30th August 2003, 11:00 AM
Quote:Oh COME ON, Freelancer controls a lot like a FPS! Well... a Decent-style FPS...
You may use some of the same buttons but the actual controls and feeling of the objects you are controlling are nothing alike. You're out of your mind.
Quote:The only space flight sims I own are Wing Commander (from PC Gamer's classic games collection disc...), X-Wing '95, TIE Fighter CD-Rom Collection, TIE Fighter '95 (same thing, but win95 and better graphics...), and X-Wing Alliance. Yup, that's it... (uhh... except for a ... abandonware ... copy of Freespace 2...) but I've played demos of a variety of others (Starlancer, Freelancer, Privateer 2, Tachyon (good game!), Freespace 1 and 2 (also good games...), etc...). And yes, the open-ended ones do sound like they play quite differently in many aspects, aspects which make the games more fun in non-combat ways. But I honestly don't mind the linear campaign... actually, I like the style. Sure, you can't choose what missions to do or anything, but the added story depth is nice.
Oh yeah, and its not like there isn't ANY choices. In TIE Fighter for example there're the hidden bonus objectives to do which get you stuff...
Wow, you've barely played any space sims at all! I have more space sims than you do! *Tsk tsk tsk*
Quote:In a X-Wing, flight systems and combat is key because the fighting is the central part of the game. In Freelancer it admittedly is a bit less important because of other options... but still, its far more fun to fly a ship with a joystick than with a mouse! Far, far more fun...
And Freelancer's combat is just far too simple. Sure, it has a nice touch (how you need to pay for everything, included missiles fired) or two, but its painfully simple... the combat is just click-spin-fire. Like Wing Commander but even SIMPLER... which is bad.
Take away the shield management from X-Wing and the combat in far, far simpler than the combat in Freelancer.
And I love it how you to try to simplify games for your arguments. I could say that Warcraft is just a "point-choose-click" game just as easily as you can say that Freelancer's combat is "click-spin-fire". You can do that with any game.
Quote:I've had TIE Fighter since '96 and still haven't beaten it. On Easy. X-Wing is just as long. X-Wing Alliance is close. "short"? Uhh... NO. Now, sure, I don't play TIE Fighter much and pretty much never play those others. But the fact remains... TIE Fighter has like 70 main missions. Each takes quite some time to finish. That's many, many hours of gaming... it might be a bit too long.
Honestly, the reason I haven't played TIE Fighter in 6 months isn't because I don't want to but because I'm so close to the end... just two or three more missions and its all over! I've been playing the thing off and on for so long... I don't want it to end...
Right, you don't want it to end. You don't have to worry about that with open-ended space combat games, especially those with multiplayer. They are several times longer than linear space sims.
Quote:Oh yeah, and X 2 is a hardcore space sim... you still like it?
I've played and owned more "hardcore" space sims than you have, buddy. I just don't have an elitist attitude towards them to hide my ignorance like you do.
Quote:X-Wing's combat is easily ten times more complex than Wing Commander, at least. No question about that... you seriously think they are close? Huh? But Wing Commander is so simple! X-Wing/TIE Fighter adds multiple layers of depth, making the sim far more interesting... and it makes the missions more varied, too.
Oh yeah, and finally, based on my experience in the genre, after TIE Fighter and X-Wing Alliance, the next best space sim is Freespace 2.
I'm talking about the actual combat, not other things like shield management. The combat itself is extremely boring and very archaic.