Just something I've been musing about. It could be possible to allow players to pick 'realistic' space battles, that would alter sounds and visuals,

* by removing all sound  besides music, or leaving only muffled impact sounds ala vacuum sequences in Dead Space
* making the ambient lighting very low, thus creating deep shadows on the ships.

Of course this would have no impact whatsoever on the gameplay elements and may be not even too difficult to achieve.