Space, Flying and Space Flying

[Jory]

Ah Unity3d... Out of curiosity, have you ever played Jetpack Brontosaurus?

A game where you play as a dinosaur... with a jetpack? And I wasn't informed. My lord

 

[Trexman]

I'm waiting for a game like Crimson Skies where you have to take off at the start, and if you see a nice green field somewhere, you can land, get out, stretch your legs, maybe have a bit of a picnic before returning to the dogfight.

you mean like Warhawk?

 

[zBeeble]

Not that you've ever listened to me or replied to my comments. Not that I matter.

But (never having played it, but it seems to be well recommended to people wanting space battles):

Shattered Horizon

... or maybe Gratuitous Space Battles ... might be a place to start.

 

[madmurch]

Ah, yes - the decline of the quick-flying, laser-shooting games of yore does fill my heart with sorrow. My friends still laugh at me whenever I profess my undying love for the G-Police series... Since I've dug out the old PS1, maybe I should buy the old Colony War games too...

 

[RTR]

I wonder what Yahtzee thinks about Starfox. I know its more arcade than 3D space flying, but still.
How about if StarFox did just that the next time around?

 

[Lono Shrugged]

If I ever played a game where I could fend off boarding parties, walk around to use turrets Star Wars style, space walk around outside my ship and land on an Alien planet and drink space whiskey I think I would jizz out my heart.

Deep down we all want to be Han Solo flying across space, shooting first and making our mistakes look awesome.

 

[JokerCrowe]

Ah Unity3d... Out of curiosity, have you ever played Jetpack Brontosaurus?

I have to say... I think that is the most awesome online game I have EVER played!!
It's a Brontosaurus... with a JETPACK!!!
Thank you for that mysterious stranger... you've brightened up my life considerably!

 

[Xersues]

I often mourn the current dearth of good space sims, though I generally make a point of mentioning that there actually hasn't been a really good one since Freespace 2, since it's the greatest space sim ever and if you disagree with me you are wrong.

I miss Freespace. That and X-Wing Vs. Tie fighter were two the of the best space fighters ever made.

Play FS and FS 2 and experience the awesomeness of both. Seriously. The FRED editor was just brilliant move. Best 30 bucks I ever spent on a game back when.

Poor Volition, Inc. When will you make good games again?

Do you still have the game? If so, good. If not pick it up from Good Old Games for $6 [http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/freespace_2].

Now go here [http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=65038.0], and follow the directions. Welcome to the wonderful world of "Holy crap, there's still an active Freespace 2 community that's been dramatically overhauling the engine and graphics so that it runs on modern operating systems and looks like it could have been released last year instead of over a decade ago?!

You're welcome.

I would probably cream my pants if I haven't been a part of that community for a long time But thanks for posting it here. VERY much worth the look for anyone out there looking to get the game!

 

[roastbeefy]

What I see is sort of like "Adventures in the Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment," except with a different combat system instead of the one that I felt Yahtzee wanted to stab himself in the head for.

 

[illiterate]

My dream has been "grand theft spaceship" -- I want to be able to get into a space vessel, and strafe groundside targets. I want to be strafed by spaceships. I want to see ships flying above me and "interact" with them with a sufficiently heavy weapon.

And I want it in multiplayer. Is that too much to ask for?

 

[L4Y Duke]

Perhaps Yahtzee should look into the Ace Combat series? It's got some ground-based stuff. Granted, it's limited to take-offs and landings, but it's a start.

There's even a couple of good setpieces in 5 (Squadron Leader) and Zero (The Belkan War), where you're in your jet on the tarmac as things go to hell before you can even take off.

And I'm going to say Freelancer may be the Space Sim you're looking for.

EDIT: I don't think that Space Flight games tanked because they were easy, or hard. I think they tanked after the Earth and Beyond debacle.

Essentially, EaB was to be a Space Flight MMO headed by the RTS giant Westwood Studios. It did eventually get released, but it bombed. Big time. The servers were shut down after 2 years, and Westwood was no more.

 

[Zer0Saber]

He must never have played Warhawks (fighter planes mixed with ground combat). I also drone on about no more space flight games. I like the X series, but my favorite is the Freespace games. yeah, and who here has ever played Hardwar, that is an old goodie.

 

[Dhatz]

you know what happened? vacuuuuuuum. utter domination of vacuum over any interesting bits in universe. wacuum is what nobody wants to see because if you chopped GTA IV's liberty city and spilled in enough useless buildings, it would be as boring as True Crime's attempt on the city of angeles.

 

[lumpenprole]

And when you decide to streamline it, the on foot stuff will probably prevail, if only because a) it's far more common and popular and b) let's face it, a big part of the fun of space sims is being in space, and you don't actually need to pilot anything to get that.

I don't really think that's true. If you look at how many people jumped up and said Battlefront 2, it seems like there's plenty of support for the jump in and out of ship model. Somebody up there referred to 'Grand Theft Spaceship' and that's a perfect analogy. Earning my pilot license in GTA:SA was one of my favorite parts, and after that I flew everywhere.

I think the tools and the talent exist to make a game that used ground and space, and used it well. I think a big part of the reason it hasn't happened is that there's really been nothing like it and game companies prefer to bet on ideas with a track record.

 

[solidstatemind]

I have a new favorite insult: Dickbiscuit. You're the best, Yahtzee!

 

[Barbari Damnati]

How is a black void more interesting than a landscape?

It's not, it's the awesome mechanics you can add in that make it more fun - in space, once you reach a speed, you don't really need to keep using fuel to travel. Which means you can literally spin a ship round AND FLY BACKWARDS while shooting your pursuers in the face.

In fact, the actual physics are quite fun in their own right. Now add guns, alien worlds and an upgrade system.

Finally, you could always base the combat near nebulae, asteroid fields and the like, so theirs a whole tactical element that you would never get with a ground based flight sim.

 

[elexis]

If X3:TC shows anything, it's that space games can once again be done to a very high (graphical) quality, so that isn't really the issue anymore.
What IS the issue is that the userbase for this type of game, (first or third *shudder* person space combat simulator) is currently non existent. There have been no memorable space combat sims released in the last almost decade and those that have been releases never reached AAA popularity (their own fault in many cases). These two things combined make creating a major release space combat sim a very risky thing for developers/publishers.



(Also, I'd reckon it would be a modellers dream to have your boss come and say "Go make us a bunch of badass looking spaceships". It has to be in the top 5 things that modellers make in their own time.)