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

Microprose, is that the Masters of Orion makers? I loved that one

Next gen tie fighter game needs to include new trilogy and prequel stuff. Separate campaigns, and good writing.

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.

True. I guess it depends on the game and the genre. I was thinking of the Bioware RPGs and the difference in the interface design on some of their more recent games. For example: http://kotaku.com/months-later-dragon-ages-pc-version-is-still-disappoin-1681031116

That said, RPGs are one of the most detailed an complicated genres of games. X-Wing is a basic space flight sim and is closer to a FPS interface, so it's probably not as big of a deal.

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

Microprose, is that the Masters of Orion makers? I loved that one

Microprose were the Paradox of the 90s until their quiet collapse and absorption of their IP into the hands of various license trolls.

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.

Yeah Starshatter was the masterpiece that was never touched, like a forgotten Da Vinci artwork. This is no hyperbole.

Funnily enough I found the controls of Freespace 2 to be the zenith of space sims BUT I hate hate HATED the lack of cockpit. Seriously, their ships were so pretty yet the lack of cockpit art was just tragic. It did however give better views of capital ships literally cut each other up.

There were a number of Easter egg's in the X and TIE series including ships with anagrams of microprose and other publishers of that era.

I disagree on the video game. Tie Fighter was a great game and added some nice wrinkles, but some parts were just too unbalanced. It was impossible to hit large ships with ordnance, making the bombers a pain in the butt to use.

Maybe this will work with the version you are playing, but I would call in a resupply ship, at a safe distance away from the target that you are still able to lock-on to it, and as the resupply ship tries to resupply my ship, I just fire as fast as I can so that the resupply ship cant keep up, and leave, it can give you unlimited missiles as long as you don't let it leave. You'll kill the cap ships.

Ps This doesn't work with the Missile Boat because its launchers are so high up they will destroy the resupply ship.

TIE Fighter is the perfect title of this game. Isn't the Academy Pilot the benchmark for effeciency in this game? Aren't there more TIEs than any other type of ship?

Soon there will be three TIE Fighter models. That right there should tell you whose game it is.

Or they could make the new set have a Avenger, Star wing, Missile Boat, and Purple Squadron Y-Wing.

Just want to give a shoutout to Wing-Commander-loyalists out there.

Star Lancer is butter! The awesome part and music starts at 8:11

Man....I almost wish I could find the head of EA Games for 5 minutes to talk him into remaking these games.

In all honesty If you ever do get that chance, I wouldn't do it. The reason being it will only end up being a PS4 exclusive game. It seems like every SW game they remake for next gen has been made a PS4 exclusive. Unless you can convince EA to have it come out on everything, people will just be more frustrated. Its bull that PS4 gets Super Star Wars, it came out on SNES, how does it get to be a PS exclusive?

Starlancer wasn't terrible...

The trick with ordinance in the series was to not use guidance system when attacking capital ships. Their point defense of shooting down the missiles won't work if you fire the ordinance blind. IE target nothing or a different ship, point and shoot. The closer you are to the target the better. I think the reason Prockets are range one is because of the series. You try hitting a ship at anything but point blank with those! Get close, fly fast (laser recharge directed to engines), and fire dumb.

Against fighters or freighters using guidance is easy mode/or your only way to take on a faster more maneuverable ship.

Yea, unless you were the target, fighters would only break formation when you shot at them.

It didn't matter so much in X-wing through XVT(well, unguided was the only way for the star destroyers shields) but XWA punished you for ever using the targeting computer against a capital.

in TIE and XVT if you targeted a capital ship, it could spam you with ACMs though.

One sneaky trick I used to use for XVT melee vs AI was load my ship with proton torpedoes, especially in a gunboat or Y-wing melee.

AI doesn't use them, and they can hit a Y or GUN just fine up close.

The trick with ordinance in the series was to not use guidance system when attacking capital ships. Their point defense of shooting down the missiles won't work if you fire the ordinance blind. IE target nothing or a different ship, point and shoot. The closer you are to the target the better. I think the reason Prockets are range one is because of the series. You try hitting a ship at anything but point blank with those! Get close, fly fast (laser recharge directed to engines), and fire dumb.

Against fighters or freighters using guidance is easy mode/or your only way to take on a faster more maneuverable ship.

I can't begin to count how many Star Destroyer and other capital ships my first priority was always that darn warhead (advanced missiles) launcher which shut down my other attacks.

Yea, unless you were the target, fighters would only break formation when you shot at them.

I can recall this issue too when trying to shoot down a squadron of Bombers with an A-Wing. Even with the right load the best things was often to just get behind them and dumb fire missiles into their backsides. Just target one and it may break; try to get a TL on one and it certainly would when the last thing you wanted was to go chasing one while the rest got into firing range.

In all honesty If you ever do get that chance, I wouldn't do it. The reason being it will only end up being a PS4 exclusive game. It seems like every SW game they remake for next gen has been made a PS4 exclusive. Unless you can convince EA to have it come out on everything, people will just be more frustrated. Its bull that PS4 gets Super Star Wars, it came out on SNES, how does it get to be a PS exclusive?

But... but... but... I have a PS 4

Oh, how could I forget? Freespace 2's soundtrack was among the most epic I've ever seen. Mass Effect, Dawn of War, Skyrim, Witcher 3, all these do not match the epic space opera themes that Freespace 2 provided.

I agree with the OP on the background that the flagship of this game, the T-65 X-Wing is currently, and has been for a long time now, the unloved stepchild of FFG.

The Tie Fighter is at least somewhat playable and efficient, although it has seen better times in the meta itself!

X-Wing is dead, long live Tie Fighter!

P.S. Why not just rename it Jumpmaster 5000 since this seems to be the real lovechild currently XD