I thought today of all days was a good enough time to say hi (I've been lurking for a week or so).
My history with Elite goes back to the 90's where I was introduced to First Encounters by a friend. He described the game to me before I'd played it, explaining that I could go anywhere, do anything - there was no real 'goal' to it.. I think my reply was; "so what's the point?".
But after playing FE, my mind was blown.. nothing I'd come across before or since had been so intent on handing a gamers own destiny to him or her on a platter like this game. It was a feeling that I searched for in so many other titles since then. I'd had a sense of it with Freelancer, but it wasn't the same. The Grand Theft Auto series gave me a hint of it, as did Mass Effect (all very different games, I know)... but I've always felt restricted.
I'm not 15 any more, I'm a 33 year old who's married with 2 kids and a demanding career - this genre of game was completely at the back of my mind. I hadn't caught wind of the KS campaign and it was totally off my radar when, a week ago, I wiki'd David Braben out of pure curiosity... "How could it be that a title that'd given me so much enjoyment as a teenager could just die a death?"
...well, to discover that the new spawn of my favourite game of all time was on the brink of being launched into Beta was just too much of a treat. Finding out that Elite Dangerous was about to be launched was like climbing into my attic and discovering that my favourite childhood toys, long forgotten about, had been evolving without my knowledge and were just about to entertain me all over again.
Anyway, sorry for the monster first post - but I just thought I'd share my excitement today... see you out there!
DL
My history with Elite goes back to the 90's where I was introduced to First Encounters by a friend. He described the game to me before I'd played it, explaining that I could go anywhere, do anything - there was no real 'goal' to it.. I think my reply was; "so what's the point?".
But after playing FE, my mind was blown.. nothing I'd come across before or since had been so intent on handing a gamers own destiny to him or her on a platter like this game. It was a feeling that I searched for in so many other titles since then. I'd had a sense of it with Freelancer, but it wasn't the same. The Grand Theft Auto series gave me a hint of it, as did Mass Effect (all very different games, I know)... but I've always felt restricted.
I'm not 15 any more, I'm a 33 year old who's married with 2 kids and a demanding career - this genre of game was completely at the back of my mind. I hadn't caught wind of the KS campaign and it was totally off my radar when, a week ago, I wiki'd David Braben out of pure curiosity... "How could it be that a title that'd given me so much enjoyment as a teenager could just die a death?"
...well, to discover that the new spawn of my favourite game of all time was on the brink of being launched into Beta was just too much of a treat. Finding out that Elite Dangerous was about to be launched was like climbing into my attic and discovering that my favourite childhood toys, long forgotten about, had been evolving without my knowledge and were just about to entertain me all over again.
Anyway, sorry for the monster first post - but I just thought I'd share my excitement today... see you out there!
DL