3 Space Sims: Ready for Lift-off

Elite: Dangerous

If you are talking about space games, the Elite series is one that stirs good memories for many a gamer. Sadly, the last entry in this illustrious series was released back in 1995, meaning that many of the newer generation of gamers never really had the opportunity to play this. Therefore when Elite: Dangerous was offered up on kickstarter, it wasn’t long before it reached its target goal.

Now available on PC, what makes this game different from the other entries on this list?

Well obviously it’s available, which No Man’s Sky or Star Citizen can’t claim. The galaxy that you play in is modelled on our own Milky Way with about 400 billion star systems, where 150,000 of those are modelled on real data. You are given a small amount of money and a ship and make your own story. Currently you are only limited to your ship, but updates are planned that will allow you to walk around and interact with NPCs. The game is also fully online, meaning that even the solo game-play will require an internet connection. On the other hand, the MMO component features a persistant world, where specific areas are instances to a certain number of players.

This game is for you if you want play a space game, and you want to play it now. Overall it has gotten really good reviews, and while the learning curve may be a bit steep, it does look really like something that could be immensely enjoyable.

No Man’s Sky

When this game was shown off by Hello Games at E3, it completely blew most people’s minds. No Man’s Sky looked like the space game we have always wanted, and it has mostly been developed in secret, under the codename Project Skyscraper. This game’s universe is completely procedurally generated and will be based on a 64-bit seed key. This means that this game can create more than 18 quintillion planets (18 followed by 18 zeros) for you to explore. However, this does not even include all the possibilities of flora and fauna, which are generated in the exact same way. So not only do you seamlessly get to fly from space to the planet’s surface, you can jump out and inspect the animals, name their species and categorize them!

That’s the name and aim of the game that is No Man’s Sky. While there are some elements of character and ship upgrades, the biggest feature of this game will be its exploration possibilities. Furthermore, there is rather little multiplayer, with the focus being on you having fun (yay offline solo games!). The only ability for you to interact with other players is through exploration updates on what you have discovered, as well as allowing them to visit planets that you previously have visited – however, only once they have hyperdrive capabilities.

Sadly this game is not out yet, and there is no fixed release date, however, a 2015 launch is promised.

This game is for you if you don’t really care much about the fighting, and trading and all those shenanigans and prefer to explore things, seeing marvellous new worlds, watch fascinating creatures and name them anything you want. What this game will hopefully be is a beautiful journey with views that won’t disappoint.

Star Citizen

This is the game that I am looking forward to the most. This game has a solid foundation in old prequels, and was crowdfunded to the ridiculous amount of $68 million to date, with more coming in daily. Rather than working with procedural generation, the development team at Robert Space Industries have crafted over 60 unique star systems, and they look incredibly beautiful for it. However, exploring the entirety of a planet, or even manually flying to their surface sadly aren’t features that are currently planned in the game.

Star Citizen is all about hyperrealism, from the ship’s thrusters that align themselves in a manner that real thrusters would as well to the persistent world economy that is fuelled by the supplies and demands of the players. Furthermore, this game doesn’t just focus on the piloting of the spaceships, but also has an incredibly visual walk-around mode that allows you to walk around your ship, onto trading hubs or planet surfaces. The game will also have a very well integrated FPS element, meaning that not only do you get your space fix, but also your pew-pew-laser-fps fix. The coolest thing of all? This all happens in a universe that is persistent and influenced by the players playing it. The economy is just an example of how your actions can have a direct impact on the game!

While this may be my most anticipated game, it is also the one that has the latest release date, namely sometime in 2016. However, the developers are releasing modules that give you parts of the game now, meaning you can have a pop at some features.

This game is for you if you enjoy super realistic games, without necessarily needing the full exploring thing. However, instead of exploring you can still indulge in cornering the market, becoming a pirate in the fringe regions or smuggle goods across the galaxy. It is your adventure.