Hi everyone,

I have just noticed steam has put Sol Exodus on the coming soon page for release on the 25th. Just wondering what others think of it? The release video looks good but there are only 8 missions, I think I'll give it a shot as long as it's not over £15/$20.

On a similar note, has anyone played Evochron Mercenary? I haven't quite made my mind up whether it's worth the purchase.

Just watched some gameplay on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fexv07uy4BY

At first it looked liked a maybe. The graphics looked smooth with lots of action on screen.

Then they shot the hull of that large spachip and flew straight through it! That was pretty awesome.

Looks promising, and something I might support too for a reasonable price.

Freespace introduced a scale of ships I'd never seen before. Even bigger than Darth Vader's 'Executor'. So big it was shocking. And coming out after Babylon 5's original run, it could have settled for just being another space sim with generic aliens. Clearly taking a cue from the rich technological designs of Babylon 5 it sought to realize that grand scale in a space simulator. The Shivan behemoths were nightmares. When they first opened fire on our ships for the first time, that beam weapon, so frightening. And the whine it made before it fired. You knew the ship in its crosshairs was screwed. If Satan had a space fleet they would like like Shivan capital ships.

Unless SOL can recapture that epic scale, the shocks and betrayals and just downright gripping story (and allow for MODs) it will not be able to stand out from the others that have come before. I look at X3 as a new benchmark in visuals for space simulators and Freespace as a story not yet matched. The stories don't have to be better than Freespace/Freespace 2 but they should be just as good.

I've played Evochron Mercenary. It's a stunning game at first, but quickly becomes dull. It reminded me a lot of a well polished Freelancer or Advent Rising. Unless you really care about customizing the shape and appearance of your ship or landing on planets, the X series is very similar and has much better trading and mission structures.

Yeah I like the x-series but it just takes too damn long to travel around.

I don't have a huge amount of time each day to play and I don't want to spend that time doing nothing while I travel in SETA mode.

But it's so realistic! A space merchant spends all his money on rare Zorgnavian toenail steaks, spends an hour twiddling his thumbs in hyperspace, and then is killed a few minutes before safety is reached. Happens all the time, man!

I'm...not 'zactly a fan myself.

I remember playing "Evochron" when it was called something else. I think it was "Starwraith" or something like that.

You can try the demo if you want. Im not sure if its available off of Steam, but you can get it from the games homepage.

http://www.starwraith.com/

If this shows the complete game, it looks inferior to Freespace : graphism are not on par with the lattest mods (the explosions, especially, are horrible), the capital ships looks like as useless as in say Tie Fighter where they would be like giant buoy, and it seems there is little dialog. If it is a work-in-progress... it could be good.

the cap ship destruction effects are cool, but there is nothing in that remotely capable of standing with (much less surpassing) freespace or any of the other X-Wing derivatives.

the ship movement looks more like your controlling a turret than a fighter and makes those dogfights look more like an on-rails shooter than an actual starfighter sim.

yes it's pretty, but so is this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVa_M6-iZws&feature=related

or for a more (batshit insane) game play look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUS4y6BEoAc&feature=related

nothing wrong with having more space combat games, and not to knock it's quality, but that's a space action game and not a space combat sim. small difference in words but worlds of difference in mechanics, call it crimson skies in space and I'm down with that but there is no way that will supplant the fallen king, no fallen EMPEROR of Space Combat sims.

personally I'm a solid fuck ton more interested in seeing how the release version of X-rebirth turns out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9I0UzWb5GU

but if comparing Freespace and Sol Exodus is like comparing apples to pears, tossing in the X series is like adding a coconut to the fruit analogy mix.

I probably should do a call out for Miner Wars while I'm at it, this is the latest feature demo from a few months ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaHOy28zXg0

I was intrigued when they mentioned giant voxel asteroids. I thought they had stopped using voxels. Its good to find that they can still serve some purpose.

Miners wars looked very interesting... until I saw the "always online" requirement for single player. :(

it's a online multiplayer centric game, or at least it will be .... not gonna lie that the always on part IS DRM, but at least it's functional DRM in that it's rather MMO like instead of Ubi's stick up your ass that just lurks over your shoulder.

no install limitation or other BS, you just log into your account.


.... and the voxel destruction is amazing! you can literally obliterate an entire chunk of rock the size of a moon.

Coconut is a fruit

But anyway...yeah that Evochron doesn't even have any shake when you boost. Freespace led to the Babylon 5 MODs with Starfuries and when you boosted, boy you shook. And let's not forget the Minbari cruiser beam weapons. Green death, huge green death.

See? Those are the reasons why space sims died out, right there. People realized they don't really need any more.