I had a sudden urge to try this out a second time when I remembered I had it because I saw a "let's play some bits of X4" video series that was fun. I remembered I bounced off of it at some point, but I had no idea that I'd gotten 5 hours in at the time! I bounced off it again, and the main conclusion I have was that I am not good at space sim flight.

However, there are also some janky things that just make the game a little more unpleasant than it feels like it needs to be:
* I sometimes saw lead indicators on enemy ships, and sometimes on friendly ships, but I couldn't spot them when I actually wanted them except for once. I have no clue what triggers them existing or not.
* I had a fun time with the first Terran mission once, where the lead indicators worked and I actually got a kill, but then I screwed up and got killed ... and discovered that not saving except in stations is no ♥♥♥♥ really not saving except in stations and I needed to completely restart because I had never saved!
* I know this is a thing in these games, but the Mark I Eyeball is often superior to the scanners, especially at game start, and this just feels backwards to me.

I'm sure the game is fine and was groundbreaking when it was released, but it's just kinda clunky, especially today.