If you like your old stick and don't feel like getting a new one you may wanna try one of these things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rCNKF5JlLs

From Nov 2013 (ignore the stuff about X-Rebirth)

Excellent! Added :)

So true! This renaissance of space games its like a guy waking up from 10 years coma and living every day as if there were no tomorrow!!!
Also Star Citizen case still amaze me: +$35 million crowfunding!!!!! C-R-A-Z-Y!!!! Perhaps this will be the finest indie space sim.

Added another link.

That much backing for a space genre is absolutely mental! I feel very optimistic about this. There seems to be such a high level of attention to detail that I haven't seen before in the genre. The ship damage models are something you'd expect to see in a flight sim, for example. Individual engines can be knocked out and affect the handling of the ship, etc. I've never seen realism like that in a space sim.

I voted for it here and I also wrote the devs, they said they'd "try to release it in as many places as possible", so I'm hoping we'll see it here too. And it will be DRM free anyway, IIRC =)
Thanks for adding the link to the OP!
And yeah, this game looks absolutely fantastic, it being an MMO makes it a no-go for me, though. Also, the model might worry some people (microtransactions? Ah well, I'm not that well informed, so I don't want to scare off anybody :D).

There have been a lot of sci-fi movies released recently too - Oblivion, Star Trek, Elysium, Ender's Game, Gravity, Riddick, After Earth etc - unfortunately, some of those really didn't live up to their hype

I'm really hoping that games like Elite: Dangerous managed to get it right as it's been too long since we've had an immersive space sim to get lost in.

It is an MMO of sorts, but you can play the entire game without going online. The universe, however, is persistent and reflects changes made by the player. If you want, you can download updated versions of the universe that reflect the influence of everyone online! IE, scouts discovering new systems, bases being destroyed, wars, rises and falls of factions, etc. All this, without having to participate in the daily MMO grind.

This is just what they say, of course. I will wait for the game to be released to see which promises have been realised. Microtransactions are worrisome. I hope they do it like Path of Exile.

Question. What are the minimum expected/guestimated specs for the game?.Lowest tier of $30 is tempting...im going to guess it will be higher on retail release?

ummmm in terms of ATI equivalent?

I suppose a GTX 760 would be about the same as an HD 7970 and a GTX 460 would be like a HD 5870.

It's basically Crysis 3 set in space. It's going to look absolutely f*cking beautiful if you can run it. For me, the goal is 60fps and I'll be upgrading my GTX 560ti (HD 7850) if I want to achieve that. Or turn all the detail down. I'm not sure yet. I'm thinking I might wait until a new generation is released.

Me either, MMO never again, but in their KS peach they promise single player campaign gonna be as excited as multiplayer, without all that social MMO aspects. I hope they keep that promise. And seems to be microtransactions are only to buy new ships and some equipment, but apparently you can also buy them with ingame coins (or whatever they decided to called them) that you earn by playing, trading, etc all inside the game.

Bit confused. What % is persistent MMO/SP ?.

I've been to the year 2188 It was NOT FUN! it was August the 3rd 2188 to be exact