I'm a fan of i-war and i-war 2. These games have the most realistic flight physics and technique in space. A real challenge for manoeuvering skills. Additional in i-war, all planets, stars and moons are exactly in its size and position to each other and do change their postions while the game does progress. The hitch is, the games are ending after playing the story. There is no endless game after, but in i-war 2 you can explore the whole universe between the story missions. Unfortunatly you cannot trade or interact when docked on stations. You can dock only and nothing happens. I guess they were all made for MP, but the MP was not well used.
In some missions the difficult level is very high and leads easily to frustration, but me never felt better, when completing the one great battle in i-war 2. The stories are good and you have the addicting factor of upgrading the ship step by step.
For action i like X-Wing Alliance. A verry good background story behind the missions and for the age of 10 years, the graphic is still good. I'm angry that LA never made a part 2, based on the X-Wing books by Michael Stackpole and Aaron Alston.
Never played Freespace, so i cannot give any statement.
It's nothing like FL (heck, it's not a simulator at all), but everybody who like well written science fiction games with fun action needs to try Star Control 2 some time in their lives. Top down shooter with heavy doses of role playing game thrown in... think Zelda in space.
Anyway, the game's source code was put into public domain in 2002 and there's a great port of it at http://sc2.sourceforge.net
Star Control? I played the port for a while but the universe is so damn huge that I got lost really quickly and the combat was just too difficult for me.
Hmm, an older game I know of is Hardwar: The future is Greedy.
Yer a freelance pilot on a moon of Jupiter. Basically, it was colonized, mined, then suddenly abandoned by all space-going ships. Without contact with the outside, the small colony has split into factions with their own agendas.
It has a dynamic trade system, if you find a place that sells for a low amount, and sell it for high somewhere else, they'll notice and adjust the prices. In fact, if you want the really high powered equipment you'll have to deliver the components the manufacturer needs.
Your ship, or Moth, is powered by solar stations located around the different domes. You can upgrade its CPU to improve power management, weapon control, and miscellaneous functions like auto-docking and light enhancement. There is also hardware available like cargo pods (that effect performance), salvage drones, not to mention guns, missiles, and turrets.
An interesting side-note, CPU gets damaged in battle, and suffers data loss, forcing you to re-upgrade every time you're Damaged.
In fact, you can find yourself without a moth, forced to ride a taxi back to the nearest dealership.
full static world multi-player support, a variety of ships and several roles to play.
It's a 1998 game, and shows it though.
Basically, think Freelancer with Solar powered hovercraft.
EDIT: more info
It controls like most space flying games, strafe, thrust, engine-kill, etc.
When you take on a hunting mission, your target doesn't just stick around to fight, you have to find him as he wanders around doing his business. The game does this well with a world-wide tracking system. Once you've found someone, or are provided their name from the contractor you can track their position with your map. Of course, annoy a few factions and they'll start actively hunting you as well, and they aren't pushovers.
........Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;..........But when the blast of war blows in our ears,.....
........Or close the wall up with our English dead...........................Then imitate the action of the tiger;.................
........In peace there's nothing so becomes a man........................Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,.........
........As modest stillness and humility:........................................Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage!....
Dasher
"Another popup faction. Great. What's wrong with my popup blocker?" - Denelo
"Oh come on, slow and steady doesn't win any races, fast and steady does."
(If you find any mistake in my English, please let me know via a PM)
(Really, I speak terrible English, so please, tell me if I make mistakes. I'd like to improve it a bit )
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