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If you're stuck for something to do this weekend, you might want to take a look at the X Franchise on Steam, it's quite a good deal.

You can play these for free until Sunday 9PM UTC and they are also on sale if you decide to purchase them to continue playing.

Worth noting, that X Rebirth doesn't currently have the best of ratings, but the other two that support Linux are looking pretty positive. The free weekend system on Steam is pretty handy, since you're not limited in features like a demo, but they don't last long of course.

They can be pretty complex games, so it might take you an entire day just to learn how to actually play.

See the sale page on Steam here for the list. As always, you can check our Sales Page any time for cheap Linux gaming deals.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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23 comments
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kf Dec 7, 2017
If you're not familiar with the series, X Rebirth is an ok game, just a terrible X game.
pete910 Dec 7, 2017
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Quoting: kfIf you're not familiar with the series, X Rebirth is an ok game, just a terrible X game.

^^^ this.

By far my fav is still X3:reunion . The hours I put into the original LGP port...

Have anther 100 or so on the seam/egosoft port.

X3:Albion Prelude is good too
Dunc Dec 7, 2017
%#@&*! I noticed they were on sale, but didn't spot the free weekend. I've missed a whole evening now. :><:

Anyhoo... I've always suspected these might be the kind of thing I'd like, but never got round to trying any out. So thanks for the heads-up, Liam.

That's my weekend sorted, then.
g000h Dec 7, 2017
Not at all interested in "try me for the weekend" games. Just f off.
Eike Dec 8, 2017
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Quoting: g000hNot at all interested in "try me for the weekend" games. Just f off.

Why is this? Isn't it the optimal way to find out if you'll like a game, for free?
cRaZy-bisCuiT Dec 8, 2017
Quoting: Eike
Quoting: g000hNot at all interested in "try me for the weekend" games. Just f off.

Why is this? Isn't it the optimal way to find out if you'll like a game, for free?

I really don't get it rather either. I think it's a good way to find out if you like a certain game.


Also I'm not a fan of free2play, paywalls, freemium etc. - but that's a completely different case.


By the way, I love the X series. Especially the first one, "X: Beyond the Frontier" and the third one "X3: Reunion". The first one is the least complex one but also great fun, unfortunately not ported to Linux. If you get into X3 it's really great.


I personally don't like "X: Rebirth".


Last edited by cRaZy-bisCuiT on 8 December 2017 at 10:33 am UTC
etonbears Dec 8, 2017
Quoting: PatolaX Rebirth is not an OK game, it is an ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIC AND AMAZING GAME. Really. I highly recommend it, I have even written a Steam Review explaining why I adore it. The 4.30 update was out today (can you imagine a game that has updates 4 years after it has launched?), and the game performance is even better than it already was.

It is just different from X3 and the others. This is not a game where you are supposed to be changing ships to pilot them, just as The Witcher 3 is not a game where you will be changing characters. And just like The Witcher 3, where at one time you control Ciri, in the X: Rebirth campaign you also temporarily "change" (actually as a camouflage) your ship. But it is not supposed to be a choice as in X3 where you ejected from your current ship and "entered" another from your fleet. In X: Rebirth you still control a lot of other ships as a fleet, but you assign captains to actually fly them (and you can do that in a nesting fashion, to make a hierarchy), then you give orders to the captain. Actually this way it is much more realist, any of you know an owner of a fleet of airplanes, trucks or something else that keeps changing and piloting his/her own vehicles? I know he "could" and in the game you "can't", but in real life you "can" drink coffee and many games don't allow you to drink coffee and that does not make them bad, it's just not their scope.

Please take the time to consider X: Rebirth as a game worthy of your money. It is. The steam store page has a "Download Demo" button if you want to see it, or you can see the showcase at Egosoft site.

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated to Egosoft, I am not even german, I am just a brazilian fan that is binge playing X: Rebirth (214 hours as of today, though there are 50+ hours offline) and do not like the incredible badmouthing this game has. This game is so good and compelling that I kind of lost interest in all of my other games... Including the Witcher 3.

Note: but the Complete Collection -- X: Rebirth + The Teladi Outpost and Home of Light, they are worth it and add a lot to the strategy.

X:Rebirth's problem was really that it did not meet the expectations it raised in fans of the franchise. Prior to X:Rebirth, there was no "in-person" aspect to the game outside of cutscenes. Previous games were space-flight simulators with emphasis on trading and fighting, with quite a learning curve and difficult controls.

What fans of the franchise wanted was everything they already had, with better controls and the ability to walk around ships/stations etc. Trouble is, walking around is like adding a complete new game - it requires real thought as to what you are doing and why. Neither the player base, nor Egosoft really seemed to have gone through that thought process, so we ended up with cookie-cutter Space stations, with unmoving ( and rather odd-looking ) people scattered about, and nothing much to do ( other than be verbally abused by everyone you talk to ). We also lost access to multiple ships, because they would need internal modelling, and the universe shrunk dramatically; Egosoft are a small team, and they tried to do too much.

All that said, after many updates ( and Egosoft DO keep updating and adding to their games ), X:Rebirth is probably worth a sale purchase if you like space-sims. The next X game is expected ( 2018 if you believe them ) to fix the most obvious problems by being more like an updated X3.
AlveKatt Dec 8, 2017
If that patch has fixed the issues I ran into last time I tried this game, I might buy X:rebirth again. (I refunded it last time.)

Back then it for some reason deactivated force full composition pipeline so that I got horrible tearing and the controls were impossible to rebind to my specifications.


Last edited by AlveKatt on 8 December 2017 at 10:59 am UTC
gerbaud Dec 8, 2017
Quoting: cRaZy-bisCuiTI personally don't like "X: Rebirth".

If you have a VR Headset try X Rebirth VR. To me this is one of the greatest VR experiences available (the actual game itself is is not that interesting to me).
Tchey Dec 8, 2017
X3TC is the best game of all the X games, in my opinion.

If you play it, play it with X3TC-Extended mod, it's simply awesome, if you like the genre.
Trailer : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYQ-C6x13aM

Outside of X, the Early Access game Helium Rain, form Deimos Games, is great too.
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