2nd September 2003, 1:28 PM
Quote:Well nobody's going to stop you from liking it...
Me and many, many others.
Quote:"Optional" stuff??!! On the contrary, the main mission is much more optional than the rest of the game. The main "story mode" is about as short as a linear space sim, but that's not even a tenth of the game. The "meat" of Freelancer and all other non-linear space sims is the exploration, freelancing aspect of it. Freelancer is Elite but with a main story mode slapped on, which is most certainly not the main part of the game. You are very confused, ABF.
If the game had no main campaign or somethign and it was just trading, then the trading would be the main game. But here, there IS a main story... sure, you can avoid it and do the trading and stuff, but there IS one if you want to finish the game... so while the other stuff is the majority of the gameplay its still optional. :)
Quote:That's very sad, and only further proves my point. You only have experience with the X-Wing games, so it's very sad to see you trying to argue about a genre that you've played so little of.
I also liked Freespace. A lot... I have Freespace 2. Great game. And I liked some others I've played, such as Tachyon. So I would not say I have only played the X-Wing games.
Quote:First of all, Freelancer was made by most of the team that did the Privateer games, not Wing Commander. And secondly, you're nuts. But you already know that (or at least I hope you do). Wing Commander's combat is insanely simple; it's just TIE Fighter but without the power management. You fly, you see something zip past you, you shoot, turn, repeat. In Freelancer you are actually battling decent-to-good enemy AI (which makes a HUGE difference), you have to manage your weapons much more carefully than Wing Commander (equiping certain lasers, missiles, and mines is key, and then switching between which weapons to use against different enemy shielding is very important), you can actually chase an enemy like you're supposed to (unlike the crappy "sit, shoot real fast, then turn all the way around to find the enemy" combat seen in the X-Wing series and every other space sim), you have to learn how to effectively use the side boosters and then of course the difficult-to-learn sliding technique (which I'm 100% positive you didn't do). The stuff in the demo was just the very basics of combat, but of course you try to pretend that you know a lot about the game.
The main difference between my side and your side is that I actually have a lot of experience with all of the games in question, while you do not. The only thing you have at your side is plain old ignorance, as per usual.
Privateer's combat is VERY similar to Wing Commander. Its other stuff that makes the games different... I have played Privateer 2, sp I know that.
Oh, and most standard flight sims have that in common -- you fly, turn, find and target enemy, chase them (generally on the radar, since they quickly go off screen), shoot them when the target light lights up... learn to lead targets... each game of course makes the experience different in many ways, but that's the formula. And its a very good one that works well...
As for Freelancer, the combat IS insanely simple. That's not just based on my impressions -- its also based on reading reviews of the game. They all say that the combat is very, very simple... not that that's necessarially a bad thing, because its different and can be fun, but that it is simple, mouse-driven combat. No review of the game tries to say that in dogfighting depth it matches a real space sim, because it doesn't!
If you like FPSes, or dislike the genre, I would expect people to really like the combat... if you like the genre I'd think people would tolerate it but not like it a lot... but you seem to prefer it to standard combat in this genre. Strange, given how its simpler and less immersive and everything else... the rest of the game looks quite good, but the combat? Tolerable... but not that great.
Now... the combat well may be deeper than Wing Commander. But that is hardly something to be so proud of, given how Wing Commander is one of the most action-focused and simplistic games in the genre...
But deeper than X-Wing, Freespace, or something? No way!
Quote:(unlike the crappy "sit, shoot real fast, then turn all the way around to find the enemy" combat seen in the X-Wing series and every other space sim)
You make it sound like you look in space for the other ship, when all you do is track it on radar and turn towards the dot... turn, fire, accelerate, fire, turn, brake (if you're going a lot faster than them you've got to slow down to be able to hit them much...), etc... switch weapons, reinforce weak shields...
Or, of course, in the missions I'm in in TIE Fighter, stay way away and shoot missiles at them (gotta love the Missile Boat missions...). :)
Unlike, correct. Freelancer is unlike standard combat in the genre.
Better? Not in a million years.
Oh... and how about I-War? Those games are interesting... they have realistic flight models (ie gravity works like it should in space...)