Any good Space Sim's out there?

Clinth

Senior member
Dec 11, 1999
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I been looking for a new space sim, The last one I enjoyed was Freelancer, I could list a ton of older, even dos games(Starfight ) That were good, but can't find and newer game along the same line. Any recommendations?

Clinth
 

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
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I coulda sworn we just had a thread about this.
Hold on while I find it, I dont feel like restating my opinion again.
 

shortylickens

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Jul 15, 2003
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http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=38&threadid=1985562&enterthread=y

It was in OT which is why I couldnt find it right away.

Our biggest complaint is that the companies didnt seem to make much money off the space games lately and they all seemed to die.

The jet fighters just slowly disappeared, and lots of hardcore folks didnt like Freelancer because it was mouse-only.
Master of Orion 3 was a big letdown and that may have killed the Space Conquest genre.
Homeworld 2 was nice but not special or innovative anymore so that was the end of the Space RTS thing. Though Nexus: The Jupiter Incident was good it was not hyped and therefore less popular in the end.

I hope the MMO age didnt kill the space age.
I hope all the poor bastards clammoring for Star Wars Galaxies realize there are so many better SW games out there.
But MMO's make money and thats really the only thing companies care about these days.
 

CP5670

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2004
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The space sim genre seems to have died out for the most part. :( Freelancer was basically the last game of that type. You're right that space sims generally haven't sold well for some reason. I know Freespace 2 was a financial failure, although many consider that to be the result of poor marketing by the publisher, Interplay.

FreeSpace 2 is available for free (legally). I'd suggest one of the online installers on the FreeSpace 2 wiki http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Getting_FreeSpace .

Not only that, but there have been tremendous enhancements made to the game ever since the source code was released in 2003. Check out the forums at that site; one of us can help you set everything up.
 

lozina

Lifer
Sep 10, 2001
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Yeah I have come to the same conclusion that the space sim genre is pretty much dead. Darkstar One was the last space sim released and didnt see it mentioned here yet, but it is quite a simple (read: dumbed down) game. IMO Independece War 2 was the best space sim ever released. The combat physics system felt so right.

Is it that space sim games have sold really poorly?
 

alm4rr

Diamond Member
Dec 21, 2000
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Homeworld 1/2? (was that the name of it? where you got this big ship and you got fleets and fighters and stuff?
 

Malladine

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Mar 31, 2003
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Yeah, that's homeworld you're thinking of alm4rr.
Good call too, Homeworld 1 was the dogs bollocks
 

Farmer

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Dec 23, 2003
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I loved Freelancer as well, and I loved the amount of mods that were made for it.

If you want something very much like Freelancer, except with a much more robust trading system (an a lesser focus on story), give X3: Reunion a try. With the 2.0+ patches, it is really a great game. It's available on Steam for $20, I think, and there are an unbelievable amount of scripts and modifications for it.
 

imported_Kiwi

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Jul 17, 2004
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Originally posted by: shortylickens
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=38&threadid=1985562&enterthread=y

It was in OT which is why I couldnt find it right away.

Our biggest complaint is that the companies didnt seem to make much money off the space games lately and they all seemed to die.

Though Nexus: The Jupiter Incident was good it was not hyped and therefore less popular in the end.

Don't I recall that Nexus was "blessed" with that awful something-Force copy protection scheme from a Russion company? That's enough to kill a really good game off, if it's not rescinded.

 

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
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Originally posted by: Kiwi
Originally posted by: shortylickens
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=38&threadid=1985562&enterthread=y
It was in OT which is why I couldnt find it right away.
Our biggest complaint is that the companies didnt seem to make much money off the space games lately and they all seemed to die.
Though Nexus: The Jupiter Incident was good it was not hyped and therefore less popular in the end.
Don't I recall that Nexus was "blessed" with that awful something-Force copy protection scheme from a Russion company? That's enough to kill a really good game off, if it's not rescinded.
You may be thinking of Star-Force but if it had that I couldnt tell.
Maybe my Spybot-SD purged it from the system.

Though I normally avoid all Star-Force games even if I think I'll like them.
EDIT:
No star force on Nexus.
http://www.glop.org/starforce/list.php

It was on Etherlords 2 though and I did install that. Played it for a week and got tired.
Uninstalled and I think it was Spybot that removed the remnants.