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Elite: Dangerous - Premium Beta

Developed by : Frontier Developments

Published by: Frontier Developments

Platform: PC, Mac

Rated: NA



BAJO

When it comes to Space Exploration, Trading and Combat games, 1984's Elite is the Grand daddy of them all. It was one of the first games to ever have 3D graphics, or an open world, or procedural generation. Earning it an easy spot as one of the most influential games ever.



HEX

And we've been checking out the "Premium beta" of the latest in the series, Elite: Dangerous! Now full disclosure, I've never played an Elite game before. But in my defence the last one was released in 1995, and my PC at the time could only run text games.



BAJO

It's been a while. Apparently, publishers just weren't that interested in funding space games. So instead the developers got money for games like Kinectimals and Kinectimals: Now with Bears.



HEX

But thanks to the explosion of crowd funding, the series is making a grand comeback. And even though this Beta is just a small slice of what the final game will supposedly offer, I was taken aback at the sheer size and scope of it all.



BAJO

Yeah, you can just keep scrolling out can't you? Space has a habit of making you feel small.



HEX

It really does. There are only a handful of systems available to explore in the beta but it's still enough to give you a pretty good sense of how flying around and exploring is going to feel.



BAJO

And so far it all feels pretty good, I never get tired of locking in a star system, charging up my hyper drive and launching off.



HEX

And how cool is it when you drop out heading straight into a sun?



BAJO

So cool. Even just zipping around within a star system at a few times the speed of light is awesome.



HEX

There aren't any proper missions or contracts available yet. All you can really do is go around exploring, trading or fighting with ai or other players.



BAJO

But the fact there are other players is actually a first for the franchise. It's essentially an MMO now, with the universe filled with everyone all going about their business, affecting the in game economy and either helping you out or causing you grief.



HEX

One thing I'm not so sold on yet though is the combat. Things just felt a little slow and sluggish, everyone just drifts around lazily firing. And ships take a lot of hits so it doesn't feel very punchy.



BAJO

I know what you mean, admittedly our ship was a pretty basic with one puny laser. There are some single player scenarios which give access to some better weapons and rocket launchers, and the combat there was definitely a lot more satisfying.



HEX

That did feel better, but it's still just a bit slow and not as intense as I'd like at the moment.



BAJO

Speaking of slow, it takes ages to earn any credits to upgrade anything.



HEX

It's certainly a commitment! After an hour or so of trading I managed to make about five hundred credits I think. And with most upgrades costing tens of thousands of credits? I just was not ready for that grind...



BAJO

You can earn credits a bit faster through combat and collecting bounties on other ships, but that's still a slow process, especially with such a weak ship. Also being a beta, progress wipes are expected. I wasn't willing to invest any serious time trying to upgrade things are only going to be wiped anyway.



HEX

Having said all that, I can totally see myself losing days exploring the galaxy, working my way towards that next upgrade or amazing ship in the final version. And it's borderline crazy what they've got planned for the final game isn't it?



BAJO

Yeah, the final game will offer up the entire Milky Way Galaxy at a one to one scale. That's pretty big.



HEX

And when you look at the galactic map it's daunting to see how many star systems are out there even in just one slice of the galaxy...



BAJO

Apparently they're basing as much of the galaxy as possible on actual scientific data. So out of the one hundred and fifty thousand or so star systems we know about in any detail, are replicated in the game to the best of their ability. But the other four hundred billion or so star systems will be procedurally generated, using the best models we have for how such systems form.



HEX

Four hundred billion is a number I just can't even comprehend.



BAJO

I know. I think the biggest challenge they have is making it so exploring all of those systems feels worthwhile. It's all well and good to replicate the galaxy, but it could get dull pretty quickly it there's nothing to do in it.



HEX

Well apparently there's going to be planets, space stations and ships you can walk around and explore. And no doubt all sorts of other awesome sounding stuff in the final version.



BAJO

They've certainly got their work cut out for them! But from what I've seen so far I think they can pull it off. We also quickly checked it out using the Oculus rift.



HEX

And it's pretty awesome, it's very cool being able to look around your ship, and that extra freedom to just track a target with your head can really help out in a fight.



BAJO

One thing I loved is how the menus in your ship are activated by looking at them.



HEX

Yeah, they felt like they were designed to be used with the rift! Unfortunately the low resolution screens of our development kit makes actually reading those menu's impossible doesn't it?



BAJO

Yeah, it's pretty unplayable with it at the moment. But we still got a good idea of the sense of immersion, and I think VR could add a lot to this game.



HEX

But anyway, we can't talk about Elite without mentioning Star Citizen which we've also been playing a little bit of. And for anyone who hasn't heard about it, Star Citizen is the other massively ambitious crowd funded space game on the horizon. And its coming to us from the creator of Wing Commander, Chris Roberts.



BAJO

Really does feel like a battle of the space game titans isn't it? Now we just need a new X-Wing vs Tie Fighter to throw its hat in the ring!



HEX

Well hopefully Battlefront 3 can scratch that itch but back on topic. One thing Star Citizen has all over Elite is cold hard cash.



BAJO

Yes, where Elite managed to make three or so million dollars in Crowdfunding, Star Citizen seems to be raising all the money ever.



HEX

To be more accurate it's raised just shy of fifty million US dollars at the moment. But they seem to raise an extra million dollars every few weeks don't they?



BAJO

They do. I think it's worth noting that both of these early access slash betas have some rather unique payment walls to get through if you actually want to play them. Elite's is fairly straight forward but steep, asking you to lay down one hundred pounds or about one hundred and eighty dollars AU for access. Much more than the final game will cost.



HEX

While Star Citizen is slightly more complicated, firstly you have to buy a star ship package. Which range anywhere from about forty US dollars all the way up to ten thousand, depending how much you don't want your money. Then you also need to buy a five dollar pass to get the dog fighting module.



BAJO

It's interesting to see they're both charging a premium to play an unfinished game. We usually see games offer discounts to anyone willing to jump in early and help out with development. But here they're just straight up saying, if you want to play, you go to pay.



HEX

I guess there's just such pent up demand out there for these games that people are willing to pay a premium to jump in early and help fund development.



BAJO

True, but Scrooge McDuck sized piles of money aside; what we have access to of Star Citizen so far is just a hanger bay and a small combat arena without any of the grand exploring and trading we got a taste of in with Elite - but all that stuff and more is coming down the line.



HEX

This is the kind of combat I like Bajo. It just hits that Battlestar Galactica style dogfighting feeling I crave.



BAJO

The enemy ships even look like Cylon fighters don't they?



HEX

But it's also the way the weapons work, and especially because of that little zoom you can do. It's so satisfying locking on a missile, launching it and zooming in as it bursts the enemy ship into thousands of tiny fracking pieces. So cool.



BAJO

I love how the guns all track just that little bit too. You just need to have them in your sights and your turrets do the tricky work of leading just that right amount...



HEX

It all just feels a lot punchier, and more detailed as well. Ships get locational damage, so you can lose specific weapons or thrusters can be taken out. In one case I managed to lose everything but my canopy, and was just left spinning around.



BAJO

Well both games are looking promising at the moment. It's looking like there's a pretty stunning resurgence of the space games. And don't even get me started on No Man's Sky.



HEX

I can't wait to get my Starbuck on!



PC, Mac

