So, Wing Commander 3, Wing Commander 4, or TIE Fighter?

I mean...we COULD call it X-Wing Vs. TIE Fighter.

I mean, sure, we all know the outcome already, but it's still a quality name.

There was a freespace 2?

Honestly, I am not sure why they went with just X-wing and didn't go for X-wing vs. Tie-Fighter. I have no issues with it being X-wing, but since originally they've made both factions playable and "equal"...why wasn't it X-wing vs. Tie-Fighter?

I played Xwing, Tie Fighter, and Xwing Vs. Tie Fighter.... While I really liked Tie Fighter, it was fun and had some nice upgrades, I much preferred X-wing (especially the '94 Collectors Edition with the upgraded graphics). I never got to play Alliance, but I feel as though I've missed out. I've been toying with getting a cheap joystick and going back and playing them all again.

Honestly, I am not sure why they went with just X-wing and didn't go for X-wing vs. Tie-Fighter. I have no issues with it being X-wing, but since originally they've made both factions playable and "equal"...why wasn't it X-wing vs. Tie-Fighter?

Brevity?

So, Wing Commander 3, Wing Commander 4...?

I'm actually shocked that people havent made a Wing Commander version of this game yet. A fan made one that is.

I'm more shocked that nothing has appeared (from my searches) on Shapeways. I loved the Scimitar in WC1 for instance. Hated flying the ship and hated the missions but something about the craft appealed to me. It was basically the Gunboat of WC.

Privateer's ships were really pretty as well. I still have fond memories of trucking in the Orion:

and jacking contracts with a Centurion.

Above all, I've always wanted to play the Demon Class:

More juicy ships:

I've tried to play wing commander recently. It holds up far worse than the x-wing series does.

Freespace doesn't do great either.

when did I get so jaded?

I've tried to play wing commander recently. It holds up far worse than the x-wing series does.

Wing Commander (1) had one big feat over all the other space sims:

That was its non-linear campaign structure. Every won or lost mission counted for the progression of the story and made this game so unique, saving a lot of replay value to it.

In my opinion this feature alone makes it the best game of the WC-series.

As it comes for hard sci fi games, I-War

always held a special place in my heart due to its very intelligent and challenging designed missions.

Yeah Wing Commander just plays differently.

With the exception of the Black Ops, Freespace's combat was much more about combined arms. I did, however, prefer the chaos in missions and that capital ship combat was done with giant cutting beams and flak cannons rather than the rather hit or miss laser bolts of Star Wars. I also liked the idea of being stationed on a capital ship and getting to know it. The Tiger's Claw and Aquitaine still stand out to me. Nothing from the X-Wing series really does.

Freespace also had much less secret objectives that you had to dig around for. X/W and T/F were always more personal dogfighting and secret objectives.

@John: did you ever play Starshatter? Newtonian or Earth physics, command a ship or fly a fighter, open ended campaign in a living galaxy at war. That was everything I wanted in a game (shame it's dead and gone).

I mean...we COULD call it X-Wing Vs. TIE Fighter.

I mean, sure, we all know the outcome already, but it's still a quality name.

Not only is it a quality name, but its also a perfect allusion to the 90s Capcom fighting game, X-Men vs Street Fighter, in two ways!

Man....I almost wish I could find the head of EA Games for 5 minutes to talk him into remaking these games. Imagine X-wing vs. Tie Fighter as a multi-player game with missions. It would just be an update from the old one. Mechanics can stay the same, except tweak anything that didn't work the first time. Improve the graphics. Create the multi-player handshake bit. It would be super cheap to create. There would be no story line. It would sell out like crazy.

Sell two DLC packages that re-create the Tie Fighter story line and the X-wing story line. Take the exact same story and missions and everything. Tweak anything that didn't work. Re-do it. Repackage it. Sell each separate.

They would bank roll so much money as the work to redo it would be so little. It would make fans happy. They could play their multi player version of the game. They could play their solo version of the game. It's tried and true.

STARSHATTER!!!! That's the game I was looking for.

Had that an eon or so ago.

Loved how that mixed fighter and capital ship combat.

Freespace 2, I loved the asteroid fields and nebulas. I never played Freespace 1.

I did enjoy the huge beams etc, made you feel very insignificant. However, I found the ranging/controls weird and nowhere near as intuitive.

That's the problem I have with wing commander really. I need to RTFM, unlike the x-wing series where the controls are memorized utterly to the point where they are a part of my psyche, and I am sure my kids know which buttons to transfer lasers to shields despite never even playing the game. Genetic memory etc.

Battlecruiser: Nope. The original battlecruiser when it was released free with all the updates wasn't terrible but... the game misses a lot. I like a lot of what it tried to do, downtime with upgrades, boarding, away teams etc.

Elite Dangerous is boring and grindy.

Space engineers... I love Space engineers, but it almost needs a DM to spawn hostile AI at the moment. I'd like to see hostile aliens actively after you.

Rebel Galaxy has the same huge problem Freelancer had, where different sectors had different tech levels so the US equivilent starter sector ships, even the best ones were akin to Z-95s against pirate sector TIE Defenders...

Freelancer, that was a good game apart from the above issue.

Not a space sim per se, rather an RTS (WITHOUT BASE BUILDING!! YES!!!) But Battlefleet Gothic gets it's space marine fleet next tuesday...

No Mans Sky is what I am really looking forwards to

I just picked up Starfleet command 1 on gog for less than 3 Canuckian dollars. That was a good game.

Also on my game list: Aliens:Colonial Marines. I'm sorry, this game got a bad wrap and improved a lot and in my mind as a co-op game is one of the best FPS' out there. It suffers a little graphically because of the time it spent in dev hell, but that's huge a huge deal.

I'd better stop, I'd LOVE a new wing commander game with full co-op, hell any game with a co-op campaign in my opinion gets an extra tier in awesome. XvT:BOP peeps.

Who remembers the microprose masterpiece M.A.N.T.I.S.?

Man....I almost wish I could find the head of EA Games for 5 minutes to talk him into remaking these games. Imagine X-wing vs. Tie Fighter as a multi-player game with missions. It would just be an update from the old one. Mechanics can stay the same, except tweak anything that didn't work the first time. Improve the graphics. Create the multi-player handshake bit. It would be super cheap to create. There would be no story line. It would sell out like crazy.

Sell two DLC packages that re-create the Tie Fighter story line and the X-wing story line. Take the exact same story and missions and everything. Tweak anything that didn't work. Re-do it. Repackage it. Sell each separate.

They would bank roll so much money as the work to redo it would be so little. It would make fans happy. They could play their multi player version of the game. They could play their solo version of the game. It's tried and true.

I doubt it... people probably would say its too complicated with all the keyboard button pushing and managing power between shields, weapons, engines... having to know how to use a targeting computer... scan targets. yea, video gamers of the new generations need less buttons not more.

@John: did you ever play Starshatter? Newtonian or Earth physics, command a ship or fly a fighter, open ended campaign in a living galaxy at war. That was everything I wanted in a game (shame it's dead and gone).

Nope, never did!

Took a look into Battlecruiser, though, but sadly was well underwhelmed by it, despite all the nice ideas it brought along.

Freespace 2 never drew me in. Maybe it was because of the controls or that the cockpit was just an HUD.

Privateer was fun though - Yet, I guess I am more an Elite First Encounter/Dangerous grindfest open universe person!

Buddy, I still remember Rescue on Fractalus...

It does show the division between the type of space gamer really though.

You got your traders/open worlders.

You got your builders.

You got your sci-fi military.

I'm 25% builder, 75% military.

I love building bases etc, but I prefer being given an objective and getting it done.

No time for trading, mining etc.

I'm not saying my way is the right or only way, it's just the role I like to play.

Both Steam and GOG have all three available now. There was/is a moding community that did a graphics upgrade on Alliance that is now compatible with steam. It is well worth installing if your thinking of playing it. I did starting last fall and worked my way through TIE Fighter first, then Alliance, and am now starting to play the occasional X-wing mission when I have time to kill (rarely)

I'm doing the same with x-wing on GOG. My PC hates it though.

Right now I am on TOD2, general,topace, diamond eyes with at least a half dozen star destroyer kills.

I doubt it... people probably would say its too complicated with all the keyboard button pushing and managing power between shields, weapons, engines... having to know how to use a targeting computer... scan targets. yea, video gamers of the new generations need less buttons not more.

Well, you would need a PC version and a platform version. The PC version can be as complicated as you want. I remember it took me a while to get good enough that I would start to mess with the managing the power levels of shields and engines and stuff. That stuff is all optional, anyways. You can totally fly the game without it. Just make the platform version not include all the bells and whistles.

Let's say you want to have platform be the same. You can include some stuff. Take the Star Wars Battlefront game now and just tweak it a bit. Targeting Computer is just a trigger button and whomever is closest to your center. Maybe make a TL toggle via one of the bumper buttons. Then, you can use the small, directional keypad to shift the power levels of different components. I dunno...I think it can be done.

You wouldn't need to do all the various toggling to play the game, though. I'd be more than happy if they made a dumbed down version for Xbox.

It'd be a dumbed down version for everyone.

THIS SAID: It could still work. If elite dangerous and NMS can be played with xbox and PS controllers, so can X-wing.

Just need to get creative. Targetting would need simplification, S-foils should be automatic (they were more or less anyway) Hyperspace where appropriate... do it the XWA way. Nav points.

Ditch weapon linking, use a button for weapon select. one thumbstick controls throttle etc, holding another and DPAD to select energy settings...

I doubt it... people probably would say its too complicated with all the keyboard button pushing and managing power between shields, weapons, engines... having to know how to use a targeting computer... scan targets. yea, video gamers of the new generations need less buttons not more.

Well, you would need a PC version and a platform version. The PC version can be as complicated as you want. I remember it took me a while to get good enough that I would start to mess with the managing the power levels of shields and engines and stuff. That stuff is all optional, anyways. You can totally fly the game without it. Just make the platform version not include all the bells and whistles.

Let's say you want to have platform be the same. You can include some stuff. Take the Star Wars Battlefront game now and just tweak it a bit. Targeting Computer is just a trigger button and whomever is closest to your center. Maybe make a TL toggle via one of the bumper buttons. Then, you can use the small, directional keypad to shift the power levels of different components. I dunno...I think it can be done.

You wouldn't need to do all the various toggling to play the game, though. I'd be more than happy if they made a dumbed down version for Xbox.

That's the problem, the big companies like EA are all about maximizing profits and have no desire to spend the slightest amount of extra effort to design separate games for separate platforms. As a result, games are reduced to the lowest common denominator which means they have to be able to be controlled by a thumb joystick and eight other buttons.

The best hope is for an approach like Bethesdas (Elder Scrolls and Fallout series) in that the PC version is easily moddable and mods are encouraged by the developer. That said, I'm pretty sure EA owns all the Star Wars rights and based on recent history, they won't stand for customers having fun without paying more money.

That's the problem, the big companies like EA are all about maximizing profits and have no desire to spend the slightest amount of extra effort to design separate games for separate platforms. As a result, games are reduced to the lowest common denominator which means they have to be able to be controlled by a thumb joystick and eight other buttons.

Not entirely true. PC games are still better versions than the platform games. You can do all sorts of stuff in the PC version of the same game that you can't do in the other. I've been playing the Battlefront series for longer than my kids have been alive and they have always had things like going prone or more commands or more map options. The PC games have been better and the platform version has always been sub par. It's not like they are dumbing down the pc version of these games, too.

At the same time....the whole idea of XvsT type of a game should fit right into what you said! They want to do the least amount of effort to make a lot of money. If they just pulled out the old games and shined them up, they could make a lot of money for little effort.