Recommended "Classic" Sci-fi games

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Re: Recommended "Classic" Sci-fi games

Post by Sionnach Glic »

Tyyr wrote:Saying the space combat genre is dead is just idiotic. It's dead if you insist on churning out another mindless clone. If you want to do something interesting and innovative it'll sell. Genre's don't die, bad ideas and over used cliches do.
Hell, it wasn't even a case of them saturating the genre with bland, samey crap. The space combat genre was chugging along smoothly. It was a small niche market, sure, but it had an intelligent and loyal fanbase.

Then as soon as video games started to become more and more mainstream, the big companies simply decided that the genre wasn't worth spending money on when they could be churning out two generic FPSes in the same time for the same cost. Thus they simply stopped making games and declared the genre dead.

This happens anytime something becomes mainstream. The popular genres become saturated with bland, generic crap, while the smaller genres are ignored and declared to be dead. It's pretty much this very reason why most of the games I purchase these days are from small, fledgling developers. At least they come up with some interesting concepts and aren't afraid to try new things.
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Re: Recommended "Classic" Sci-fi games

Post by Tsukiyumi »

Reliant121 wrote:Independence War II - Edge of Chaos
I've still got a copy of the original around here somewhere. Damn cool game.
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Re: Recommended "Classic" Sci-fi games

Post by Reliant121 »

I never played the original, but I know the second one is a real hoot!
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Re: Recommended "Classic" Sci-fi games

Post by McAvoy »

Is Starcraft a classic yet?
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Re: Recommended "Classic" Sci-fi games

Post by Tsukiyumi »

McAvoy wrote:Is Starcraft a classic yet?
Only as soon as it came out. :wink:

BTW, Reliant, thanks for mentioning Freelancer. Great game. :)

:pirate:
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Re: Recommended "Classic" Sci-fi games

Post by McAvoy »

Good. I enjoy that game even to this day. Speaking of which, the second one should be coming out sometime this year.
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Re: Recommended "Classic" Sci-fi games

Post by Tsukiyumi »

McAvoy wrote:Good. I enjoy that game even to this day. Speaking of which, the second one should be coming out sometime this year.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Doubt I'll be able to run it, but I can hope, right?
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Re: Recommended "Classic" Sci-fi games

Post by Reliant121 »

Tsukiyumi wrote:
McAvoy wrote:Is Starcraft a classic yet?
Only as soon as it came out. :wink:

BTW, Reliant, thanks for mentioning Freelancer. Great game. :)

:pirate:
Theres a million modifications out on the net that are worth looking out for, I would recommend in particular the Discovery Mod. You'll need the Freelancer Mod Manager as well. This one is great if you want to play on an open play mode, because it make several great additions etc. And it makes things a lot more open. The mod manager also includes a modification with a virtually indestructible shield which is even better because its optional to use!
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Re: Recommended "Classic" Sci-fi games

Post by Sionnach Glic »

The original Half-Life games would probably qualify for this. Still loads of fun to play through.

Now I just wish that Black Mesa: Source would hurry the hell up and be released!
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Re: Recommended "Classic" Sci-fi games

Post by Atekimogus »

Another true underdog is

Conquest: Frontier Wars

It is a space RTS game from one of the Roberts brothers (wing commander) if I remember correctly. It had good graphics for the time, a relativly good story campaign. The aliens are a bit generic (basically zerg and protoss) but what made it fun was the multiplayer mode. Each map consisted of a few systems, each of them a map of its own and connected via wormholes which enabled quite devastating suprise attacks etc.

It is one of the games I thought would have been hugely sucessful if it would have used a big well known universe like star trek, star wars or even the wing commander universe, alas they made a great game with a nice but relativly generic sci-fi universe lacking a bit of depth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conquest:_Frontier_Wars

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Re: Recommended "Classic" Sci-fi games

Post by Tsukiyumi »

Sionnach Glic wrote:The original Half-Life games would probably qualify for this.
Definitely.
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Re: Recommended "Classic" Sci-fi games

Post by Tsukiyumi »

I'm a moron. I forgot to recommend System Shock 2.

It is, in my opinion, one of the scariest games ever made, in terms of atmosphere.

Also, now that I'm thinking about it, I should of course recommend the relatively ancient, but still incredibly fun Star Control 2. Which you can get for free legally here.

And, the equally ancient, but still awesome XCOM: UFO Defense
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Re: Recommended "Classic" Sci-fi games

Post by Tyyr »

Half-Life was an awesome game. Still one of the best games I've ever played.
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Re: Recommended "Classic" Sci-fi games

Post by Coalition »

I still enjoy playing Homeworld. If you want to learn more, try here.
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Re: Recommended "Classic" Sci-fi games

Post by Tyyr »

I guess Homeworld would be a classic now. Great game, one of the first RTS to ever use the 3rd dimension properly.
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