What happened to space combat games?

[IsraelRocks]

Used to love playing space sims when i was a kid.
But ,resorting to the older cliché in the book, they just dont make them like they used to.
Freelancer is NOT a space sim!. its a 3rd-person shooter in space.

Ah well. Thankfully Freespace 2 continues to withstand the test of time with new campaigns, mods, and visual improvements being steadily released to this very day well over ten years after the game hit shelves. Now that's lasting power!

WHAT? WHERE?!?!?! HOW?!?!

 

[ChupathingyX]

Well, Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction and Crack in Time have space combat. But they aren't space dedicated games. I still found them to be fun, especially the ones in Tools.

 

[Xelt]

Do games such as X3 require you to use a joystick or can you use Freelancer-like controls?

I always considered Freelancer (one of my top 10 all time games) to be more of an RPG than anything else. Hard to put old games from extinct genres into categories.

Mouse and keyboard works fine for x3! Same as Freelancer.

 

[Verlander]

Same thing that happened to space set television shows - they went out of fashion, to be replaced by the undead and magical. Cheers Harry Potter/Twilight/LOTR

 

[Spectrum_Prez]

Do games such as X3 require you to use a joystick or can you use Freelancer-like controls?

I always considered Freelancer (one of my top 10 all time games) to be more of an RPG than anything else. Hard to put old games from extinct genres into categories.

Mouse and keyboard works fine for x3! Same as Freelancer.

I'll definitely have to try it out sometime then.... once I clear my backlog of to-play games which is now ridiculously long.

Could never really get along with joysticks...

 

[Enai Siaion]

EVE Online?

 

[The Madman]

WHAT? WHERE?!?!?! HOW?!?!

You've never heard of Hard Light Productions and the SCP mod, along with its various fan campaigns? Volition released the games source code online a few years back and since then dedicated modders have done everything from adding enhanced resolution support to better lighting such as specular lighting and most recently even post-processing effects.

Then you've got massive fan campaigns and even total conversions creating everything from Star Wars to Babylon 5 and so on. Personally I'm a fan of the campaign 'Blue Planet' which takes place after the events of Freespace 2's main story.

There's a ton of content that's been released for Freespace 2. It's the space equivalent of the Source Engine these days, hosting dozens of top quality fan projects.

 

[DaHero]

WHAT? WHERE?!?!?! HOW?!?!

You've never heard of Hard Light Productions and the SCP mod, along with its various fan campaigns? Volition released the games source code online a few years back and since then dedicated modders have done everything from adding enhanced resolution support to better lighting such as specular lighting and most recently even post-processing effects.

Then you've got massive fan campaigns and even total conversions creating everything from Star Wars to Babylon 5 and so on. Personally I'm a fan of the campaign 'Blue Planet' which takes place after the events of Freespace 2's main story.

There's a ton of content that's been released for Freespace 2. It's the space equivalent of the Source Engine these days, hosting dozens of top quality fan projects.

I am so getting it...right after I pay for my new mattress XD

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

People keep recommending the X series, but those are Elite style space trading games, not Wing Commander style space combat games. I want my Star Wars style space dogfights back, dang it. I've even got a flightstick that still works with modern versions of windows; it's not like they're non-existent, and they're cheap, since most models that I see in stores are $30 or less, which is significantly cheaper than, say, an Xbox 360 controller. And mouse controls, when properly implemented, work quite well for the genre; I refuse to believe it's the lack of installed joysticks that is keeping new games from being released. I think it's more likely that the Frontier games, and their later clones like the X series, are more to blame; the realistic newtonian physics made an already inaccessible genre practically impossible to get into. As we're seeing with the casual trend, as well as the whole "consolization" thing, inaccessible doesn't sell in the current market.

 

[jak_of_bees]

I want another Star Wars Rogue Squadron dammit!! That game was awesome, Star Wars and flight combat were just the perfect mix. Back OT, I don't see why any developers come up with a good space combat games. I mean one of the most positive things are heard about Halo Reach over and over again was about the Long Night of Solace mission where you flew a prototype space fighter, surely someone has to realise that a good space combat sim would be sell pretty decent.

 

[philosophicalbastard]

I would like a realistic space combat game. Newtons first law would apply (conservation of inertia). No sound (except music and AI warnings/UI sounds). No optical camera view. Just a strategic overlay generated by shipboard instruments and computers. Only two viable weapons; Missiles and particle beams. Both can be used defensively (shooting down enemy missiles). A missile hit would be instant death. A beam hit would depend on armor plating. Dodging or missing would be nigh impossible. The guy with the most missiles would generally win.

This would be even more awesome with tactics involving the use of gravity and railguns (because magnetic cannons are awesome).

OT: Its really hard to find many games with ship to ship combat period, nevermined in space. Maybe when FPSs start losing money there will be more investment in alternative combat games.