Now that we've got adventure games fairly well resuscitated (yes, we're taking all the credit) our next target is the space shooter. And no, we don't mean guys from different planets shooting at each other (that's already roughly 74 percent of the market). We want to get behind the throttle of our own ship, fly in any direction we please and, perhaps most importantly, make much larger capital ships explode by shooting exposed vents.

SOL: Exodus, a downloadable space shooter coming to PC and (maybe) consoles from Seamless Entertainment, is doing its part to help us realize the dream. We got a look during PAX, and were hugely relieved to finally find a space sim that's not mired in the past.

For starters, there's the "slide" mechanic, which lets you shoot in any direction and immediately redirect your ship without having to fight momentum or an unwieldy turning radius. Purists may complain, but it made the ship feel responsive in a way that most modern gamers would likely expect.

SOL: Exodus also features a bit more interactivity than we're used to from the genre, such as the ability to hack into enemy defenses to help turn the tide of a seemingly hopeless fight. Here's hoping that Seamless' baby can be a similar turning point in our struggle to bring back the space opera.