Game suggestion help

[Monte Carlo]

Hi,

 

I'm in the mood for a space trader / exploration game, the last one I played being Elite. On a very old computer.

 

What examples of the genre are worth a look? They don't have to be very new, any age / tech specs welcome.

 

Cheers in advance,

 

MC

[Tale]

X3

 

I love the game, myself.

[mkreku]

Wait for Precursors.

 

I've myself been looking for an Elite replacement but I haven't found any yet.. and it's been like 23 years since I played Elite on my Commodore 128.

[Nick_i_am]

Someone's going to suggest Freelancer sooner or later.

 

It deffinately falls into the genre, but very much at the casual end of the scale. If you want somthing more hardcore, go for X3, as Tale says. The off the shelf version is apprently very buggy, so either get the rereleased '2,0' version, or else buy it off steam.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Enlight-10153-X3-The...8384&sr=8-1

Edited June 23, 2008 by Nick_i_am

[Deadly_Nightshade]

X3 or Freelancer.

[Slowtrain]

I woudl suggest X2 instead of X3. Its got a lot of awesome patches and mods available for it now. X3 is good to, but I think X2 was the high point of the series so far.

 

Heres a link to all the awesome X2 stuff you can get: http://www.egosoft.com/download/x2/bonus_en.php

 

You shoudl also make sure you get the Artificial ife download on the patches page as well. http://www.egosoft.com/download/x2/patches_en.php

Edited June 23, 2008 by CrashGirl

[SteveThaiBinh]

Darkstar One has much less emphasis on developing complex trading empires. You just buy low and sell high, like Elite. I enjoyed it a lot.

[Slowtrain]

The nice thing about the X universe games is there are a variety of different paths to awesomness.

 

You can build a huge fleet of trading ships. Or you can build a bunch of factory stations. Or you can mine asteriods. Or collect spaceflies. Or you can blow up innocent transports and collect their cargo. Or you can just run combat missions and play it as a straight space combat sim.

[Tale]

I enjoyed flying my destroyer and cruisers around just being a pimp. Because if I tried engaging anything of equivalent power, my system would not be happy with me.

 

Luckily I had enough trade ships out and stations of my own that I had plenty of pirate chasing to do.

Edited June 24, 2008 by Tale

[Pidesco]

I woudl suggest X2 instead of X3. Its got a lot of awesome patches and mods available for it now. X3 is good to, but I think X2 was the high point of the series so far.

 

Heres a link to all the awesome X2 stuff you can get: http://www.egosoft.com/download/x2/bonus_en.php

 

You shoudl also make sure you get the Artificial ife download on the patches page as well. http://www.egosoft.com/download/x2/patches_en.php

 

You can get both from Steam without copy protection for 25 bucks plus VAT.

[H]

Space Rangers.

[Pidesco]

[quote name='H

[Monte Carlo]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

I was at the games store when I saw Dark Star One bundled with Sacred Gold (I liked the original Sacred a lot) and Port Royale 2 (which is a pirate game I've never heard of) all for the princely sum of UK

[SteveThaiBinh]

I was at the games store when I saw Dark Star One

I applaud your good taste.

bundled with Sacred Gold (I liked the original Sacred a lot)

[Spider]

Dark Star One feels very much like Freelancer. At first. Then you realize it's a very, very shallow version of Freelancer. It's fun for about 5-10 hours, then it just gets repetitive and boring.

[Slowtrain]

Dark Star One feels very much like Freelancer. At first. Then you realize it's a very, very shallow version of Freelancer. It's fun for about 5-10 hours, then it just gets repetitive and boring.

 

 

We'll just wait for MC to embrace the X universe in some form or another. I think it would be his kind of gameworld.

[Monte Carlo]

I've just started flying the training missions, the graphics are pleasant but not flashy but the amount of controls takes a bit getting used to.

 

If I like the whole feel I'll definitely try out the 'X' games, but I'm new to the genre.

 

As for Sacred, well I love Diablo and Sacred reminds me of that but with better graphics. It's just point and click nonsense, but it's well executed point and click nonsense. With horses. I liked Divine Divinity for much the same reason.

[Calax]

Dark Star One feels very much like Freelancer. At first. Then you realize it's a very, very shallow version of Freelancer. It's fun for about 5-10 hours, then it just gets repetitive and boring.

 

 

We'll just wait for MC to embrace the X universe in some form or another. I think it would be his kind of gameworld.

...

 

for some reason I drew a connection between Darkstar one, Freelancer and Mass Effect....

 

:imagines running around in the Normandy like you can in Freelancer:

[Nick_i_am]

Darkstar one has actual space combat though. Freelancer was a good game, but it wasn't a space sim.

Edited June 26, 2008 by Nick_i_am

[Walsingham]

Since X3 has already been suggested, can I suggest you buy a small yellow three wheeled van and tour South London council estates? The experience should be remarkably similar. But with more flick knives and less lasers.

[Jorian Drake]

Hi,

 

I'm in the mood for a space trader / exploration game, the last one I played being Elite. On a very old computer.

 

What examples of the genre are worth a look? They don't have to be very new, any age / tech specs welcome.

 

Cheers in advance,

 

MC

hmm, i try to name some which were not listed

 

 

Masters of Orion 2 (not 3)

Smugglers 3

Imperium Galactica 1-2

Star Wolves 1-2

 

 

 

and Port Royale 2 (which is a pirate game I've never heard of)

I love Port Royale 2, I love most of the older ascaron games, and port royal is a nice blend of trading/building/piracy game of the colonial caribbean era

 

If you need some new flags for yourself then just PM me, i think i still have some of my own old ones around

[Spider]

Darkstar one has actual space combat though. Freelancer was a good game, but it wasn't a space sim.

 

What? Where? My memories of playing DS One is that the controls were virtually identical to Freelancer and that the missions were equally identical but less varied. I honestly don't see where you're coming from here.

 

Also, since you only had one ship, the whole trading aspect of the game felt kinda pointless. I typically had no problems buying all the upgrades I wanted from just mission money.

 

Edit: Oh, oh, I just remembered a game to recommend. Space Rangers 2. Definitely not a space sim, the game is a turn based space combat/trader with some planetside RTS missions thrown in for good measure. But it's space, it's exploration and it's trading. Graphics aren't anything spectacular, nor is the writing. But it's pretty fun (although it also gets a bit repetitive at the end)

Edited June 26, 2008 by Spider

[Shryke]

star control 2!!

[Slowtrain]

Hi MC.

 

I started a new game of X2. Here are some screenies for flavor.

 

First ship!

[Slowtrain]

Ship details menu!