Sins of a Solar Empire vs X3

I got tiredof a friend of mine telling me how much he LOVES SSE so I went over to his house and he helped me throgh the initial learning curve(OH Dear) on Single Player, sorry guys but I would never buy this game, then he came over to my place and played X3, he couldn't get over how much better the graphics were and the learning curve was short and sweet, today he bought it on Ebay for a buck and won't get off my computer so I can play the game, anybody played them both give me some feedback, am I just being partial or is X3 really that much better

Yes, different genre. It would be better to compare SSE to a similar game, such as Homeworld 2.

Great, now I know what on Earth an aardvark is. I wonder if they make good pets.

I love SSE. The learning curve isn't bad at all. I got the hang of it after 3 games. I also think the backstory is pretty cool, especially the Vasari. And just like Civilization, my all-time favorite series, modding it seems easy and there are many cool mods in the works. I've never played X3 nor do I know what it is, so I can't comment on that.

Bornking.... what the hell?

SSE was a blending of 4X and RTS. If you don't like 4X then don't play it....
and X3 had less similarity to tie fighter than Freelancer did, which is to say they were both space sims of some variety. I can think of few that are as different as X3 and Tie Fighter.