gwit

I play SotS. I find it's pretty fun and there is actually more strategy and tactics involved in the real time battles than most people realize. The demo does not do the game justice. Really the only thing I don't like about SotS is that you have no control over z-axis in combat. The ships will move around slightly to avoid things and can be knocked "off the plane" by mass drivers... But it's enough fun that I can get over that. I do not agree that 3d combat is too hard for

I'll play it. I still play the old one occasionally. Oh, and this is how they kept it secret so long: On The Keeping of Secrets

X3 is hard to get used to, but with the AI scripts you can download and other mods it's worth it if you keep with it. It probably has the steepest learning curve ever. As far as patching goes... If you do buy this game, get it via Steam--much better experience. I skipped this game when it came out because it has Starforce (yuck), but once it was on Steam I tried it. Really I was looking for a "Eve Offline" (or Elite) type of game and X3 fits the bill. Of course I would have preferr