Modern Space Games

[NayusDante]

Back in the 90s, I remember you could walk into any software shop and find joysticks and space sims like Wing Commander and Tie Fighter. Today, it seems like all that's being released is weird FPS-ish or foreign stuff like Dark Star One, Nexus: The Jupiter Incident, and Dark Horizon. Is there anything in the space sim genre worth playing from say, 2007 or later?

[calthaer]

When you say "space sim," are you specifically referring to flight sims that are set in space - a space flight simulator? First-person perspective? Or are things like "Space Rangers 2" considered "space sims?" Because that was a great game right there.

[JustRob]

I'd like to know this too. What's the modern equivalent to games like the Wing Commander, X-Wing series, or even over to the Elite side of things?

[atarikurt]

Darkstar One is actually pretty good, maybe a little less sim and more arcade style but there are some ship customization options and a decent story. If you have a Five Below store near you its only $5 too.

Wasn't there rumors of the X-wing series making a comeback?

[cynicalhat]

Its not really a new game but the game called freelancer was cool space based game with a story line and ship upgrades and cool battles and stuff. Back a few years it had a pretty cool multiplayer / mod scene also.

[NayusDante]

Dark Star One and Freelancer are both a little too FPSish for my taste (I've played both; they ended up in my selling stack). What I really want to see is something more recent and simulator-esque.

[-^Cro§Bow^-]

What about the X games? Those games are great..but for me a little too simulator. And I'm lost here...because you stated that Dark Star and Freelancer were both to FPSish? Freelancer was just a much better Privateer...and Dark Star is damn near a clone of Wing Commander games. My point being...Wing Commander and X-wing/Tie Fighter games were pretty much FPSish type games...played in space.

[NayusDante]

Yeah, I think that the X series is pretty much the only thing out there that fits what I'm looking for. I'll probably pick up X3 Terran Conflict when I get through a bit of my backlog, or maybe the complete collection on Steam.

Freelancer and Dark Star One both played like FPS to me, with the mouse control and all. They felt more arcade than simulator.

What I'd really like to see is a next-gen AAA space sim title, not sure if that's going to happen though.