I did enjoy the x series up to rebirth although I'm very much more looking forward to Elite. For me exploration is about discovering new planets/stars etc and having a visual experience that provokes excitement and curiosity. I hope this is what Elite Dangerous delivers.
I'm pretty sure that is what David Braben wants to deliver. After all he is making the game he always wanted to make and play, as was the case when he made Elite and Frontier, just with a hell of a lot more available options in terms of how he goes about it.
Luckily for me, and for many others it would seem, my idea of the kind of space trading/exploration sim/game I would enjoy playing would seem to coincide with David Braben's. So as far as I can see, the only thing that has changed, is the breadth and scope of what can be done with the presently available technology, thus I am confident that Elite Dangerous will be my cup of tea.
This notion is not dissimilar to Chris Roberts now believing he can make the Wing Commander he really always wanted to, in the form of Star Citizen, or James Cameron making Avatar because the motion capture technology became available to make it doable, not that he wouldn't have loved to have had that available when making Terminator or Aliens.
Where the X series differs for me therefore, since it has had far newer iterations than any Elite variant, is not in what it does with the available technology (not that it exactly pushes the envelope there either) but rather that their vision of what they wanted to make does not coincide with what I want to play. I recall that when I fired up X for the first time - it having been recommended to me by a buddy who played Elite, Frontier, EVE, Freelancer, Wing Commander etc - I instantly thought, 'nah, it's not doing it for me'. That was literally my initial impression of it, but I gave it and several other version of the X series a try. After having played them for a while, I determined that my initial impression was the way I would continue to feel about the X games. Although of course the X series might float some people's boat, because the fact that it didn't appeal to me doesn't make it bad.
But anyway, here's a few things I don't like about the X series:
It's not set in our known universe (this is also an issue i have with other space games too, and it's a big deal for me, because I like that kind of thing);
It's devoid of humour, taking itself far too seriously all the time (Elite and Frontier could never be accused of that, although it might be the difference between a UK developer that makes this so);
I don't like the GUI, it simply does not look like you are in a combat craft, it looks more like you are about to fire up Cubase or something, I want a fighter craft to look like it is a fighter craft in terms of the GUI, gritty and big and clear so you can read stuff easily whilst in battle, and one look at what a real-world combat aircraft interface looks like will confirm that X doesn't pull that off at all);
I don't like the voice acting (it's not as terrible as some games, but it's not great either, in terms of casting or talent, and this is especially so with Rebirth);
I don't like the artwork style of it very much, principally the cockpit layouts and the ship designs (although to be fair, that is actually one of the few good things in Rebirth, where the cockpit is good, even if it does lack functionality, but generally speaking, the ship and cockpit designs in the X series are a bit naff).
On their own, just one of these gripes would not be enough to totally kill a game for me, but in combination, they combine to make the X series lack that vital spark - it is in short, soulless - creating the impression that it was not born out of a burning desire by the developers to do something really cool, created with a real love of what they were making. I can forgive many faults with games, but having no soul is not one of them.
allowed us to create new colonies and space stations (with supreme effort of course), the universe could evolve in ways the original dev team would not have envisaged or have time to do themselves.
