There haven't been a whole lot of new space sims announced recently, but a couple of in-production ones are nearing completion. Today's pair of games are developed in Germany and Russia, which still seem to have relatively robust markets for space sims. Both titles also borrow heavily from Digital Anvil's Freelancer.
Star Rush has been renamed since we initially reported on it. The title has been changed to Tomorrow War to tie in with the novel trilogy it is based on. Action takes place both in space and above ground with a seamless transition between the two environments. Intense battles will include more than a dozen warships and some sixty escort fighters in a single event. Players have the option to control their ships like in Wing Commander or simulate gravity and inertial effects. The proportions of space are also realistically modeled. Without the use of teleporters to jump between nav points, it would require days of travel to reach new locations. One of the images below shows off an example of the character models and environments that exists for portions of the story that take place outside the cockpit. The Official Site has more information for Russian readers.
The Darkstar One official site is available in both English and German. Germany has always been a huge market for Wing Commander, and a number of the folks at Ascaron Entertainment are big WC fans. Darkstar has also recently teamed up with the Lancers Reactor to leverage all the similarities with Freelancer. The story has been beefed up, and although some aspects of the game are free form across over 300 different star systems, there is a strong linear component as well. The "Darkstar One" refers to the ship that the main character inherits at the beginning of the game. Although it is the only ship that players will fly, it is heavily configurable with some 200 upgrades that drastically alter the ship's characteristics. It's due for release in Germany in May, in June in the UK and in September for the US.
Centuries have passed since the great galactic war. Since then, the numerous races within the universe have attempted to live peacefully next to each other. The Great Council is watching over the peace and the powers of the empires. However, recently, a small and reclusive race from the edge of the universe called "Thul" has begun to repeatedly violate the peace.
The galactic peace has been in grave danger ever-since as the races grew increasingly suspicious and began to blame each other for these attacks. The Great Council seems to be on the verge of falling apart. A new war seems inevitable.
In all this turmoil, the hero of the game - the young escort pilot Kayron Jarvis - discovers clues about a secret that his murdered father was apparently hiding. An unknown technology that is hidden within the Darkstar One appears to be the key - but then an unforeseen twist changes the course of events dramatically ...
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