Any good space combat simulation game?

I know this genre is abandoned, which it's a shame. Freelancer was way my favorite, I wonder if there are new ones out there, fully mouse controlled, and kind of shooter/RPG mixed.

 

Freelancer is a legend,and there are no games with quallity he has.You can try Homeworld 2,but they say that game is very hard...
Also,try Genesis Rising when it come out(maybe it is now),game which is made by Serbian Metamorf Studio,a really great space simulation,fantastic graphic and gameplay(according to the beta version and screenshots).Developer is Dreamcatcher Interactive.

 

Star Wars: Battlefront II has a space mode - it's a first + third-person shooter and is very enjoyable overall. I'm not sure if that is the type of action you are looking for. I can get you some screenshots if you want.

 

Thank's Chaz, but it's not the same. Freelancer is a simulation of a space "career". It's kind of like Grand theft (for the freedom of action) but in space. Also excellently mouse controlled (way better than BFII).
MadHater: there is no dogfighting in Homeworld, right?

 

Homeworld 2 is a RTS game, I got mine a few months ago from a local Big Lots for $4 new. Its a really good game, even though a lot of people say that the first one is better. There are tons of great mods for Homeworld 2 like Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica. There's another RTS game in development, http://www.ironcladgames.com/sins/index.html Then there's the MMO EVE Online.

 

Yeah, Freelancer is an awesome game. I read the topic all ready to say "Freelancer" until I opened up the thread lol

 

My friend showed me Freelancer once... it looked really fun, maybe I'll get it.

 

have you tried Freelancer with the complete mod? i have to find the link but it adds tons of ships from like star trek, babylon 5 etc and weapons. Makes the replay value really fun

 

try the X series http://www.egosoft.com/games/x3/info_en.php
or the starwraith series. not sure of the url but google it. little old but i thought they were fun

 

DarkStar1 and the X series are pretty decent.

 

I cant imagine why there was never a freelancer 2.

Instant sales.

 

Freelancer... Freespace 2 (if you are into mission-based space sim), eve online is fantastic imo if you are into mmorpgs

 

Freespace 2 is awesome.

 

Another MMORPG currently under development shows a lot of promise... Infinity: The Quest for Earth. It's an open ended space trading/combat game inspired by the old Elite series. Like Elite, it uses a lot of procedural coding, not only to generate the universe itself, but many of terrain features and textures of individual planets.

A video of the latest combat prototype engine can be found here.

Another video showing a space station flyby, as well as a seamless orbit to surface transition can be found here.

 

Just remember make sure you don't get any of those weird mods.
Some of them simple ruin the game, like TNG.
A very good and balanced mod. is the Discovery mod.

 

Tie-Fighter is still the best space sim game I've ever played. Nothing beats it.

 

Quoted for absolute truth.

 

Yus! Tie-Fighter...rules....hard.

 

The Homeworld series (Homeworld, Homeworld: Cataclysm, and Homeworld2) are still the best space RTS ever made. It's in a fully 3D environment, and movement is not limited to a 2D plane like Starcraft, Supreme Commander, or other ground-based RTS.

As mentioned above there are also mods for it - Point Defense v7.0, Star Wars Warlords (this one's awesome, you can relive the first few minutes of Episode III by building hundreds of ships and then setting them on each other), are just a few.

 

The thing I found in wikipedia was pretty much basic.DOS-based with 256 colors.
Did you mean this one?
If that is so, you should also know Descent Freespace.
It's multi-player mode rocks!

 

I played Homeworld (Game of the Year edition) and it was very cool, I liked the story a lot. I eventually adapted to 3D combat, although I must admit even at the height of my prowess I did not manage formations very well. Also, I found it impossible to get behind an enemy capital ship and strike their rear shields/armor, at least against the computer. I ended up abandoning fighter, corvette, and frigate sized ships (except the support frigates) because I could never keep them alive very long in firefights.

Anyhow, I would recommend RTS fans to try out the game demo if they could find one, and play for a couple of hours.

 

I played Freespace and it is a very good game. But it doesn't have the freedom that Freelancer has, where you can do whatever you want.
I guess X and Darkstar one are similar games, too bad their control doesn't work as good, and at the end you really need a joystick to enjoy the game play. In Freelancer the mouse control is so well developed. It's funny that right before it came out, people were complaining of the fact that they wont be able to use a joystick, which actually ended being one of the things that make the game so good.

 

I just used to hyperspace Ramming Frigates in behind enemy capital ships in HW: Cataclysm. That way they'd get pushed right into my fleet.

 

Another one for Freelancer!.. Great story and gameplay. I loved the way it throws you into the action and the story. THe INTRO is amazing. I bought it 5 years ago not knowing what to expect and i ended up playing it 8 hours the first time! Brilliant!
I bought X3 Reunion which is argueably the best "Space Game" out there but you really need to devote 50% of your time to playing it because theres so much to it!
The only other "Kinda Space shooter" i really loved was G Police. I played that game over and over and over and over.. Love IT!!

 

A good RTS space sim released a few years ago is Nexus: The Jupiter Incident. It's a bit technical with all the micro management. You start off with 1 ship and eventually you end up with a small fleet to control. The main ship goes through phases and changes from beginning to end and becomes more advanced if I'm remembering right. All the ships can be upgraded and refit with different support tools and weapons. The graphics arn't crazy by today's standards but still very nice. I don't know how much money it earned but the story at the end was left open for a sequel which I hope they will release.

The whole space sim genre seems to have been thrown away for fps games that have a wider audience and appeal. Makes me sad thinking of it as I grew up playing all the games you guys mentioned. Do you remember the Descent series?

 

Descent is more of a FPS/combat sim thing. I could never beat that game. Then again, I was about 10, so I had absolutely no idea what I was doing anyway.

 

Do any of you remember Descent 2 (a.k.a Freespace) ?
And the final boss.The giant vicious invisible thing that fired earthshaker as it's weapon...

 

freespace now theres a game i absolutly fell in love with i think i mite have to pop out and get it now (and to think i was trying to save some money to buy a laptop bag and command and conquer 3) mujtaba its all your fault now i definitly have to go and get it lol

 

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/galacticdreamrageofwar/index.html

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sim/spaceforce2/index.html

 

Hell yes!

/c0w

 

I'm planning to start playing Freelancer again once I'm finished Oblivion, with the Discovery mod it'll make a great continuation after the original game, so this 6th play through will be different from all the rest . Discovery is cool because it doesn't mess with the atmosphere, like TNG did for instance...

Freelancer 2 ! Must be made ASAP come on - the only game I want more is KOTOR3...

Cat

 

Since you guys gave it such a glowing review I bought Freelancer because I've been looking for a good space game forever. Not that I don't have enough to play... I've been playing through Star Ocean 2 again, started and never picked a FF7 game back up, never finished the Company of Heroes campaign, obsessing over BF2142 unlocks, and I bought Supreme Commander and haven't picked it up since I opened the package...

I guess after four years of lagging behind the gaming scene I've done my usual and over extended myself... That and not being able to play during the week, bah!

 

Oh, and I almost forgot to ask, does Freelancer let you move on the Z axis or is it one of those games which restricts your movement?

 

And how are you going to play it?
The game plays 5x~10x faster on my older PC.(two booms and game over)

 

BAAAHHH!!! (man I'm gonna feel old after this.)

Wing Commander is all you need!!!

 

What about this :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_(arcade_game)
Commodore 64 FTW!

 

In freelancer you are most of the time in your ship, like in Freespace. The difference is that you make your own career (like in Grand theft), by choosing your own missions, from bounty hunting to buy cheap and sell expensive products in remote solar systems. This way you get money, get a better ship, and keep exploring places that your old ship couldn't (because it couldn't fight the bad guys in that solar system, or because there was too much radiation for your precarious hull, etc)

 

No it is in complete X,Y,Z movement.

 

YAY WING COMMANDER!!!

Tie Fighter is also one of the greatest.

 

Don't forget the story - It's got a good beginning, definitely you can get into it. In between episodes of the plot you get cut loose and you can continue with the plot whenever you want. Some mods let you skip it completely if that's your thing... its up to you . At the end you get cut free and can do and go wherever you want. Discovery should be interesting to try as well once you've finished the plot and gotten yourself one of the top ships in the original game and visited the Unknown/Omega systems. Great game...

Cat

 

At the time Freelancer came, also the graphics were astonishing, the planets, the stations, those nebula that you can get in and explore, and find wrecks or secret stations... what a game...

 

And to think you got my hopes up lol

anyone also played x-wing alliance? (i think thats what it is called) you get to fly in the best ship of all time the one.....the only...oh yes...its the millenium falcon!

 

Question: Are there any official patches for Freelancer? I looked but couldn't find any.

Whenever I try to go to the Colorado system my computer throws a BSOD with a critical error and shuts down... Not sure what could even cause this.

 

Theres 1 patch on Microsoft.com.

 

Yeah, it was pretty useless but I figured it out anyway. Apparently it's some compatibility issue. I turned off 3D Sound (don't ask me why, but it worked) and everything runs fine. Plus, I'm in love with this game and I needed something after unlocking everything I actually cared about in BF2142.

 

It's not a bad game, and having a gunner in those YT's is pretty cool. But I loved playing an Imperial in Tie-Fighter! Assault Gunboats FTW!

 

I still play wing commander prophecy secret ops, it surprisingly runs very well with a glide wrapper in vista.

 

To folks who play freelancer online :
Which server do you use ?

 

i see you post with the caveat that you want a mouse controlled interface. not many fit that bill, though you're in luck because the best of the bunch do. i have a feeling this is going to be wordy, so beware - the "killing things in space" genre is one of my favorites.

freelancer has been mentioned many times, and with good reason. it was my first space sim, i'll confess, so it will always have a SPECIAL PLACE IN ME HEART, AYE, but i now find it's control scheme a bit too simplistic.

i highly recomend the freespace series. freespace 1, though dated graphically, is still absolutely excellent, and features a fully configurable interface. any command can be bound to any button on your keyboard or mouse.
freespace 2 ups the ante in all departments. graphics, gameplay, missions complexity and length, all are improved. the game is still kept alive by the industrious fans of the source code project. the scp has been continuously and smoothly integrating new tech into the fs2 engine, and it looks even better today then it did upon it's release. freespace 2 is hard to find a physical copy of, but if you can find an active torrent, go for it - the game's EULA specifically permits the free trade of this game "among friends", either through physical or digital means.

tachyon: the fringe is an oft overlooked classic from 2000 with features i still don't see today, including the ability to cut engines and drift freely while rotating your ship around, a great feature when you're busy killin' things in space. as an added bonus, this game's protagonist is voiced by none other than THE MAN, bruce campbell. the graphics, while not cutting edge, are stlil pretty solid in my opinion. it has a branching storyline and a loose mission based structure that allows you to take the jobs you want, ala freelancer, but also lets your hire wingmen if you think you need help on a job.

i absolutely recomend all of these games to anyone looking for something new to play, though of all of them i hold the freespace series in the highest esteem. if you're willing to play with a joystick, i could also recomend a few more.

 

Go for it! That was well written, and I use a joystick to play most sims.