[CP5670]

That was the thing. IWar 2's flight and combat mechanics provide a level of depth completely unlike all the other "space sims" out there, including FS. The massive open world had lots of possibilities for exploration and the game's plot universe was very well fleshed out. I even read all the entries in the game's encyclopedia. This seemed like my kind of game in so many ways, and I gave it a lot more patience than I normally do with games that lack saves, playing the campaign on and off for over two months before I finally got fed up with it.

As for this patcom ship, I never even got that far. I think I had gotten through about a third of the game (the point where you leave the system) but still had the tug, which was slow and unwieldy. Considering how long it took to get to that jump point, I can certainly imagine the game wiping out over a hour's worth of progress if you stray too far from the home system.

I would not say I have become less tolerant of flaws in games today. I played it in 2010 but would have tossed it aside a lot sooner in 2001, considering the quality of the games we had back then. PC gaming had matured considerably by then and I can't think of any other game from that period that wastes your time in replaying long portions and destroys any sense of accomplishment the way IWar 2 did. At the end of the day, it was full of innovations and great ideas but missed the whole point of what games are all about: it is simply not fun. I would say that playing it feels like work, but my actual work is a lot more enjoyable.

I can't say anything about IWar 1, having never played that, although if anyone is calling that the "sim" compared to the "easy" IWar 2, I should certainly stay far away from that game.

[Mikes]

CP5670, while I certainly can acknowledge your trouble with having no savepoints...  you also must acknowledge that without even having played the first game and with only having played one third of  the second (in direct comparison inferior) game, that it's as futile to discuss the game as it would be futile to discuss a book that you haven't even read or where you only read the first third.

That I-War 1 was the pinacle of space-sim design is pretty much without question among those who actually played the whole game . It had very much everything that is missing in todays mainstream games: complex well thought out gameplay, world building on par with what you otherwise only find in good sci-fi novels, a complex branching storyline with decision points that really mattered, and... like no other game I have seen in my gaming before or after... it had these truly memorabe "WTF! OMG!" moments that still stand out even years later and back in the day almost made me fall out of my chair laughing because it was just so cool. This game... so much more than any others I played... is really oozing the love and passion that the devs poured into it all over.

It simply has no equal in the genre and I am saying that as someone who enjoyed Wing Commander and Freespace propably just as much as any other person on this board ... and you are dissing it because you didn't like the first third of a second entry in the franchise which was a) quite unrelated storywise to the first game (other than sharing a single character) and b) is generally considered inferior gameplaywise and storywise.

As said before... it's just sad. Imagine we were discussing books... how silly would that be? Dissing a book because the beginning of another, different book by the same author was kinda slow and discussing it with people who actually read the thing and know the entire complex tale? I don't know how to say it any other way.... but, you just do not know what those of us who played these games even talk about. You really don't... and again, that's a shame. They don't make games like these anymore. (Although with the cool stuff made by Indie devs nowadays you never know...  yet, it's doubtful any Indie game could approach the scope of a project like I-War).

Here's the original trailer btw, haven't seen it posted yet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kohENjJK7kY
(With some ingame shots and good parts after 4:40)
Second trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nazn6iejoVA

Thankfully... the music was much better in the released game

[karajorma]

Seriously Mikes, do yourself a favour and check out Warhead. I think you'd like it.

[CP5670]

CP5670, while I certainly can acknowledge your trouble with having no savepoints...  you also must acknowledge that without even having played the first game and with only having played one third of  the second (in direct comparison inferior) game, that it's as futile to discuss the game as it would be futile to discuss a book that you haven't even read or where you only read the first third.

Playing a third of a game is more than enough to get a sense of it and form a considered opinion, especially given the large amount of time I spent with it.

That I-War 1 was the pinacle of space-sim design is pretty much without question among those who actually played the whole game . It had very much everything that is missing in todays mainstream games: complex well thought out gameplay, world building on par with what you otherwise only find in good sci-fi novels, a complex branching storyline with decision points that really mattered, and... like no other game I have seen in my gaming before or after... it had these truly memorabe "WTF! OMG!" moments that still stand out even years later and back in the day almost made me fall out of my chair laughing because it was just so cool. This game... so much more than any others I played... is really oozing the love and passion that the devs poured into it all over.

I would say every one of your comments applied to IWar 2 too, except maybe the branching story. It was an awesome game. And yet, it is not a game that I actually want to play. That's what so infuriating about it. If the game had just sucked all around, I would have given up a lot sooner and wouldn't feel like I was missing anything.

[Colonol Dekker]

Seriously Mikes, do yourself a favour and check out Warhead. I think you'd like it.

A fine game, I-War is also a fine game. The commonwealth are a fine force, and Sec-Pat are stupid space hippies.



Commonwealth for life baby

[Mikes]

Seriously Mikes, do yourself a favour and check out Warhead. I think you'd like it.

That an Amiga Game? Might try to get it to run on my cellphone... although from what I read the control scheme was quite difficult to learn even on the Amiga, which may make it impossible on the phone or tablet with non native controls.

[karajorma]

It's an Amiga and Atari ST game. You'll probably find an ST emulator easier to get running and the Amiga version was a port of the ST version so you won't see much difference between them. You'll really need a keyboard to play though as you need access to all the F-Keys and number keys just to change autopilot mode and weapons.