Why have there been so few epic starship fleet battles in movies and computer gaming? Why has it proven to be so difficult to depict dueling fleets of intimidating dreadnoughts, sleek frigates, imposing carriers and nimble fighter craft on screens and monitors, when massive interstellar battles pervade science-fiction novels? We're far more likely to get intimate, small-scale cinematic jousts like Khan vs. Kirk in Star Trek II than Return of the Jedi's elaborate melees. Movies have historically been forced to limit the scale and duration of starship battles because of the intimidating costs associated with depicting larger scale engagements, but game developers seem to have needlessly imposed similar scope restrictions on their creations.

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Starship battles in computer games have historically seemed deliberately restrained in scope, typically involving only a handful of vessels battling an equal number of similar foes. Space sims generally limit their scale by focusing almost exclusively on small fighter craft, with larger capital ships functioning solely as exotic targets, and science fiction games in other genres have focused almost exclusively upon terrestrial battles.

During the past couple of years that's finally begun to change. Strategy games such as Relic's Homeworld and Interplay's Starfleet Command series have capably demonstrated just how entertaining it is to assemble wings of battleships in order to stalk, outmaneuver and thrash similarly formidable alien fleets. Hoping to improve upon the experiences offered by those games, Seattle-based developer SuperXstudios has been working on Far Gate, a real-time strategy game that emphasizes grand scale fleet battles between the forces of three very distinctive races.

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Far Gate is a real-time strategy game that resembles the Homeworld games in a number of notable ways. Like those games, Far Gate features true 3D maps, requiring you to deploy your forces and plot your machinations in 3D space. While games such as Digital Anvil's somewhat similar upcoming fleet battle game, Conquest: Frontier Wars, and Starcraft occasionally convey the illusion that units are moving at varying heights, their battlefields are actually flat two-dimensional environments. Far Gate's 3D environments are present additional tactical opportunities and look incredible, replete with asteroid fields, planets of varying sizes and shapes, colorful nebulae and burning suns, but their complexity also makes them potentially more difficult to interpret and navigate.

Fortunately, like the Homeworld games, Far Gate features a well-designed and customizable interface that lets you access desired information quickly and conveniently and control your ships as you maneuver them through 3D space. There are a number of hotkeys that let you quickly shift your perspective to better assess your tactical situation. Each ship or task force has a limited sensor range, which is conveniently represented by an encompassing green circle. While you'll always be able to see celestial objects, such as asteroids and planets, you won't see enemy ships or installations that aren't currently within range of your ships' sensors. You can improve your reconnaissance by creating probes, which will quickly be reduced to atoms if they get detected by enemy ships.

You can control ships either as squads or individually, and you can immediately hop to a strategic overhead view of the surroundings or zoom the camera perspective behind any ship, granting you a close look at the action. It's an interface that works well in practice, ensuring that you'll constantly get to sample the game's detailed graphics without ever having to compromise your ability to control your forces.