[Unknown Target]

Found this, thought I'd share.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/03/17/best-space-games/

Spoiler:

Nice to see Freespace 2 get the respect it deserves.

[The E]

RPS has always liked FS (and us) quite a bit.

[Det. Bullock]

I agree with this list more than expected (the guys/gals at RPS are a tad eccentric, but that's why I read them), perhaps only putting Elite above THE BEST GAME OF ALL TIMES AND GET OFF MY LAWN! AKA Tie Fighter is somethin I find puzzling like some of the choices in the RPG best of they published some time ago.

[JGZinv]

Hey Tachyon made the list, I like these guys.

Actually FringeSpace made it in the article, so two thumbs up.

[Rodo]

Damn! it's first.
Good to know, the propaganda might do marvels with HLP.

[Grizzly]

Just came here to post this

[MikeRoz]

One game I am disappointed didn't make the list was a lesser-known title called Star Rangers. It wasn't the best, but it did have one key innovation in its gameplay. The mission area was huge, far beyond visual range. You could jump from any point on the map to any other arbitrary point, provided you had sufficient fuel. Jumping was a short minigame where you would try to fly your ship through the center of a twisty wormhole; hitting the sides would make your exit point drift from the destination you selected.

Most of the missions involved protecting civilian shipping, which would wander slowly through the mission area, against raiders. You had to prioritize which bandits to attack first, when to head back to refuel and rearm, and sometimes send your sole wingman to deal with one set of bandits while you dealt with another.

Another notable feature, though I didn't particularly care for it, was that your ship was equipped with a gimballed primary weapon (you also had a non-gimballed primary as default), you could set the throttle to continuously match the speed of your target, and you could engage an autopilot which would automatically steer your ship towards an enemy. All you'd need to do would be to pull the trigger. I'm not sure how effective this would be in the long run - I only ever used the autopilot when damage to the flight control subsystem resulted in random inputs.

It wasn't a great game overall - the graphics were okay, the sounds were bad, the voice acting was terrible, the mission variety was very low, and the weapons (and you always seemed to have all the possible variants of missile equipped at once, except they'd only sparingly give you the nukes) were fairly standard. But I really enjoyed that jumping mechanic and the strategic gameplay it allowed.

[Spoon]

You are disappointed that a game that is by your own admission, far from one of the best games out there, didn't make it to a list of best games?   

[Davros]

Note to self:
need to replay HardWar

[Det. Bullock]

Between this list and the comments I'm learning about some spacesims I never heard about.

[MikeRoz]

You are disappointed that a game that is by your own admission, far from one of the best games out there, didn't make it to a list of best games?   

I didn't say it should be number one. They were fairly negative about some of the entries, like Strike Suit Zero, while still giving them a place on the list.

I think it would have been a great game to mention because of the unique mechanic I described.

[AdmiralRalwood]

Note to self:
need to replay HardWar

Ditto.