Space, Flying and Space Flying
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
i would consider not being drowned a plus... but thats just me.
good luck on your space game the last one i played was that project something or other on the 360 which was meh nice CG, so so gameplay and poor story but macross would be proud of the missile spam. i think the problem is less with the games stopped being fun but rather that what new can you bring to space combat? real physics? someone tried that with a mod freelancer (don't know the name) and dogfighting consisted of head on charges that lasted 1 second then they needed to stop and turn.
good luck on your space game the last one i played was that project something or other on the 360 which was meh nice CG, so so gameplay and poor story but macross would be proud of the missile spam. i think the problem is less with the games stopped being fun but rather that what new can you bring to space combat? real physics? someone tried that with a mod freelancer (don't know the name) and dogfighting consisted of head on charges that lasted 1 second then they needed to stop and turn.
Space flight games... how 'bout Zone of the Enders? There's supposed to be another one coming up. It's been coming for a while...
Space really isn't all that fun unless a lot of stuff is going on around you (you need to have a sense of scale). To cope with this problem large battles with enormous ships to fly around/near are needed OR you should be able to fly in and out of the atmosphere of a planet... that could be really cool. Go do that, Yatzee. I told you to do it, and therefore it should be easy and quick, as that's how most people think game making works.
I wish Dark Void were better, I was so looking forward to it. Sadly, I never gave it a chance, but based on reviews (and my current funds), I don't think I'll ever bother with it... I like flying too! :'(
I wish Dark Void were better, I was so looking forward to it. Sadly, I never gave it a chance, but based on reviews (and my current funds), I don't think I'll ever bother with it... I like flying too! :'(
I think a big part is that there really isn't a whole lot to do with a space flyer game. Maybe there's a shortage of games because there's a shortage of ideas that companies can use to hook people on a game centered around space flight. I mean sure you could have a game where you get to fly around being a good/bad/neutral guy and generally making space your playground but then you'd just have freelancer all over again. Which really wouldn't be too bad but we have to think about originality here people.
Of course I will get flamed for this, and probably have my gamer credentials undermined and ridiculed, but frankly I don't care. I've been gaming for longer than many people on here, Yahtzee included, and I know a truly terrible game when I play one. Here goes: Sonic Unleashed is a good game. The daytime Sonic levels are trial and error twitch gaming, a little frustrating, but massively rewarding when you master a level (anybody yearning for the gaming ethos of the early nineties really shouldn't be complaining. Apart from the QTEs, but frankly they're hardly the great evil that Yahtzee makes them out to be. They CAN be done well). The werehog levels are an admittedly mediocre brawler interspersed with some of the better cerebral platforming I've seen of late. Ok, so it's no Super Mario Galaxy, but it's hardly Croc either (and it isn't going to aggravate my vertigo). The problem with Sonic Unleashed is just that it suffers the gaming equivalent of split-personality disorder with involuntary narcissistic medal-collecting.
Well, unless you played it on the Wii, in which case it truly is utter gubbins.
Well, unless you played it on the Wii, in which case it truly is utter gubbins.
I love games like Prototype and Spiderman 2 where you can free-roam flawlessly, but what really has me is the Xenomorph in the upcoming Alien vs. Predator. Climbing everywhere at insane speeds is a little disorienting, but for now the novelty is beating any space or free-roaming based gameplay I've experienced.
One of the first "real" (non-educational) games I was allowed to play was Freespace 2, and I loved it. Ah, the memories.
Lots of flight sims have died out. Trying to get a joystick in this day and age is much more difficult than it used to be. I remember the days when hardware retailers stocked at least a dozen joysticks to pick from. Nowerdays, I visited three different PC stores and none of them had any.
I remember X-3. The game is practically a second job - you are a space trucker, and you have to commit to weeks of ferrying stuff around before being able to buy anything of value (like a factory). I remember, after commiting 20 or so hours to the game, finding I was still making only paltry sums of money and having no fun whatsoever. It took me that long to finally say "fuck it" and snap the game disc.
I had my own idea for a space sim: set in the orbit of a gas giant, in which different altitudes put you into different atmospheres (radioactive ones/corrosive ones/safe ones/upper orbit etc.). Plus the ships would be big, ugly things that kind of look like steam locomotives, bristling with guns.
I remember X-3. The game is practically a second job - you are a space trucker, and you have to commit to weeks of ferrying stuff around before being able to buy anything of value (like a factory). I remember, after commiting 20 or so hours to the game, finding I was still making only paltry sums of money and having no fun whatsoever. It took me that long to finally say "fuck it" and snap the game disc.
I had my own idea for a space sim: set in the orbit of a gas giant, in which different altitudes put you into different atmospheres (radioactive ones/corrosive ones/safe ones/upper orbit etc.). Plus the ships would be big, ugly things that kind of look like steam locomotives, bristling with guns.
X-Wing and TIE Fighter 2 of the best.
Keep it simple without a million buttons and missions to remember is the secret. aka 'X Series.' Also a keeping it semi-realistic and not include silly things like having millions of missiles loaded onto your little one seater fighter. aka anything from Japan.
Keep it simple without a million buttons and missions to remember is the secret. aka 'X Series.' Also a keeping it semi-realistic and not include silly things like having millions of missiles loaded onto your little one seater fighter. aka anything from Japan.
Yeah this is mostly true, I think a fear of making a game too complicated has brought the space sim game down, since most of those games had no qualms about being ridculously hard and difficult to get into. I love games like that, but if there' no market, there's no market.jono793 said:
I disagree with Mass Effet being thrown in the pile with the other games, Mass Effect is very intelligent indeed.
Great to hear Yahtzee is going to fix everything himself, I played his Chzo games and they were awesome, a real throwback to my younger years. So if I had to trust any single person to revive space games, it would be ol' Yahtzee.
I wonder how many Zero-Punctuation-a-likes will try and slam his game when it comes out though
that was fun to read
Yeah when Star Trek Online came out I was wondering the same thing, what happened to the space flying games. It is not like we have had too many of them and it is not like we have never had great ones.
As you mentioned X3, but X3 tried to do too much and should have taken it down a few notches and just improve what they had and focus a bit more on making the combat and such more exciting and more fun.
One of my favorite space flying games though is Nexus Jupiter Incident, which if you have not played before you really have to play. The graphics in it are still good enough to blow your mind (which is shocking considering the game was released in 2004). The combat is both realistic, well shockingly realistic actually and at this time I will have to go right ahead and peg it as the most realistic space flying game to date. The combat was both hard, extremely strategic and fun and exciting. Though the game was held back by a large amount of bugs and a lack of proper advertising to get the name out there.
Nexus also had no side quests, no trading, just briefing, fleet set up and then directly to action filled with surprises and lots of great story. Unlike any other space game you never knew what to expect when entering the next mission, anything could happen often forcing you to redo a mission if you were caught off guard. One second you are scanning some derelict ship, the next you have a massive invasion on your hands. If that is not enough at times you will be greeted by enemy siege ships which unless you react fast enough (luckily the game had a pause mod to issue orders and what not) your entire fleet could be taken out within seconds.
Other than X3 and Nexus the only other great space game I can think of is Star Trek Bridge Commander, its bridge mode and direct ship control modes were both equally fun, each as usable and as effective as the other to play through the game.
Yeah when Star Trek Online came out I was wondering the same thing, what happened to the space flying games. It is not like we have had too many of them and it is not like we have never had great ones.
As you mentioned X3, but X3 tried to do too much and should have taken it down a few notches and just improve what they had and focus a bit more on making the combat and such more exciting and more fun.
One of my favorite space flying games though is Nexus Jupiter Incident, which if you have not played before you really have to play. The graphics in it are still good enough to blow your mind (which is shocking considering the game was released in 2004). The combat is both realistic, well shockingly realistic actually and at this time I will have to go right ahead and peg it as the most realistic space flying game to date. The combat was both hard, extremely strategic and fun and exciting. Though the game was held back by a large amount of bugs and a lack of proper advertising to get the name out there.
Nexus also had no side quests, no trading, just briefing, fleet set up and then directly to action filled with surprises and lots of great story. Unlike any other space game you never knew what to expect when entering the next mission, anything could happen often forcing you to redo a mission if you were caught off guard. One second you are scanning some derelict ship, the next you have a massive invasion on your hands. If that is not enough at times you will be greeted by enemy siege ships which unless you react fast enough (luckily the game had a pause mod to issue orders and what not) your entire fleet could be taken out within seconds.
Other than X3 and Nexus the only other great space game I can think of is Star Trek Bridge Commander, its bridge mode and direct ship control modes were both equally fun, each as usable and as effective as the other to play through the game.
I remember and loved both freespace games when they come out. There is a an arcadey space-sim available on the 360 - Project Sylpheed. Not as deep as the freespace games, but I thoroughly enjoyed it (though I am an anime fan, and enjoyed the story apart from a couple of really weak bits of characterization, and some rather obvious moments you could see coming miles away).
Plus, you had a cluster missile weapon that could fill the screen with 60 missiles at once, plus the free DLC added one that fired close to that of FULL SIZED missiles... and you could berzerk-fire both at the same time, so if you ever wanted a game you could Itano Circus away like in Macross, it was certainly the game to go for.
Not to mention the under-slung torpedos and bombs as big as your actual fighter (yeah, several loadouts meant I couldn't see very much of it because of all the weapons loaded on), the chargeable gravity cannon...
Plus, you had a cluster missile weapon that could fill the screen with 60 missiles at once, plus the free DLC added one that fired close to that of FULL SIZED missiles... and you could berzerk-fire both at the same time, so if you ever wanted a game you could Itano Circus away like in Macross, it was certainly the game to go for.
Not to mention the under-slung torpedos and bombs as big as your actual fighter (yeah, several loadouts meant I couldn't see very much of it because of all the weapons loaded on), the chargeable gravity cannon...
I cannot help you out in the Space Shooters department, but for normal Earth flying - you may wish to look to IL2-Sturmovik. Some of the missions involve taking off and landing. Plus the maps are always rather large and have plenty of stuff to shoot, rocket or bomb.
