Imaginary games that you plan on getting (in your mind) this year

[A Black Falcon]

The only thing that Freelancer's controls share with a FPS's is the fact that you move and (sort of) strafe with the keyboard and aim with a mouse. That's the case with almost all PC action games.

I said that because I remember in previews somewhere hearing it characterized that way, and after playing the game I agree... it IS a lot like a FPS, with WASD movement and the mouse to point your aim...

You obviously didn't play the game for very long judging by that extremely ignorant summarization of the gameplay that you just made. Freelancer plays just like Privateer, or Morrowind in space. There is a main story but it is not neccessary to follow, and the missiona can get very complex. The gameplay is more certainly not warp-fight-warp as you so stupidly put it. It's about being a bounty hunter, a smuggler, or whatever, and doing whatever you want to make money and upgrade your ships and parts. In that sense it is much deeper than those very linear X-Wing games that you play. This is just another classic example of you judging a game from little or no playtime. Very, very sad.

I haven't played much of any Elder Scrolls game, Privateer, or Freelancer (beyond the demo), so mostly I can just base it on what I know... ie that its non-linear. I know. And sure, only the main story missions would often be warp-fight-warp (like the demo... you warp, fight baddies, warp, fight more baddies, warp, fight baddie base, warp home... made me think of StarLancer, or Wing Commander... not terrible, but somewhat boring...)

Sure, most of the game isn't that. I know. Which is why I focused on how the combat system works, not that style of tedious Wing Commander combat...

As for the X-Wing series, it is certainly linear, but its perfectly good that way. The missions are a lot of fun, its challenging... the games are just plain a lot of fun to play!

Oh, by the way, one reason I love TIE Fighter so much is because it was the game that got me into space sims. I got it in the Lucasarts Collection 2... something I bought to get Rebel Assualt 2, really, but I was somewhat interested in TIE Fighter. Needless to say it turned out to be ... better than I expected ... :)

Its not great because of super-complex missions... its because of the combat, and flying the ships. Its just so much fun to dogfight in the X-Wing games! Dogfighting while controlling your ship's fairly complex systems is the core of the game , and its so, so much fun to do that...

Wing Commander (and by extention Privateer and Freelancer)'s simpler combat system just isn't as fun, that's the core of why those games' combat doesn't intrest me much.