Mark Buckingham: The "in the cockpit" space genre has been rebounding a bit lately after having largely fallen off the radar for the last several years. There have been hits and misses (ahem, X Rebirth), but the focus had largely shifted away from exciting direct-control, in-the-action, choose-your-own-adventure games like Freelancer and Freespace toward more slower-paced strategic fare like Galactic Civilizations, Sins of a Solar Empire, and Sword of the Stars. Not that those games are bad — far from it. Some of us joystick jockeys want to strap in and fly by the seats of our pants in crazy space dogfights while trying to smuggle contraband across the galaxy.

Tony "OUberLord" Mitera: This game continues to receive an obscene amount of money for its development, and for good reason. This upcoming titles evokes memories of games past, like Freelancer and Wing Commander. It's fitting considering the people behind it have a pedigree with the latter. With graphics that will make your GPU cry, it looks like it'll be a beauty, but more importantly, the game looks to capture the sense of space flight wonder that has been largely missing from gaming for years.

Rainier Van Autrijve: Since I saw Eve Online over a decade ago, I've been yearning for a similar space shooter in a single-player setting. Chris Roberts' Star Citizen answers my prayers, and apparently I'm not the only one who thinks the Wing Commander and Privateer developer can deliver on his promises. What began as a humble Kickstarter with a $500,000 goal has now ballooned into a massive project with over $37 million in funding. The game's made specifically for the PC, and the graphics looks amazing. The scope of the project is unprecedented, and given the variety of features, planets, careers and spaceships, Star Citizen is going to be a title for the ages.