just judging by history - david braben has a history of achieving his vision of a game - if necesssary alone and at his own cost. - he made elite by himself and frontier, too - or with just a few ppl. - both games were huge for their time and also revolutionary.
elite had several galaxies with well over 6000 systems, dozens of ships and upgrade systems on a machine like the C64 - along with excellent graphics and gameplay for the time.
frontier, while not a popular game because it was more realistic than playable, had planerary landing, a vast universe, player build stations, mining operations and an innovative jumpsystem concept and all in all much more than even the X universe ... but a decade earlier.
dangerous is supposed to offer a balance between graphical fidelity and gameplay. from earlier videos he aims it to allow gameplay as even a single person ( fighterpilot or even a stowaway on another players ship ( or saboteur )) - and capital ship crews with a greatly different control concept.
what sets SC and dangerous apart for me is that braben has a better schedule and business plan than roberts. he also does not focus so much on useless stuff that catapults the system requirements for a fast paced game upwards - but tries to keep the game playable for mid ranged computers.
one of the biggest differences is probably that SC is similar to freelancer in terms of controls - more a 1st person shooter in space with strafing and twitch reflexes, while elite dangerous is slower paced - more like freespace, i-war or well.. elite.
in terms of video diaries, elite dangerous appears to eat a lot less money and is already more advanced in its developement stage. - but for the graphics junkies, it does of course not look as great. Elite ships are traditionally much more geometric and not something to look at ( not as much as like X or SC )
but i am biased in that regard - i like braben much more than roberts as a developer and also his art design and gamedesign.
Elite was probably the most important "milestone" for space gaming. There is even a documentary about it, made by BBC where they tell what exactly Elite did achieve and why it is a milestone.
I was awaiting Elite 4 for like.... 15 years or so. And when I gave up, the announcement came. Star Citizen (I am a fan of Roberts' works since the first Wing Commander games) and Elite (I am also a huge fan of Frontier, the second game) being announced around the same times was like having constant org... nerdgasms for me.
I really suggest trying out Frontier. It had minimal graphics but touched with enough imagination, it was quite easy for oneself to get immersed in a lively space game. Alien stories and rumours happening via newspapers (you had the chance to subscribe several), finding missions, trade stuff, find special trading requests, crew members, passangers, hunters hunting for your passangers etc etc. Also, it had realistic physics and if you didn't have automatic pilot or fuel, it was a PAIN to land the darn ship, trying slingshots etc.
However, I did get the Premium Beta to Elite Dangerous...and holy cow is this game huge...and we only have access to a tiny sliver of the 400 billion systems that are said to be available on launch.
I've spent a good deal of my time just exploring and selling the data to my favorite "house". (Empire forever!) You can use real scientific logic (move perpendicular to the plane of the system to find "roaming" objects) to discover hidden planets and brown dwarfs in a system.
The flight mechanics are buttery when using a gamepad...would be even better with a joystick which I'm very close to getting in on. Mouse and keyboard was a bit rough for me but I've seen that it can be mastered with a few adjustments to defaults that are backwards.
I especially love handling my own docking, I know that sounds nerdy, but there is something supremely satisfying about actually flying to your docking pad within the hangar.
All the planets move and the scales are real (i.e. if you get stuck on the wrong side of a planet, good luck trying to fly around in a short amount of time).
The ships are looking better, though, I agree that they tend to look overly geometric, paying homage to the original.
Player interaction is really different from Disco. This might be due to the fact that it is in Beta 2 and the mechanics aren't there yet, but this game will let you get way out of the way to the point where you are alone with the NPCs. Occasionally you'll see another Cmdr out in the deep but if you need more interaction, a few jumps back into the core systems should do it.
Elite Dangerous makes me feel like I'm flying in a Star Wars not Star Wars universe, the engine sounds, hyperdrive, empire, alliance and more make it feel very Star Wars without the Jedi/Sith and stormtroopers.
My first mission on full release is to jump into Sirius and make sure there are no Nomads, then to VY Canis Majoris before that sucker goes nova.
As far as I am concerned, speaking from the point of view of a veteran that played Elite in the spectrum back in1983, Elite Dangerous is the one I will be playing.
David Brabhen has always delivered and produced solid games,Elite is already a reality while Star Citizen is still an item mall piece of vaporware until proven differently. As a former EVE player I keep in mind that EVE was playable until the new generation found it, and when developers started catering to them it become a gank feast for obnoxious brats.
In Elite they will not have it that easy, you want to be an outlaw? you live like one, in the border, in he edge of civilization, or you will be killed on sight, as it should be.