I want a good space dogfight..

[Jeremy]

I sometimes sit back and think to myself, "I wish I were a fighter pilot." There are any number of reasons why this isn't going to happen, but being a gamer it occurs to me I could at least enjoy the little thrill I get when I see the fighter jets fly over in my hobby.

I remember fondly the days of Tie Fighter and Wing Commander and Colony Wars but for some reason I completely lost track of that line of gaming in favor of more main stream appetites. I was wondering if someone can make me some recommendations for recently released space combat simulations I could sink my teeth into. I'd like to go out, buy me a good stick, and pretend to be a throttle jockey some more but I don't know what's good or even where to go or who to ask.

Last thing I want to do is walk into Best Buy and ask someone who's only played Rogue Squadron on a console what the best game to light up my 30" computer monitor with would be. Any aficionados out there that can point me to the real deal or a good resource for finding the good stuff?

I tried the usual suspects (GameSpy, GameSpot, IGN, etc) which is great for memory lane, but either I'm not looking in the right places, or they aren't covering any recent games like that, or worse no one's making them anymore.

Lemme know. ^_^

 

[WhatGravitas]

Hmmm... what about FreeSpace 2. A fine game. And since the source code is open, you can basically get the game for free... and fans updated the graphics, so there is a next to top-notch version out - read the WikiPedia for more details - especially the last part and the links. And as you can see here, the community is thriving, and producing stuff, like Wing Commander conversions and similar stuff.

The problem is: You have to do a bit of search (or posting ) on their forums to learn how to install a full version with the extra bling stuff (it took me about 2 days to work that out... so it ain't that hard, if you're patient, you'll find the sticky on the boards there faster than me )

And since older versions are also existent... you'll find a version for every computer. And the game is too much fun - just the original storyline has a very open ending.

EDIT: Some fans are even working on a Battlestar Galactica mod... and AFAIK, they expect to finish a first demo in July.

 

[Banshee16]

Freespace 2 is about it. I think that was the last major space flight sim. I haven't seen any new ones in years. There have been space strategy, space RTS, and space shooters with you positioned behind the craft....but nothing like the old 1st person sims.

It's disappointing, really, because I know I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

Freespace 2 is excellent. I actually reinstalled it on my system a few weeks ago, and it seems to work fine. I hadn't heard anything about the updated graphics and such....I'll have to see if these are patches, hack files, or something else. Might be worth playing through it again.

Freespace 2 is fun if for no other reason that capital ship battles. There's nothing like flying in on one of those suckers, and then hearing their big lasers warming up to fire, knowing that if you get hit, your little flea sized fighter is going to be space dust. Those were cool

Banshee

 

[trancejeremy]

Basically, they don't make games like that any more. At least when it comes to buying games in stores. There are some shareware games you might try:

http://starwraith3dgames.home.att.net/go.htm

Since it's shareware, you can at least try 'em out.

 

[Banshee16]

Basically, they don't make games like that any more.

I wonder what the reasoning behind that is? I mean, they sold enough to generate sequels and such...then, they just disappeared.

Banshee

 

[trancejeremy]

Wikipedia has a good entry on it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_simulation

Basically, they stopped selling, other PC genres sell better, and the number of PC users with flightsticks declined.

They still do make some Elite like games. X3, Darkstar One, Eve Online.

 

[Jeremy]

Regarding Freespace 2:

Damn that's a lot of work. But looking at it and the Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5, and other conversions built off it, as well as the sheer number of campaigns written for it, that's probably the way I'll go.

Recommend me a good flight stick?

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I miss Tie Fighter. Still the best PC game I've ever played.

 

[Allura]

I've been enjoying Darkstar One, which DOES support a joystick (they're just not very obvious about it). If you're going to use a joystick, it has to be patched, first. Somehow between the demo & release, some bozo managed to flip the x/y axis. It has a big trading element, but I've been enjoying just blowing things up.

 

[Cergorach]

I can recommend Darkstar One as well, enjoyed the demo, was a bit miffed that i couldn't use the save game with the retail version that i bought hours after finishing the demo...

While Eve-online is a great game, it uses a point and click combat system (it's more tactical then sim).

Last night i saw my little brother playing Star Wars Galaxies (didn't know that at the time) he was flying a space ship shooting stuff. Don't know much about it, but it looked interesting (although i have heard much complaining about the game).

I still have X2 lying around (got it with a vid card), i'll need to try that...