Eh, I gave up on that thread, too many negative Brians - I mean, negative Nellies in there griping constantly. Not worth the effort.
Brian’s calmed down about it these days. He’s come around to admitting that it’s fun when you start playing. And that someone could stay in that stage a long time and enjoy the experience. It’s safe to come back!
Elite could be worth $12 if you go in with the right expectations. IT’s a great flight sim, not a great game.
As far as “space flight sims” go, I had pretty high hopes for Rogue System, but looks like it’s dead. Oh, well.
Starshatter did that pretty well.
Rebel Galaxy Outlaw has my hopes up.
It reminds me of the old Lucasarts sims, in a good way.
I never played Starshatter (or even heard of it until now), but it looks closer to Freespace than Falcon 4.0. Rogue System was headed to sim-land, but like I said it seems to be pretty much dead. As far as actually finished games go, I’d say probably the closest space thing to Falcon was Independence War.
Oh. Nonono. Starshatter is the closest to a space Falcon 4.0 we’ve ever gotten. Get it. It’s free. Go. Now.
Yes, I was just mentally reviewing my comment and realized I fucked it up because the original context was about dynamic campaigns, not “simness,” right?
Oh Starshatter can be full on Newtonian sim if you want.
How have I never heard of Starshatter? How is it even possible?
I guess I was unclear by referring to Falcon 4.0. I was referring mostly to a dynamic campaign, but also to a deep, consistent sim, though not necessarily a ‘realistic’ one for space. I don’t personally consider Newtonian physics a requirement for a space sim, because I’m not convinced it makes for enjoyable gameplay. The fantasy of space flight works much better for me when it matches Star Wars and such.
There were only two Starshatter games, the last one came out well over a decade ago, and was made free/open source maybe five years ago. It still plays great. Fly a fighter or a bomber in a dynamic campaign, get promoted to a destroyer and carrier and so on. It’s really special. And hard. Really hard.
Canadians: $59 for a 480GB SSD is super cheap for upgrading an old PC, laptop or PS4. Today only.
Warning: This specific model of SSD is relatively slow though. Still faster than mechanical HD.
Yes, I bounced off this game pretty hard because I lack the right skills. I’m glad it exists tho.
I wish someone would make a video about it. Is there anyone I could ask to make a video about it?
I could look. I tried to make a let’s play series of it, but I didn’t get far.
This guy lasted a lot longer than I did, it might help.
I think Starshatter qualifies on both counts. It really does aim for a Falcon 4 feel. You’ll get assigned to various patrol missions, flying through WPs wondering whether you’ll actually see an enemy ship. Or maybe a bombing mission trying to damage a capital ship. You probably won’t destroy it, but damage is persistent. Maybe next time. Meanwhile, your front moves between missions and you get updates from other systems. Maybe you’ll be transferred to a different system. Maybe even take command of a capital ship.
If you do, I’ll add that capital ships in this game really feel like capital ships. Lots of systems and weapons to manage on a huge, ponderous beast. When your main beam weapon is finally charged and you are lined up for the shot, firing it is so gratifying. And when you finally command a carrier, you are the one responsible for setting patrol waypoints…
Yes, all that.
It even has “Fox Three! Splash One!”
Come to think of it, Starshatter might be better akin to Tornado in Space, which isn’t far from Falcon 4.0, but Tornado had an amazing mission planner.