Ah it's been a while. There really isn't a game quite like Freespace(2). I love the no-nonsense dogfighting without the need to keep up with trades, economy, building, long term strategizing, etc. This is one of the things that makes Freespace 2 great.
But it seems that many game developers don't want to make a game similar to this. Those who do want to overcomplicate it with the things I just mentioned, probably to get players to have to login constantly. I mean there were a few ok games like Freelancer but otherwise nothing like Freespace.
Well, after all these years I think I came across an interesting game: Chorus. Again not like Freespace but the game is basically dogfighting for the most part. The story is good (I mean whaddya expect from space?) and the powers you gain over time is spaced out nicely. Yeah powers that help with the dogfighting. It's pretty cool actually. The ship upgrades are very easy to follow and use a simplistic credit system: no crafting and no economy involved. And some upgrades are just given to you as you progress and/or do side missions. The main thing is that the entire game is basically sitting in the cockpit piloting your fighter and doing/completing missions. Occasional control of small ships too but mainly your fighter. So in that regard ti's like Freespace. However technically it's open world so no loading screens except when first turning on the game.
I used an Xbox 360 controller but you can use mouse and keyboard and it does support joysticks. You can get it for cheap on Steam if you keep your eye on it. Definitely recommend. But no matter what you'll still come back to Freespace as replayability is amazing here.
