Elite: Dangerous • Gaming • General Gaming • Eurogamer.net

haowan 30 Jul 2008 16:21:07 7,385 posts
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... wouldn't that be great? Man that would be awesome.

...lol.

No, really:

LINK

Frontier founder confirms that sequel to famed space game will land after The Outsider

Frontier Developments is close to finalising the technology that will power Elite 4, the long-awaited sequel to boss David Braben's space adventure series.

Braben confirmed the news during a talk at the Develop conference today.

He said that the game itself "had not been forgotten" and that it would be released after his political adventure game epic The Outsider is released next year.

He admitted that the game itself, which he has repeatedly made refernece to in interviews for the past few years, has had a stop-start production as Frontier keeps testing technology and then rejecting it.

Braben described Elite 4 as a "really amibitious project" but confirmed there was a team actively working on it in order to get it right.

Carlo 30 Jul 2008 16:24:18 21,801 posts
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'Almost finished'

Whizzo 30 Jul 2008 16:24:42 44,810 posts
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As long as it's a hell of a lot better than Elite 2 and First Encounters I'll look forward to it.

CaptainBinky 30 Jul 2008 16:24:44 2,243 posts
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I'm pretty sure he confirmed this 8 years ago when I was at his lecture at GDC.

Deleted user 30 July 2008 16:25:38

So this isn't about Pokemon?

pjmaybe 30 Jul 2008 16:25:48 70,666 posts
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Imagine it, one day this will be on game store shelves alongside Duke Nukem forever.

Knowing my luck, both of these will be released on the day those weirdos get that mass accelerator warp spasm thingy finally switched on and the world will end.

haowan 30 Jul 2008 16:27:25 7,385 posts
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I still think Ian Bell was the brains behind most of what people love about Elite.

pjmaybe 30 Jul 2008 16:28:51 70,666 posts
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Probably was. He was most certainly the mathematical brain behind that infinite-seeming universe. Braben was just shit hot at assembly on the Beeb

pauleyc 30 Jul 2008 16:29:34 4,548 posts
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About bloody time!

And as Whizzo said, as long as it's better than First Encounters...

haowan 30 Jul 2008 16:31:40 7,385 posts
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FFE was great IMO. But left a lot to be desired in many ways just like Frontier did in retrospect although I loved both at the time. I got FFE after it was all patched up though.

DaM 30 Jul 2008 17:04:50 17,729 posts
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Like the way they slipped that in at the bottom of the EG article on the front page!

I respect him for wanting to do it right and taking time over it. He could have made shitloads of money off the franchise before now.

Deleted user 30 July 2008 18:18:21

Elite was a benchmark game. if the basic formula is there (which was the best bit of Elite) this should be excellent. i mean, how hard is upgrading the original with extra content? ... very, it would seem. /o\

Deleted user 30 July 2008 18:51:09

Will it beat Duke Nukem to the shop shelves?
[bites nails]

Veracity 30 Jul 2008 18:51:52 352 posts
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pjmaybe wrote:
Probably was. He was most certainly the mathematical brain behind that infinite-seeming universe. Braben was just shit hot at assembly on the Beeb

But Elite's "universe" was just a handful (er, eight?) of 2d maps with dots on. It was Frontier that had a decent - and reasonably plausible - procedurally generated galaxy. Completely failed to do anything interesting with it, unfortunately, but at least it was there. Sort of reminiscent of what Introversion's released on Subversion so far - fascinating and, if you like their graphical style, pretty as always, but no inkling of an actual game, just yet.

Elite's long since been handily surpassed in every substantial respect bar nostalgia factor and the undeniable impact of its scale and ambition compared to its contemporary competition. Even Elite+, which was basically Elite with the polygons filled in, felt pretty crude at release, and that was aeons ago. I think a lot of the original's longevity depended on it being one of the earlier successful implementations of Progress Quest style progression porn; I'm not sure if you can say people are less easily drawn in by that kind of thing, these days, given the success of the model in MMOs and a lot of single-player RPGs, but they're at least more conscious of how it works. Space Rangers is the current leader, for my tastes - no in-cockpit control, at all, but the galaxy simulation's pretty good, and it's silly.

As someone said (probably in the article comments), this can't satisfy everyone who feels they have some stake in it, no matter what angle it takes - Elite fans roughly want Privateer (the Wing Commander spin-off, not that mouse-controlled Microsoft oddity), or maybe X:whatever if they were into the trading, and Frontier fans probably won't be satisfied unless it includes time distortion when you go fast enough.

Lutz 30 Jul 2008 19:44:31 48,870 posts
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haowan wrote:
... wouldn't that be great? Man that would be awesome.

Git.

barchetta 21 Sep 2009 12:31:18 3,335 posts
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Whats this then?

Quite a lot of effort going into this + 'Live' Twitter on the 23rd + Well, it's about bloody time = me doing a small wee of anticipation!

chiefian 21 Sep 2009 12:33:59 475 posts
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I know a couple of people QAing this. Sounds brilliant! Doubt it'll be on PC which is a shame.

Lutz 21 Sep 2009 12:34:17 48,870 posts
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Meh, he's been stopping and starting Elite 4 for years. When we've got something concrete I'll get excited. Until then, meh.

Dirtbox 21 Sep 2009 12:36:18 92,595 posts
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Lutz 21 Sep 2009 12:38:04 48,870 posts
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I have a couple of nailbombs ready for such an occurance Deebs. Want to join me?

Dirtbox 21 Sep 2009 12:38:40 92,595 posts
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Lutz 21 Sep 2009 12:39:51 48,870 posts
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\o/

chopsen 21 Sep 2009 12:43:52 21,958 posts
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25 years. A significant proportion of gamers weren't even *born* then. (not round here obviously)

Dirtbox 21 Sep 2009 12:44:33 92,595 posts
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barchetta 21 Sep 2009 12:45:38 3,335 posts
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So how is the Outsider progressing? Not heard of much on that front for months now.

Must be a bit odd sitting on such a revered ip and, lets face it, what ought to be a potential goldmine until "the tech has matured sufficiently".

Is Frontier still independent? It must be as any umbrella outfit would have run with Elite yonks ago.

chopsen 21 Sep 2009 12:46:00 21,958 posts
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A good point well made.

Dirtbox 21 Sep 2009 12:46:51 92,595 posts
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barchetta 21 Sep 2009 12:50:51 3,335 posts
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chiefian wrote:
I know a couple of people QAing this. Sounds brilliant! Doubt it'll be on PC which is a shame.

Er.. QAing Elite IV ?? And not just the random jottings on pieces of fag packet but bona-fide playable code?

chopsen 21 Sep 2009 12:51:16 21,958 posts
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I'm surprised Frontier are still going. They're not exactly the most prolific of developers are they? Who's paying the bills?

Dirtbox 21 Sep 2009 12:54:08 92,595 posts
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