So what other space games are worth a play?

BUTUZ

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Already done ED to death back in my old Xbox days so that's out.

X4 Foundations?
Starfield?
Everspace?
No mans sky? (was put off by the farce launch originally)
Stellaris?
 

Thalstan

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SW:TOR is okay, but it’s a WoW clone. There are some good SW Galaxies servers out there too. If you can find one, you want one pre-new game engine unless you like a leveling game…then SW:TOR is probably better.

I am going to be plying Starfield. I’ve been playing some other BioWare BETHESDA (sorry) games like Skyrim and been loving it. I might do Witcher III next.

I’ve heard good things about X4, but I have not played it.
 
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BUTUZ

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Well X4 happened to be on offer on steam reduced to 15 quid so i picked it up to try out. :like:
 
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stockish

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SW:TOR is okay, but it’s a WoW clone. There are some good SW Galaxies servers out there too. If you can find one, you want one pre-new game engine unless you like a leveling game…then SW:TOR is probably better.

I am going to be plying Starfield. I’ve been playing some other BioWare games like Skyrim and been loving it. I might do Witcher III next.

I’ve heard good things about X4, but I have not played it.
At least SWTOR is F2P for the story arcs, definitely worth playing for that imo. Nothing like playing a slightly evil Sith Inquisitor with a love for electric tickles.
 

Mudhawk

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I might do Witcher III next.
By all means play that game.
And once you're done continue with "Blood and Wine"
Best damn DLC ever!

But back to the original question.
If you like Sci.Fi Shooter-RPGs and haven't played it yet: the Mass Effect trilogy is a must. And the Legendary Edition is kinda cheap to grab.
If you are more into building and exploring then "No Mans Sky" let's you do whatever you please wherever the solar winds take you. Biggest sandbox ever.
Or if you are more of a tactician, "Stellaris" is supposed to be pretty great (strategy is not my expertise) and it's dirt cheap on Steam right now. :-)
 

BUTUZ

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Yeh cheers done mass effect loved mass effect.
 
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CRISS9000

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X4 Foundations?
is aiht, but feels like it's 20 years old. planets are only in the background and you can't land on them. also, after a certain point, it becomes too easy.

Starfield?
ain't out yet, can't judge.

Everspace?
is fast paced and fun, but the story is CRIIIIIIIIINGE. I'd be playing it to this day if it was not CRIIIIIIIINGE.

No mans sky?
a huge but extremely shallow ocean. if you explored one of each type of planet, you've explored them all.

M.E. Andromeda was just okay. gameplay was fun but the story of andromeda cannot hold a candle to the original trilogy.
 
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Lorddarthvik

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Kerbal is a lot of fun, if you can get into that sort of thing.
Breathedge I found confusing and lame, it's the same conceot as subnautica if you played that just worse in every manner.
X4, wanted to buy into that for ages, last I played was X3 many many years ago. What I remember is the supply demand delivery breaks a lot and the universe just died in a couple days of gameplay. Also combat and flight in general is really atrocious.
If you're into strategy games, Master of Orion (remake by the same ppl that make world of tanks) is a rather decent one. I enjoyed a couple of rounds if that and I'm not that into this genre anymore.
If you want an annoyance, I mean rogue lite, Everspace (2?) is decent. I played 1, it was... Okay I guess. Just don't expect any sort of depth from any of it.
Stellar is a classic for strategy, I never played it though, only seen streams. There are lots of great themed mods (SW, Stargate, Star Trek, Wing Commander...)
Last time I played something like this was imperium Galactica 2. That was like 20 years ago.
There's also no man's lie and Ed but you played that to death in the first hour or two just like I did...
Ehh, enough of the modern trash. It's all just a pale imitation of what was actually good once.


If you want something that's very much like the old wing commanders, there is Darkest Dawn. It's a free mod of Freespace 2, but it's fully standalone, just a 4 gig or less dl.

BTW, have you played Freespace 1 and 2? If you haven't, why are you still here? Do it NOW!

Its the very last of the proper real "space Sims" we had. I will never ever forget the moment in fs2 spy mission flying a captured fighter, and the moment I it loaded in, the Ms sidewinder FFB stick in my hand rumbled like all hell and my wingman was shouting Dive dive dive!! as a... Nah, don't wanna spoil it fully. It's proper awesomeness, not just for it's time!
. I'm pretty sure you can aquire both of them for free by this point, they are abandonware with the source code freely available and the OG FS1 campaign was ported over to to the fs2 engine ages ago, so you can play both in one game. It's rather good, to say the least. It might be a bit of a hassle to set up on a modern machine, but it's so much worth it.

Edit : horrendous typ's, fuck autocucumber on my phone..
 
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CRISS9000

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X4, wanted to buy into that for ages, last I played was X3 many many years ago. What I remember is the supply demand delivery breaks a lot and the universe just died in a couple days of gameplay. Also combat and flight in general is really atrocious.
regarding X4: the market simulation is rather stable, although there is a caveat: every New Game start generates a random code as a seed for the universe, and this random seed affects all aspects of the universe, market included, and you only find out the extent of the effects after many hours into the playthrough.

as for combat and flight: as I stated earlier, it feels like it's 20 years old. the way the controls work leaves something to be desired and balance is almost nonexistent between big and small ships. when you start off as a combat-minded player, you will want to at the very least get a medium ship, because small fighters just have too small of a chance to survive a fight when there's more than 2 enemies (which is most encounters).
if you still want to get into X4, here's my pro tip: the best way to start is by exploring a couple dozen sectors to find ore for mining and stations that will buy it (make sure you have resource probes and satellites). then buy a few mining vessels with crew and assign them to mining in a sector that has both ore and client stations.


Edit : horrendous typ's, fuck autocucumber on my phone..
the infamous laugh-machine strikes again!
 
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BUTUZ

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Thanks all. I've managed to earn my first million in X4 by darting around collecting crates in the middle of a warzone. Going to buy a medium cargo and a medium mining with NPC pilots and try them out. It does seem to me to be more of a top down spreadsheet game than a first person game - when you get in the cockpit it's pretty mundane.

I'll get a medium fighter then as instructed by Criss and try out a bit of boom boom pow.
 
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NaffNaffBobFace

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Heh, talking about X4 feeling like it's 20 years old, I'm still playing X2 The Threat and have just checked - my first save is from 2003: 20 years ago.

I've just got to Ace of Aces 1st Grade and have started capturing Xenon K Destroyers but trying to get them all kitted out with the 125mw shields and Alpha/Beta/Gamma PPC cannons is becoming a pain in the neck - I can afford them, the universe just doesn't churn them out at a fast enough pace!
 
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Dirtbag_Leader

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I might do Witcher III next.
By all means play that game.
And once you're done continue with "Blood and Wine"
Best damn DLC ever!
Kerbal is a lot of fun, if you can get into that sort of thing.
Condensed subjective best advice in this thread. Holy hell is W3 a good game! NEVER got sucked into a story like that one, and just such a cool world to explore as well. If you've never played it, you're in for a real treat!
I have many, many, many hundreds of hours in KSP, but I'm an engineer and love both space and math, so for me that's sort of a no-brainer. But while you can still "PLAY" it and blow shit up for fun without really knowing what you're doing, it's much MUCH more rewarding if take the time to learn some real orbital mechanics, get a basic understanding of relative concepts like a Hohmann transfer and the Oberth effect, and be able to run some basic Delta-V calculations to make sure you're REALLY gonna be able to make it through your full flight plan. But as long as that sounds interesting, I'll get you started, here's the super awesome freebie 'Delta-V Subway Map' for the Kerbol system!
 

Lorddarthvik

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What, you actually do math for Kerbal? Now that's just way too much effort lol

Regarding X series : I really enjoyed the very different vibes of x1 back then, but could never get into it that much because even back then I found the controls with m+kb horrible and m the joystick implementation was basically non existent. X2 was the same. X3 had insane graphics and requirements for it's time, but as mentioned before it broke. A lot.

I'm hitting my head hard against the table but I can't think of any more space games from the last 10 or so years. No wonder SC blew up as it did really.

If I haven't mentioned before, there are full free remakes of TIE Fighter and Xwing Alliance on the net somewhere, I did try them and they are fun if you haven't played them 20 times over by now but have quirk like having to limit frame rates and such.
 
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