Apparently dissatisfied with having created a playable universe of synapse-melting vastness thus far, Frontier Developments have released an expanion for Elite: Dangrous that makes that universe still more incomprehensibly sprawling. Horizons is the beginning of a year of updates to the game that adds player avatars, co-pilot spacecraft, and among other things, the ability to land on and explore airless planets. It’s out now.
Kirk got stuck into Horizons recently, and was struck by the fidelity of the experience when entering a planet’s orbit: “Barely any loading happens as you transition from orbital cruise to a glide, and then deeper down to planetary flight where you can zip through canyons, skim the planet’s surface, and finally touch down.”
Spaceman, I always wanted you to go to, er… the best space games on PC.
There’s something about the legions of all-terrain buggies racing over red soil that reminds me of Quake I and II, personally, but that’s by the by, and likely not very indicative of Horizons’ experience. I played the base game using HTC’s Vive headset recently, and it was quite something. If anything can convince you to sit in a room wearing a self-administered blindfold, it’s this one.
The expansion is out now, but the full scope of it will grow over the next year. We’ll be dipping back into its limitless space over time to see how things are shaping up.