• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Year of the Space Sim?

T

Tawpgun

Member
Was at PAX East last weekend and it dawned on me that there were a surprising amount of space flight sims.

Star Citizen, No Mans Sky, Elite Dangerous, EVE Valkyrie, not sure if there's anymore. Perhaps this is a byproduct of VR getting more traction. But it's going to be interesting to see if these get any more popular and if they'll saturate the market.
 
Most of of those are open world trading/exploration games. I'm still waiting for the return of the true king — the combat space sim a la Wing Commander and Freespace.
 
"Most of of those are open world trading/exploration games. I'm still waiting for the return of the true king — the combat space sim a la Wing Commander and Freespace."

I mean, that's what half of Star Citizen is (Squadron 42). Eve Valkyrie is straight up multiplayer combat only, no trading, no exploration. Enemy Starfighter is mostly combat with a bit of RTS on top.
 
I'm still waiting for the return of the true king — the combat space sim a la X-Wing and TIE Fighter.

Wanna look down on the deathstar below with real depth perception.
 
SparkTR said:
That's Star Citizen.
Click to expand...

Star Citizen is an entirely different beast with its economy, persistent online environment, etc. Squadron 42 sounds all right though, too bad it's a just a remake of the first Wing Commander game.

Teknopathetic said:
"Most of of those are open world trading/exploration games. I'm still waiting for the return of the true king — the combat space sim a la Wing Commander and Freespace."

I mean, that's what half of Star Citizen is (Squadron 42). Eve Valkyrie is straight up multiplayer combat only, no trading, no exploration. Enemy Starfighter is mostly combat with a bit of RTS on top.
Click to expand...

Well, yeah, but exploring your carrier and chatting up everybody on board was a huge part of the Wing Commander experience, not to mention being story heavy, etc. There's no such adventure game elements in Freespace, but it sill does a very good job of creating a certain atmosphere and its missions are also very good. I'm not against exploration and the like, they're fine. I like game like Elite and the X series, I just like story-heavy military space sims with missions and everything. I guess that formula could work in open-world games too like it did in Privateer.
 
Surely Star Citizen isn't coming out this year? It's scheduled for 2016, right?

Other than that, I recently grabbed X Rebirth from Amazon UK (paid about ~15 EUR as opposed to the gouging price on Steam). That game is a hot mess even after all the patching they've done. The worst bit is just how disgustingly anti-player the whole thing seems to be. The two and a half tutorials you get are shit as well.
 
"Surely Star Citizen isn't coming out this year? It's scheduled for 2016, right? "

The first episode of Squadron 42 is slated for this year.
 
"And does it look like they're going to deliver on time?"

If they hit the FPS milestone roughly on time, I'd say so. A single player/Co-op space combat game is mostly just combat scenarios and cutscenes. The combat part of Star Citizen has been playable for over half a year now.
 
glaurung said:
And does it look like they're going to deliver on time?
Click to expand...

Yeah, it seems that way, they repeated October for last 3 month and not delayed estimation by even a month, so it is possibility that it will land this year.

--
Tenrius said:
Star Citizen is an entirely different beast with its economy, persistent online environment, etc. Squadron 42 sounds all right though, too bad it's a just a remake of the first Wing Commander game.
Click to expand...
But, its not. Actually it is planned to be as big as 3 or 4 Wing Commander games combined.
 
Teknopathetic said:
"too bad it's a just a remake of the first Wing Commander game."


It's...not?
Click to expand...

Oh, it indeed appears so. Good news then. All this time I had the impression it indeed was a remake for some reason, very silly of me. Well, looking forward to the first episode this year, been a few years since I backed the game.
 
Good luck getting a hotas for under $100. Everyone is selling that damn the
Thrustmaster X for like 100+, and it's sold out literally everywhere.
 
Stimpack said:
Good luck getting a hotas for under $100. Everyone is selling that damn the
Thrustmaster X for like 100+, and it's sold out literally everywhere.
Click to expand...

Really? Still in stock at MSRP at a place close to my house. Maybe I should grab it now if EP.1 of Squadron 42 has a chance of launching this year.
 
I was hoping Destiny would be a space sim based on that experimental space combat mission in Halo Reach.


Anyway...I am long overdue for a good space game.
 
Steel said:
There will be a glorious revival.


Now if only mech games would have a glorious revival....
Click to expand...

Yessssssss

After Bloodborne FROM needs to make a Chromehounds 2. In this era of persistent, connected worlds being the norm it sounds like the perfect time.

The Neroimus War mode in Chromehounds was super innovative for its time and we are only now seeing some similar mechanics to it this generation. I was never so invested in a fictional faction in multiplayer like I was when I played Chromehounds.

Put some Oculus support on that and ez game
 
Tawpgun said:
After Bloodborne FROM needs to make a Chromehounds 2. In this era of persistent, connected worlds being the norm it sounds like the perfect time.
Click to expand...
I might have dreamed this, but someone from FROM SOFTWARE was quoted as saying that they definitely want to revisit the Aromored Core series once Bloodborne is out and done.
 
JohnSpartanLee said:
I'm still waiting for the return of the true king — the combat space sim a la X-Wing and TIE Fighter.

Wanna look down on the deathstar below with real depth perception.
Click to expand...

I welcome the returb of the spacesims but yeah

The king has yet to arrive. Imagine a new Xwing/tie fighter with todaya tech.. Mmmmmm
 
glaurung said:
I might have dreamed this, but someone from FROM SOFTWARE was quoted as saying that they definitely want to revisit the Aromored Core series once Bloodborne is out and done.
Click to expand...

Eh... I much preferred Chromehounds more tactical combat. And if they could ban party chat for the modes with the combas control that'd be great.

But I'm honestly mainly looking for a game that takes the mechanics of a real time persistent war and makes it good. I was hoping Destiny would do this with its factions but nope.


Let me pick a team, play PvP against other teams, and see how my team is doing globally. It's such an awesome way to be invested in winning. Seeing your country steam roll the map and logging on everyday to see what has changed on the battlefield was really cool.
 
"Let me pick a team, play PvP against other teams, and see how my team is doing globally. It's such an awesome way to be invested in winning. Seeing your country steam roll the map and logging on everyday to see what has changed on the battlefield was really cool."


Mechwarrior Online is doing that now (finally).
 
I've been playing a lot of Elite Dangerous, it's easily the best game of 2014 for me (other than Dota 2 of course). It's an excellent game, and as a first time player of these space sims, I'm glad to make them come back. I love the degree of control and realism I've found in Elite Dangerous, as well as the scale.
 
Space games in general have had a huge revival, not just sims.

It's great because I love everything about space, doesn't matter if it's games, TV, books, movies, real life amateur astronomy, I love it all.

Another game I haven't seen mentioned is Limit Theory which should be out soon(tm), basically it'll satisfy the niche of what the X series did, if you loved the X series I think Limit Theory is going to be the only game for a long time that'll fill a similar role until Egosoft pulls itself together and makes a new X game that forgets that Rebirth ever happened.

E:D is moving forward nicely, it released a little early in terms of features but we got 2 important updates recently and the 1.3 is going to be revealed soon + there is going to be expansions. It has everything you'd expect from the Elite games if you ever played them, it took the basic formula, improved it and added some features, but it's still missing some things that is coming over time already. It has the best combat/flight mechanics of a space game I've ever played, a lot of refinement/iteration went into that to nail it just right. It's a game where there's no other way than up, absolutely stunning core design, now it just needs to be expanded to infinity, which is their plan since it's Frontier's flagship title.

I've been playing EVE since 2005 still, it's just trucking along and getting significantly better with each update, absolutely stunning game if you'd ever take the plunge, it requires dedication like no other game if you play the meta, get into a good social corp/alliance, take part int he meta, have a fucking blast. No other game like it and don't go into it thinking it's like another MMORPG. Fantastic if you enjoy deep mechanics, it has more mechanics at play when in combat than any other game I can think of honestly.
 
Elite Dangerous is already pretty cool. Im taking No Mans Sky week off from work (whenever that is)

And I hope I have the cash to upgrade my rig for Star Citizen when that goes 1.0
 
I love the idea of persistenst open space games, but I hope games like Elite Dangerous will come with a sort of PvP matchmaking service. Or at the very least take a page out from EVE and just have sectors where PvP is more prevelant. Kind of
 
Tawpgun said:
I love the idea of persistenst open space games, but I hope games like Elite Dangerous will come with a sort of PvP matchmaking service. Or at the very least take a page out from EVE and just have sectors where PvP is more prevelant. Kind of
Click to expand...

As a player of both games I think EVE's factional warfare system would work insanely well in Elite. I did a bit of factional warfare in EVE on an alt (I mostly do 0.0 meta) but knowing the mechanics of it I think it would fit just right in Elite.

1.3 is titled "Power Play" and a few people have brought up this suggestion, who knows what the future holds. Maybe they will do something like that.
 
I think it's pretty awesome. I just can't get into fantasy/medieval game/movies so having a lot more sci fi RPG type of games has been great for me. I'm really enjoying Elite Dangerous on PC and I'll be getting No Man's Sky as soon as it comes out on PS4.
 
hobblygobbly said:
As a player of both games I think EVE's factional warfare system would work insanely well in Elite. I did a bit of factional warfare in EVE on an alt (I mostly do 0.0 meta) but knowing the mechanics of it I think it would fit just right in Elite.

1.3 is titled "Power Play" and a few people have brought up this suggestion, who knows what the future holds. Maybe they will do something like that.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. And if they really wanna have a persistent living breathing galaxy you could have players in factions that take over control of planets, star systems, and entire sectors of the galaxy. Would be sweeeeeeeeeeet.
 
I think it's amazing, and the more immersion added the better

Currently tempted to get Elite, but still haven't decided...
 
In addition to the above games, you also have Kerbal Space Program leaving Early Access and officially 'releasing' too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Space Hauler | Space Sim Announcement Trailer
Trailer VR 
1
159
roosnam1980 replied
Space marine 2 has achieved 12 million players, adds another year of support
News 
48
1K
larrybrady replied
  • Poll
Dead Gears - Space of War (what the hell, also a poll)
33
715
Darkmakaimura replied
If Microsoft never entered the gaming space.
2 3
149
1K
SNG32 replied
  • Poll
~ Your Game of the Year so far? [Q2 2026] ~
Poll  2
53
594
R6Rider replied
Top Bottom