Visually, I think I just miss the (not necessarily realistic) shine on everything in X3. It gave all the ships a real hard-metal feel. I think Rebirth's station section selections, object highlighting, and flat-design icon theme sort of forced them down a more matte finish look that, at certain times, almost reminded me of cell shading. And while I loved Borderlands, that's just not the visual aesthetic I'm looking for in a space sim.

Not at all—your comment was a reasonable outsider question, and really not off-base. Besides, you're a gamer... you're supposed to think about game engines and wonder about their capabilities =)

To provide a bit of further insight, in case you're interested, Unreal Engine is open-source for registered developers (registration is free) and, if you know C++, you can tweak it any way you like to suit your development needs. In turn, they regularly accept community patches to make the engine better.

My only real complaint (so far) about Unreal Engine 4 is that it's really designed for high-end gaming rigs—and the development environment is even more demanding—so it's a resource hog and isn't really very useful yet for just making simpler games... which is a shame, since the Blueprints system makes it REALLY easy for non-programmers to create complex game logic, they have a fantastic (albeit complex) materials system, and a great animation system. Their lighting system is the closest thing I've seen to photorealistic in a real-time render.

If you haven't already seen them, check out some of the awesome UE4 architecture and interior design videos on youtube... architecture firms are apparently using UE4 to create interactive design previews for their clients these days.

(end of geek-moment)

Or just play Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice if you have rig capable of maxing it out. It looks freakishly photorealistic in general... which makes it even more disturbing.

Alas, I do not have that kind of computer. I cannot even manage to hit lowest required on several points (not enough RAM, too weak and too slow CPU, too weak GPU...).

Actually I always thought that the shine was kind of realistic :D
You are in space, you have suns around and metal does reflect light. The other game you mentioned in your first paragraph, don't have it and me thinks, will never get it as it is, at least for me (so just my personal opinion ;) ) not really X.

One problem with all the new graphic engines is, that they are first only done on high end rigs and only later (maybe) being optimised for lower end-rigs. Reminds me of the old days when software dictated which kind of hardware you had to run to be able to use it :D

And another thing I observed (or am I just mislead and too nostalgic) is that most modern games are more into the graphics and not longer into the gameplay. Also the length of games seem to shrink. (okay not true for all genres).

Just some kind of random thoughts ;)

Yeah, that shine just feel right to me. As for X: Rebirth, it's not that bad at this point. But I agree it doesn't really have that X feel. But that might be fixed in X4 with the ability to fly all the ships again.

Which is why I'm currently playing the original Baldur's Gate instead of prepping for Divinity: Original Sin 2 ;)

Yep ALL the ships, not one, not two, ALL ;)

Getting from a measly M5 into a M4 into M3 into M3+ and finally the M1/2 BIG ones :D

Although I sometimes still prefer M4/5 :D

And that is what I am afraid of with X4......Just look at this last debacle (?) of this game. Not only did they broke with everything, which would have not been necessarily a bad idea per se, BUT they also followed the bad trend of doing DLC in a really bad way me thinks.

In before those expansions were free of charge and been seen as a bonus for the loyal customers of egosoft and nowadays? Kind of every company is doing the same shit and to many customer are stupid enough to fall into this trap!

Hey 3 more stars, great think of the MODs for X3, fanbased COMPLETE Universes (okay......a wee bit over the top ;) ), but I think you get the point ;)

And I am really afraid that Egosoft will do the same again.

Yes in the old days you also had add-ons/expansion packs you could buy BUT none of them were needed to get the main-program running and most of the times they REALLY added something NEW and they didn't cost you an arm and a leg (unless it was a standalone one, but even they were most of the time cheaper).
I do remember that some companies even gave expansions out with their patches as a way to say, we are sorry. But nowadays people are (sorry to say it frankly ;) ) stupid enough to be PAYING Alpha tester instead of customers.
To clarify, I am NOT talking about kickstarter,early-access or similar, different kind of worms ;), I am only talking about A+-titles here with this pre-order-nonsense and similar.
I for myself think of a customer first and not an investor or similar, I want to buy a WORKING product and not a design concept or similar. I do support the idea for smaller studios BUT NOT for the big companies ! They are raking in millions on endless series (FIFA the millionth version, CoD 1024th I think you get the idea ;) ).
But again people are willing, no stupid enough, to pay FULL-price for what was seen before as a PATCH/ADD-ON, NOT a FULL-prize game.
Hey, I don't mind series, don't get me wrong ;) But I have the feeling unlike in the old days they do NOT add anything really new to it. Let's stay as an example with the X-series, they continuously expanded the universe with each version, Tropico, they tried new things (Yes I do like 5 as well ;) ), Gold-box series of D&D!!!!!, Anno, and so on.
Nowadays?????


I think I cut it off here, enough ranting ;) (Unless somebody, you are willing to discuss this further ;) )
PS: hmmmm.....shall I restart Baldurs Gate......Never finished it :D And before I forget, if you really want to spread love for X3, I would suggest you post as well in the main-forum, but I guess you already know it (unless you are specifically only aiming at us X-fanatics ;) )

Well, I was hoping for a stray GOG-er who wants to become an X-fanatic but hasn't had the chance yet :P, but you're right, I should probably do another one of my X3 giveaways.

I do like your idea, I also brought another person to the light ;)
But a stray GOG-er, me thinks, will not necessarily show up in this forum unless he already found the light ;)

And as a suggestion, why not make a puzzle, quiz or similar instead of just a giveaway? (only an idea ;) )

I really also liked what one Gogger did with his giveaway that the person shall do a log of his first 5 days of the game in this forum!!

(unless it was you who initiated it and I only forgotten about it :D)

Oh, but my giveaways are special, though I've been getting less and less potentially interested space empire tycoons :P. "Mark V" will show up soon.

Yeah, it was me. And it was a log of the first week ;).

I am getting oooooold ;)

I have Alzheimer (just joking ;) ) So it was you ;)

Maybe suggest instead of a diary that they shall make a video instead or leaving it as a possibility? Nowadays writing is not so common anymore, unfortunate......how many times did I try to get some freaking written instructions and I end up watching a freaking 15 minute video for what you could have written down in 10 sentences Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarg........ ;)

And like with OBS it is not so hard to make videos anymore. (again just a suggestion ;) ) I am planning on making a few videos of my GOG-games anyway sooner or later, just playing around with OBS, GIMP and Blender to get myself a descent Intro for my videos (the hardest part :D )

If I would have had the videos up you could have pointed towards them to show them, but unless we invent a time-machine you would need to wait a weeeeeeeeee bit ;)

I've been pretty disappointed that none of the winners from the last two editions have started their diaries yet. Now that notifications are working again, might be an idea to reply to their posts in those giveaways to ask what's taking them so long?

I am also disappointed.

Actually, I was planning to go through all the giveaways and make up a sort of "wall of shame" parody for the winners that have forgotten all about their diaries so far :P. I'll get around to it soon, don't worry... rather busy as the moment with other things though, so it might be the GOG kind of soon ;).

Hey, that's actually not a bad idea :P... thanks, I'll think about it.