I thought that I would take a few minutes and talk about X2. This was one of those rare games that I bought knowing there are bugs in the game. I bought the game about a week ago and after almost 25 hours of game play, I can only say WOW. This is without a doubt the best game that I have. Now let me explain this doesn’t mean to speak to everyone of course. Anyone is more than welcome to check it out, and who knows maybe you’ll like. I remember that after searching for sometime I finally found open ended games and there was no going back. First it was Morrowind but although that is a great game and I would strongly recommend you checking it out, especially if you like fantasy RPG’s. I was more into sci-fi. The first game that I found that filled that void was the Battlecruiser series but I soon found out that there were, in my opinion, design flaws that I didn’t like, so I continued on my search and finally I found it-X2 The Threat.

Now let’s start with the bad and then move to the good. Ok the bad: This game has major potential and maybe one day soon it will grow and become the game that it was meant to be, but it is off to a rough start. The game was made by a German company. The only problem here is that they didn’t hire any professionals to do the voiceovers, so first off we run into Germans that are trying to speak with an American accent. Why they didn’t just make the players and the other NPCs German, I’ll never know. The second problem I ran into was the plot-it out right stinks. Don’t get me wrong I don’t like to say much about someone else’s creative thinking, so I’ll just say that the soon you get away from this awkwardly told story the better off you’ll be. Another one of X2 shortcomings you’ll see as soon has you load it up that first cut scene should be enough to convince you not to let another play, They’ll bog down even the best PC’s.

I know what your think “What a piece of crap” right? To tell you the truth and I have to say that it been a log time maybe the first time that I have ever seen a game that had some many short comings but has still made editors choice on many web site. So now let's look at what, in my opinion makes this game some great. First the economy is dynamic you and NPC affect the prices in the game if you buy Fuel Cell from station A and sell them to station B the price will go up at station A as the demand for Fuel Cell rises.

There is also the fact that once you get yourself out of the story line, they’re an own Universe waiting. There are many different paths that you can take in this universe you can buy a few ships and become a trader or you can lay in wait and attack trade vessels becoming a pirate, you can command an entire Starfleet including Capital Ship such as a carrier or destroyer. It’s all up to you oh and your financial status let’s face it big ship require big budgets. But this isn’t a problem in X2 you can also buy and then build you own factories that produce many good needed though out the universal. There’s no end to the possibility. If you don’t want to mange factor and have to worry about supple line, you can become a pirate and steal your cargo from other traders and companies. If you lucky you can even get the pilot to eject from his ship and you can capture it and sale it oh and don’t forget there is the matter of the pilot still out in space. Well you can also capture him and sale him into slavery. You can also buy a police licenses and hunt pirates for money. You could make money simple by trading. You can also do all of these things plus more there no end to what you can do in this game. But once you have the money you can buy just about anything. Not to mention, capital ships you gain you can also flight them. With all there is to do in this game it not wonder it made editors chose. As far as game play problems I haven’t had any big problems on my system. There are others, however, that report that they have had nothing but problems so it’s really up to you. Although I have had joystick problems, there seems to be a sensitivity problem that hasn’t stopped me from taking out anyone who gets in my way. If you would like any more help or have other question please feel free to ask me.

__________________
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.