Star Citizen vs Entropia Universe

Sometimes I try to play other games, but usually instead of some fun I get frustrated of the boring and repetitive games companies now make for brainless players. I tried Planetside 2. It’s free to play on Steam game store. It’s FPS MMO. You can try it, but I got bored very fast. Before that I tried Warframe also free to play on Steam. Here you can play solo or in team vs enemies. It is fun for few days but then it all starts to repeat. Tried few racing games, but last good racing game was Need for Speed Most Wanted from 2005 and some Colin McRae Rally again from at least 5 years ago. Last first person shooter I enjoyed was Quake 3 Arena from 1999 and Borderlands 1 from 2009 and Borderlands 2 from 2012. Last good real time strategy was Star Craft Brood War from 1998. Last good turn based games were Heroes 3 from 1999 and UFO X-COM Terror from the Deep from 1995. Last good hack and slash role playing game was Diablo 2 from 2000.

List can go on and on. And I’m wondering am I getting too old to enjoy the games or the games are so stupid now compared to games from 10-15 years ago. Or may be good games come only for consoles like XBOX and PlayStation. Microsoft has the power to do that. And we know Bill loves monopoly. I am only PC gamer so can’t say much about that, but how can you play good game with console controller. You need keyboard and a mouse.

But before I lose hope for anyone to make good game for PC I discovered Star Citizen. It will be close to Eve Online and Entropia Universe. It will use modified CryEngine 3. Which means graphics will be Amazing. Probably best graphic at the moment. As gameplay it will be close to Eve online – trading between planets and space shooting with different ships. It will have single player mission and then you can play it as a MMO, co-op multiplayer or even make private server. Star Citizen is made by Chris Roberts, the man that made Wing Commander from 1990, Privateer from 1993 and Freelancer from 2003. I think I played Freelancer long time ago, but don’t really remember it much. I will see if I can find it and try it again. Space shooting and trading is exactly what kind of game I want to play.

Chris Robert said PC gaming is not dead and he will beat the shit out of consoles with this game. Single player can be offline. You can host your universe and modify it. There will be no subscriptions fee for the game. Which means you can buy the game for 30$ and play it forever. For that money you will get 1 ship, some game money and 2 months insurance. You can pay more and get more stuff. There is this line “No pay to win” but for 5000 USD you will get 6 ships way stronger than the dude with 30 USD. Also 20 times more ingame money from him, lifetime insurance, some blueprints and hangar to start. And in the game you can buy ships for real dollars so not sure how this is not pay to win.

The game will be ready by the end of 2014 or beginning of 2015 (usually that can be delayed) with alpha and beta access somewhere in 2014 which you can get if you buy more expensive packet for 65$. You will also get better ship and more ingame money so better go for that option than the cheapest. There is also 40$ option for alpha and beta access.

From what I read and watched so far the game will deserve every cent you pay for it. I will probably buy some packet with early alpha access so I can try it sooner. In fact probably most people that deposit and play Entropia Universe and/or Eve Online will buy and play Star Citizen. Some will even probably stop playing Entropia Universe and/or Eve Online. If you have invested 30 000 USD buying land in Entropia or 150 000 USD buying the Calypso Moon or 1000 to 1000 USD buying Calypso Land Deeds may be now you are afraid you will lose your money when this game comes out after less than 2 years. May be its time to sell everything and move on.

Well don’t. Yes Star Citizen made 2 million dollars on Kickstarter for a month and 14 millions more on their website. Really amazing. That's huge number. But not really for this industry. Games are like movies. Are you impressed when you hear Avatar is 237 millions. And good games are like movies. Takes 4-5 years to make and cost millions. And Star Citizen will make probably 20-25 million income and that's it. For all the time the game will be alive. They will make it and when the money are gone, development will stop. Even the persistent servers will stop and you will be able to play it only if you make your own server. While Entropia Universe is gona make like 20 millions but every year. Then again the next year and again. In 5 years we will have Star Citizen made with 20 million and Entropia Universe made with 100 million for the same time plus all the money and work from the previous 10 years. And Entropia Universe can only start making even more money in the future.

Star Citizen is made from one small team. While Entropia Universe has different team for every planet. So 4 times more people working on Entropia and that number can only go higher with more planets coming in the future.

And we are comparing Star Citizen from 2 years in the future to Entropia Universe what is now. In 2 years it can be way better so that you don’t want to log out to try other games. There is new Moon coming soon, probably next month. Planet Cyrene is waiting for the hard launch and mechs. And if Planet Toulan come online I don’t see how you gonna make me log out from Etropia Universe.

Star Citizen will have amazing graphics, probably best until now in the history of computer games. But we know that Entropia Universe has the power to switch engines while Star Citizen can’t. In 5-10 years Entropia Universe can go to CryEngine 4 while Star Citizen will remain in history with CryEngine 3 forever.

And we didn't even mention the Real Cash Economy element of Entropia Universe and the ability to make money and withdraw to your bank account. This is what makes Entropia Universe unique and different from all other games out there.

In conclusion I can say that Star Citizen will be great game. I will buy it. It will offer a lot of fun, way cheaper than anything else you can buy with your money to enjoy in your free time. It will be interesting for year or two, but it can’t compete with the payment model of Entropia Universe.