Hm, sort of a 4x game with a plot. I like!

That was one of the better parts of Mass Effect? If you'd written "that was one of the better parts of Starflight," or "that was one of the better parts of Star Control 2," I'd bite, but Mass Effect took the experience and made it dull as paint, with the taunt that there was some sort of greater plot involved every time.

The plot turns were occasionally okay, but the experience of getting to those planets was pretty maddening and becomes useless later in the game, when the money cap gets hit and the fetch quests don't have any awards other than personal satisfaction. Not to mention that you really couldn't land on most of the planets.

And all the modern gamers complained about the controls of the lander, which I feel is somewhat unjustified and mostly based on the inability of some people to read a topographic map.

So, yes, sandbox sci-fi exploration game necessary, but pick a better exemplar than Mass Effect.

@Slatz_Grobnik: To each his own I guess, but I really enjoyed that bit of Mass Effect!

This looks pretty good. I look forward to hearing from some gamers. I like the idea of playing with the spaceship controls. That's as close as any of are going to get to doing it for real.

Hey all, if you are interested in the most detailed spaceship simulator ever created, look no further than "Orbiter - Space Flight Simulator". Its an open source program that is so detailed to be more a simulator, less a game. It is amazing, simply amazing. You can enter any date and it will set every planet and moon in our solar system to the exact position of that date. You then plot your trajectories, takeoff, etc.
There are free packages you can download with highly detailed maps of the planets and moons.
You must check it out.
[orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk]

BTW, long time reader, first time poster. I love this site.
Go IO9!

@Slatz_Grobnik: Mass Effect might not the best choice for comparison, but you paint a pretty bleak picture for what I thought was GOTY material.

@zeppelined: Best 4x in space I've seen in a long time is Sins of a Solar Empire, terrible name, great gameplay.

@Jeff-Minor: Wolfgang (pronounced wolf gahn) Pauli may disagree--

MaxTwice, I guess it depends on how long we live. Point taken.

@MaxTwice: A title for your next sci-fi venture!

"Women who Run with the Wolfgahns"

Just based on screenshots, that doesn't look good at all. Freespace 2 had better graphics (never knew what was going on though).

I think Eve online, and Sins of a Solar Empire put this one to shame, at least visually.

And when did Mass Effect become a classic? It's like 6 months old, right?

What's up with the late 1999 graphics on this game? Like Seth above me, Sins of a Solar empire is a strategy/RTS where you can have dozens of ships in view at a time, zoom in and out, and still looks a hundred times better than this.

I've been afraid to pick up Sins of a Solar Empire.

I hear too many good things about it and fear it would consume me.

just got sins installed, feeling of impending doom looming.

I loved mass effect. Not flawless by any stretch but the best immersive plot I've played in a game in a long time.
Give me an sdk for it so I can go crazy.

This looks interesting and I'll admit I wished I had some space battles to participate in during mass effect. I think from the look of things this game will be all about the space battles which while not a bad thing is not what I'd have I'd wish for my dream scifi game.

just got sins installed, feeling of impending doom looming.

I loved mass effect. Not flawless by any stretch but the best immersive plot I've played in a game in a long time.
Give me an sdk for it so I can go crazy.

This looks interesting and I'll admit I wished I had some space battles to participate in during mass effect. I think from the look of things this game will be all about the space battles which is not a bad thing but it''s not what I'd wish for my dream scifi game.

Damn the post editing for this sorta sucks.

Ooh, could this at last be the successor to freelancer I've been waiting for so long?

@Kevin Kelly: ME's a good game, but it just gets treated as if no one's ever done a western-style SF RPG before, which is why I start to bristle at using adjectives like "classic" in its description.

What I'm asserting that you're enjoying the concept, more than the execution. I find it less novel, though no one's done it either A) for the platforms and B) with anywhere near modern-day graphics or processor power, which both lend it certain virtues. For me, the sheen is off the apple, so I get to give it a jaded eye. This I take as the root of our difference of opinion.

Nobody has mentioned Frontier, this makes me sad.