Space Games?

[Androo]

Completely without warning, I have recently become interested in games set in space, a genre the charms of which had previously eluded me. Stupid me. Starfleet Command III has just arrived and I am enjoying it tremendously, but I want more...

Any thoughts on Freelancer? And has anybody got X3: Reunion yet? The screen shots for the second look amazing and the open-endedness (for want of a real word) of the campaign sounds great. However, there has been some talk about it being buggy and the StarForce copy protection being problematic(?).

Any other suggestions? (My taste tends to the tactical sim rather than grand strategy, but I make exceptions- the upcoming incarnation of Galactic Civilizations will probably be one, if I still have the "outward urge").

Speaking of "The Outward Urge": damn it, why hasn't somebody made a game of "The Day of the Triffids" ?!?

[AggonyDuck]

I'll definately get Galatic Civilizations II, when it comes out. It seems like such a sweet game.

[English assassin]

IMHO Conflict Freespace 1 and 2 were excellent space combat sims. Bit old now I suppose.

[[DnC]]

Freelancer is a fun game. The singleplayer campaign is quite hard if you play through the story without doing many sidequests and thus getting better ships, weaponry and accessories. The way the game is designed makes it rather easy for you as a newling to get sucked right into the story. At certain points I really wished I had a better ship, because instead of blowing up enemy fighters I had to evade like a coward and hope to survive. Ha ha! It does lose it's appeal rather fast though, but that might just be me (played MP aswell for a couple of weeks).

I have X2. However I have barely played it yet and I have it for a couple of months already, perhaps even a year? Anyways it had or should I say it didn't have certain things that discouraged me to play on. Such as the use of a mouse for many things where I would consider it useful and is more of a standard in most games nowadays. You can't for example use your mouse in the gamemenu, really annoying. Feels like a game from 10 years ago because of it. Flying was rather hard, I couldn't adjust the sensitivity. But as I said I barely gave it a try, so perhaps it is a good game and the patches turned it into a less cumbersome game and even enjoyable for me. I do really like their general idea though!

You most likely already know about the Homeworld series? Still a good recommedation in my opinion.

Starwars: Battlefront 2? It isn't a Strategy space sim and only a semi-space game, but thought I'd mention it. I thought about buying it today, but decided not to. I still have to many games that I need/want to finish or can still play for quite sometime before I get bored with them.

Can't think of anything else at the moment.

[Crandaeolon]

Freespace 2 is still one of the best space combat sims. So is Independence War 2. Both are rather old games, but still enjoyable.

Nexus: the Jupiter Incident is a great tactical simulation of capital ship combat (a couple dozen ships per battle at maximum), but it lacks replayability since the story and battles are pre-scripted and linear. Bargain bin material.

Then there's, of course, Space Rangers 2. Not sim, more like Star Control 2 or Elite. One of the most fun games this year imho.

[King Kurt]

Sid Meyer's Alpha Centuri is an excellent Science Fiction strategy game with hours of game play - a sort of civilisation in space. What's more you can pick it up for a song now - I saw it in game the other week for 99p!!

Different factions with different abilities - just loads of choices. But be warned, it is not a wild shoot em up, but is a game of deep thought (no not that deep thought). However, many actions can be automated so you can concentrate on the strategy.

Finally you can change the faction leader's name to what you want - I had an excellent game with the Spartans - the militaristic, attack everybody faction - who were led by Susan the Terrible.

[econ21]

You mentioned a game of "Day of the Triffids" and that got me thinking of System Shock 2. It's set in two space ships and is an action/rpg hybrid with horror overtones. One of the best computer games ever - certainly one to make the best impression.

I went back to X-Com1 the other day and had a lot of fun with it. It's squad level tactics - on earth but vs aliens.

Two excellent futuristic RPGs are the Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic games and the Fallout games.