Thunderspark wrote:I've been playing some Freespace recently. I miss good space sims with good stories too, but my eyes aren't as good as they used to be and I'm having a lot of trouble seeing dark ships fly through a dark space on the screen.
I would really like a good RTS or TBS type game using some of these space sim worlds though.
How do Freespace's graphics hold up?
Personally I still think it looks great. FS2 looks better, especially with the source code modifications of the FS2 Open project. Nothing beats Independence War 2 in the looks department, however. Even Freelancer doesn't compare, IMO.
Good! Freespace 2 is the one I have. What are the modifications you're talking about?
Also folks, a fantastic site for news covering space sims and space combat games is A Talent for War, a site that's had a recent rebirth after being off for some time. A fantastic site for space sim news.
Thunderspark wrote:I've been playing some Freespace recently. I miss good space sims with good stories too, but my eyes aren't as good as they used to be and I'm having a lot of trouble seeing dark ships fly through a dark space on the screen.
I would really like a good RTS or TBS type game using some of these space sim worlds though.
How do Freespace's graphics hold up?
The graphics look alright. They're a little boxy compared to some newer stuff, but it still looks pretty good. It plays very well too. I haven't done so yet, but I might have to turn up the brightness a bit because I have trouble seeing the bulk of the Galatea next to me -_-. But I have the same problem with the newer ones(Starlancer) too.
I haven't played Starlancer or Tachyon the Fringe. Are these games worth checking out? I have Starlancer already but never played it much. I was having problems getting Force Feedback working for it in XP. (You'd think a Microsoft game with a MS joystick would work just great, but it didn't. Not sure if there's a fix for it. Maybe I'll have to play it force feedback-less).
Tachyon I'd have to go ebaying for, I think.
BTW Milo - Great to hear about the updates to Starshatter. Looking forward to them! I can't speak for others, but I'd be more than willing to pay $10 or so for a "Speech Pack" (like Origin used to sell) if it meant that it'd result in high-quality voice acting for the game (ie- getting real actors, etc). Bad voice acting can sometimes be worse than none at all. Something to think about since you're planning on adding voice stuff.
Vesper wrote:I haven't played Starlancer or Tachyon the Fringe. Are these games worth checking out? I have Starlancer already but never played it much. I was having problems getting Force Feedback working for it in XP. (You'd think a Microsoft game with a MS joystick would work just great, but it didn't. Not sure if there's a fix for it. Maybe I'll have to play it force feedback-less).
Tachyon I'd have to go ebaying for, I think.
BTW Milo - Great to hear about the updates to Starshatter. Looking forward to them! I can't speak for others, but I'd be more than willing to pay $10 or so for a "Speech Pack" (like Origin used to sell) if it meant that it'd result in high-quality voice acting for the game (ie- getting real actors, etc). Bad voice acting can sometimes be worse than none at all. Something to think about since you're planning on adding voice stuff.
Yes, both games are worth checking out. Tachyon especially just for the Bruce Campbell voiceovers alone. Both games are a lot of fun and can be purchased relatively cheaply these days.
The updates for SS are looking great (I'm a beta tester), but I don't want to go too much into detail. I don't know if I'd pay extra for a speech pack alone, but maybe as part of a larger expansion...
ShaggyDoug wrote:You guys are making me want to install WC IV. I'm sure I can't play it anymore though with newer hardware. Can someone point me to info about how to even remotely do this?
gbasden wrote:ok - so where can you find this WC4 DVD edition? I'd kill to play that again...
It was never sold separetly, but was packaged in with Creative DVD Rom kits. I happened to own one of these DVD-Roms way back when, and that's how I got mine. They show up on Ebay pretty regularly.
This brings up an interesting moral/piracy question for me: Would it be wrong of someone who owned WC4 to get a DVD copy of WC4 DVD? (Hope that doesn't derail the thread. I'm just curious).
gbasden wrote:ok - so where can you find this WC4 DVD edition? I'd kill to play that again...
I got mine on ebay for $10. Worth every penny, especially to be able to fly the Dragon again (best fighter in a space sim EVER). Once you get that file to allow it to run on WinXP, it runs like a champ.
Here is a guy selling WC4 DVD on Ebay for $19.. As of right now he has 13 copies.
One thing to keep in mind: There's a DVD edition out that's just the normal version put on CD. You do not want this one. You want the one with high-quality video that only came with Creative products.
Vesper wrote:Here is a guy selling WC4 DVD on Ebay for $19.. As of right now he has 13 copies.
One thing to keep in mind: There's a DVD edition out that's just the normal version put on CD. You do not want this one. You want the one with high-quality video that only came with Creative products.
Crap, I thought the creative DVD version was the ONLY dvd version. (looks at my DVD copy). Well, mine looks good...
I finished Wing Commander 3 last night.. What a great game! On to WC4 DVD now. (I"m quite happy about the transition from my Pentium 200 with an ancient FlightStick to my real box and a MS Sidewinder FF. Too bad WC4 doesn't have force feedback effects.)
It's really a shame no one is making these "interactive movie" type of games anymore. Too expensive, I guess.
Vesper wrote:It's really a shame no one is making these "interactive movie" type of games anymore. Too expensive, I guess.
Yeah, IIRC, WC IV was one of the most expensive games ever to produce, due to the actor's salaries and real sets (WC III was filmed over a bluescreen).
