Space Combat Simulators.

FredLC

A Lawyer as You Can See!
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When I was a kid, inthe early 90's, I found out PC gaming, and it instantly drew me in, not only for the graphics far more advanced than the video games at the time, but also due to the different game styles it offered.

Two types of games I fell in love with - the first kind was the adventures. How many hours I spent playing the "The Secret of Monkey Island" series, I better not even try to know.

But the genre which was the absolute winner for me was the Space Combat Simulators. man, Wing Commander II is still the game that captured me the most in my life. I would spend hours a day beating the damn Kilraths and their Capital Ships.

I also loved the X-Wing and Tie Fighter games, though they were not ar the same league as WC IMHO.

Than came Volition and with Freespace 2, took the genre into a new level, this game being the greatest one of the genre to this day.

Thing is, the genre seens to have died. I'm honestly clueless why.

And now that my insterest in strategy is taking a curve down, and my interest in action genre is up (honestly, i'm playing Prince of Persia MUCH more than CIV, what is quite amazing), i feel the need of a good Space Sim. Only that I have found no news about that.

Does any of you guys have info on good Space Sims, avaiable or in the making?

Regards :).
 
I've been recently playing Freespace. It is a very good game. I wish there were more space comabat sims availible. I wouldn't mind another Star Wars one.
 
Knight-Dragon said:
How about Freelancer? Homeworld 2?

Freelancer is played with keybord and mouse, and with the ship in 3rd person view. It lacks the feel of a real Space Combat Sim.

I am not familiar with Homeworld. I'll take a look.

(I have downloaded X3 demo just to look at the graphics, but it does not feature very good combat - it's more about commerce, and that is not what i'm looking for...)
 
Wolfe Tone said:
I've been recently playing Freespace. It is a very good game. I wish there were more space comabat sims availible. I wouldn't mind another Star Wars one.

Freespace 1 or 2?

While Freespace 1 is good, it's the Freespace 2 that really delivers, believe me on that. Besides, since it's now open source, there is a mod to it that allows you to port the first game to the second, hence playing it with the enhanced hi-res graphics.

Regards :).
 
FredLC said:
I am not familiar with Homeworld. I'll take a look.
It's not a sim though. You move large fleets in 3D environments, who battle enemy fleets.

I've seen my friend played it; quite nice. :)
 
FredLC said:
Freelancer is played with keybord and mouse, and with the ship in 3rd person view. It lacks the feel of a real Space Combat Sim.

Well you can go into first person view as well in Freelancer! Matter of fact, I went through the entire Freelancer game in first person view.
 
I too have also wanted a good space combat for computer, but a bit newer. And not too complicated in the controls, especialy since there is no up or down. I played Tie Fighter once, was fun but I kept getting lost.
 
Kan' Sharuminar said:
I greatly enjoyed Starlancer and Tachyon: The Fringe, though haven't seen them about recently.

I gave Starlancer a shot a while ago in a friend's place. I didn't really got into it. I mean, it was from the Wing Commander team, for crying out loud... so maybe I had set my expectations too high (and the cold war appeal of the tale is not all that interesting IMHO). But it may be because I came across it while I was playing the much superior Freespace 2.

Anyway, as i'm getting desperate, I might give it another shot...

Knight-Dragon said:
It's not a sim though. You move large fleets in 3D environments, who battle enemy fleets.

I've seen my friend played it; quite nice. :)

Than Homeworld is certainly not what i'm looking for...

leonel said:
Well you can go into first person view as well in Freelancer! Matter of fact, I went through the entire Freelancer game in first person view.

Yeah, but the play-with-the-mouse thing ruins it for me all by itself. It feels too "arcade-ish", if you know what i mean...

Regards :).
 
FredLC said:
Freespace 1 or 2?

While Freespace 1 is good, it's the Freespace 2 that really delivers, believe me on that. Besides, since it's now open source, there is a mod to it that allows you to port the first game to the second, hence playing it with the enhanced hi-res graphics.

Regards :).
I've been playing the first one. I own both however. I just wanted to play the first one and get the storyline down again. As soon as I complete the first one I'm going to play the second. Then I'm going to go after the Babylon 5 mods. Hopefully by the time I'm done with all that the Battlestar Galactica mod will be released.
 
FredLC said:
I gave Starlancer a shot a while ago in a friend's place. I didn't really got into it. I mean, it was from the Wing Commander team, for crying out loud... so maybe I had set my expectations too high (and the cold war appeal of the tale is not all that interesting IMHO). But it may be because I came across it while I was playing the much superior Freespace 2.

Anyway, as i'm getting desperate, I might give it another shot...

That's understandable. I got it for the Dreamcast, so I wasn't expecting anything on the level of some PC games. And I didn't realise it was made by the WC team. Nice solid action gaming (and I enjoyed the story).
 
Kan' Sharuminar said:
Tachyon: The Fringe, though haven't seen them about recently.

I think I might actually reinstall it. I was put off the game as I was going to have to restart since I upgraded my ship to the wrong class.
 
Dell19 said:
I think I might actually reinstall it. I was put off the game as I was going to have to restart since I upgraded my ship to the wrong class.

It's got Bruce Campbell as the main voice actor, that's well worth any bugs :p

I'll say, though, that the missions are a bit hit and miss. I happily worked my way through them, feeling that the missions were progressing in difficulty rather nicely. Then comes an unbeatable mission that I still haven't gotten past. So I uninstalled the game :(
 
There was a mission I really struggled to get past and after that I rushed a ship purchase and ended up wasting my money so that when I reached Japan, I couldn't compete effectively.

Currently downloading several years worth of updates as currently when I try to run it, it crashes.
 
Been exciled. I'm curious how many people actually picked to rejoin the corporations when you get the chance?
 
Wolfe Tone said:
I've been playing the first one. I own both however. I just wanted to play the first one and get the storyline down again. As soon as I complete the first one I'm going to play the second. Then I'm going to go after the Babylon 5 mods. Hopefully by the time I'm done with all that the Battlestar Galactica mod will be released.

Hmmm... I checked today, and it appears that the Hard Light productions site, which kept all MODs, is down.

If they don't come back, it will be hard to find'em on the web.

(I was hoping to see the "wing commander saga" port, featuring WC I to IV with Freespace2 graphics...
 
I thought you enjoyed the "sim" part.

Iwar2
Elite 2 Froniter (old school)
Tachyon (make sure you side with the corp as rebs final mission is near impossible)
 
FredLC said:
Hmmm... I checked today, and it appears that the Hard Light productions site, which kept all MODs, is down.

If they don't come back, it will be hard to find'em on the web.

(I was hoping to see the "wing commander saga" port, featuring WC I to IV with Freespace2 graphics...
I visted Hard Light a couple of times today with no difficulty. It's working for me right now.
 
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