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sfried
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"Space Sims - A lost genre?" , posted Fri 10 Aug 12:16:post reply

I think I'm going through my yearly space sim episodes.

I recently played a bit of Wing Commander and was thinking: Just what happened to the genre? Didn't games like TIE Fighter and X-Wing used to be popular? Even Descent was basically a spacesim on corridors. I remembered the real reason I was into PC gaming back then was because joystick peripherals and keyboards simply aren't something meant for consoles. But now times have changed...
And the best thing they could do is put keyboard and mouse support for FPSs.

That, and the fact that they turned Wing Commander Arena into...some top down asteroids game.

I have Freespace/Freespace II/FCIISCP on my computer, but right now, it's kinda buggy with the recent build of SCP 3.6.9 (and I've done with the regular campaigns). I've been trying to get my hands on the original Independence War (I have the sequel, which they say isn't so good), and also been desparately trying to run X2 on my rather not-up-to-snuff hardware. I'm kind of at a loss as to any new games that give the same feeling of space combat strategy. The only one I've seen recently like it, ironically, is Square-Enix's Project Sylpheed, except I'm not in a mood to buy a next-gen system just for one game...that might not even potentially satiate my desires of a good solid space sim.

...

What am I dabbling about...oh yeah, give me a good solid space sim title out there, one which I still don't have.





[this message was edited by sfried on Fri 10 Aug 12:23]

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Amakusa
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"Re(1):Space Sims - A lost genre?" , posted Fri 10 Aug 14:14post reply

quote:

That, and the fact that they turned Wing Commander Arena into...some top down asteroids game.



At least they bothered to actually make a new Wing Commander game. The manual is pretty satisfying in the tradition of the Wing Commander games (there's a PDF of it floating around somewhere); it's just a shame that they didn't continue with the Nephilim war because I thought WC:Prophecy and Secret Ops finally got the gameplay to a really good place (as in, multiple wingmen, the right ship for the right missions, swarms upon swarms of bad guys, and hell, wingmen that can actually kill crap without whining and crying so much).





I found Kagami's sword in a junk yard.
I will rule the world and find that truly good cup of coffee.
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sfried
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"Re(2):Space Sims - A lost genre?" , posted Fri 10 Aug 15:02:post reply

quote:

At least they bothered to actually make a new Wing Commander game...


A rather enthusiastic Wing Commander junkie at Otakon told me otherwise: "That's not Wing Commander."

I don't mind whining pilots everytime they make kills. It's better than pilots who go "Woah! Help me!". I remember one of those harder Freespace 2 skirmishes were most of my wingmen ended up dead, and I simple took on the mission critical capship alone without missiles using only my lasers and drawing power to shields. I kept it augmented to my front at all times while staying stationarily in front of the capship. I think it took me a good, solid 10 min. before it died.





[this message was edited by sfried on Fri 10 Aug 15:04]

Oroch
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"Re(1):Space Sims - A lost genre?" , posted Fri 10 Aug 17:00post reply

quote:
I think I'm going through my yearly space sim episodes.

I recently played a bit of Wing Commander and was thinking: Just what happened to the genre? Didn't games like TIE Fighter and X-Wing used to be popular? Even Descent was basically a spacesim on corridors. I remembered the real reason I was into PC gaming back then was because joystick peripherals and keyboards simply aren't something meant for consoles. But now times have changed...
And the best thing they could do is put keyboard and mouse support for FPSs.

That, and the fact that they turned Wing Commander Arena into...some top down asteroids game.

I have Freespace/Freespace II/FCIISCP on my computer, but right now, it's kinda buggy with the recent build of SCP 3.6.9 (and I've done with the regular campaigns). I've been trying to get my hands on the original Independence War (I have the sequel, which they say isn't so good), and also been desparately trying to run X2 on my rather not-up-to-snuff hardware. I'm kind of at a loss as to any new games that give the same feeling of space combat strategy. The only one I've seen recently like it, ironically, is Square-Enix's Project Sylpheed, except I'm not in a mood to buy a next-gen system just for one game...that might not even potentially satiate my desires of a good solid space sim.

...

What am I dabbling about...oh yeah, give me a good solid space sim title out there, one which I still don't have.




like everything else the genre will resurge in a few years


independence war if you can find it was an awesome game, i'm temped to built a shit system with xp for that game, among others fallout/planescape/outcast/fahrenheit etc...

i'm sure ive got a copy of it somewhere, i could make an iso if you'd like





Amakusa
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"Re(3):Space Sims - A lost genre?" , posted Sat 11 Aug 05:40post reply

quote:

At least they bothered to actually make a new Wing Commander game...

A rather enthusiastic Wing Commander junkie at Otakon told me otherwise: "That's not Wing Commander."



Yeah, but you're talking to a Wing Commander junkie at Otakon.

The recent tournament with all the Wing Commander news fan-sites pretty much showed that enough people are largely receptive of it even if it isn't what everyone expected. Even if I never get to play it myself (considering I don't own an Xbox 360) I can only think this as a good thing, because as long as the name is still out there so there be hope.

Beside which, I wanna buy Maniac's autobiography.





I found Kagami's sword in a junk yard.
I will rule the world and find that truly good cup of coffee.
"Dink-a-dink-a-dink-a-do."

Burning Ranger
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"Re(1):Space Sims - A lost genre?" , posted Sat 11 Aug 22:07post reply

quote:
The only one I've seen recently like it, ironically, is Square-Enix's Project Sylpheed, except I'm not in a mood to buy a next-gen system just for one game...that might not even potentially satiate my desires of a good solid space sim.



Descent?!?

Oh yeah, I also want to play Project Sylpheed.





Advanced Cyborg E. Branger AKA Burning Ranger