X Rebirth Is Finally (Almost) Ready

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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X Rebirth Is Finally (Almost) Ready

X Rebirth, the latest and hopefully greatest entry in Egosoft's massive space simulation series, is coming in November.

The X series, for those of you unfamiliar with it (and yeah, that's probably most of you) is a massive, open-ended space simulation in which you pilot vessels ranging from small fighters to massive capital ships, fighting, trading or just doing whatever happens to tickle your fancy at any given moment. There's actually a plot, although I don't think most players pay much attention to it; the degree of freedom on tap is remarkable but it's also a rather obtuse experience, and people expecting to blast their way to victory in the gentle grasp of a "you are the hero" narrative tend to find themselves quickly and viciously punished for their presumption. Sounds like fun, right?

If you find yourself nodding in agreement then you'll be happy to hear that after seven long years in development, X Rebirth is just about ready to go - and it's going to be huge. "The reason for [the long development period] is the sheer scope of our project. We not only want our universe to be huge, we want it to be huge and teeming with life," Egosoft Studio Head Bernd Lehann explained. "A single factory compound in X Rebirth may consist of hundreds of buildings, some of which are so large that ships measuring kilometers in length can dock inside them. The player can even disembark in order to explore the station and meet its inhabitants."

Despite the vastly increased scale of the game, Egosoft says the controls are "much-simplified," to be "complex, but not complicated." In fact, while it may be hard for veterans of the series to believe (and also a touch sacrilegious), the whole thing can be played with just a gamepad.

System requirements tend to be a little on the steep side: The Steam page [http://store.steampowered.com/app/2870] says they're still being nailed down but the minimum requirement is currently listed as an Intel I-series chip at 2 Ghz (or AMD equivalent) with 4GB RAM and an Nvidia GT400 series or ATI 4870HD video card with 512MB, while the recommended spec is an Intel i5 (Quad) or i7 at 2.5 Ghz (or AMD equivalent) with 8GB RAM and an Nvidia GT500 series or ATI 5870HD with 1 GB RAM.

Along with the launch trailer playing above, Egosoft has released a pair of videos talking about some of the game's more significant changes, "Controls [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEbL1p5vZpw]," and they make it look even more impressive. I'm a little nervous about the whole thing - it's almost frighteningly ambitious, even for an X game - but if it works, it should be nothing short of amazing. X Rebirth comes out in Europe on November 15 and hits North American shores on November 19, exclusively for the PC.

Source: Egosoft [http://www.egosoft.com/news/current_en.php#news926]


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Me55enger

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Dec 16, 2008
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Y'see, I wonder if what Chris Roberts is doing over at Cloud Imperium had any impact on this in the later stages.

Big things are mean't to be happening for Star citizen this November, y'see. Or at least that is the general rumour.
 

Nurb

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Dec 9, 2008
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Me55enger said:
Y'see, I wonder if what Chris Roberts is doing over at Cloud Imperium had any impact on this in the later stages.

Big things are mean't to be happening for Star citizen this November, y'see. Or at least that is the general rumour.
The first alpha should be available for SC then.
 

Me55enger

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Dec 16, 2008
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Nurb said:
The first alpha should be available for SC then.
And considering the sheer scale and hype it is making, it is a legitimate question as to what is going to generate more response.
 

Shinsei-J

Prunus Girl is best girl!
Apr 28, 2011
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X, oh how I love you.
I'll be playing my recently repurchased X3 'till this, then this untill Star Citizen late next year.
Really loving this Space Sim comeback recently.
 

Trasch17

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Feb 4, 2012
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I think I just wet my pants...
The last time I played a good space sim was ages ago and I was always interested in the X series so sign my ass up, I'm gonna buy it on day one.
 

Zendervai

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Shinsei-J said:
X, oh how I love you.
I'll be playing my recently repurchased X3 'till this, then this untill Star Citizen late next year.
Really loving this Space Sim comeback recently.
I don't mean to be pendantic, but X is one of the few franchises that never really stopped. I mean, counting expansions, there's like 7 games made since 1999.
 

Scarim Coral

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Oct 29, 2010
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Ok I'm confused now as from the look and feel of the game, it is almost identical to Star Citizen (yes I know the visual is different as X got that warp speed thing). What make it different from that other game? Granted it still look impressive though.
Also ha, at 1.54 is the Galactica.
 

KillaBC

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I would love to board enemy cap ships and take them over, that would be brilliant. Also the space genre is getting plenty of love as of late and quite rightly. The genre has been neglected for too long now, it's time to bring it back to the forefront.
 

BoogieManFL

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Apr 14, 2008
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I like the concept and the freedom, but geez the controls and administration was just so bad. It felt like one of those game series to me that you can't really effectively play without user made mods/scripts. The base game was just too lacking features on its own.
 

Piorn

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Dec 26, 2007
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Looks really impressive, and good to hear they streamlined the input and got rid of the fast forward mechanic.
I'll definitely ge this one.
 

viranimus

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Nov 20, 2009
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I swear I SOOOOO wanted to love this franchise. I was hoping it would have been the resurrection of the old school space faring games, but it seems like the games are categorically determined to make me dislike them.

Sadly I think part of it is almost me being on the other side of the "Dark Souls" mirror, being somewhat put off at the lack of directions or really much of anything that would give the player motivation to move forward.

Sadly, with some of the changes in direction this presents (such as simplfied gamepad controls) and more grandios scale it really gets my hopes up for finally being able to really get into this franchise, Only to have those hopes sadly dashed by "Rebirth comes out in Europe on November 15 and hits North American shores on November 19, exclusively for the PC." (not that I am asking for a console release) and knowing that if history serves as an example that means it might as well have said "Exclusively for Steam"

If it is that regrettably puts this title well outside of my range of purchasing or playing.
 

Fdzzaigl

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Mar 31, 2010
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I tried to get into this, but I must say the whole thing just befuddled me in the end.

Maybe I'll try again with this game, though they really need to make things more clear. They tried to do that with X3 but honestly, it was impossible without searching every forum and every wiki.
 

Stryc9

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Nov 12, 2008
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Wouldn't it be better to take a bit of a break so you don't burn out on all the space sim stuff? I haven't touched my copy of X3 in over two years due to being burned out on it and waiting to get a better machine to play on.

Now that I'm closer to building a new machine than I have been in years I'll be putting this on my wishlist and possibly playing this as soon as I possibly can. I fucking love the X series and not even for it's story, I love the total sandbox it creates and lets you live in.

Fdzzaigl said:
I tried to get into this, but I must say the whole thing just befuddled me in the end.

Maybe I'll try again with this game, though they really need to make things more clear. They tried to do that with X3 but honestly, it was impossible without searching every forum and every wiki.
I understand what you're saying. X3 had a really steep learning curve that was hard to get over without a guide of some sort. You may want to wait and see if they do a playable demo for this one though. They say they're simplifying some things but if they stay true to what makes the game what it's been in the past there's still going to be a lot to learn.
 

iniudan

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Apr 27, 2011
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BoogieManFL said:
I like the concept and the freedom, but geez the controls and administration was just so bad. It felt like one of those game series to me that you can't really effectively play without user made mods/scripts. The base game was just too lacking features on its own.
You do know that they are remaking everything from scratch for Rebirth, all the previous game in the series just added or modded on top of the previous game since the original X: Beyond the Frontier.
 

SacremPyrobolum

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Dec 11, 2010
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Wait, does this means we can only personally pilot one ship?

Its a necessary trade off if you are going to model the interiors of all the ships but this still feel like it will be a big blow against the game from fans of the previous X series.

I have the X3 box, but I never really got into it. Too complicated you understand. Hopefully they will make things less convoluted in this game without sacrificing the depth.

EDIT: Yes, it looks like you cant't actually change your ship, but fear not! You can still control capital ships albeit indirectly.

For example, you can either remotely control your capital ship or actually !!!go onboard!!! the ship and command the operators personally John Luke Picard style and look outside the window as your PPC'ed out Boereus levels the entire system, presumably while sipping Teladian form a nvidium chalice. Makes more sense in my opinion and makes you feel a lot more powerful.

As for fighters, those seem to have been replaced by drones but I have no doubt that you will be able to control squadrons of them directly. It will be easier to equip them en mass this time, hopefully.

SOURCE:
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=306576
 

drednoahl

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Nov 23, 2011
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Scarim Coral said:
Ok I'm confused now as from the look and feel of the game, it is almost identical to Star Citizen (yes I know the visual is different as X got that warp speed thing). What make it different from that other game? Granted it still look impressive though.
Also ha, at 1.54 is the Galactica.
Star Citizen is mission based and multiplayer, X Rebirth is a singleplayer sandbox.

Should be mentioned that X Rebirth requires a 64bit OS too... it's also playable at Gamescon.