Someone stole my space weed!
X3 is really huge with the amount of content within such as the variety of races, systems, ships, merchants, stations, missions, etc. If you can get past the initial first week of frustration then perhaps you'll see what I mean. It's kind of funny how you not only have legitimate wares to buy and sell, but illegal ones as well. Space weed is one of them and sometimes I think a person has to be high in order to put up with this game at times. Not to mention, someone really did steal my space weed…weird. Anyway, a few tips for the potential buyer/renter of X3 and that is NEVER always trust that glitchy auto pilot. One moment you're doing fine and the next thing you know either you or one of your following ships gets destroyed. Especially if you rely on the SETA as much as I do.
Which brings me to the next tip and that is SAVE frequently. An example was I just hired a Mammoth to move a space station I just bought for 1.5 million and the jackass kills himself by flying into a military ship and destroying my property. Saving the game frequently will help you overcome situations like this and probably from killing yourself too…or the family pet.
There are still some needed improvements in X3 also which one of them being able to buy a private storage facility for some of your "wares". Obviously there are still some bugs that need addressing too. Be warned, there are time limits on the missions and those too will really p**s you off at times. The in-game menus are also a pain to navigate until you get used to them.
The graphics are pretty good for an older title so there really is no problem there unless you have a really old PC.
The sound is done fairly well with some races being extremely annoying with sayings such as, "You want split"? It's also funny how the lip-syncing is way off in the animation.
Replay value is probably a lifetime seeing that NO two games are ever the same. You have choices of playing three roles. I played the 'Humble Merchant' and have so far amassed about 20 million in credits and assets within the two weeks playing this. Trust me that really isn't a lot seeing that some ships cost 56,000,000 a shot and higher, excluding upgrades!
The key is to accept second hand ships considering you know what is worth it and what's not. Apparently, there are Easter eggs too in the amount of about 5 million credits scattered throughout although I haven't found any yet. Even if I did I wouldn't tell ya ;P
Overall I'd say that X3 Terran Conflict Gold 2.5 was worth the 30 bucks, but will seriously kill your gaming high if you're looking for a quick fix. Expect to put the effort into this game, learn the high curve and have a lot of patience. Once you start to get the hang of it and have amassed some credits then you'll really start to gain momentum. I haven't played the expansion for it yet, but I'll get to that in about 10 years from now...jk. By the way a BIG break for me was obtaining a second hand EXPRESS (Taxi) and pimping it out. Good luck to whatever role you choose and Nuff said!