Any good Space Sim games out there?

Homeworld 1+2.

Ground Control

Sins of a Solar Empire

It is not older then dirt but it's not the newest kid on the block. Freespace 1 and 2 are by far some of the best space sims I ever played. You can get both of them on Gametap. There is also a great remake of Wing Commander Privateer being done that is freeware on sourceforge, can't remember the name of it off hand.Kragspire

NICE thanks, thats morely what I'm looking for.. as opposed to RTS games. Am checking out the Privateer remake now.

Might add Eve online here.Zaeryn

You know, I'm really depressed that a space mmo flew under my radar for so long. I didn't hear of it, until almost a year ago. How is it?

If you can find it, try star trek: bridge commander. That game was elite.

Also, star trek klingon academy and freelancer were decent games.

[QUOTE="Zaeryn"]Might add Eve online here.Impulse1195

You know, I'm really depressed that a space mmo flew under my radar for so long. I didn't hear of it, until almost a year ago. How is it?

At least I love it, it's the best scifi MMO out. It does have a massive learning curve though.

X3: Reunion (or others in the series but I find them to not work so well on modern computers) is a good one to try too.WDT-BlackKat

Any software sold with Star Force as a copy protection is going to run badly on anything (same as with Sony DRM). No way I install the thing and then try to get rid of that nasty DRM afterwards (there's a patch for the newer X3, to kill the Star Force, supposedly, but I don't trust it !)

Try this

http://files.filefront.com/BtRLDemoInstallerexe/;7090920;/fileinfo.html

Its a demo of a mod for Freespace 2 set in the Battlestar Galactica universe. The full mod is not yet complete but the demo is great and I cant wait for game to be complete.

Any software sold with Star Force as a copy protection is going to run badly on anything (same as with Sony DRM). No way I install the thing and then try to get rid of that nasty DRM afterwards (there's a patch for the newer X3, to kill the Star Force, supposedly, but I don't trust it !)Kiwi_1

Maybe you're playing a completely different X3 than I am. Doubt it has Starforce as the disk is not even required to play. Maybe I have the Euro version somehow or something.

Just do a Google search for the words starforce and reunion, read a few of the nasty stories, then skip over that game.

http://forums.megagames.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-45875.html

Just do a Google search for the words starforce and reunion, read a few of the nasty stories, then skip over that game.

http://forums.megagames.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-45875.html

Kiwi_1

Yeah, do that and find out that Starforce is not on the Steam version of the game, and then give X3 a go. The funny thing is that any game that normally has Starforce on it, WON'T have it on the digital distribution version.

Oh, and in addition to what has already been recommended: Independence War 2: The Edge of Chaos

(Plus, another HUGE thumbs up for EVE Online...the game is wonderful)

Are there any good (somewhat new) space sim games out there? I've always loved the Wing Commander series, and Starlancer, and Freelancer.. etc. But lately I've really been itching to play this type of game again. Anyone know of one?Impulse1195

Wow, another person who actually like the Wing Commander Space Sims?!?!? ;)

Did you play Privateer? If not, and you don't mind OLD-SCHOOL, try this, plus its FREE! :)

http://priv.solsector.net/

Well. Sins of a solar empire came out 2 weeks ago, looks good, has a 9.0 here on gamespotnatdog112

Sins is not a space sim. It is a Space RT4X game. Space sim = "flight sim" in space.

The only sim I truely consider a space sim would be Iwar and Iwar 2 (Iwar = Independence War). Although, it's probably near impossible to get Iwar working on any modern PC. Iwar 2 works fine with WinXP. Although, the gameplay does gets dull.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sim/independencewar2edgeoc/index.html?tag=result;title;0

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00005ASGK/ref=sr_1_olp_1?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1203104401&sr=8-1

{nitpick}I find it difficult to refer to titles like Freespace, Wing Commander, X*, etc. as space SIMS, simply because they don't have realistic flight models. Only the two Independence War titles and Terminus have proper Newtonian flight models to my knowledge, and both still have the rather unrealistic feature of letting you hear sounds in space.{/nitpick} Now that I have that out of the way, let's get on to business: -Freespace SCP (You can find it somewhere on the forums here. You can get FS1, Silent Threat(FS1 expansion), and FS2 for free-LEGALLY, by the looks of it. Even better, the engine has been enhanced substantially, and it looks much nicer now.) -Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos (The poster above has covered this game already, so I shouldn't have to go into it. Besides, I actually need to play the game some more before I can give a proper opinion.) -Allegiance (You can get it here. It's an interesting blend of space combat and RTS, and it also happens to be legal freeware. Beware, though-the learning curve can be quite steep for newcomers.)NamelessPlayer

{nitpicking the nitpick}Much like how flight sims run the spectrum of Crimson Skies/Strike Commander/Blazing Angels through Falcon 4.0/LOMAC/Flanker 2.5/iL-2, space sims run the gamut of "realistic" flight modeling. So while games like Freelancer, Wing Commander series, and Freespace don't abide by "realistic" flight characteristics, does not mean that they should be stricken of their space sim status.{/nitpicking}

By the way, Freespace 2 and I-War 2 are still beautiful games (in spite of their DX8.0 graphics :P )

For those that are getting into I-war 2, I suggest installing 'mulitmod' for 'multimod location finder' (or "location finder" without the "mulitmod" sub-mod).... It's one of the few mods that was created by the developer, themselves.... probably should get the 'manual countermeasure' mod and the 'no launch sequence mod', too while you're at it.... and maybe custom jafs (so he can pilot a bigger ship....with a bigger payload)

http://www.i-war2.com/downloads.htm

There are actually a couple of Babylon 5 homebrewed (pro quality tho) sims out, one is based off of the freespace 2 engine, the other was coded from ground up (B5-I've Found Her, prequel of a coming series of games)

http://babylon.hard-light.net/ & http://ifh.firstones.com/

And something else entirely: http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/

A couple of Star Wars based sims: http://www.bruneras.com/fgames.htm

A couple of mods for that last one: http://webhome.idirect.com/~tomyee/ (Tron, Star Trek mods)

These are all free if I remember right, basically all space sim shooters, but the Babylon 5 ones are story driven.

Let me know how you like...

Thanks for all your responses, I'll definitely be looking into some of these.

I actually own Tachyon: The Fringe as well, to those who brought that one up. Its a pretty decent game, I think it came out around the same time as Starlancer, because I bought them both at the same time one day on a visit to Best Buy. You can imagine how happy I was, finding 2 space sims I'd never heard of until then sitting there, apparently brand new on the shelf. In Tachyon your main character is voiced by Ash himself (Bruce Campbell), so that alone kinda helped it along for me.

Starlancer though became one of my favorites, I love the ships and the characters and everything. The missions were awesome, if it wasn't for the difficulty and then having to replay difficult missions over and over again after failing, then it would be almost perfect.

Yeah I played the Privateer games as well, to those who asked. I especially love Privateer 2: The Darkening. First thing I'd ever seen Clive Owen in, and because of that he'll always be Lev Arris in my mind.

I really hope that Wing Commander will in some way be continued though, not counting the crappy XBLA title put out in its name. I have a Microsoft Sidewinder II joystick thats just begging for something new, and not solely mouse controlled. Something tells me I'll be waiting a while for that though :(

I've found the X series to be really good, even if they do have the SF curse on them. Not sure about the first game, but I know Ubisoft have released patches to remove SF (and the need for a disc) on both X2: The Threat, and X3: Reunion. It was never put on digital distribution downloads, which use their own copy protection.

It will be interesting to see what Ubisoft does with the next installment of the X series, which is in the works - terran conflict or something I think.

Homeworld 1+2.

Ground Control

Sins of a Solar Empire

biggest_loser

he said space sims, not space RTSs. Those are good games tho!

I suggest:

Freelancer
Darkstar One
X3: Reunion (if you can handle slow pace and a steep learning curve, this is best!)
Independence War 2

Im not a massive space game fan and I was looking at what might get me into them. Sins of a Solar Empire pretty much struck the right note, bonus points for it being new (i.e. I will have more patience with it).F4ll3n_1

be careful, though, it will pass the hours liek minutes!

Tie Fighter was the best space sim ever made.gobo212

No Freespace 2 is hehe.. Even by today's standards its a fantastic game with the numerous mods for it.