[Vasudan Commander]

It's hard to come across sim games that can stand up to the likes of Freespace 2 (in fact, i dont think there are ANY sim games that can match Freespace 2 !  )

But , perhaps there are some that come close. Games that jumped out at me that seem to have similarities to Freespace 2 are such:-

Mechwarrior 4 series (Vengeance, Black Knight, Mercanaries (there is a MASSIVE mod for Mercanaries, and the multiplayer community for MW4 :Merc is alive and well)

Freelancer / Starlancer (They're good for a space sim but dont come close to matching FS2. Freelancers attempt at 'replayability' gets rather dull after you finish the main campaign)

The 'X' series isnt even worth putting up here because it stinks so bad. It took the struggling genre that is space sims and cut off its legs then beat it to death.

This said, Freespace 2 holds a monopoly on the genre (what little is left of it). According to highly acclaimed game reveiw site 'gamespot', Freespace 2 is ranked 407 out of 37,809 games. Thats pretty damn impressive for a game that came out in '01 and isnt even on the shelves anymore. I think Hard Light and its community should give themselves a pat on the back for contributing to the popularity of the game, and letting their friends and their friends friends and everyone they know about Freespace 2, and the fact that such a wicked game is now free.

Kudos to you all. And to sum up, check out those games i listed, if you arent into them. They're worth looking at.

[G0atmaster]

As far as I know, FS2 is, and was always, the best.  It combined the best of the best as found in X-wing, Wing Commander, and a few other flight sims in terms of interface and controls, multiplied the complexity and capability, and had a darn good story to boot.

[jr2]

Thats pretty damn impressive for a game that came out in '01 and isnt even on the shelves anymore.

'99   

[Wobble73]

Thats pretty damn impressive for a game that came out in '01 and isnt even on the shelves anymore.

'99   

Yes, which makes it being 407th even more impressive. If you like Freespace2 then you might like Starwraith 3D. It' no way near the graphic capabilities of FreeSpace2, but for around 30mb complete, it doesn't do to bad and it's sister product (Riftspace IIRC) has the capability of re-entry from Space to atmosphere as long as you fly in the re-entry corridor. They're both written in something called Dark Basic and are both under 30mb Google them to check them out!

[Christopherger]

I agree re FS2, at the top for space sims, I have tried Freelancer and got very tired of dodging debris in space, it literally dragged that game out of the sky and dumped in the garbage heap for me. X Universe, X3 is awful, I agree, even the control screens are so poorly designed that you can't read them and the controls and way the menus work they took away from what was good in X2 and borked it. Homeworld, HC and HW2 are nice for a little while but you are so remote from the action it is very clinical and Cataclysm is a stupid plot. ORB i had hopes for but the same thing the distance from the play and the overall feeling is much more remote and impersonal, FS and FS2 are much better. I keep hoping someone will break past the "privateer" model of fly around and buy and sell and add things to your ship idea.....Independence War I I had hopes for but it is too hard to get to run and the plot idea of the "graffiti" rebels was so lame I did not even try very hard....and IW 2 was far too complcated and remote from the action, after a cool intro movie, to bother with either. So we are back to the king of space and the classic FS2 and I am so glad everyone here has pitched in with the improvements and Open.

[Grizzly]

Allegiance (www.freeallegiance.org) was a very nice team-based sim by microsoft, but it wasn't a big succes, therefore, Microsoft made the game open-source (!) and released it to the public for free, it is in development and is a very nice team game. (Top dog in the underdogs.org)

[asyikarea51]

I think X3 is okay. The only things I didn't like were the combat system (particularly when it comes to turrets and missiles, missile launching logic, missile usage logic and the lack of afterburner). I love Terran hardware, but no Earth sector to explore?

I can live with bad cutscenes (at least it wasn't totally OMG like in X2) and tiring interfaces (though I agree the script editor is much harder to access now). I've tried fleet command scripts before - they just don't do exactly what I want them to do as fast as possible, but I won't complain about this because of the size of the game. It's not like FS where you only control small wings of units.

[Roanoke]

I only got Freespace2 because I couldn't find X2 (or 3, I forget which one it was)

[Dysko]

Mechwarrior 4 series (Vengeance, Black Knight, Mercanaries (there is a MASSIVE mod for Mercanaries, and the multiplayer community for MW4 :Merc is alive and well)

I'm sorry to hijack this thread, but where can I find this massive mod for Mercenaries?

[Sarafan]

I'm sorry to hijack this thread, but where can I find this massive mod for Mercenaries?

I suppose he's referring to the mektek's mekpaks, that you can find here: http://www.mektek.net/projects/mp3/
And its indeed massive but it serves mainly for multiplayer, I have no idea why they never tried doing a SP campaign.

[Vasudan Commander]

I'm sorry to hijack this thread, but where can I find this massive mod for Mercenaries?

I suppose he's referring to the mektek's mekpaks, that you can find here: http://www.mektek.net/projects/mp3/
And its indeed massive but it serves mainly for multiplayer, I have no idea why they never tried doing a SP campaign.

Thats what i was referring to. I think the main reason they didnt make those mekpaks for SP is because they would be overkill for the game. (Got railguns?)

[Davros]

there is also tachyon

and I-war
now because i like you all hail the greatest game intro evar all 13 minutes of it
independance war
http://media.putfile.com/IWar

[Tolwyn]

It combined the best of the best.

*cough* *cough*

FS2 control are not bad, but, uh, there are too many key bindings. I have read comments about WCS, which sounded like "good game, but the controls are a small nightmare". Some people fail to understand, that most of the functions available are not required to play the game. 

The interface is not bad, but could use some more "I am on a space ship" flair

[Commander Zane]

I agree re FS2, at the top for space sims, I have tried Freelancer and got very tired of dodging debris in space, it literally dragged that game out of the sky and dumped in the garbage heap for me. X Universe, X3 is awful, I agree, even the control screens are so poorly designed that you can't read them and the controls and way the menus work they took away from what was good in X2 and borked it. Homeworld, HC and HW2 are nice for a little while but you are so remote from the action it is very clinical and Cataclysm is a stupid plot. ORB i had hopes for but the same thing the distance from the play and the overall feeling is much more remote and impersonal, FS and FS2 are much better. I keep hoping someone will break past the "privateer" model of fly around and buy and sell and add things to your ship idea.....Independence War I I had hopes for but it is too hard to get to run and the plot idea of the "graffiti" rebels was so lame I did not even try very hard....and IW 2 was far too complcated and remote from the action, after a cool intro movie, to bother with either. So we are back to the king of space and the classic FS2 and I am so glad everyone here has pitched in with the improvements and Open.

Oh hell no... you just went and shanked every space sim I liked...and Independence War II is NOT too complicated, in my opinion it's too SIMPLE, I just don't like the fact that you can duke out capital ships on a Storm Petrel and somehow win. But then there's Buda 5 for that, two things I like in one. The Homeworld series is extremely good, especially Homeworld II with the Point Defence Systems mod, it makes the combat very intense and there's no longer such thing as a moment's peace. As for X3: Reunion, that game is the pinnacle of the Privateer-style genre of space sims, being able to own stations and have your own ships commence trade runs FOR you while you go around fighting whoever makes it a hell of a lot better. I can make all my money and still fly the fighters I like, unlike on Privateer or Freelancer where if I want to make decent money, I have to go off and buy a useless P.O.S. freighter that can't defend itself worth crap. The only thing X3 lacked was the multiplayer, which Infinity: The Quest for Earth will basically fix.
And there's a patch for X3 that adds afterburner...not a mod...a patch...yes...

[Colonol Dekker]

WIng commander 3 *bows in reverence*

[Narvi]

Homeworld, HC and HW2 are nice for a little while but you are so remote from the action it is very clinical and Cataclysm is a stupid plot.

You like Homeworld 2 but accuse Cataclysm of having a stupid plot? Homeworld 2? Where you literally salvage God and use him to crush your enemies?

[jr2]

that sounds lame.

[karajorma]

and Independence War II is NOT too complicated, in my opinion it's too SIMPLE, I just don't like the fact that you can duke out capital ships on a Storm Petrel and somehow win. But then there's Buda 5 for that, two things I like in one.

I tried to like I-War II. I really did. Out of respect for Glyn Williams' earlier game Warhead which I absolutely loved.

But by the time I got to the 3rd act and missions which required 10 minutes of flying on autopilot to get to the site of a mission I decided that it simply wasn't worth continuing with.

[Commander Zane]

But that's the thing with space, it's so damn big.
I was told Infinity: The Quest for Earth will literally have so many planets that searching for them all WILL result in death from old age.

[karajorma]

So add time compression to the game.

Any game in which finding something else to do for 10 minutes is not only possible but virtually necessary isn't doing its primary job of entertaining you.