I did enjoy the setting (as soon as they mentioned that I was in a squad called the 53rd hammerheads I felt like a hotshot pilot). But then I felt really weird piloting the ship. They don’t have the same sense of weight that I get when flying a plane in IL-2. And I’m just comparing the feel you get from flying your aircraft, not the campaign. It felt too much like descent to me (stop, turn, shoot), rather than a ship that flies in a more fluid way. But I’ve also been told in the FS2 thread that I was doing something wrong if I was stopping, so that might have something to do with it.
Honestly, the closest thing I can think of that you’re trying to get at is maybe, MAYBE Parkan 2, which lets you fly ships, get out and run around and shoot on planets and board other ships. It’s much more limited than a game like what you’re describing though.
Well, it’s space, you’re not really supposed to have that feeling of weight. These sims are like WWII in space, or “turn and burn” as they are also called. If you want space combat with more realistic physics, you want Terminus, the Independence War games or Klingon Academy, IMHO.
Indeed I have ever since seeing it on RPS, but sadly there’s been no news of late. I hope it doesn’t become the apparent vaporware that Jumpgate: Evolution is becoming, because it has a ton of potential.
Heh, I found it very underwhelming at the time, but back then I had a glut of greatness to choose from, so maybe I’m being unfair. I’ll give it another whirl.
Starlancer had a really strange problem that I’ve never encountered in any other space sim. The throttle could only be controlled via the throttle on the joystick. Since I either controlled it with the Sidewinder Precision Pro or the Sidewinder Forcefeedback pro, either way I had to basically take my left hand off the keyboard all the time to reach over to the joystick in my right hand, just so that I could adjust the speed of my ship.
I tried playing with the speed always set to maximum, but that didn’t really work out well. Then I tried playing with the speed set to half way, and it kind of worked, but it was such a pain in the ass. It was such a strange decision. Every other space sim lets you ignore the throttle on those sticks and override the thrust via the keyboard (usually the A and Z keys for maximum power and zero power respectively). So Starlancer not allowing that was just really strange. It was sort of like Mercenaries 2 wanting me to press A to accelerate instead of Right Trigger on the 360 controller. I tried, briefly, to get used to it, but in the end there are other games that are more fun that don’t try to force me to learn a strange new way of controlling things.
Well the crowd doesn’t seem to like Freelancer, personally it was a blast, yes the diablo comparison is sound, but heck, you might aswell toss a thousand other games into that mix. Freelancer can also be modded pretty hard, to give additional content.
If you want hardcore, the Starshatter is the -only- game that managed to do what shitcruiser 3000 didn’t however its also bugged, and I think Matrixgames has discontinued the series.
