Vaary nice. Not in, too big for me to download. Plus my life sucks far to much to be a legendary star fighter right now. Saving X for later.

In for Themken.

Thank you for your generosity, WinterSnowfall.

For a Split (....) second there I thought you meant me, then understood it was to the OP. Thank you for your support!

The music in the X games is nice even if one does not like economic simulations.

Edited my post of clarity. Cheers.

So I have 4 name tags in my hat so far... hold on tight, it's going to be a bumpy post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea2HS8NL4s4

Come on, people! These are great games. Noone else really insterested?

Free roaming in a big universe! Semi-newtonian physics that strike a fair compromise between fun and realism. NO joystick needed (I disconnect mine when I want to play X3:Reunion) as it works splendidly without one.

In these games you can: Build a trade empire; build a manufacturing empire; do missions for npcs; build a huge fleet; fight space battles either yourself and/or by ordering your fleet; wage war on some faction; capture ships and fix them up for your own use or sell for profitsss; turn pirate and get the shiny loot; strike out alone or build up a fleet that you can either steer remotely or set up to automatically follow your orders OR you can do a combination of all or some.

There is a story that you may follow at your own pace (ok, sometimes taking a break from it is not posssible for a bit) or start with it completly turned off. There are a bunch of different starts and you can unlock more (by an easy hack if you are so inclined) that let you start in different solar systems with different starting assets and relationships with the races and factions.

These are slow paced games. For getting into battle faster, if that is what you want, the training sim or some certain starts that give you a war ship will let you do that but this is not Freespace, nor Independence War 1/2.

It is possible to play without doing much fighting at all, just scurring about in a fast ship and remote steering your empire.

And the music is very nice EG

bump

Thanks for advertising this :). I guess the responsibilities I've added to the giveaway have scared off most people.

In any case I now declare the signups for the giveaway officially closed. People have had ample time to spot this and join in the fun if they wanted to by now.

I'm going to make an announcement tomorrow, as promised... well, not quite as I've promised, but you'll see.

Good luck everyone! Don't feel discouraged WinSnow, you're doing an incredibly cool thing with this thread c:

Hopefully the winner's creative writing skills will be a fun read next week.

So, the time has come.

I'll be honest with you and give you the bad news first: I've decided to change the rules a bit.

First change is that you can no longer sign up on behalf of someone else - as a direct result mrkgnao is out of the race.

That leaves us with:
- Themken
- a4plz
- Hardrada

The second change is that I'm not going to pick out the winner randomly. I hate doing that when people have better odds than in a game of russian roulette :D.

Now the good news.

Don't get used to it, but this is going to be one of those rare occurrences in life where everybody wins. Yes, you heard me right, Themken, a4plz and Hardrada, you're each going to get a code from me for the entire trilogy of X3 games.

The rest of the deal is still etched in stone, so I expect to see 3 game diaries from either yourselves or someone else willing to take up the task (if you change your mind and want to pass on the games to someone else that is).

I'll have to say that it's quite a commitment and I admire your bravery (or recklessness :P). I've started an AP game back in September last year and I'm still in my 6th day of gameplay, though I have to admit I've been playing on and off mostly since my daily schedule has been rather hectic lately.

Cheers to the winners and I hope we'll get to see some diaries soon!

Oh my! That was rather (very) generous. Thank you!

Now, I already have X3:Reunion on disc so do not really need that one.... I can claim it just as a backup for when/if I lose the disc, shall I? Otherwise I would be happier if it made someone else happy.

Downloading the War Pack now...

How about we make the diaries in the X games sub forum and just link to them here? Or the other way around with making links in there to the diaries.

I promise to play at least for an hour and write about that every day, normally longer but some days might be busy with real life.

Prologue:

Time to prepare, choose whether to play X3:TC or X3:AP and which start. Stock up on food, fill the fridge and larder. That mouse is getting a bit wobbly after a mere five years, I hope it lasts this week.

As you wish, it's all yours since you've won it :P. I too have them on disc but I've bought them again on GoG and I'm using the GoG versions going forward.

X3TC and AP in their GoG and Steam versions have a couple of extra patches which you can not get with the retail versions... not sure if that's true for Reunion as well, as I haven't checked yet.

Anyway, I only keep the disc versions in case of a catastrophe :).

That sounds like a good idea actually. I'll be in myself not for a diary but at least to show you around my X3 universe and what I've managed to achieve ;).

It does not have to be a daily thing, that is why I said "for each day of actual gameplay". I think it took me about 2 weeks to get to a day in game.

Don't think of it as a chore. Whenever you get to a point where you have something to share and time to do it, take a few screenshots and write a few lines.

If the campaign appeals to you, go for TC. If you want to be the master of your own castle, set your own objectives, build your own empire, go for AP.

I'm currently playing AP with the story mode off (Custom Game) in a 100% sandbox, no-campaign whatsoever mode and I've never felt better in an X game so far.

Oh, I misunderstood; thought you meant one real life day....

Well, I have no idea where to find someone who would be willing to do a diary so will redeem Reunion too TOMORROW UNLESS you give it to someone else before that.

I won't. As I said, it's all yours :). If I were you, I'd claim it and keep my retail copy as a backup.