21st Century Elite remake to support Oculus Rift virtual reality rig

Elite fans eagerly awaiting the completion of the classic space trading game’s 21st Century refit, Elite: Dangerous will be pleased to learn that it’ll support the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset when it is completed next year. “We’ve been playing with the Oculus Rift dev kits and are excited about the potential – just …

[Splodger]

Wow. There goes a large chunk of my future,

Well, at last a reason to get a "gaming" rig.

Can't bloody wait.

(Apart from the 20-ish years for decent home VR).

[Ragarath]

Re: Wow. There goes a large chunk of my future,

Although Elite appeals to me for nostalga, I am afraid my money has gone towards Star Citizen. Now well on it's way to being the first AAA game to be built without backing from the big guys. Currently sitting on a $22 Million, at $23M it becomes fully funded.

Roberts has made some great space games and the way Star Citizen is shaping up, it's where I want to be. Oh and Oculus Rift support has been announced for ages. Get with it Reg (a search turned up no mention of it on the reg).

As they are releasing parts as they go (it is funded by the people so Chris Roberts wants early access for all funders, it also helps test), I think Oculus support is due sometime in December for the currently playable hanger module.

I sound like an advert but the more people that see it the better and more people in the universe. Really take a look if you like space games. They are back.

[Gordon 10]

Re: Wow. There goes a large chunk of my future,

Hmmm - getting excited about Star Citzen depends on whether its Wing Commander or Privateer based.

Boo to the former, yay to the latter - YMMV.

Although happily have anything with the Kilrathi/Orions/Generic Lion aliens or their lookylikeys in it.

[Kaltern]

Re: Wow. There goes a large chunk of my future,

Oh very much Privateer based.

There is a single player game as well which is much more like Wing Commander, but the main bulk of the game is based around good old Privateer based play, with so much extra stuff planned it makes me giddy just thinking about it.

Spacewalking on the wings of your own ship to stop pirates boarding you?

Giddy, I tell you.

[Rob]

Re: Wow. There goes a large chunk of my future,

Privateer based.... oh crap

I've just started making some real headway on EVE as well, looks like that will be paused in favour of this, why oh why do I have to work for a living, it seriously dents the amount of games you can play.

[Rattus Rattus]

Re: Wow. There goes a large chunk of my future,

I have also backed Star Citizen, to the tune of far too much cash. :P Even now, I am debating whether to save some money, or buy ANOTHER ship. Definitely getting an Oculus Rift for it, once the retail version is released.

Oh, and I backed Elite: Dangerous as well, but I very much doubt whether it will hold half the appeal of Star Citizen.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Wow. There goes a large chunk of my future,

Look at how much good did a huge budget to Rome II. SC and ED are two possibly quite different games

[IHateWearingATie]

It better be bloody good...

... I LOVED playing Elite on my Acorn Electron, and then on a BBC emulator on a PC years later.

The only problem is how to hide buying an Oculus Rift from my wife. If I start taking an extra £10 out of the bank each week, she may never notice...

[stuff and nonesense]

Re: It better be bloody good...

I played Elite on my C64, Atari ST FM and lately on my PC, Look up Oolite, same game as Elite, smoother graphics.. Whoops, there goes another evening...

[Anonymous Coward]

I want

Let's hope it plays on the new Steam Machine too then I can get all of my geekasm in one rig. Gabe Newell has also reportedly shown interest in Occulus which bodes well.

[Atonnis]

Re: I want

There's absolutely nothing geeky about a Steam machine. In fact, it's entire premise is to make Steam become mainstream.

[Fenton]

Never achieve Elite

Was it even possible to reach Elite status on the Electron, given that it did not have missions?

Was was probably the richest pirate in the galaxy but never got to "Elite"

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Never achieve Elite

Yes, the status was based on kills alone, iirc.

[Joseph Haig]

Re: Never achieve Elite

According to http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/elite/faq.htm#A4 the last step from Deadly to Elite is greater than the whole step from the start up to Deadly.

[Johan Bastiaansen]

I was elite then

I will be elite again.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I was elite then

Me too, for the third time. :-)

AC

[stucs201]

Re: I was elite then

I want my Archangel title back as well.

(Not sure if this was all versions or PC specific).

[big_Jim]

Re: I was elite then

Generally I settle for Competent

[Atonnis]

Colour me skeptical...

I loved Elite, and even tried to love Frontier, but gaming nowdays is a long way away from how it was 'back then'.

I'm very, very wary of seeing some models of some old nostalgic classics and parting with my cash, when so many other projects in recent times have been so deeply, deeply disappointing - and boring.

I think I'll wait until I see reasons to buy this. Like Star Citizen, it needs to actually prove itself as having good, lasting, gameplay and not 'generated' tasks pieced randomly together from the same set of 4 things-to-do.

Nostalgia is all well and good....but nowadays we just wouldn't sit there from morning to night doing that same repetitive series of tasks.....although I guess the next generation possibly would....after all, they made Zynga rich.... But I think that the people this game is targeted more towards are those who played the original, and they tend to have grown up and want more. I just hope Braben can deliver it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Colour me skeptical...

Ditto here. Spent many hours on Elite on different platforms, but if you want “an amazing space epic with stunning visuals, incredible gameplay and breath-taking scope, and also fully multi-player” then you could play EVE Valkyrie or Online. I'm still rooting for Elite, but mostly for nostalgia reasons.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Colour me skeptical...

The problem with fully multiplayer is the players you have to multiplay with, IMO. Just like in real life, some of them are ghastly.

IIRC Elite's solution is that you can choose to limit who you play with online.

I think that Star Citizen should also be a great game, and I hope they both do well. There's room out there for both games. I just hope I can find time to play them.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Colour me skeptical...

Quote about EVE "and also fully multi-player"

That actually puts me off EVE and similar games.

I like the idea of Elite, a lone pilot against the universe, but who can also ask for assistance if and when needed, but otherwise can be left alone to explore without interruption from other people.

MMOs have a tendency to be populated by people who seem to enjoy making other peoples gaming experience a misery, more than enjoying the game itself! Anon just in case those same MMO peeps recognise my handle!

[Don Jefe]

Re: Colour me skeptical...

People who want to make everyone else miserable isn't unique to MMO's. It is rampant within all civilization. The world abounds with people who are so fucking miserable that the only way they can find their version of happiness is to shit in someone else's pool.

They are incapable of doing the hard work required to make a bit of happiness, so they take the lazy way out and just destroy it for others. Bunch of cock suckers they are.

[Splodger]

Re: Colour me skeptical...

I agree: I was sceptical also...

But, have a look here:

http://elite.frontier.co.uk

http://elitedangerous.co.uk/newsletter

The dev blogs on YouTube

And the official forums:

http://forums.frontier.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=29

The depth of play and attention to detail look stunning - practically a sandboxed universe.

I don't get the impression that this one is just going to be a nostalgic indulgence.

[Atonnis]

Re: Colour me skeptical...

I *did* do all the looking up, watched the videos, etc, before I posted.

The videos all seem to be quite substandard in graphics - although that might be down to the video quality. I've only seen a set few pieces of video work. You can show me a damaged Anaconda all you want, but I'll care for most of 5 seconds whilst I go 'yes, very nice, and so what do *I* do next in the gameplay?'.

There are a lot of people out there who can create reasonably-graphically capable games. What I actually care about is whether it's going to be a non-stop repetition like the original was or have more depth.

I rattled through the forums trying to find real information but just kept getting 'wouldn't it be nice if...' and 'I'd love it if this was done...' and then a few mysterious posts of 'yes we do have other ideas/plans/thoughts to go into the game that we aren't telling you about' and I found myself just thinking....well....you can talk all you want, but until the final product is out I'm not parting with my money - unless you can list out some absolutely guaranteed features and time of gameplay expected to experience the content.

I did see words like 'procedurally generated' and 'multiplayer' thrown around A LOT, and I'm not particularly thrilled - unless I can have my own private server that I and my friends/family can play on. I don't want to have Elite ruined by the d*ckwads of the multiplayer world. I also don't want to be on someone else's servers.

[Cyberelic]

Stoned again

Oh dear, here I go again.

I started real computing by playing Elite on a half meg Atari, and went on from there.

I'll never forget that noise.

Addictive.

P.

[Anonymous Coward]

*Blue Danube starts playing*

[Black Rat]

*Blue Danube starts playing*

Takes me right back to Leetsi & Diso

[Graham Marsden]

Re: *Blue Danube starts playing*

Personally I always found the run between Qutiri and Isinor to be the best to start off with.

Reasonable tech levels so not too many pirates and you could run Computers one way and Liquor and Furs the other to start building up enough credit to get some decent equipment :-)

[Graham Marsden]

Right on...

... Commander!

[Mike Brown]

all over this

VR spacecraft combat? fuck yeah!

[Boris the Cockroach]

Oh dear god

I may have to put down my Kerbal Space Program addiction for something even more addictive.

Boris

KSP: Howto build a spaceship by following swedish furniture assembly instructions.......

[Hairy Spod]

and while you are all waiting

Go and download oolite from http://www.oolite.org/

[Anonymous Coward]

Never mind VR, is anyone working on advancing the world of dildonics? Combine the two and I may never leave the house again...

[Clive Galway]

Occulus rift... pah.

Why are people so fixated on OR?

It obscures your view (Have to play with a controller or HOTAS system) and It is expensive.

Plus it only does 4DoF properly (Uses accelerometers, so translations will be non-existent or shit)

Why are people paying so much attention to this when we already have way better head tracking tech in the guise of TrackIR / FaceTrackNoIR.

Hell, if you already have a webcab, you can have head tracking for FREE. Why bother with this flash-in-the-pan bullshit?

[Anonymous Coward]

Trackir and the likes are horrible hacks. I don't understand your comment about obscuring it your view. Do you look at your keyboard keys when you play and that's why you don't like it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Eve:Online

As Ali mentioned above:

Space game: tick

beautiful visuals: tick (DX11 coming in November though DX9 still supported)

sandbox: tick (with huge battles especially this summer with the last battle of the Reddit alliance's -Test Alliance Please Ignore- war)

trading: tick (complex enough they had their own economist)

PVP or PVE: tick

Oculus rift tie in: tick (Eve:Valkyrie)

and

FPS with Dust 514 in the same single shard for console folk

runs in WINE and on Mac

Also the recent changes are making the initial learning curve less overhanging cliff-like

funnily it never gets mentioned by elreg other than when it got targeted by a DDOS, targeted by criminals or the good ol' boot.ini update/relative paths fiasco in 2007. I had thought the 10th birthday might have been worth a mention or even a review. Perhaps there was one but me and the search box can't find it.