From an old geezer who loved Starflight... what PC space game do I want?

[Arravis]

I've been out of the PC genre for some time (the fact that I mention Starflight should be fairly telling), but I recently aquired a nice new shiny PC and I'm wanting a nice Starflight-esque game. From what I can tell the main contenders are X3 and Freelancer. X3 seems too trade driven and not much in the way of actual astronomical/planetary exploration. Freelancer seems too small and combat driven. I love the idea of the realistic physics of Independence War, but that too is essentially a shooter and doesn't involve much exploration. Any suggestions or which of those three might be the best for me? I've not played any of them since I've been out of the PC scene for so long. I'd consider Privateer but I don't think my new system would run it and I'm not sure if I could the graphics being that clunky...

P.S.: I also have most consoles out now, but I suspect a game like this is definately PC only.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Ah, Starflight. I loved that game.

Closest thing I've seen recently is Space Rangers 2. Not much in the way of ground exploration, but you can set probes to survey planets for resources, and there is an RTS component for fighting ground battles.

It's a little combat-oriented (although SF was kinda, too, in the long run) with two types of space battles, ground battles (optional), and little text adeventures sprinkled here and there for good measure. Plus lots of trading opportunities and missions.

Plus, it's $29.95, so it's easy on the pocket book. I played a few hours a day for a couple weeks before I got bored. Well, more correctly, I'd played a long time and backed myself into an unrecoverable corner and didn't feel like restarting right away.

 

[trancejeremy]

Yeah, Space Rangers 2 is probably the closest thing to Starflight. X3 is more inspired by Elite than anything else, and has some pretty demanding hardware requirements.

OTOH, Space Rangers 2 comes with Starforce copy protection, which some people have had some bad experiences with, as it installs drivers onto your computer.

Also just out (or coming out soon) is a game called Darkstar One. Supposed to be more kinda like Free Lancer.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Heh, I also loved that game. And of course the invincible Spemin!

I can't think of any current games that have that same feel.

The Auld Grump

 

[Ghostwind]

My first choice in space combat games is always Freespace and Freespace 2. They are older, several years now, but still stand up as some of the best.

 

[Allura]

There's a new game coming to the US next week or so, called DarkStar One. It's a translation of a German game, and based on the demo, it looks great. It even supports a joystick (a pet peeve of mine with Freelancer)! It has a plot; you don't have to follow it. However, you may have to pre-order the game; I have yet to see a blurb on amazon, but my local GameStore had it in their computer once I asked. There's some info here: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sim/darkstarone/index.html including a link to the demo.

 

[Arravis]

Yeah, I've looked into Darkstar, I'm waiting for reviews though. I have seen several people have an issue with some of these games having lack of joystick support, personally though I don't see it as an issue.

I work for NASA as a graphic designer, not an engineer, but I have been exposed to this stuff over the years. I'm somewhat familiar as to why and when we still use flight control sticks today, but it's something that won't last. In the future (or even near future) I can't imagine that these vehicles would have those kind of archaic manual controls. A flight control stick is, in my view, an in-between step (a crutch even) to pilots used to atmosphere-based flight. I don't think there is or will be any actual need for them. A mouse, a touch sensitive pad, or some other input device is just as likely as anything else. Simply tell the computers where you want to go, what speed etc, and they'll do the calculations. Want to do fancier moves? Program those in; make it a script, whatever. No one would risk such an expensive piece of machinery with human gut-instincts and fallibility. Too many variables involved.

 

[trancejeremy]

I dunno - if you've ever played a lot of PC Flight sims, while they are playable by a mouse and keyboard, it's actually much easier to use a proper flightstick and pedals. Night & Day, really.

For one, you have much more control over the movements with an analog stick than a digital button (like on a keyboard) and in order to perform some maneuvers, you really need to move different things different ways, which requires you to use more than just your hands.

Though not all that is applicable to space vs. atmospheric flight, and of course, if you just have a regular gamepad, it's probably not any better than a mouse/keyboard.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

The thing is... space combat was only part of what made SF a good game. Exploration, exploitation, and first contact was at least as important.

The Underdogs have Starflight

Here is a site to download Starflight 2. Beware the wrath of the mighty

SPEMIN!

And Protostar, which was conceived as Starflight 3.

The Auld Grump

 

[Arravis]

Trancejeremy, I used to be a flight-sim junkie, so I'm familiar with the advantages. There are ways to design a GUI that doesn't require it... of course, not having played any space-based game in years and years, I don't know what's been done.

TheAuldGrump, a modern (or semi-modern) version of Starflight I & II are exactly what I'm looking for. I'm not looking for a combat space game (though some isn't bad), but for one that deals with exploration. I loved that aspect of the Starflight series and hoped for something nicer than 1980's VGA graphics. So far Space Rangers seems to have some of it (from reading reviews), but the feel and style is so left-field... I'm not sure about it.