X3 reunion manual install#
The upshot of all this was that the game was simply unplayable out of the box, and so we were forced to install a patch just to make it playable - something we rarely have to do here at. Bugs can make it impossible to complete the game's plot, and there's a nasty memory leak that can slow down other applications even after X3 has been shut down. In my first eight hours, rarely did the game run for more than 30 minutes without crashing, with frame rates frequently slowing down to slide-show level, and scratchy sound effects. X3 is infested with enough bugs to warrant a co-marketing agreement with Orkin. Once the game is loaded, however, the nightmares have only begun. It is to Egosoft's credit that they quickly acknowledged the problem and posted a convoluted workaround that will at least get the game loaded up. It seems a manufacturing defect in the North American production run caused a flaw on the game's second install CD. The game's first hurdle is getting it to install. Even if they manage to push their way past a manufacturing defect and massive, game-killing bugs, they still face a nearly vertical learning curve to master one of the worst, most obscure user interfaces I've ever had the misfortune to wrestle with. How much slack can you give a game that in many ways manages to achieve that lofty goal, but buries it under a painfully incomplete implementation? X3 may have had the potential to be exactly what it advertises - a vast, living universe that is built around the player - but unfortunately, very few players will ever get that far. There's no "goal," and no "end," beyond what you as the player set for yourself. The ideal of this sort of game is to create a vast, open-ended universe that seems "alive." Economies will rise and fall in a realistic fashion and races will love or hate you depending on your actions with them. The basic premise is that players start out in a small, underpowered spaceship in a vast, hostile universe and through a variety of smart trading, combat, and knowing which races to suck up to and which to shoot at, eventually parlay that ship into a vast, mercantile empire. New features in X3: Reunion include graphical enhancements and improved artificial intelligence, which allows NPCs to behave as more realistic traders and causes computer-controlled colonies to develop factories, bringing more realistic sophistication to the game's virtual economy.įor those unfamiliar with the series, X3: Reunion, is the latest in a long line of games that aims to finally become the true sequel to Elite, which is still considered the gold standard in space trading games. As the presence of a mysterious third, threatening race becomes known, the plot thickens.
X3 reunion manual series#
This third chapter in EgoSoft's space combat simulation series casts players as ace pilots who continue through the story arc of an overwhelmed defensive fleet under constant attack from an invading force.