I get the feeling I might have to investigate the possibility of acquiring an Oculus Rift at some point. I can't imagine how incredible this game must be to play with one of those on your noggin.

Definitely. Hell, I might even put a baby in you! Really push the boat out!

FEEX

I'm sure I read that they're designing it so that you can get substantially reduced penalties if you offer your victim the chance to dump their cargo and leave rather than attacking them too.

Presumably because you don't attack them?

Made my first million! Quite enjoyed having a larger jump distances but I think now I'll start playing around in the other areas of the game. Need to find a 360 pad though... I knew I should have kept one.

Rub it in, why don't you?

HOTAS makes all the difference, Zio. It really does. I was sceptical too.

Offer of me bringing down my Rift (and HOTAS!) to Hemel when it's all received still stands

I can actually run it maxed and with a bit of AA at 1920x1200 with my trusty GTX460 1GB card, and although the frame rate certainly isn't 60 fps, in general it runs perfectly well and dogfights are smooth. I've got a fairly up to date CPU (Core i5-4670k), and it seems to be using about 30% of that.

It's also worth remembering for anyone who backed it in Kickstarter that the beta is at most 15 quid up from that regardless of your tier.

Sandbox spaceship game Elite: Dangerous may have only - only! - raised £1.58m ($2.5m) on Kickstarter, but that was just a fraction of the original budget.

"The original budget, because we put a lot of our money towards it, was £8m," David Braben - the man in charge - told me at Gamescom. And, he added, "it's grown by quite a lot".

"We're a public company so we can't put out figures without first putting them to the City, but let's just say we're very, very happy."

It may not be the $50m (£30m) that Star Citizen - that other crowd-funded space game - has managed to raise, but Braben's studio Frontier Developments has been turning out games reliably for a decade, and turning a profit.

Chris Roberts' Cloud Imperium Games, on the other hand, was founded in 2012 to make Star Citizen. Will it be as efficient - will it matter?

Elite: Dangerous continues to make money as people buy beta access at £50 a pop. This also buys you the full game.

In mid-August when we spoke, more than 75,000 people were playing the Elite: Dangerous beta, providing "more and more money that moves ever closer to the game breaking even in a really good way".

"Oh we already have enough [money] to see it through," Braben added, almost chastising me for suggesting such a thing. "It all means it just de-risks it in a really good way."

...

I could be tempted by this as long as I can buy it in a dvd style case and there is no "always on" internet thing.

In fact I paid £35 for C&C in 1996 so as long as I can get a physical box and no steam or shit like that I'll buy it - like I did with Freelancer in 2003.




I just know this wont happen same as people buy internet kindle electronic books whilst I still buy physical paper books.

Hey ho!

I still don't really understand how they plan to fund the server costs down the line, though. Maybe more stuff along the lines of the paintjobs currently on offer? I guess there are more surprises waiting ahead.

No news on beta 2 though, although now there's rampant speculation that it'll be released to coincide with the 30th Anniversary.

Hopefully it'll drop around the same time I get my DK2 - whenever that may be!