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Elite: Dangerous launched (videos)

by Mark Tyson on 16 December 2014, 22:05

Tags: Kickstarter, PC

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The highly anticipated Elite: Dangerous launched today. After almost two years in the making, following a very successful £1.5 million Kickstarter campaign the man behind the project pressed a big red button. Version 1.0 of the game is now available to purchase and play.

Elite has arrived to revive "the romanticism of space exploration," reports PC Gamer. After being seen by games developers as a niche minority genre for quite a long time there now seems to be a new wave of eagerly anticipated deep space adventure and exploration games coming up; Elite: Dangerous has arrived with Star Citizen and No Man's Sky speeding towards release.

The premise of Elite is simple "Start with a small starship and 1,000 credits, and do whatever it takes to get the skill, knowledge, wealth and power to stand among the ranks of the Elite." However the game takes place in "a cutthroat galaxy… an epic, full-scale recreation of our Milky Way," with galactic superpowers making war, pirates, bounty hunters, smugglers, explorers and more. In the game you can fly alone or with friends and your actions change the galaxy around you.

If you are taking your first steps in Elite: Dangerous and wonder where to start, you might be interested to know that at your nearest docking bay you will find the game's story-driven campaign and newsfeed, reports Polygon. "Check the GalNet feeds to see the events happening across the galaxy. At launch we'll unlock the core Imperial worlds, where the first major story events and story-specific missions will be available," said the developers in an email. The first of the major story events revolve around the fate of the Emperor, who is ill, and the six rivals jostling to take his place.

PC Gamer opines that while the game is beautiful, "even when nothing is happening" the v1.0 release isn't a big advancement over what you played if you ran the latest 'gamma' release. Unfortunately, if you have just decided to buy into Elite: Dangerous now, the price has gone up a bit, from the most recent pre-order pricing, to £40/$60.



HEXUS Forums :: 26 Comments

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Gutted at no single player campaign. I'm a bit out of date and not into MMO
That launch trailer looks incredimazing!!!

I noticed that there was a bit where the ships were doing complete 180 degree turns, spinning almost completely on the spot, I got to learn how to do that.
dylanlaw79
Gutted at no single player campaign. I'm a bit out of date and not into MMO

There is a single player game, you just have to be online to play it, which quite frankly has been enough to put me off purchasing it.

Unfortuantely the responses coming out could be read between the lines as “crap, even a modern PC will struggle to run this, we need a server to keep the simulated universe running properly”, so it's unlikely to ever change.
Create a private group and then don't let anyone join it, hey presto, single player mode unlocked.
Get the Oculus Rift on and try to peel your jaw off the floor. Really looking forward to the consumer Rift and the ongoing expansion and improvement of this game - nothing else… just these 2.

Flying by the seat of your pants if some rusty bucket ship trying to scrape some cash together to upgrade is fun, but it's a long burner this one… don't expect to be dazzled by set pieces as this is a long, chilled out and terrifying (when you can lose everything) type of game. Not for anyone who can't take loss on the chin.

The video isn't representative of what's in there (not many trailers are) but the gameplay is solid… and the Oculus rift just makes things much more engaging!