EB's control interface resembles FL's one (or the other way around). The part that I didn't like about E&B was the amount of travelling. I once selected a target, pressed warp and five(!!) minutes later i arrived! In one system that was! The missions were fun. To bad I couldn't PK during the 5 day trial.

Join the army against the Chaos[!

I was actually part of the beta test, and it was an interesting game, but from my perspective, it seemed to lack diversity... What I mean by that was, everyone had the same ships. There were only 1 ship type/class, with only slight modifications to appearence, and no way to sell it to upgrade to a different ship. It wasn't as free as freelancer, where you could go in any direction. But that's good and bad... Freelancer doesn't give you character classes to improve skills... But at least I can buy a bigger/better ship when I had the cash.

Another observation, as far as, game play goes, I like the FL interface better. I found the cockpit in E&B to be rather useless, and not very functional. Shooting didn't rely on your accuracy with a mouse, but rather, accuracy with your skill, so I found combat, at times frustrating. There was no trade route information, as you visited new places, so I couldn't pull up a list of best routes, like I can in FL. You'd have to run all over the universe and keep a pencil/paper nearby to write down how much things cost and where.

One of my biggest grips about FL currently is mission variety... Correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears there are no missions other than 1. Kill this guy, 2. Arrest this guy, or 3. Kill these guys... Aren't there any courier missions, like Bring this package to X, or Escort missions, or Patrol missions?

I also like not having to pay every month to keep my game running, or my character alive. I like running my own server, and playing with my friends, for free.

My $.02,
Dower

I hit level 120 in E&B and I hated that there was nothing to do at high level. But someone smart should make a game that mixes the good parts of E&B with the good parts of FL and we'd have a great game.

Quote: "Correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears there are no missions other than 1. Kill this guy, 2. Arrest this guy, or 3. Kill these guys"

Theres also: 4. Destroy the stuff these guys are carrying. Not to mention on some number 3 missions there can be operating weapons platforms.

That's it?! Man, that was an oversight... I remember Privateer and Privateer 2 had those other types of missions. I guess maybe they concentrated soley on the SP mode... Maybe DA will come out with a expansion pack with these kinds of missions? One would hope, or some enterprising folks could maybe make a mod for that. Oh well...

Dower

I played E&B, got a level 150 Defender (Assassin) and theres definitly more than one type of ship, theres 6 classes with 27 variations on just one ship, and once you get that ship, as you advance in level you get 6 "Hull Evolutions" which change your ship in radical ways, a Defender starts with 4 wing but by level 150 he gets 6. E&B Was all warping, if the ONLY had Trade Lanes, JUST Trade Lanes and it would have been the game it was meant to be. 90% of that game is Warping everywhere. Combat in E&B is also very very boring, the enemies are slow, and your weapons cant miss, you just click Follow, hit F on the keyboard and just hope they dont take your shield down before you do. Was quite fun, but just like freelancer it lacked much high level content, at level 150 nothing in the game was a challenege, just as now i have a sabre, with 2 nomad guns, a skyblasts turret, and 2 skyblast guns plus 2 Blue Blazes and a over 8k shield cap, nothing is a challenge anymore.

I don't really like E&B because you have to pay each month. Same with PlanetSide. These damn game companies are eliminating most of their customer base!

Have been playing E&B since last year, but now am just going to let my subscription run out. Personally they are killing thier own subscriber base with thier indifference to players. With EVE and SWG coming out, E&B is going to lose a very large percentage of thier subscriber base.

lol..sounds like EA are living up to their crap reputation..thanks for the input guys.