Freespace 2

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Dragon1

Dragon1

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The wonderful people over at the Hard Light Productions forums have released the full (retail and SCP) versions of Freespace 2.

While most people think that this game is what brought the space-sim genre down, I rather enjoy playing it.

Pros
1) Excellent actor voice overs
2) Some rather engaging missions
3) The Engine allowed for things not previously seen in other space-sim games
4) Excellent flak effects. Far better than any previous space combat game.
5) The packaged Fred_2 mission editor makes the entire game worth owning.

Cons
1) Horrible plot, what the hell happened in the end? Was contact with Earth reestablished? Admiral Bosch and the NTF?
2) Lifeless ships (the fighters were quite non-descript and ugly to boot! The Capships were massive blocks floating rather slowly in space.)
3) The Shivans were never really fleshed out and had a really one-dimensional feel.
4) The subspace node system was a direct rip off of Wing Commander. In fact, the game makers seemed like they wanted to produce a space combat partially based on Wing Commander and Babylon 5, but forgot that both focused on character interactions as much as blowing stuff up!
 
i dont really understand - i looked at the forums and cudnt find anything.

theyve 'released' it?

u mean the actual game? - or a mod?
 
they released the actual game? it's been out for a few years now.

and i wouldn't say the genere was brought down by any game, but by publishers going bankrupt and licenses ending up in either no or the wrong hands.

all lancer games, for example are owned by microsoft, and their engaement on the pc games market is somewhat...thin. ok, they're still doing aoe, rise of nation and dungeon siege, but other stuff like mechwarrior, star/freelancer and such are just going to waste (and mechassault is worse than going to waste)

freespace is owned by noone, which leaves x (which is still alive, though i don't like it) and wing commander. ea isn't showing a great interest in furthering production of pc games either, though they have licenses like c&c or wing commander. and what do they do?? battle for middle earth2! as if the first part wasn't bad enough!:mad:
 
Sure, it might not be the best game. Sure, it may have destroyed the future of the space sime genre. But, I still love it.

I imagine there would have been a third edition in the series, but the poor sales of FS2 pretty much ruled that out.

I actually like the ship designs a lot.
 
Some were really cool. I always loved the Orion-class Destroyer, one of the only ship classes in the game that had any personality. Whereas the replacement for the Orion, the GTD Hecate left much to be desired.
 
If you look at the stats (Milo, author of StarShatter did a great job of putting the analysis together) FS2 did not kill space sims, since the decline in the slope with sales of FS2 was not statistically significant. Sadly, they were already on there way out, and FS2 was a last gasp at the end of the line. However, if they had marketed it better, it could have helped bring things back. I only found out about FS2 by accident, and I was glad I found it. But let's please not start that argument again.

If you haven't played it, give it a try. Sure, the characters are pretty weak, but the space combat action is intense, the missions are varied, and the atmosphere is enchanting. It's just plain fun, and well done. And yes, you can turn up the ambient lighting so you can see the ships!
 
Sphynx said:
If you look at the stats (Milo, author of StarShatter did a great job of putting the analysis together) FS2 did not kill space sims, since the decline in the slope with sales of FS2 was not statistically significant. Sadly, they were already on there way out, and FS2 was a last gasp at the end of the line. However, if they had marketed it better, it could have helped bring things back. I only found out about FS2 by accident, and I was glad I found it. But let's please not start that argument again.

If you haven't played it, give it a try. Sure, the characters are pretty weak, but the space combat action is intense, the missions are varied, and the atmosphere is enchanting. It's just plain fun, and well done. And yes, you can turn up the ambient lighting so you can see the ships!
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i have to say I dont understand why space flight sims died myself - I think Wing Commander produced some of the most immersive bits of gameplay Ive ever experienced, and I dont understand why anyone wouldnt like the space combat bits :( - then again I dont understand why people dont like flight sims, so i suppose im biased :p
 
baphomet_irl said:
i have to say I dont understand why space flight sims died myself - I think Wing Commander produced some of the most immersive bits of gameplay Ive ever experienced, and I dont understand why anyone wouldnt like the space combat bits :( - then again I dont understand why people dont like flight sims, so i suppose im biased :p
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Space sims and complex open-ended role-playing games share a unique quality that doesn't mesh too well with our American, 21st century life styles. These game genres require an attention span longer than 15 minutes. Most video games these days are very episodic and linear. Like movies, the game makers rarely put games out with complex plot twists or multi-layered characters. The industry has seem to lost something as a whole. I thank the gods on Mt. Olympus everyday that EA hasn't put out a new WC game, I could only think about how bad they would butcher everything about the universe.
 
Dragon1 said:
Space sims and complex open-ended role-playing games share a unique quality that doesn't mesh too well with our American, 21st century life styles. These game genres require an attention span longer than 15 minutes. Most video games these days are very episodic and linear. Like movies, the game makers rarely put games out with complex plot twists or multi-layered characters. The industry has seem to lost something as a whole. I thank the gods on Mt. Olympus everyday that EA hasn't put out a new WC game, I could only think about how bad they would butcher everything about the universe.
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yeh to be honest Im not the biggest Prophecy fan even, I missed shooting those furballs, and the enemy ships in Prophecy didnt do it for me (although WCIV's enemy ships were good in my opinion), if they did do another game, I would hope it would involve some form of return to hostilities between Confed and Kilrah :D

but thats never going to happen :'(
 
I must agree. I am baffled that space flight sims died off. For me, they are the epitome of the gaming experience. I still hope for a comeback!
 
We probably will see a continued interest within smaller game developers, now we just need to have an industry giant do one. And enough already with the Privateer ripoffs, most are good, but the position of Colonel Blair on the Victory was a perspective we rarely see in other games of this genre. He wasn't just another pilot, he commanded the entire carrier air group. He interacted with his pilots and with the central command authority of Confed. We got through Blair both the micro and macro-perspectives of the war, this made WC3 a very interesting game.
 
as i said before, most space sims just had the misfortune to belong to the wrong publishers.

i agree with paphomet that the bugs just didn't really ut it, especially given their role of a prophesized evil that will drown the stars in blood(most likely theirs, judging from their pathetic fighting skills)

i'd try remaking the old wc games, wc1-3 just like doom 3 was a remake of doom 1

oh, and btw, rpg's are selling pretty well
 
Chevieblazer said:
oh, and btw, rpg's are selling pretty well
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But, most new RPGs are like action hack-and-slash, or are totally linear like Final Fantasy X with no range of exploration. On the other side of the coin we have Elder Scrolls III that is totally open, but there is no push to get through the story.

Older RPGs balanced the linear game play aspects with a fair amount of exploration and experience gaining. The combination of both elements is required for a good RPG. Unfortunately, game makers just don't make them like that anymore.
 
lol, yea, but then most space sime are about "aim and shoot without being hit", which is kind of similar, except that its up to your skills whether or not you succed and not some dice casting and such.
yet i was told repeatedly there were some pretty good rpgs, and i guess whatever i think of blizzard, and rpgs, the fact that wow sales are almost killing even top console titles speaks for itself.

i mean i suppose you could buy the freespace license for a symbolic dollar(or not even that) and just make a freespace 3
have it deal with the reestablishing of the connection to earth, the actions of some desperate terrorists trying to prevent that (the ntf or hol, most likely) and throw in the discovery of aken bosh on a distant star system, heralding a new shivan invasion.
also put in why the shivans actually eradicated the ancients(like building a device, the vasudans found it during the terran-vasudan war and that caused the lucifer fleet to occur) and maybe some more hyperspace mystery.

the graphics should be really detailed(like wc pioneer) with bump mapping and all the visual joys, maybe you can even squeeze most of that from the old fs2 engine, it looks damn good in wc:saga)
and then you sell it and earn eough bucks to drive around in an suv...in europe(that's about 6$ per gallon):D
 
There has been talk on and off about making FS3. Some folks have suggested collaborating with the folks who made the original FS2 and who were conceptualizing the third in the series. No serious plans currently exist, though. If it is to be made, it should be made well. I would like to see it incorporate more characterizations if it is made, though.
 
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