anyone played free space or free space 2?

[lord of the mark]

I am looking for something to fill out my last 3 weeks of Gold Gametap membership, and someone on Qto3 suggested these, so Im dling FS2.

[DrSpike]

Both are genuinely good games, but this is a genre you either love or hate. Personally I never got much out of this and a bunch of other good games released around the same time. So I'd be wary unless you are a fan. If this is your first foray though it's a cheap way to test I suppose.

[Standup]

Freespace 2 is good fun. Space Combat with a bit of a story. One of the few games I use a joystick for as well. I remember that when i first got it years ago it had quite high requirments. Assuming you're several years behind my current card make sure your rig is up to it

There's also quite an active modding community if you decide you want more.

[dannubis]

I liked it very much... a lot of atmosphere...

[lord of the mark]

sorry to disappoint, I had a technical problem with free space 2. It seemed to think it couldn't run because I don't have a discreet card ("no 3d acceleration found") apparently not recognizing (it is a 1999 game after all) that there is IG that can run 3d perfectly fine (I assume theres nothing in that game that would stress a system that can run Civ4, RCT3, etc) The fine folk in the gametap forum offered to try to find a work around if I could give them a log, but by that point I had already downloaded Pharoah from Gametap, so thats what I am playing till my gold membership expires.

[El_Cid]

Pharoah - great city building game , my favourite in the series(from the ceasar/sierra line).
Shame about freespace, did you have an option to run the 3D via software rather than hardware? that can sometimes get around those kind of issues(if you have that option).
Anyway i was thinking of good space exploratin/combat games when i came across a thread at the QT3 forums for this game, just out:

http://starwraith3dgames.home.att.net/evochronlegends/about.htm

looks good and i'll download the demo tomorrow i think(think i have time). this is the QT3 thread with some comments about the demo:

http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=50494

It sounds ok.

[twoflower]

free space bad game

stick to a game which is y'know good like say Master of Orion 2

[Unimatrix11]

Except for the sci-fi setting, MoO2 and Freespace 2 share about 0 similarities...

[lord of the mark]

anyway Ive already played Moo2.

Pharoah turns out to be delightful. I really should play something else too before my GT expires, but I can't pull myself away from Pharoah.

[El_Cid]

Pharoah is fantastic, a perect blend of that game type(city builder) with great graphics and sound - you should try the cleopatra expansion some time

That 'new' space sim i linked to is a bit rough around the edges apparantly, if it runs on your PC that is! the QT3 thread is useful, and i should get around to trying it out i really need to find a replacement for FFE(Elite)!

[Unimatrix11]

Good luck looking for an FFE replacement El Cid. I have been looking for like five years now. AFAIK, there is no space-sim out there, with a realistic sci-fi settting (physics - if only newtonian, and planetary systems - not ´sectors´) except Elite II & III. Of course you know about jjffe, right? A project that does look promising in that regard is ´Infinity - The Quest for Earth´. It´s based on a procedural engine, just like the Elites were, and thus will mimic a whole galaxy in crysis+ graphics (there already astonishing screens and videos on the site). It´s written in the stars, if and when it will come out, but it sure looks very promising:

http://www.infinity-universe.com/Infinity/

[El_Cid]

thanks for the link Unimatrix11

looks good, but for my personal taste it's unfortunate it's an MMO - i just want a decent single player sandbox space epic, and your right nothing since original Elite(and FFE/JJFFE) has come close to 'getting it'.

In the story driven space opera market you have some good entries:

1. Freelancer
2. Privateer
3. Wingcommander
4. Tachyon

And maybe a few others?

In the 'tries to be the next Elite but falls short' you have:

1. X series
2. Oolite(i did enjoy this for a while mind you)

and maybe a few others i cant think of right now.

The "Everchron Legends" game demo worked for me ok. I need to spend soem more time on it as there are a number of things i havent got a hang of yet, but overall the way it feels makes it seem closer to that elite vibe than the X games managed. So initial impression is that it is good and it is difficult, mostly due to a not that helpful tutorial. But yeah worth a spin and i will give it some more time later on. If you run out of the demo's 89 min time limit you can simply re-install it to get the time back, so that should give me time to get to grips with it properly.

[lord of the mark]

Pharoah is fantastic, a perect blend of that game type(city builder) with great graphics and sound - you should try the cleopatra expansion some time

That 'new' space sim i linked to is a bit rough around the edges apparantly, if it runs on your PC that is! the QT3 thread is useful, and i should get around to trying it out i really need to find a replacement for FFE(Elite)!

The GT Pharoah download includes Cleo, but my OCD insists I play the Pharoah missions in sequence, so I probably won't be up to Cleo by the time GT expires for me.

[El_Cid]

Yeah i like to play in sequence also(why i never have gone on to properly play Tie Fighter - i just can't finsih X-wing!! - they could possibly fit in the space-opera game category? or more flight-simish?) - still you can pick up Pharoah gold quite cheap on amazon etc so if you like what you getting out of it, when your membership expires that is the combined package including the cleo expansion - then you can enjoy them at your leisure

[Unimatrix11]

Freelancer was a huge letdown for me. I mean seriously, ´tunnels´ between planets ?! And what size did the planets apparently have? Like 20km diameter? It sucked hugely for me. I cant stand it, when sci-fi games totally fail in the ´believable-category´. Makes them utterly worthless to me.

A game i would add to the ´falls short of it´ category, which would be quite a good game actually, if there hadnt been EliteII/III before, is I-War II.

X-series: Well, i never gave it more than an afternoon or so, because it simply didnt feel like space at all. It takes more than a black background sprinkled with stars and planets to convey that feeling for me. It felt like floating on a wheel chair from station to station suspended in empty space. I guess it´s valued as some sort of trade-sim, but i never even got to that element.