X3 TC: Massive

As part of my continued drive to try out every gaming genre in as short a time as possible, I've been having a look at X3: Terran Conflict. Being a veteran of Elite on the Spectrum, I've always had a soft spot for space games, and X3 is the natural successor to the Elite crown. I did, in fact, try the first X3 game years ago, but never got far with it. What of Terran Conflict?

Well, it looks fantastic, with only the slightly cartoony in game characters looking a bit incongruous. I'm still on the extremely steep learning curve, but I've played enough to realise how massive and complex the game is. However, so far I'm loving it - in fact, if I had absolutely nothing else to do in my life (which unfortunately I don't), I could really get into this game.

I guess the biggest problem (once you've finally learned the game) is: what the hell do you do next? Be a military pilot? Be a pirate? A miner? A trader? Set up your own factory? Or just follow the main story line? If you try to do everything, you'll probably never be very good at anything, whereas if you concentrate on one thing, you get the feeling you're missing out on all the other things the game has to offer. I suppose you could 'complete' a game (whatever that means) as one 'trade', and then play again as another, but you would probably need several lifetimes to do that. Still, I suppose you shouldn't complain that your hard-earned buys too much gameplay...