs loose, which drags down their review scores.