Im looking for a decent space combat game. Any reccommendations?

[YouAreFubar]

I used to really enjoy the likes of Colony Wars on the PS1 and fancy buying a more up to date space combat game for PC or Mac. Ive been looking around and cant really find anything apart from space MMORPG games. Now I wouldnt mind this so much as long as I could get into combat regularly but im not up for paying a regular subscription fee. Does anyone play and can anyone reccommend a decent game of this type?

[Motorsagmannen]

ok ok its a rpg. but have you tried "mass effect", one of the best sci fi games to date.
i played a game some time ago which were more of a space pilot game, shooter to be precise but cant for the life of me remember it now :P

edit: and btw no fee on mass effect, its single player only

[stinkleroy]

I can't think of any Fubar, sorry :(

Speaking of space combat you have reminded me that I need to buy Soldner-X, as I really miss R-Type :)

[Cerbis]

Well, if it's MMO you're looking for there's both Black Prophecy and Jumpgate: Evolution to look forward to. Both are in closed beta as far as I'm aware and won't be out until later this year.
If you fancy the more Elite-like approach, there's the X series of games. They're named simply X, X2 and X3, all offline titles as far as I'm aware. They're available on Steam for some monies... you could also go look on gog.com.

If you're after absolute carnage, the open source version of Freespace 2 might be something to look into, but I'm not at all sure what online is like in that.

There is also Freelancer, which got met with... mixed criticism, to say the least. It does have an online component if you want to mess around with friends and such. It's another trade/fight game, like a simpler variant of the X series.

This is just a quick rundown, if you want more details about anything, just ask!
My google-fu is strong :banzai

[mdhay]

Since Omega isn't here, I'll say it:
Freespace.

It's free and the graphics can be of Xbox360 quality.

Edit: Nevermind.... Other than Freespace, I have no idea.

Some Star Wars games, maybe?

[YouAreFubar]

Thanks for the replies peeps. Im not after an RPG im afraid Motorsagmannen, its not my cup of tea but thanks for putting that forward. Thanks for the suggestions Cerbis and mdhay, ill check those out over the next few days and see what theyre like. Im not too fussed on the online aspect, I just want a solid space fighter pilot combat game. It seems to be a dying genre of gaming these days but I used to love them when I was younger!

Now that stinkleroy has suggested it, Im sure ive got R-Type and the emulators to run it on my laptop..... hmmmmmm, ill have to see if I can find the disk. Good call stinkleroy!

[stinkleroy]

R-Type was my favourite game as a kid..:D

Try Soldner-X from the PSN store..it's a PS3 2D side scrolling space shooter, I've heard it's pretty good :)

[Hellfire_WZ]

I've missed the old space combat games a-la Colony Wars too, there's only a few games that have really filled that gap. While I've never played it, I think Freespace is the closest you can come to that sort of game. The one that really took me though was X3: Terran Conflict. It's a full-on space sim rather than a combat game so it's slow to get into, but if you want to fly anything from small scout craft to huge destroyers and carriers it's a real blast. You can always go down the bounty hunter route and make your money from combat, at higher ranks it can get very challenging. I'd also recommend Terran Conflict over the other games in the X series as the interface is far more user friendly. And then somewhere in the middle is Freelancer. Much more combat orientated than X3 but still has the trade element, and you can only fly fighters.

Probably not exactly what you're looking for, but the closest I've come across :)

[djKyoto]

Buy a dreamcast and get the Treasure games, best ever.

[blackwiggle]

You can download the PSone game G-Police from the PStore.

It's bloody hard though be warned

[mdhay]

The aren't for PC.

I've just remembered about Forsaken, a game similar to Descent. It's on PC, though it's not a space shooter, but it is close.

The real problem is tracking it down; it did come out in '98, after all.

[rdmx]

I do not think posting a link will be wise, but check out the Forsaken page on wikipedia, one of the links at the bottom has a website hosting the game. It has become effectively abandonware now. It IS a very old game after all.

I have heard there are quite a few mods for Freespace to make it significantly better graphically.

Eternal Silence is a multiplayer mod for Half Life 2 which features space combat and first person sections and came 7th in the ModDB player's choice awards for 2008. That might be worth chekcing out.

Unfortunately however, not many people have released space combat sims lately.

[archman]

Definitely give a try to Freelancer [PC]. This game is in my Top 10 games ever! Excellent feel, good story, non-linear gaming, online, it's pure experience. And runs on Linux :D

[DawnFireDragoon]

um, lets see:

blast radius - ps1 (a more action based colony wars)
r-type delta - ps1 (if you like r-type this is a 3d-ish version)
g-darius - ps1 (like r-type)
raystorm - ps1 (like r-type but mental)

aces of the galaxy - xbox live arcade (colony wars meets r-type on rails viewed from behind your ship...hard yet rewarding)

g-police and g-police: weapons of justice (a bit space combat-y) - ps1

star wars: rogue squadron series (all pretty good) - n64/gamecube

that's all i can really think of...there's definitely space (no pun intended) in the market for a new space shooter...

rumours of starhawk emerged this week too!!!

[omega329]

Anything built on the FSOpen engine is pretty damn decent, and usually free
The Babylon Project (Babylon 5 total conversion) (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,51780.0.html)


http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/FreeSpace_Open_Installer how to install freespace open (not needed for The Babylon Project, and you'll need to buy Freespace 2 from Good Old Gaming) but plenty of great campaigns for it

EDIT: bah! Mdhay said Freespace allready! but "the babylon project" is free, along with "wing commander saga" and "Beyond the red line" (still in development, has a demo)


I've just remembered about Forsaken, a game similar to Descent. It's on PC, though it's not a space shooter, but it is close.
hmm, I might have a download link for that... don't actually know if it's legal or not, no idea what happened to the company, but I won't post it to be on the safe side...

[andy]

there's a game on the 360 called Project Sylpheed. I've only played the demo and I'm not sure if its on any other platforms, but I enjoyed the demo and there were a lot of enemies and lots of stuff happening. It's basically you in a space plane, flying around and blowing stuff up, and there are lots of weapons too :p

[MrSmadSmartAlex]

Haven't seen anything recent which has taken my fancy, so I just run the Colony Wars games (I still own the originals) on epsxe with some plugins to enhance the graphics - still looks and plays great. Takes quite a powerful PC to run smooth though.
Oolite is pretty good too if you like freeform games (and it's free), if a little outdated. There are loads of user made add-ons too - extra ships (including TIE-Fighters!), missions, etc.

[mdhay]

EDIT: bah! Mdhay said Freespace allready!

Muahahahahahahahah!:D



hmm, I might have a download link for that... don't actually know if it's legal or not, no idea what happened to the company, but I won't post it to be on the safe side...
Acclaim went bankrupt a few years back.

[Lance]

Just because a company went bankrupt doesn't mean that some other company hasn't acquired the property rights.

Hell, all rights to the White Star Line [Ocean Steam Navigation Company, direct owners of the Titanic] are still owned by a modern company [last I heard it was Carnival cruise lines] even though White Star ceased to exist even as a working trade name about fifty years ago. Copyright is a very persistent thing.

[mdhay]

Lance, last I checked, the rights haven't been bought by anyone.

[G'Kyl]

I'm puzzled nobody mentioned Independence War 2 yet. It's sort of an Elite/Privateer/Freelancer kind of game with:

- a not quite so open world, but still lots of things to do,
- a cool story,
- a beautiful universe (I can't stress this point enough. As a matter of fact, the game came out in 2001 and has aged very well since!),
- a just as beautiful soundtrack and
- a great physics engine based on Newtonian mechanics (it's included in an accessable flight model, so don't worry).

I'm probably missing something here, but anyway... give it a try. I still play the game from time to time - in my pov it's one of the best space sims ever created!

Ben

[Harvai]

there's a game on the 360 called Project Sylpheed. I've only played the demo and I'm not sure if its on any other platforms, but I enjoyed the demo and there were a lot of enemies and lots of stuff happening. It's basically you in a space plane, flying around and blowing stuff up, and there are lots of weapons too :p

I actually bought this the other day, And I can say for sure that it's pretty much Ace Combat in space. Didn't think Square-Enix could pull off a non-RPG game, but so far this feels pretty solid. **** gets pretty crazy, though, with so many enemies to try and lock on to and me flying into enemy/friendly battleships by mistake (I don't discriminate!)
I think it's only for the 360, though, so there's a bit of a bummer

[rdmx]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_space_flight_simulator_games
I guess there's a good list.

[YouAreFubar]

You sir, are a legend. Theres loads to try and find in there, good post insertcoin. Thanks all for the suggestions everyone, ill be checking some out over the weekend!