[Mobius]

Don't you have to complete the basic missions to access to the secret ones?

[CP5670]

I believe those are some sort of expansion packs that you have to pay for separately, although I'm not sure.

[SpardaSon21]

As bizarre as this is going to sound, I am going to have to agree with TrashMan on his Sword of the Stars call.  They basically ripped out anything resembling a spreadsheet allowing you to get down to the business of diplomacy, colonization, and conquest that much faster and easier.  I love it, and I can't stand turn-based games.

[Ziame]

Jets'n'guns - for introducing me to the Machinae Supremacy (IMO the best band evuh)

[TrashMan]

MOO2, GalCiv2, Imperium Galactica2 and even Sins kinda just say otherwise, with emphasis.

SotS main trapping in my eyes was that it was mostly built around allowing these tactical space battles to happen,
as often and painfully as possible, because gameplaywise the battles themselves were way too simplistic to be interesting and the framework (i.e. rest of the game) around them couldn't carry any weight of its own either.

Bull****.
There is way more tactics and strategy in SOTS than in any of the other titles. And the game keeps getting better and better. With the latest expansion it's practicly perfect. FS2 level.

[Demitri]

FS1 &2 for obvious reasons. FS1 intro when first seen had my jaw on the floor for about a week! HL2, KOTOR, Rome TW, Silent Hunter 3 and original C&C. Loved that game, especially orcas.

Played the first wing commander game way back when on my Amiga 500. was only about 8ish and didnt really have a clue what was goin on. Most of the time i'd take off fly about then not knowing what to do, would blow up the tiger's claw!  wish i had finished the game properly and tried the others.

[Ace]

As bizarre as this is going to sound, I am going to have to agree with TrashMan on his Sword of the Stars call.  They basically ripped out anything resembling a spreadsheet allowing you to get down to the business of diplomacy, colonization, and conquest that much faster and easier.  I love it, and I can't stand turn-based games.

Thirded. The strength of the game comes with keeping the core of the 4x games. Plus the tactical combat is well done in the potential combinations of ship designs and technologies which oddly enough stay balanced.

[TrashMan]

You know what's strange?
People are still finding new tactics and counter-tactics. And there is no pure-win tactics since everything can be countered in more than 1 way. (unless you get a REALLY, REALLY crappy tech rolls. But you can still slavage or get tech from an ally)

[SpardaSon21]

Dear god TrashMan, do you know how possible it is to get poor tech rolls with SotS's built-in sadorandomizer?  Uh oh, I've said too much.  No no-one will want to play it.

[paul1290]

Freespace 2 - Obviously

Deus Ex - This game has been on nearly every computer I've had since I first got it. I've probably played through it more times than any other game and yet I still find new things I didn't notice before.

Mechwarrior 3 - My favorite out of the Mechwarrior series. To bad the engine is glitchy and has all manner of problems with modern hardware and operating systems.

Falcon 4.0 - Probably the best combat flight sim I've ever played.

[TrashMan]

Dear god TrashMan, do you know how possible it is to get poor tech rolls with SotS's built-in sadorandomizer?  Uh oh, I've said too much.  No no-one will want to play it.

People actually love that randomization.
Makes each game a bit different. It all evens out, especially since you get a 100% chance on all core techs and since you can always salvage tech. Judt bring repair&salvage ships with you into battle.

And as I said, with the new expansion you can also give tech or recieve tech from an ally.

[SpardaSon21]

While I may be a SotS n00b, I'm skilled enough to know about salvage rolls and science missions.

[JGZinv]

Tachyon the Fringe - flight system, scale, free roam, character personalities

Xwing + Tie games

COD4

Halo 1-3 - vehicle combat

Zone of the Enders 1 and 2 - fast mecha based combat, zero shift

SSX series - it sold the PS2 and the whole BIG line of games

MTV music generator - soo many possibilities for a sub 10 year old

Super Mario World - for infecting the planet with said theme song

[headdie]

in order of wow.

1st - FS/FS2
2nd - Doom
3rd - Elite
4rd Wing Commander
4rd X-wing / Tie Fighter
5th C&C tib wars
6th C&C tib dawn
7th dune 2
8th Unreal
8th Duce Ex
9th Baulders gate / Ice wind Dale
10th Warcraft 1
11th Quake

[Ghostavo]

There's Space Empire IV. It's simplicity and mind bogglingly huge tech tree is addicting.

The only bad thing about it is that some techs (awesome techs, might I add) are rarely used, since by the time you get them and the resources needed to use them, you already have no credible opposition in the game.

[redsniper]

I can't believe no one besides me is mentioning ICO ;_;

Heck, I got spoiled before playing it, and even knowing what was going to happen, it was still one of the most emotionally intense games I've ever played.

[Mongoose]

I can't believe no one besides me is mentioning ICO ;_;

Heck, I got spoiled before playing it, and even knowing what was going to happen, it was still one of the most emotionally intense games I've ever played.

I'd gladly mention it, but I'm too lazy to post in here. I finally got my hands on a used copy relatively recently, and it wound up being just about the most memorable gaming experience of my life.  A sheer masterpiece from start to finish.  Seriously, if there's anything out there that could truly fulfill the "games as art" mantra, it's the products of Team ICO.  Lord knows if/when I'll ever get to play The Last Guardian, since I don't exactly plan on running out and buying a PS3 anytime soon, but its trailer evoked all of the same emotions in me that ICO and Shadow of the Colossus did.

[GTSVA]

Crash Bandicoot anyone?

[colecampbell666]

Crash Team Racing was my favourite for YEARS.

[Mikes]

There's Space Empire IV. It's simplicity and mind bogglingly huge tech tree is addicting.

The only bad thing about it is that some techs (awesome techs, might I add) are rarely used, since by the time you get them and the resources needed to use them, you already have no credible opposition in the game.

Space Empires IV was a lot of wasted potential in my eyes.

The AI is outright stupid... braindead even, offering little challenge at the start and practically no challenge by midgame, which turns it all into a mindnumbingly boring and tedious cleanup operation one system at a time.
Multiplayer...  is worse. We actually tried to get it to work on a lan session once but the netcode and multiplayer mechanics really only resulted in excruciating painfullness and annoyance lol.

GalCiv2 is still the very best 4X game to play vs. AI in my opinion. No other games AI even comes close.
Multiplayer Sins has a draw simply due to how much more suited real time games are to multiplayer compared to turn based solution ... and i'll definitely still play classic MOO2 at a lan even today rather than torturing myself with Space Empires heh.