OK, I’ll admit that I am slightly overprotective when it gets to Elite, yet here it is, that is just my side of it. I have loved this game from the very moment I saw it in 1984 on the BBC Micro B of a friend of mine. I got the CBM-64 edition and the fun of wonder never seized for me. I am telling you all this so that you know that I am a biased reviewer in all this.
The reason for all this is a video that was uploaded by ‘The N-Gen’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irUThzqrNT8
in the first 6 minutes you will hear a ‘mumble-rant’ like approach of someone who just does not seem to get it. After 6:30 he will admit that he does not get it.
So finally he decided to just take the training exercise. Now we hear more, but here he makes a few valid points. I see in 2 seconds a lot more than he does in 90 seconds, yet I have played v1 for years, so I had an advantage. This mission would have needed a little tweaking (if you ignored the basic flight video). Because he did not notice the lower left canister, he started to aim with a multi-canon on a target 500m away. Which is, detrimental to your ammunition count (considering the size of a canister). SO, from the video I personally gathered that he was tired, he was on a deadline to ‘produce’ a new video and that he was not getting it. Now, that is fair enough, we do not all like certain games, or we don’t get certain games (in my case that would be any NBA game). In his case at the very end his response is ‘it is a load of nothing’, so good to know that some reviewers should find a decent day job as a non-reviewer, which in this case is ‘The N-Gen’.
As for the facts!
- This is an early adoption game, you get to test the game and play the game, you get one hour for free and you can buy it for $31, so when the final version comes out you will play the full version with no extra money required and several of the benefits awarded to you, you get to keep, so you become a day 0 player with extras! I see zero, I repeat zero downsides to this.
- A better review came from PloTTwisted, which gives us a lot of parts, he shows that there are bugs, there are glitches, but as he states, the benefits of having a free go for an hour to make up your mind as well as a discount for being the early player is just too good to pass up. He loved the game, he brings out a few issues which EVERY beta has. I for one, as I still see Elite as one of my first loves (Ultima 3 was my first true love in gaming), there is absolutely no way that I am not getting it, I am getting the Xbox One just so that I can play this game (and because waiting for No Man’s Sky for the PS4 is just too irritating).
PloTTwisted also shows that for now you should keep to solo play, which is fair enough, because taking time to be a good player is so worth the experience down the track. So back to the training, you see, when in training mode, you see on the right the text “New pilots should watch this pilot training video” with below that the basic flight link.
Now, for the impression video you might not want to record that part, but watching this would not be that far-fetched. Elite is a space flight simulator, that means travelling in three dimensions and that is something we might take a moment to realise. I think I am the only one who can fly the space shuttle with zero training, oh wait, I can’t do that, so, I too might want to watch the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crL9H_Vx68Y
which seems to be the PC version). The Xbox One edition is likely to be almost identical. So all the ignorance ‘The N-Gen’ showed, could have been averted by the tired him taking 4 minutes whilst sipping coffee before he wasted 12:51 by not telling anyone anything useful, oh wait, he actually had found an issue, oh no, after watching the basic flight video, it seems he had not, so what should we make of this?
Well, first of all, he has freedom of expressing, so he was perfectly valid in making his movie, I am for that same reason in opposing his view in my blog, and I will make a video the moment I have my Xbox One so I can show people what an amazing game Elite: Dangerous will be. In addition, I am not alone, there is a person named Troa Barton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rtajDGnqAo
which is excellent! He takes a decent look at it all on the PC and explains several things clearly and precisely. In addition I got introduced to parts of Elite that were never there because a CBM-64 with 64Kb of memory tends to have its own level of limitations, levels that the PC and the Xbox One from 2015AD will not ever face. So for me there is plenty of new stuff (which is fine by me) also, v1 of the game had a few hundred systems to fly to, now we get millions of systems each with planets and space stations, so the game is more than just slightly larger. The fact that you can now upgrade individual systems on any ship just adds to the fun of it all, it will however require you to think a little before you spend, which Troa Barton explains quite clearly and he shows it too.
Trading has grown into a massive choice of legal and less legal commodities, there is the option of mining and trading in rare goods, smuggling was always there, yet in the past it was limited to fire arms and narcotics, we get a lot more options now. The game is truly taking a game into the next generation and that comes with a little consideration, to get good you will need to take a little time, however, as Troa Barton shows, choosing wisely and spending 30 minutes gets you really far on track to going places, so watch his video, it also shows clearly parts that allow you to excel the trainings in pretty much one go, which is awesome in his own right.
And in light of No Mans Sky, people should not worry, there is no choice whether you play one or the other, not only is the universe big enough for both games, if you like this type of gaming, getting both would soon the only consideration you end up having. Based on my non-gaming of the new version and relating to what I saw on the video’s than Elite Dangerous might (not a given) one extra dimension of gameplay if you get a pilot stick with throttle. I wonder if any of them would work on an Xbox One and even though it might not be essential, adding that Top Gun feeling for a mere $89 could be so worth it, but that is for me to consider once I get the Xbox One.
Now the one final thought you might have is how could I comment on a game I have not played? Well there are two parts. In the first, I played the original for years so I can clearly relate to the dynamic of the game. I deduced more from watching three videos than ‘The N-Gen’ did by pointlessly screwing around, dissing a game he basically did not fathom. In the second, I did professionally test and review games from 1989 until 2001, so I have been more than just once around the block when it comes to gaming and game testing.
My verdict is simple, no matter how the Beta will look, the PC version gave me that wonderful returning feeling from playing a game I never stopped loving. The fact that this is not a ‘mere’ remastering but an extreme evolution from 8 bit limitation of hardware to a 64 bit limitation of imagination is the most massive of jumps for any game to make. The added fact that unlike most games that this is not a 10 or 50 hour game. This is one of those games that will stay with you for the duration of your console (if you like this kind of game), which is something that seldom happens in gaming. If I am fair and objective than I should also name a few downsides to the full game (Beta’s are exempt of such judgement). I am not sure if that is possible, the universe is a cruel place, so whatever happens will likely happen to you the player too. Yet, from what I saw in the video’s it seems to me that there is a push for combat (if you want to make it rich fast), which implies (from what I saw) is that the mining side seems too unbalanced (by the time you can afford the hardware), yet in all this, I have not seen how you could scan for rare minerals and collect them, because that should not be a 45 minute trip and in all honesty, when you do strike it rich then, the credits should wash over you like a massive ocean wave in summer, but that could just be me (and that is one side that we never had in v1 of the game).
So in all ways Elite Dangerous exceeds what I could have imagined, so as ‘The N-Gen’ had his view, I will have mine! So what about you the reader? If you have an Xbox One, please check it out, you lose nothing from a free download and playing a game you never played before might open up a door you never considered. Even if you will not like it in the end, you should decide for yourself, not just rely on the other fellow or on my view for that matter.
Good luck and enjoy whatever you decide to play!
Lawrence van Rijn - Law Lord to be 