The next step

[Fuse]

Hi everyone

I just registered to these boards today because of the need to express my feelings towards X and the community.

Although I am a new member, I am not new to these boards, I have been playing X since the release of X-BTF, and have been reading these boards off and on for the last 3 or 4 years.

I'm going to skip the part where I tell you of playing Elite on the C64, then the Amiga, then Elite2 & 3 and the addiction I got to space and explorations because of it... (oops I just told u.. nm!). And after Elite I desparately searched for a game to fill that gap.. no other space game came close to Elite... Until X.

I played and completed the plot within a couple of months and enjoyed it fully.. My empty feeling caused by lack of space games had been filled for the time being..

Then i heard about Freelancer.. I read the feature list and I thought this was going to be an Elite and X beater.. This brings me on to what I think of peoples opinions of FL and why I feel sorry for it and the comments it recieves.

FL took 5 years to be released. Some people think that the end result was terrible but considering the trouble that FL went thorugh during its development I think they manage to turn out a pretty good game.

OK.. So it has half the features that were promised and is basically an arcade version of Elite..

Things were going well with Freelancer.. everything was on track and it was going to be the best thing since X.. But 3 years into development Chris Roberts (grr) left.. and thats where the trouble started.. The development stopped.. noone knew if FL would be continued and it looked like the end.

Then Microsoft stepped in and what I think happened was Microsoft told the developers to continue with FL and to basically look at what had been developed so far, forget about the features list and make it into a solid game with what they had, to be released as soon as possible.

Freelancer is out... not as good as it could have been, but dont blame the developers or microsoft.. If Chris Roberts hadnt left I think we would have got everything that was promised.

I think is a *great* game for people who have not played a space rpg before and I think the X2 community will be better off for it.

Ok, enough about FL, i just wanted to get that off my chest..

I can't wait for X2.. and then the Online version.. I hope its as good as I think it will be, I hope to post alot more from now on and then contribute to the mountains of user content i'm sure we will see pouring out after the release..

~ Fusey

[SteveMill]

Even though i'm a dedicated X player and old Elite fan I find Freelancer entertaining as an arcade adventure. Difficult at first to overcome the diappointemtn at it not being what was orginally touted but once over that it's fun.

[Al]

I've only played the standard FL demo, ie without the extra ships and increased lvl limit. Its not bad but simply not what I expected. I might give the full game a shot but not at full price, as its simply not what I want. This doesn't make it a bad game, just of less interest than some others (X2 )

Al

[Commander Jamieson]

Welcome to this forum. You will see we are a friendly bunch of people here.

Telling us your story, which is similar to mine brought back sweet memories. I remember ELITE on the C64, when I just stared at the monitor just showing black and waiting and waiting for something to happen. This was so real for me, when a pirate finally appeared and the warning went off I almost jumped out of my chair. Forget about the wire graphics, this was so real to me, I was hooked on Space Sims. I too found XBtF, by accident only, which rekindled that old ELITE feeling again.

Cheers

[Rapier]

Welcome.

Although I am a new member, I am not new to these boards, I have been playing X since the release of X-BTF, and have been reading these boards off and on for the last 3 or 4 years.

kind of.

[Fuse]

hehe yeah sorry for being a fly on the wall, I usually only post when I have something I feel needs saying, and with the impending release of X2 my excitment levels are getting critical

The new forums are much better than a year ago, and you all seem like a great bunch of space fairing folk

CJ, I can't remember when I first found out about X.. I think I must have read about it in some magazine and shot straight out and bought it !

~Fusey

[The_Rock]

yeah welcome to the forums buddy