X³: Reunion 2.0 Relaunches On DVD With No Starforce

Good things come to those who wait... a year. Released back in late 2005, X³: Reunion initially encountered a bit of trouble in winning the hearts of space-sim fans, due to its Starforce copy-protection system and pretty high system requirements (not to mention all the bugs contained in the original version). Then, in July 2006, Egosoft released a Starforce-less version of their game via Steam (along with X²: The Threat), and later this Summer they also announced "a very special X³ update", called X³: 2.0 Bala Gi Research Missions.

As of now, this final (major) X3 update is complete and ready for launch - once the translations into other languages are also finished. Which should only take a few more days. The retail version will be released this month on one DVD (rather than 5 CDs), and will include the original version of X³: Reunion along with the version 2.0 update that will remove Starfoce.

If you already have the nasty-copy-protected version, you'll be able to download this update for free and get rid of Starfoce, as well as enjoy all the new content - which you can read about here and here. In short, here are some key features from X³: Reunion 2.0:

- The Bala Gi Expansion - a campaign to unlock a unique new spacecraft and get hold of the biggest construction set in the X universe so far: The headquarters station

- The exclusive (and unique) M6 class battleship once owned by the Pontifex Maximus Paranidia himself - this ship is lean and mean and can host two M5 ships

- Bala Gi Research Inc. have developed a new M3+ class of ships - during the game you can distribute the blueprints for this new masterpiece in ship construction to the various shipyards

- Exotic space ships

- Revised battle tactics

- Exciting missions for all difficulty levels

- The award winning X3 engine has been further enhanced creating an absolutely stunning universe.

In case you'd rather continue the game from where you left it, the good news is that savegames made in 1.4.03 or earlier can be loaded using the 2.0 release. And by now you probably have better hardware in place, so there's little excuse left for not getting back in the X Universe. And probably staying there for a long, long time.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)