Russian Elite-like? could only have been one game then, of which I too can't remember the name, but it got terrible reviews...
I think the Space-Sim genre isn't doing SO bad over all. I mean, there's a lot in the pipeline currently, most of which I won't like because I'm too much into realism, but still, it's not like you could really complain.
Ok, there's not been alot around since X3, but lets face it, the X-series had a lot more complexity than 99% of any game from any other genre (yes, it felt like flying a spaceship through walmart, which ruined it for me, but let's face it, privateer wasn't any different. I was just a kid back then and could suspend my disbelief a lot better).
Of course it is a pity that the Graphics technology revealed in X3 wasn't used much more during the last years, but if I'm not wrong we have two titles with DX10 technology incomming (Black Prophecy and JumpGate 2), we'll see what they'll offer up in terms of complexity. But anything they could possibly come forth with will automaticaly be more complex than Privateer, because lets face it, without the nostalgia Privateer just sucked. It was almost a literal adaptation of the ooooold Elite, just without being revolutionary (indeed even a step back... scaling Bitmaps instead of actual 3d).
It is much to be doubted if there will ever be a professional successor to Elite 2 and 3 (I doubt that Elite IV, IF it ever gets finished, will have the same scale), simply because you don't get your money back for such a behemoth of a developement (plus, besides having an impressive scale of realism, and an impressive scale over all, there wasn't enough gameplay in those to fill a corellian transport. I mean, I didn't really do much else than shooting up stuff in the end, did I?). However, the technology is being used on the indy and opensource "market", and I'm pretty sure we will reap some fruit from this developement. Let's face it, Vega Strike already beats every single nut and bolt out of privateer, and I hope they are going to add some complexity once they finished all that multiplayer infrastructure. Evochron is an excelent Elite-like with more features than any game of the Genre (apart maybe from X) ever had, and if infinity ever sees the light of day, it might slay pretty much anything. And if Artlav ever adds any actual game content to Spaceways it would be pretty much the same.
No, I see a rather bright future (and a cheap one) for the space sim genre.

I think the Space-Sim genre isn't doing SO bad over all. I mean, there's a lot in the pipeline currently, most of which I won't like because I'm too much into realism, but still, it's not like you could really complain.
Ok, there's not been alot around since X3, but lets face it, the X-series had a lot more complexity than 99% of any game from any other genre (yes, it felt like flying a spaceship through walmart, which ruined it for me, but let's face it, privateer wasn't any different. I was just a kid back then and could suspend my disbelief a lot better).
Of course it is a pity that the Graphics technology revealed in X3 wasn't used much more during the last years, but if I'm not wrong we have two titles with DX10 technology incomming (Black Prophecy and JumpGate 2), we'll see what they'll offer up in terms of complexity. But anything they could possibly come forth with will automaticaly be more complex than Privateer, because lets face it, without the nostalgia Privateer just sucked. It was almost a literal adaptation of the ooooold Elite, just without being revolutionary (indeed even a step back... scaling Bitmaps instead of actual 3d).
It is much to be doubted if there will ever be a professional successor to Elite 2 and 3 (I doubt that Elite IV, IF it ever gets finished, will have the same scale), simply because you don't get your money back for such a behemoth of a developement (plus, besides having an impressive scale of realism, and an impressive scale over all, there wasn't enough gameplay in those to fill a corellian transport. I mean, I didn't really do much else than shooting up stuff in the end, did I?). However, the technology is being used on the indy and opensource "market", and I'm pretty sure we will reap some fruit from this developement. Let's face it, Vega Strike already beats every single nut and bolt out of privateer, and I hope they are going to add some complexity once they finished all that multiplayer infrastructure. Evochron is an excelent Elite-like with more features than any game of the Genre (apart maybe from X) ever had, and if infinity ever sees the light of day, it might slay pretty much anything. And if Artlav ever adds any actual game content to Spaceways it would be pretty much the same.
No, I see a rather bright future (and a cheap one) for the space sim genre.
