Long Overdue Sequels
- Thread starter LutherSloan
- Start date
Since no one else brought it up, there is one game that killed the genre: Freespace 2. It went way over budget, had a big marketing campaign, and in its first six months sold well under 30,000 copies. While well-regarded, its sales were just plain terrible. It scared most of the industry off of space sims.
That said, we still got some good ones after that. Freelancer is one I've been playing through, and I find it very good. Tachyon: The Fringe is another excellent one, although it's not terribly open-ended. You get to pick which side of a war you want to fight on, and there are a lot of optional missions, but that's about it. Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos is another good one, although its control scheme is atypical. It uses Newtonian physics, although it has a "flight assist" mode enabled by default to make controlling your ship a bit easier. You still cannot turn on a dime like you can in most space sims, so in that sense it is a very challenging game--you have to pilot very deliberately.
Anyway, yeah. FS2 killed the genre, for the most part. Very sad.
And I wish they'd make a new Quest for Glory game/series, even if they started over with a new character. I want to see more of Glorianna.
Arcade flight sims like Rogue Squadron (or Wing Commander, from what I understand, but I've never actually played one), sure. But a full-fledged one like X-wing/TIE Fighter, where you don't just fly and shoot but also have to manage energy and targeting? Well, targeting, maybe. But I don't think the ship-management could be done on a controller.
Another nomination: Descent. (Which is also an arcade flight sim, that could play quite well on a console.
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Yeah, I don't know what the hell they were thinking with MOO3. I love a good management game, and there was nothing "good" about that one. One thing I loved about the first two MOO games was their relatively quick pace. MOO3, for some reason, seemed to take forever to really get moving.
While something like X-Wing/TIE Fighter would probably have to be simplified a bit to be playable on a controller, you could still easily manage shields and weapons with the D-pad. So yeah, I think even a new game set in the Star Wars world could work just fine.Arcade flight sims like Rogue Squadron (or Wing Commander, from what I understand, but I've never actually played one), sure. But a full-fledged one like X-wing/TIE Fighter, where you don't just fly and shoot but also have to manage energy and targeting? Well, targeting, maybe. But I don't think the ship-management could be done on a controller.
Another nomination: Descent. (Which is also an arcade flight sim, that could play quite well on a console.
Considering the number of buttons on today's controllers, there is really no reason you couldn't have a PC-style space combat sim on it. For that matter, I play space sims on the computer often with a Playstation-style knockoff controller and I have no problems controlling just about everything from that.
Didn't Freespace start life as Descent: Freespace?
I would love to see more Freespace games. But I fear Space Flight Sim is a dead genre.
I once read that the reason for its death was the fact they cost so much and took so long to produce and only had a small fan base they weren't worth it in the end.
I would love to see more Freespace games. But I fear Space Flight Sim is a dead genre.
I once read that the reason for its death was the fact they cost so much and took so long to produce and only had a small fan base they weren't worth it in the end.
Yeah, I am unsure why the Descent license was used for the first Freespace, but I suspect it was a marketing decision because the game had essentially no relation whatsoever to the Descent games.
And, as I said in my other post, FS2 basically killed the genre. Who knows why it didn't sell. It wasn't a bad game. Maybe it really was just a genre that had limited appeal, like the old Sierra/LucasArts adventure games.
In the PC world, a sequel/remake (or reboot since this is sci fi 
) of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is long overdue. A great game and a worthy partner of Civilization. It doesn't make sense for there to be four or five Civ games and one SMAC.
) of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is long overdue. A great game and a worthy partner of Civilization. It doesn't make sense for there to be four or five Civ games and one SMAC.
I love AC. But which book should they adapt to make it this time?
I think the problem with Freespace 2 was it was very buggy until patched, and it still had its fair share of problems after too, but it was a good game.
Trademark issues; Freespace was trademarked in the US by a drive compression program. Internationally, I believe it was released without the Descent moniker.
And while the game proper may have had no relation, it at least had the developers' pedigree.
YES! Can you imagine how beautifully it could be done with today's technology? I miss that game too.
I had no idea that Freespace 2 was so over-budget and underperforming.
Still, considering that many of LucasArts'/Sierra's adventure games have been resurrected (Sam & Max, plus the upcoming sequel to Monkey Island), it wouldn't shock me if we still got a Freespace 3 someday.
Still, considering that many of LucasArts'/Sierra's adventure games have been resurrected (Sam & Max, plus the upcoming sequel to Monkey Island), it wouldn't shock me if we still got a Freespace 3 someday.
Freespace is mostly known for how the sequel bombed; I'd expect to see something slightly safer like X-wing or Wing Commander first.
Y'know, I have Freespace 2, but I'll be damned if I can remember ever playing it. (And the original, but I know that I played it and the expansion.
) I ought to give the series another go some time.
The ending was a bitch. Basically a cliffhanger for a sequel.Freespace is mostly known for how the sequel bombed; I'd expect to see something slightly safer like X-wing or Wing Commander first.
Y'know, I have Freespace 2, but I'll be damned if I can remember ever playing it. (And the original, but I know that I played it and the expansion.
Kingdom Hearts 3...