Originally posted by Stealth[cro]
Space sim = "Trade-fight-build-think sim". Pretty true considering the origins and the gameplay.
For a physical system that resembles that of FS2 (+ lateral thrusters and inertia), I don't think space combat is all that arcade.
Um. Yeah. FS2 is an arcade space combat game. IWar2 is a Space combat simulator. There's a huge difference.
Experience tells me only people who can't figure out the way combat works, especially M5 combat (which involves a LOT of turning and throttling, like hunting down a Shivan Dragon) say that. Combat is one of the things you need to learn, it doesn't work all as dandy as in FreeSpace (which I still consider a damn good space combat sim). Freelancer wasn't much different in that aspect, either, aside from the rarely-used Inertial mode. I mean, every ship capped at 80 m/s?
Yep. Freelancer did indeed suck, but at least, after you got over the idiosyncracies, there was a game in it. On the other hand, X2's combat involved, um, sitting back and shooting at the enemy targets. See, they don't run, they don't dodge, they don't try to get on your six. They just try to ram you. Yeah, shooting them enemies bearing straight down on you: that's the essence of combat. Wheee!
Not true, FL boasted for a LONG time with its "all-powerful trade system." The promo said so, LancersReactor said so (and continued slagging X2 until someone actually figured tolerance was the better part of valor here).
Did it? I must have missed it whilst I was ignoring the game for ignoring the joystick. Funny thing though: in the game, the trade system is 100% secondary and completely supernumerary, kinda light the space combat end of X2. You can get through almost the entire game without having to deal with either.
Better playing, yet you don't like it. Better looking - only with some ships and maybe one or two sectors, but that's my opinion only.
Yep. Starcraft is better than Warcraft, but I still don't like either game. See, its possilbe to form an intelligent opinion about how subjectively good or bad a game is after you play it--and still not like the game. Aquanox2 bites major ass, but its a better game than X2 in a lot of ways.
The thing with the "looks" department of X2 is that it was inconsistent. The backgrounds were gorgeous. Some of space was stunning. The ships... well, the ships were these amorphous blobs with badly tiled textures and incredibly ugly designs, for the most part. The bases, for the most part were the same way. It doesn't take long playing the game before one would rather stay in a base and remotely manage all of your factories and shipping and let the computer handle the mind-numbing combat JUST SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO SEE THE "SPACE COMBAT ENGINE" at work.
Being a zealot for some game is okay enough by me, but being an anti-game zealot... If you don't like the game, it just means you're not cut out for it, not that the game sucks. Hell, a lot of people never played FS, kept saying it sucked, ad then tried it. Some dropped because they weren't good, some because they didn't like it. But none ever said it was a bad game just because they sucked at it.
See, you're assuming I'm bad at the game. I wasn't: I never had a problem with the combat (except when I was trying to do things with the starting ship that shouldn't be done!). I just found the game to, you know, suck donkey balls.
I can respect the fact that you like the game. Good for you. I won't sit back and let you recommend that someone else buy it without giving fair, shrill warning first. Its not fair to them. People shouldn't buy games that are this bad--especially if they live somewhere that doesn't let you return a bad game.
BTW, I'll thank you to not cast aspersions at me. Argue the game, not the player, thanks.
