30th August 2003, 2:14 PM
Quote: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.
But you move with the keyboard and aim with the mouse... sure the objects don't move exactly like Descent, but its close enough that I see a resemblance! A big part of the fun of flight sims is controlling the ships with a joystick, after all... Freelancer doesn't have that. It has mouse/keyboard, and a simplified flight system.
Quote:Wow, you've barely played any space sims at all! I have more space sims than you do! *Tsk tsk tsk*
I've played the best ones. :D
Quote: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.
So instead of taking seven years they take 21? :)
My point is that linear space shooters ... aren't exactly short.
Quote: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.
That comment wasn't really serious.
Quote: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.
For that first paragraph. No way in the world. Sure, in both you spin around and dogfight and try to get behind the enemy so you can shoot them... but X-Wing just has so many more layers of depth.
Lets see... 1)power management (% to shield/lazer/beam; transferring power between systems to boost weak ones) 2)shield management (front/rear/center) 3) lazers (not overusing them, waiting for them to recharge...) 4) fairly complex flight systems (other than power management) 5) the nice dual-circle radar system. :D
#3, the lazers, was something I REALLY noticed in Freelancer. You don't have to worry about firing -- you can do it forever and it'll never run down or overheat or anything... sure that's simple, but its far less fun! And that's just one way that completely removing power management made Freelancer's combat so simple.
Now... sure, removing X-Wing's power management would put it close (not quite down to Freelancer's level, due to X-Wing's joystick-driven combat and better flight models, but a lot closer)... but that isn't relevant, since the power management system is the core of the ship systems! Removing it would be like removing jumping from a Mario game!
Oh yeah, and I'm not really simplifying Freelancer's combat at all to say this. It really IS that shallow... the only depth that's there is the fact that you've got to pay for your missiles. Controlling the ship itsself? Very simple... just turn and fire. You can even hit anyone on the screen without turning much with some weapons, making precisely lining up with your enemy less important and removing even more depth...
Quote:I'm talking about the actual combat, not other things like shield management. The combat itself is extremely boring and very archaic.
You cannot talk about combat without power management because the power management is absolutely central to every phase of the game, combat and non-combat...