On the advice of Dave Gilmour (yes, that Dave Gilmour from Pink Floyd) Alex and Geddy composed their 18th album entirely acoustically. And it shows, even though much of it may not have been recorded acoustically. For me, this is Rush’s best album since Power Windows, and vies with Farewell To Kings as my third favourite. It’s a different sound to anything that went before it. Where Rush seemed to be almost finding their feet once more with Vapor Trails, Snakes And Arrows sees them at their brilliant, innovative best. Highlights include the smashing opener, three instrumentals (more than any other Rush album) and Faithless – one of my favourite Rush songs of all time, which also contains some of Neil’s best lyrics. Special mention must go to the track “Hope”. It’s just an acoustic guitar piece composed and played by Alex. It is some of the most beautiful and heartfelt music I have ever heard him play. It is an absolutely superb album. And it was so good to see Rush still delivering the goods after all this time.

Far Cry
Armor And Sword
Workin Them Angels
The Larger Bowl
Spindrift
The Main Monkey Business
The Way The Wind Blows
Hope
Faithless
Bravest Face
Good News First
Malignant Narcissism
We Hold On

Mamba

Now, I wasn’t quite sure what to do with this ship. I’d already tested half a dozen combat builds and there are yet still two combat builds to go. So I didn’t want to do any fighting in her. She is such a beautiful ship though, and also very, very fast. She’s kind of the equivalent of a Lamborghini I suppose. So I’ll fly her like someone would drive a Lamborghini. Just taking her around all the fashionable spots and showing off. And what could be more fashionable than the Sol system?

I decided to call her Spindrift. Because she spins and, well, she drifts. She really, really drifts. I had to be very careful when manually docking her. Such a stunning looking ship. I stuck in an SRV bay, gave her a half decent jump range and began my journey to the cradle of humanity.

It’s always good fun to visit Sol. See your home from space. And touring the solar system is really good fun! One cool, or rather hot thing to do is to land on Mercury.

Or maybe visit Jupiter and Saturn? You can even land on Charon, or venture out further and land on the massive “ninth planet” Persephone. Or even venture further out and visit Voyagers I and II. You’ll also find that Mars has changed quite a bit.

It was a very pleasant trip. It took ages to get to Voyager and when I found it it was too dark to get a decent screenshot. It’s a very nice ship to fly! Next time around, when I revisit all of these ships I will probably try some combat with her.

Type 10 Defender

This ship is an absolute beast! Almost from when I started playing, years ago on PC, I have always wanted to try the T10. And I have always dreamt of using nothing but turrets and leaving her with crew while I take a fighter out and use that. So that’s just what I did!

And what else could I name a ship of this kind other than the Workin’ Them Angels? She is a great hulking monster of a vessel. Appalling manoeuvrability, slow, almost impossible to keep all her many hardpoints focused in the same place at once. A turreted build seemed just the ticket.

She took such a long time to engineer, collecting all the materials and then touring all the engineer sites to get exactly the experimental modifications I wanted. All pulse lasers, to go a bit easier on the power drain, but also with reinforced shields, six reinforced shield boosters and multiple hull and module reinforcements. No avoiding fire in this! And, of course, a large fighter hanger. I placed a couple of tons of gold in her cargo as bait, took her to the nearest high risk resource site, launched my fighter and waited.

What then took place was just about the most fun I have ever had in Elite Dangerous. Seriously commanders, if you have never tried this you have got to have a go. I watched, awestruck as she tore after every bandit that challenged her. I didn’t have to do a thing. And the noise! Oh the noises she makes as she thunders around, causing carnage and death. She quite took my breath away. She might not be too nimble, but she can still dance. And I had no idea she would dance like this!

I then took her to a Hazardous site in the next system. Mu Ceti has some stunning places to do ship to ship combat, all brightly lit by the large blue star. And again, she stunned me with her grace and power. Once it was all over, we flew in formation for a while before I docked my fighter, and took her home. I am so doing this again!