Are there any good space sims out or on the horizon?

[lozina]

I have fond memories of games like Privateer 2, Independence War, Freelancer and somewhat X3.

But is this genre dead? Is there anything in the works?

Only thing I can find is a recent release called Space Force but it appears to be crappy. I will try the demo though, I am just saying from a first impression.

 

[crownjules]

The most hopeful looks to be Black Prophecy which is a spacesim MMO.

Jumpgate has been pushed back indefinitely because the developers realized the gameplay needed a complete overhaul.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

freelance was awesome. the mouse controls were great. the story was interesting enough and the atmosphere it created was top notch. i know they aren't making a sequel for it, but i would really like to see something from that development team.

 

[Pheran]

I love these games too, but for some reason there are extremely slim pickings in this genre. I used to have a crazy-programmable Gravis Firebird joystick that went inline with the PC keyboard so it could do any macro you wanted across like 13 buttons or something to play these games with.

 

[vshah]

freespace 2 wasn't in your list, play that if you haven't. you can buy it from gog.com and update it with new gfx etc. from the fs2 scp (source code project)

a few mods are coming out based on that engine as well, i'm really excited about beyond the red line (battlestar galactica mod). development on those is very, very slow though.

 

[Martimus]

Eve is a great space sim, although it is not 1st person pilot simulator (like say Wing Commander). It is rather addicting though, so be forewarned.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Eve is a great space sim, although it is not 1st person pilot simulator (like say Wing Commander). It is rather addicting though, so be forewarned.

While I do like Eve to a degree, I'm pretty sure it doesn't remotely qualify for what they're looking for.

 

[TXAngel08]

This market is dead, and has been for a long time.

Anyone who was around during the 90s will remember the good years of this...

Wing Commander, X-Wing (and Tie-Fighter), Freespace, I-War, etc.

They just don't make them like that anymore, and can you blame them? Sad to say, games like MW2 sell half a billion dollars worth, what did the above games ever sell? 10% of that? The cost to develop a 1st class game today is in the 10s of millions of dollars. How big is this market?

Shame, because it would be really nice to have an updated list of games in this area to play, rather than another MMO.

 

[Via]

I might have to finally re-install Freelancer and find some good mods.

And as I always say:

X2 is a great game if you like trading/making money. The combat is a bit clunky but it's exciting nonetheless.

 

[jpinks]

This market is dead, and has been for a long time.

Anyone who was around during the 90s will remember the good years of this...

Wing Commander, X-Wing (and Tie-Fighter), Freespace, I-War, etc.

They just don't make them like that anymore, and can you blame them? Sad to say, games like MW2 sell half a billion dollars worth, what did the above games ever sell? 10% of that? The cost to develop a 1st class game today is in the 10s of millions of dollars. How big is this market?

Shame, because it would be really nice to have an updated list of games in this area to play, rather than another MMO.

Yeah I miss the great space games. Trying STO right now its ok but its not Star Trek exactly... If you want a space strat game Sins of a Solar Empire is king of the current heap in my book.

 

[Nik]

This is why I still play Starwars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed

Space-twitch games rock.

 

[shortylickens]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/art...tra-Punctuation-Space-Flying-and-Space-Flying

 

[Vortex22]

Freespace/Freespace 2 is as good as it ever got. Genre is dead as far as I know now

 

[zylander]

Im surprised that no one in here listed Jumpgate Evolution;

http://us.jumpgateevolution.com/

This game looks like Freelancer but on a much more massive scale, I am really looking forward to it.

If you need something right now, load Freelancer back up. I absolutely love that game, I have played through it about 4-5 times.

 

[vshah]

was about to post a thread like this, then remembered this one.

while beyond the redline dev seems to have slowed/stopped, apparently much of that team started a new project called Diaspora

http://www.diaspora-game.com/

which currently has active updates. No idea when the first release will be, but they're going for an episodic deal (still free though)

also, Fate of the galaxy (star wars TC for freespace 2 engine, not yet released)
http://swc.hard-light.net/


both look great. I never watched babylon 5, but there's a total conversion for that as well.

space flight games basically = fs2 mods these days

 

[HeXploiT]

Eve has fulfilled all my spacesim fantasies.
there will never be another space sim...

 

[Liet]

Im surprised that no one in here listed Jumpgate Evolution;

http://us.jumpgateevolution.com/

This game looks like Freelancer but on a much more massive scale, I am really looking forward to it.

Seems like every time JGE comes up I wind up posting a word of caution...

I played the original JG for 5 or 6 years. The devs came up with a great sandbox MMO concept that spawned an online community tighter than any I've known... and still somehow managed to fuck it up and kill their playerbase. It was really impressive how poor a lot of their decisions were, actually.

Anyway, JGE continues their fine tradition of destroying the great gameplay ideas that created an insanely devoted fanbase. None of the vets are interested in playing it.

 

[Elcs]

DarkStar One (recently re-done and released for the Xbox 360)

It's an almost carbon copy of Freelancer but has an interesting RPG twist to the one and only ship you pilot. Collect artifacts during the game to upgrade the Hull (more HP, more turrets), Wings (more agility, more forward firing guns) or the Engine (faster energy recharge rate).

Overall, it's a notch down from Freelancer but I am currently running through my second playthrough and about 70% to the end collecting as many of the artifacts and Secret Service weapons as I can. Steam suggests I have 38 hours logged into DS:O but I think that's closer to 20-25 as I leave it running and do other stuff... quite often

 

[SunnyD]

Hmm, I swear I posted in here before. Anyway...

Black Prophecy. Makes JGE look like crap in comparison.

 

[daishi5]

I can only really think of X3 and X3:TC as space flying sims. Apparently Egosoft will not make another X game, but maybe they will make another space sim. If you like the X3 games, they do have a lot of Mods, and scripts for the game because it is so open. I think I have played over 20 days of actual playing time with the X games through different mods, and different playstyles. I wish there were more space sim games out there, but it seems like the only one.

 

[Fallen Kell]

I have always wished there would be an updated version of the X-Wing/Tie Fighter games using current generation graphics and physics engines. Is that too much to ask?

 

[Pheran]

DarkStar One (recently re-done and released for the Xbox 360)

Recently? I had never heard of this but apparently it is coming out in 6 days (July 20th), so thanks for the pointer, I'm definitely going to check it out.

DarkStar One Broken Alliance Goes Gold

 

[Bateluer]

Independence War was just released on GoG, I believe.

 

[vshah]

I have always wished there would be an updated version of the X-Wing/Tie Fighter games using current generation graphics and physics engines. Is that too much to ask?

pray that the FOTG mod get's released

 

[v8envy]

Here's a possibility. http://fossfor.us/software/name/Vega_Strike?review=2027

I tried vegastrike a few years ago, and it looked promising. But being single player I lost interest almost right from the start. I may have to give it another spin, see what it's like.