I am still thoroughly enjoying X3:TC. It's a gamer's game. It's a harsh mistress, a simulation that establishes its sim-cred by forcing you to play by its sometimes-unfriendly rules. If you want your player headquarters, you will deliver 75,000 microchips that produce at the rate of one per hour, and you'll like it because it means planning and building a mega-complex of dozens of factories consuming whole sectors worth of silicon.

This game, like many sandbox games, is as much fun as you want it to be. It provides an excellent platform for making all your imaginary space battles happen and building your imaginary space empire. You will spend some time and effort on logistics because it's an economic sim in addition to a combat sim. It demands that you do things the hard way, but there are mods to mitigate as much of the hard way as you want to. The story missions are fun, varied, and challenging. If you like Privateer or I-War 2: Edge of Chaos, you will probably like X3.