[General Battuta]

I'm really not convinced. Did you ever actually do it yourself?

There was pilot mode. There wasn't manual control of ships.

[Droid803]

Joystick/Gamepad compatibility might just mean you can use them like a mouse, to you know, select stuff.

[Davros]

Davros never misses an oportunity to pimp the mighty I-War (slight pause to allow readers to hail its greatness)
now enjoy one of the greatest game intro's ever all 14 minutes of it
http://media.putfile.com/IWar

[Vretsu]

Mmm...Tie Fighter is good.  I was just playing it a few hours ago (pointless, rambling backstory: I really only do my Pharoah --> Tie Fighter --> Fs2 Open cycle nowadays, all other games are unneccessary).

What an experience, I tells ya. Shooting up an X-Wing that just splashed one of your adorable TIE wingmen ("THIS IS FOR BETA 4, YOU JERK!!"), only to have the debris glance off the side of your fighter and kill you. And there's something to be said for manually ordering your wingmen to take evasive action ("IT'S A Z-95!! SHIFT E SHIFT E TURN TURN GAAAAHHH!!"). My little cloud of gnats is so precious to me...I do my best to keep them all alive by keeping the herd together. So...yeah...uh, attacking capital ships without shields is interesting. It's like ballet...of death. I love it. This game seriously goes downhill when you get the shielded TIE/ADV in Battle 5...takes all the fun away.

TIE Fighter is brilliant but I still prefer Fs2 to TIE Fighter. With SCP enhancements/mediaVPs Fs2 is the best looking game evah and it runs silky smooth whereas TIE Fighter rolls over and dies with my 3D hardware even with the compatibility fix. More importantly I hate the god damned interface in TIE Fighter. Where's my lead indicator? And the Star Wars concept/universe/whatever sucks. It's the ****ing Empire. We have all the resources. Why are our ships inferior to these damnable hippies?

Someone attach a ryder for more TIE Advanced to Emperor Palpatine's next "alienate people by being pointlessly evil" bill, FFS.

[Scotty]

[threadjack]

The 'hippies' are better because the TIE fighters are meant to be mass produced, and easily slaughtered, to not be actually one sided in fights.  Your lead indicator is a crutch.  And Palpatine's "alienate people by being pointlessly evil" bill is.... (no argument).

[/threadjack]

I like to play some the X-Wing/TIE Fighter games because the capital ships are a pain in the @$$ to kill.  There is no such thing as just strafing a cruiser with tempests a couple times.  The ships have big, bad shields, and the guns almost ALL one hit your puny fighter.

[Pred the Penguin]

There is a WIP Star Wars conversion for FsO called Fate of the Galaxy if you're interested.

[haloboy100]

Mind if I bring this back? I find it really interesting

I for one just finished playing X-Wing alliance. Damn, that's one helluva game. If not for the gameplay, which on it's own is spot-on, if a little repetitive at times. I mean, come on; Every TIE you fight is a one hit kill if you use dual lasers, unless you fight the pain in the ass TIE Advanced fighters. Now those are a challenge if the difficulty is set high enough and they have concussion missiles. Fight more than 2 and you'll be hearing the BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP missile warning constantly. I guarantee it. It's annoying, but in the way that just makes them more satisfying to kill. The cap ships were a huge pain, seeing as how incredibly fragile your shields are in XWA and the fact that you actually have to divert power from your engines to recharge both your shields and your lasers.
One thing I truly did love about XWA though was the story. More specifically, how the story was conveyed; the game makes a damn good job of reminding you that you're just a family boy (with damn good flying skills matching that of Alpha 1) who joined the alliance for the sake of it and the protection of his family. Everything from the trophies in your room to your droid constantly telling you to "GET MOVING!" when you're about to be late to briefing just solidified it for me. I loved it.

I wanted to get into wing commander, but I've only managed to get 1 and 2 on a DOS emulator. It was definitely worth it though, as the games (especially WC2) have the biggest emotional weight on them I've ever seen from an old early 90s DOS game. Everything from the plot to the fantastic writing is what did this. I wish I could play the rest of the series. I saw the movie, too; that was decent. At least better than some of the other movies based on games I've seen. *Cough*streetfighterIVmovie*cough*

[louiswuenator]

Man I just loved XWA.  I remember hopping in the sim and doing a ffa tie fighter match in the asteroid field.  No shields, and many pairs of laser bolts flying around.  Oh, and the best thing: long campaign! something like ~50 missions IIRC.

[haloboy100]

7 battles of like 5-7 missions each? Yeah, it was really long. I played that game back when I was like 6 years old...always in the simulator just blowing everything up.

And the multiplayer was a blast. I don't know about you, but I really miss MSN Game zone. and can you believe that hte multiplayer still thrives to this day? They still have www.darkjedi.org up, and the Rebel Alliance clan is even still active - I joined that way back when I was 9 years old! (stupidity and inevitably bad flying skills associated with that age aside)

[Getter Robo G]

U'mm I would go with Starshatter for an honorable mention at least!

Not only because it is a fighter game (cap ships also). But because that community has assisted me TONS!

 

[Sushi]

Also highly recommended: Allegiance.

Free (as in full source released by Microsoft), all multiplayer, team oriented, space sim + RTS. I have yet to see anything with such satisfying multiplayer action (at least in the sim domain... TF2 and L4D come close ).

There's nothing quite like:

• Thirty player-controlled ships furiously dogfighting to get control of a sector of space.
• Trying to sneak a half-dozen stealth bombers into position around an enemy base, followed by the frantic, heart-pounding 30-second run as you close simultaneously and prepare to uncloak and fire. One enemy scout ship appearing in the wrong place could alert the enemy and ruin the whole thing.
• Getting on a huge bomber run: one player flying the bomber, two more manning his turrets, and another dozen ships flying escort and/or repairing the bomber as it closes in to fire. (Being on the other side, scrambling to take out the defensive ships so that the bomber is vulnerable before it can release its warheads, is just as much fun!)
• Hunting miners in a stealth fighter, sneaking around and waiting for the enemy defenders to get careless and give you an opening...then you swoop down out of nowhere, open up with missiles and guns, and make whoever was tasked with defending the miner feel about two inches tall.
• The last, desperate defense of your final base. All hope of victory is lost, the enemy is sending increasingly determined and increasingly advanced bombers and capital ships at you, and all there is to do is to show them that you won't go down without a fight. REMEMBER THE ALAMO!

Other features I enjoy are an extremely effective semi-newtonian flight model, a very satisfying stealth/sensor system, and the strong emphasis on teamwork.

It's definitely not for everyone, but there's nothing else quite like it. Definitely worth a shot if you haven't tried it. Alas, not nearly as pretty as FS2_Open though, and absolutely no single player (the pathetic training missions don't really count). Also, the learning curve is pretty high (easy to learn how to fly and dogfight, hard to learn all of the tactics and strategies that everyone else expects you to know).

When I want single-player space sim awesomeness, I play Freespace. When I want multiplayer, I play Alleg.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

The only space sims I can think of are StarLancer, Freelancer and DarkStar One.

By the way, shouldn't this be in the Gaming Discussion board?

[Wobble73]

HardWar is interesting in a X type way, flying "moths" around a Mars like planet (if not Mars, I can't quite remember). Recently got X-wing Alliance, but only played a few missions on so far, good but...... I don't really know, maybe I've been spoiled by graphics of FSO. Also got Tarr Chronicles recently, looks really nice which is why I was interested in the first place, but I find myself disappointed with the gameplay. I can't see the enemy for the eye-candy! Seriously, they're practically camouflaged in the background nebula until there are on you then they're gone again!

[General Battuta]

I loved Hardwar.

I believe it was set on Titan, a moon of Saturn, but I could be wrong.

[eliex]

I loved Hardwar.

I believe it was set on Titan, a moon of Saturn, but I could be wrong.

Same here. You're correct - it is set on Saturn's moon, Titan. 

[Zantor]

I have been a life-long fan of Descent. I first played Descent in 1997, a couple years after it was released in 1995; I saw Descent 2, which was released in 1996. I got Descent 2 for Christmas (I wanted my own copy even tho my bro had it) in 1999/2000. I joined the Descent community in 2005 shortly after I bought Descent 3 when I discovered that there still is/was a community after D3 was released in 1999, even though PXO went down in 2002 or 2004.

Shortly after discovering Descent 3, I came upon Freespace. I was fascinated by the story, the technology, graphics, and how amazing it all is/was. I played the OEM campaign all the way about 4 to 6 times, because I enjoyed it that much. Then I found out about Freespace 2 and I was just on fire. As soon as I could, I got hold of what was then a CVS build of 3.6.9 and the 3.6.8 zeta mediaVPs.

Descent is a classic in its own right, and it has a special place for me, just like Freespace 2.

[haloboy100]

How the hell could I forget Descent?! *facepalm*

I adored that game, ever since I first played the "Destination Saturn" Demo when I was 3 years old. Back then I only got the first level, but I played the hell out of it. I didn't get the full descent games (1 through 3) until only 3 years ago, when, to my incredible surpise, I learned that it was also made by (then outrage entertainment) Volition!

[Sushi]

Descent is indeed awesome and has a special place in my heart, but it's not exactly a space sim.

[Getter Robo G]

I actually never tried them  , my initiation was FS1 and I haven't stopped delving into modding since...

Before that I only modded rpg's. (BG1/2)

[Mongoose]

This has kind of drifted, so to Gaming it goes.