It could be that the space genre is just in a general decline. Look at how many sci-fi television shows have ended in the past few years, and compare that to how many have begun.

I think the only big space show on the air right now is the new Battlestar Galactica. I'm not sure if you can call Stargate a space show or not because most of it happens on planets... but then I need to catch up on a few seasons. Seems kind of depressing that our choices are so limited.

Quote:

Original post by Vopisk Then again, I'm no expert when it comes to console games, so I don't know what they're capable of as far as graphics and memory go now-a-days.

XBox 2/360 comes equipped with 256 megs of ram. You can read more about its specs here or here.

I agree with you on the sci-fi note, though. Console games lean more towards the action aspect of gaming. Which was completely unfortunate when I was a purely console gamer! But now I'm purely a PC gamer and sometimes miss not having to use my brain.

Quote:

Original post by Parrot I think the only big space show on the air right now is the new Battlestar Galactica. I'm not sure if you can call Stargate a space show or not because most of it happens on planets... but then I need to catch up on a few seasons. Seems kind of depressing that our choices are so limited.

Hahaha.. Stargate SG1 has all but killed itself. For a while, I assumed they were literally trying to drop ratings. It's a bit better now that "Crichton" and his baby poppin lady (errr.. Claudia Black) are freshening things up. I think the old band just got completely sick of each other.

Stargate Atlantis is much better, IMO. It actually has depth and purpose, which SG1 seems to have ran out of. Battlestar is in another league entirely - really great show. Can't forget Smallville. CalEl is from space, after all. And the new season is going to start up with space ship landings and Kryptonian ass kickings.

Quote:

Original post by Wavinator Man, I hate it when people say this! Try depicting flight through a jovian ring system filled with thousands of particles, some reflective and refractive, all with pinpoint shadows! Or try grazing the photosphere of the sun and flying under massive, world-sized solar prominences. And we're not even talking man-made structures like Mount-Everest sized asteroids flekked with glittering mining bases, or halos of Bernal spheres and canned cities perched at L4 and L5 points around planets. And we're not even talking about getting out and walking around. (Sorry, WeirdoFu, rant not directed at you, but sometimes I have to wonder how hardcore the sci-fi game creators sometimes)

Amen brother.

Ever read the Hyperion series by Dan Simmons? I'd love to see a Swarm floating through the void, with mile wide solar sailed angels flying around. Or a treeship. Not all spaceships have to made of metal.

Egosoft is coming out with X3: The Reunion in a couple months, like X2 but supposedly better, the graphics do look really sick

http://www.egosoft.com/community/news_en.php


Also Eve Online, which I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned in this thread... its a MMO based in space with a MASSIVE universe to travel. There's two great things I enjoy about this MMO, first being that it is one server that has had peaks of 14k players at one point theres always someone around, second being the amazing look and feel of the galaxy, its really beautiful.

I could go on and on about eve, it's really the best space game I beleive your going to find for quite some time if the trend continues, and they are really ontop of doing exactally what the community wants to see in the game. But it has some serious downfalls which they keep trying to make better, which sucks because its the only game like it I've found =/

http://eve-online.com/

Quote:

Original post by Arkantis ...and they are really ontop of doing exactally what the community wants to see in the game...

ahahahahaahhaahahahaha are you sure we're playing the same game? ;)

Quote:

Original post by Kest Quote: Original post by Vopisk Then again, I'm no expert when it comes to console games, so I don't know what they're capable of as far as graphics and memory go now-a-days. XBox 2/360 comes equipped with 256 megs of ram. You can read more about its specs here or here.

It actually has 512MB memory that's shared between the CPU and GPU.

j

Quote:

Original post by MENTAL Quote: Original post by Arkantis ...and they are really ontop of doing exactally what the community wants to see in the game... ahahahahaahhaahahahaha are you sure we're playing the same game? ;)

heh yeah true, I should have said they attempt to follow the trend of the communities desires and sometimes hit the same wavelength

Personally, I really wouldn't mind if they were to ressurrect the Star Control series and just take it to the next level with more modern graphics, more complex stories, and maybe more inter-species/racial conflicts and relationships. I felt on a certain level, the Star Control series had potential similar to Star Trek, just that it was never really blown out large enough.

Technically, its not impossible to have awesome visual eye-candy in space, its just that it really is all about location. Since, truth be told, its not called space for nothing. There's just really nothing out there most of the time unless you're close to a star system or inside a solar system. For the most part, being in space is like being lost in the middle of the ocean. You'll probably see a unique cloud that floats by once in a while, but generally everything looks the same in all directions. I think that's the problem, since most people try to do a "Space Sim" while what people need to do is a "space GAME". No one said games had to be realistic, but they do have to be entertaining. And at the end of the day, its the fun games that will have people playing over and over.

Quote:

Space Games - Where are they?

In space. ;)

Quote:

Original post by WeirdoFu For the most part, being in space is like being lost in the middle of the ocean.

You spend a lot of time sailing around waypoints in WInd Waker, and I always thought that was cool.

If you set it in a busier part of space, like a star cluster with close solar systems and a lot of nebulae and stuff, you can have pretty good time with it. Or you could do the X2 thing, and have teleporters beam you from point of interest to point of interest, so you're never more than a few minutes' flight from something cool.

Although I kind of like the idea of having space out there when you need to hide out. If I had a fast ship and was just barely getting away from pirates in Escape Velocity, I'd go a very long way indeed before risking a hyperjump calculation.

Also in X2, you could set your autopilot and sped the long trip going over your paperwork for your business endeavors, or checking up on your military strongholds and satellite reconnaissance, or streamlining your transport paths and fighter patrols. You could be on the phone to a station, checking prices and getting orders and generally doing stuff that can't be done with ion boosters and plasma turrets.

I can think of a bajillion things that would make a huge space game, on- or off-line, super terrific. I lack the ability to make any of those ideas viable and implement them, but when I sit quietly and think about an awesome space game, it's more awesome than other games I daydream about.