Why have I never written about X3: re-union?

With all the excitement surrounding space games at the moment, with FTL, Star Command and Kerbal Space Program, it brought memories of X3 back to me and a friend of mine. I couldn't believe I'd not written about it before on this blog?! Or not in any great length, if I have and just missed it.

X3: reunion was a very big phase in my computer gaming life. I really only played the game for a month or two, but I literally played for that entire period. Seriously. After a couple of weeks I'd clocked up 60+ hours and I was completely hooked. This was back in 2006, when I was finishing my degree, and really when I was cracking on pretty well as I led up to finishing Uni.

One of the main explanations for the amount of hours I clocked up playing X3 is because I'd have it almost constantly on in the background while I was working or sleeping in my room. It's one of those games where it doesn't always require your attention.

Essentially the X games are sandbox space games. They have a story mode, but it's really just a fraction of the game. The universe in which you play is as near to 100% dynamic as is reasonably possible; each race in the galaxy has an ever changing political status to the others, the market prices and resources will change as trade routes open up or you as a player build your trade empire, if you decide to do that at all? Wars will flare up, sectors will change hands and if you start a new game it WILL be completely different after 10-20 hours of gameplay.

Ever ship or station in the game is controllable by you, as the player. Even big capital ships can be bought by the player and then equipped with fighters and repaired by player controlled freighters and installations. I never got this far, even after 100 hours of play! But I did build a large trading network and had several mining and power stations all feeding into the galactic economy. So immersive it was amazing.

I want to briefly state that the flight and ship vs ship combat was amazing too! Detailed and tactical with a huge variety of weaponry, and so slick.

X3 stands as one of the greatest games I've ever experienced. I can only think that the reason I didn't put it down when I was first listing my old favourites was because I only played it for such a short time.