The Galaxy

"Space," it says, "is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space, listen..." - Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

The Galaxy is big, and in this game you are given a true insight into the size and splendour of it all. The year (in the game) is 3301, so the human race has made technological advances which allow us to fly spacecraft, build space stations, etc.

Frontier Developments (FD) have created, within the game, all of the currently known star systems according to the information we have today (from Hubble, etc.), with a little artistic license to indicate where human advances in technology have impacted these systems (e.g. in the Sol system, our star system, Mars is now terra-formed, so it is more Earth-like). Space stations and platforms have been liberally scattered amongst these "populated" systems.

The stars beyond these populated areas have been procedurally generated using the rules of astro-physics to create the rest of our Galaxy. This means that the game has 400 Billion star systems, adventure on a truly grand scale. These star systems are things of beauty, David Braben the owner of Frontier, is a real astronomy fan, and they are constantly tweaking the look and feel of the planetary bodies you will encounter to give you a real sense of you being "out there".

The distances between these stars, asteroid fields, planets and moons are also realistic, so you get a sense of the vastness of space. Planets appear as small dots until you approach them, suns are enormous compared to them, but disappear into the distance as you make your way out to the furthest planets in a system.

All of the planets, etc, have their own orbits as well, which are implemented in the game, so you can literally watch a sun rise on an alien world if you have the time (and to be honest, you will catch yourself just staring in wonder at some of the sights).

Planetary rings can also be seen, and these are not just eye-candy. You can enter the rings (these will be composed of rocks which may contain rare minerals or metals), and you can simply travel around, or you can equip your ship with mining equipment, and start mining in these rings. The views you get from inside planetary rings are absolutely stunning.

Even the star filled backdrop of space as you fly around is not just a painted canvas. The game generates the backdrop based on where you are in the Galaxy, so you will be seeing the stars positioned in the sky exactly as they are from your view-point. Fly to another part of the Galaxy, and the backdrop will be different. The attention to detail here is staggering.

So, all of this sounds great, but let's see some evidence to back it up......