X3 on sale worth it?

[ykza5]

The game is on sale right now on steam, I played X rebirth and well you know........
Is this game like Rebirth? I've heard a lot of good things about it, how is the gameplay (not many good reviews around)? can I fly in first person with a HOTAS (or third person works too)?

Does it have a story or just a sandbox?
PS: Don't recommend me Elite Dangerous, I already have it and well, grew tired of all the grinding (also wonder if that will be the case with this)

 

[Ortikon]

X3 Terran conflict was good. The HOTAS wont work the way you want; the flying is very rigid. I use mine in X3 but its nothing like Elite or anything to do with flying for that matter.

Each of the few systems are basicly instances with stations in them and you fly between systems via gates on the North,West, East, South sides. The map is arranged in a loose grid.

Trade is fun and rather dynamic. Making stations is great, having lots of other ships doing runs for you becomes a massive part of the game as you build a bit of an empire. I go back to the game every few years. Combat is meh but fun I guess.
Grinding is trading in a nutshell for most games. Its just that you will be busier when you have acquired 20+ haulers all over the system that need delegation and re-fueling.

EDIT: Oh. And the HOTAS barely works...throttle will not work. For some reason I could only ever get the zoom slider to control throttle. .so ..yeaa..

 

[Riedquat]

I played X3 for years and really enjoyed it, I didnt really play the story missions, just played it as a sandbox.

Albion prelude is on for £5, well worth the money, especially when you combine it with one of the many mods on the egosoft forums. - http://forum.egosoft.com/viewforum.php?f=94

Some of the battles I have been in in this game have been huge, I used to spend a lot of time just watching them unfold.

Once you get yourself into a decent ship, maybe a Vanguard, you can start taking bigger ships on, before then though you would need to concentrate on making some money. (missions, scavenging, small bounties)

I never liked the stargate things that you used to move zones, but thats just how it is, later on you can get a jumpdrive to jump accross multiple zones.

you might want to take a look at Rogueys site, all kinds of good stuff on there. - http://roguey.co.uk/x3ap/

hey - I just noticed he has an ED section, nice!.