Indeed, rather than reunited brothers, they were strangers. As rediscovered technology finally allowed contact between these far-flung children of the Colonial Council to tentatively resume, they found that they had little in common.

They each followed markedly different paths in their evolution. but in their isolation, a strange thing happened. Time marched on in its relentless journey toward the future, and each of these civilizations slowly reconstructed their humanity. The few pockets of humanity that did survive developed in near solitude, clinging perilously to life like a tree desperately trying to gain root on a rocky cliff. The collapse of a central government caused civilization to slide helplessly into a dark age of isolation. They were left adrift in the lonely void of space, forced to fend for themselves, truly strangers in strange lands. Open rebellion caused the destruction of critical parts of the Hypergate system, severing entire systems from the umbilical cord of civilization. Like a wave in the darkness of space, colonization flowed outwards from Earth, until discord and dissent against a growingly corrupt central government caused it to come crashing down.

The eccentric genius in Omata Kane, whose Hypergate system brought distant stars within reach, has all but been forgotten. The remnants of the Colonial Council's utopian vision of a united galaxy are littered about like so many discarded dreams. With a completely redesigned gaming engine, EV Nova thrusts you into a sprawling universe dominated by a myriad of warring factions, each sharing a common bond, but so philosophically different as to make conflict inevitable. There is no substitute, which is why the wait for Elite IV was so grueling.EV Nova is the third game in the Escape Velocity series, and is by far the most ambitious installment to date. I've played all the titles I mentioned, and can reccomend each one of them, however, none can truly hold a candle to the Elite titles. Its a deep hole looking for something to replace Elite, and its a journey that I've taken over the years. However, despite these all being truly excellent trader/fighter open ended space sims, NONE of them did EVERYTHING right like Elite did.

Lastly I can say that Privateer is another popular choice, it being a spin-off of Wing Commander, and can be found on GOG.com. (X3 Terran Conflict being the best out of that series.) Others will talk about Space Rangers 2 and Escape Velocity Nova (2 excellent top-down open ended trading/fighting/space things.) Others will periodically mention Freelancer (an early 2000's space open ended game in the vein of Elite, but with a bit more structure) which I think is quite good. The problem with Elite, is that deep down, there is truly nothing else like it.

Games like escape velocity nova