"Freelancer thoughts (Go X2!!)"

[emehlman]

I think that at the end of the day, Freelancer might get console fans to use their PCs a bit.

All this turret nonsense - i presume they mean a gimbal or limited rotation factor, since the ship still has to turn if you want to track the target - is just an excuse to not have to be too good a pilot. They have made the mouse interface work by lowering the bar on aiming.

I remember that on certain craft in Starlancer the reticle would snap to the target if it were in the center area. Neat! In Freelancer, it seems you just select the target as you point, then click as fast as you can.

IF YOU INTENT TO PLAY FREELANCER, EXPECT TO REPLACE YOUR MOUSE. Better, buy a new one with a warranty then replace it when you are done.

X2, ES, etc. can learn from this too. I wish we could have seen an educated autopilot in this next one. (I have no access to the beta, so i'm relying on features discussed in interviews)

An autopilot that could dock (not just jump into the station), intercept (with a plotted course), speed run across sectors (for pre jumpdrive craft), and generally look nice and do cool things while i make the tea.

Makes a nice contrast, too, when you have to reach for the joystick when the going gets tough... (insert final scenes or Star Trek: Insurrection here)

Freelancer will be shorter than expected too. I expect you'll be able to complete the main story in a quarter of the time it will take for X2, and the generated missions are going to get old fast too.

In X2 one first needs the infrastructure to support ones adventures. You turn off the missions, you make a bit of cash... Missions can be cool when they are down to the minute, but they are better when you have a jumpdrive and a couple of hornets handy from your stock, no? Freelancer will PUSH the player through the game. You say no to a mission and it will start jumping around like a little dog trying to get you to take that mission.

Onto multiplayer, and I think they have really hit the nail on the head. They propose a terrific "run your own server" method, inviting LAN parties, community servers, and multiplayer missions to replace the expected MMORPG model we will see in the later months of Star Wars: Galaxies (with their flight add-on).

I should fess-up now and come out as an anti-pay-as-you-play user. I figure we got these PCs at home so we could play games without being in the arcade putting the coins in the slots. I will not sit at home and (via my credit card) put coins in the slot. Sell me the game, let me play with others or don't, but I'd rather play against an AI than have to pay as I go.

I dream of a significant strategy change for Egosoft, of course, but it should be buffered by the tremendous success of X2: The Threat.

ESM

[Gandalf The White]

Hi there,

The one thing that has atracted me to games like FFE, X-BTF and XT, is that although there are story lines, the games still have an open endedness that simply cannot be matched. It's not a case of "where is the big boss, oh he is blown up, next level please." By the way, I love doom!!! Anyway, the X games have a great deal going on in a very compact universe and you by your own actions, can greatly affect it. Especially on an economical level. You can break local econamies, you can fill in gaps in the econamy amunxed other things. You can baracade gates so you can hold back the Pirates or Xenon what ever.

There are loads of things that you can do with the current X games that by the sounds of it, FL simply doesn't offer. Sounds a bit like WC4 to me in the sense that WC4 has a linia story line and you can't deeviate from it. Don't get me wrong, I very much enjoyed WC4, but that was in the earlier days of space sims. well, earlier days of the later space sims. The thng is, once you have played one game like that, you have played them all.

"blast the enemy to bits and then go home and live happily ever after." Not in the literal sense, but you take my point. Different ships, different campaigns, but ecentially, it's the same thing. Because the game progresses only if you complete missions, you don't notice the affects of your actions.

In Xt, if you destroy factories, unless you fill in the gap that X particular factory filled, then you could compremise supply lines either in that sector or, in a near by sector. Now I am only talking hear about BTF and XT. X2 is ment to be a great deal better in many areas. So, I expect it to really set an example in the space sim area of gaming.

[Kissakias]

I play almost all the space flight sims till 1993

XT is one-of-its-kind
It has "things" that none game have it
Its unique
...........and we can use joystick

[JadeNova]

I'm sure I will buy and play both but I don't expect Freelancer to hold my attention anywhere near as long as X2.

Egosoft really seem to have paid close attention to what we actually wanted to see in the new game. Microsoft seems to have removed a lot of the features that made Starlancer such a hit with me!

[boogyman]

I'm sure I will buy and play both but I don't expect Freelancer to hold my attention anywhere near as long as X2.

Egosoft really seem to have paid close attention to what we actually wanted to see in the new game. Microsoft seems to have removed a lot of the features that made Starlancer such a hit with me!

I am telling you its gonna be brilliant having 2 games to choose from and i am getting them both so NAH NAH NAH NAH NAH to those that cant afford it

Bring on the Space weed.....WOOT!!!!!!

[SteveMill]

I'm sure I will buy and play both but I don't expect Freelancer to hold my attention anywhere near as long as X2.

Egosoft really seem to have paid close attention to what we actually wanted to see in the new game. Microsoft seems to have removed a lot of the features that made Starlancer such a hit with me!

I expect FL to be a great game, just not a great flight sim. It's now just a sophisticated console game with dogfighting replaced by console twitch blasting (check out the fan made video showing combat, pure console and likely to exclude anyone without razor reflexes.)

Egosoft, on the other hand, haven't thrown out every feature that might hinder a console port and have worked with their fans to make a great game.

[emehlman]

what I forgot to ramble on about last night...

It's a shame ES couldn't have thrown in planets. Freelancer will handle them just like stations, in that there is a planetary approach gate which one docks through... cutscene... you're landed. It's a nice abstraction of the space station model that should have been looked at harder.

Having said that, and agreeing with your comments above, I say Roll on 2003. ES, don't worry if you are running late, since Freelancer is going to generate a nice warm fan base who are going to be WANTING MORE ater Freelancer is done within two weeks. It should cause a lot of talk on the Forum... but that's because were not playing it any more

Do us one favour, though - make the publishing deal that is worthy of the game. We can make so much noise, but lets get some commercials out there, banners, pop ups (well, maybe not pop ups), posters, biscuits, ...

ESM.

[awdougherty]

Well, I think I will definitely have to buy both. The thing I'm looking forward to in Freelancer is the sheer size of the universe, with all the planets and blah blah blah. I was also looking toward some real dogfighting, we'll have to see how that plays out. Players of the press release copy say the mouse works great, so I'll take the chance.

X2, the sheer number of gameplay options. I can fight, trade, build an empire, basically do whatever I want. I'm anxious to see how they improve the forrmula, the graphics look great, I'd like to see the dogfighting from the old games tweak a little bit but it's still solid. Both are definitely a must buy.

One thing I wish was in X2. I wish they included multiplayer in some way. Not in the same way they want to do X Online, but the way freelancer is doing it. I'd love to set up my own little mini-persistant world where a few friends and I could fly around and build mini warring empires. I actually have no desire to go online with 1000 other pay-for-players and build stations. Just a few friends would do.

One thing I wish was in Freelancer was the ability to own more than just my ship. Hey, it's my cash, why can't I buy a factory or two?

Sometimes I wish there were planets to land on as well in X2, but then again, I think that the universe is so big, what's the chances of finding a planet worth inhabiting.

[pixel]

you know, what i realllllly want on X2 is to have all my ships showing my Logo!!!

Please Steel tell me we'll have that!!!

(obviously I want all the other improvements and the storyline, that IMO xtension lacked, but this makes a real difference to me - to actually see my ships flying around and docking with my kickass logo on!!!)

[emehlman]

...reading through these FL reviews - it's almost as though they have a "write something nice or don't write anything" clause attached.

This is a good one from TotalVideoGames....
"In total 13 varied missions take the player through the story, so an average player could expect it to last for a minimum of 20hrs; however the chances are that once you realise the full scope of the game, you’ll branch of and this figure will rise sharply."

Now, X-Tension - WITHOUT any storyline mission - kept me playing for much longer than that. About six months of brain cells...

More...
"In general we’ve been suitably impressed by how conversation is handled; characters remember if they’ve seen you before and dialogue usually is of a high standard, although if the phrase ‘Mr…I’m Trent’ comes out once again…"

and confirmation on my suspicions about the bar scenes...
"We’re a little concerned that the interior sections are a little wooden and too linear in comparison to the rest of the game; aside from conversation, the scene typically looks like an old point ‘n’ click adventure, with static backgrounds and motionless characters."

So, there it is. Freelancer may be, at its core, a fusion of Starlancer and Space Quest 4

The trading aspect will be as important as it was in I-War II (sure, you can do the trading thing, but you can forget it after you have a cool ship and ammo money.

The COOLEST thing in X2, for Freelancer players will be after any training thingy, I expect the game will just leave them hanging there. "Off you go," the game will say, "go play"... and these guys will realize at that moment that they might be, for the very first time, freelancers.

ESM.

[emehlman]

Oh yes - and halt development now if the ship logo is not reinstated!! (good call)

ESM

[Thalass]

I'm guessing now that you're one of "us", emehlman? Somehow I thought you were a FL personage. But you sound more like an xer now.

I didn't recognise your name, mate.


Or are you? mebbe you've been sent here to lul us into a false sense of security before the FL stormtroopers come in and die 14 seconds later!

[emehlman]

I played elite (cassette, then 5 1/4" disk versions), x-wing, tie fighter, x-wing alliance (so good!!), then discovered X-Btf while working in a pc shop. I swiped it after playing the demo that night.

I played it and played it and played it - but couldn't follow the carrier back at the end, so i missed what happened, and I got a new job...

...and then surfing a bit later I was blown away to see that X-Tension was a reality.

I had it in a few weeks and didn't look back for 6 months (xenons on my six)

The 2.0 patch was like a cherry on the cake. I got to start again, and built up a huge empire until all the missions were done.... made some more ridiculous amounts of cash, then stopped.

...at some time along the way I played Starlancer, and I War II, and they were okay.

Sure I will be getting FL... and I wish them well...

But there is no doubt in my mind that X2 will be better, and much longer lasting... especially after the second patch!

ESM

[silentWitness]

Tomorrow I will have my hands on a copy of Freelancer (don't ask), If it's any good I'll sing it's praises if not well...

[Thalass]

on tape? on 5inch floppy! wow! you must be old!


Oh, and with the autopilot thing, we'd be able to programme the autopilot yes? with the scripting thing? so you'd probably be able to download a script for an autopilot or something.

[SteveMill]

Tomorrow I will have my hands on a copy of Freelancer (don't ask), If it's any good I'll sing it's praises if not well...

don't keep us in suspense! Let's here it. One question I have is:

Can your ship loop the loop or are we limited to movement in the horizontal plane? I've only seen ships turn left or right in the videos, nothing to suggest movement up and down.

[Al]

Tomorrow I will have my hands on a copy of Freelancer (don't ask), If it's any good I'll sing it's praises if not well...

Well presumably from the win a beta copy competition that was running. Would be good to hear an X'ers opinion of it

Al

[Gandalf The White]

Must admit, I don't go for linia games now. They just bore me. I like a game where you can make your own rules so to speak. XT fulfills for me those requirements very well. So, I imagine X2 to be far better.

Role on March!