Forum Overview :: Gamerasutra

Freespace, Majesty, Starships Unlimited. by Mischief Maker 04/14/2023, 9:38am PDT Freespace is technically constantly being renewed, restored, reimagined, and rereleased by the FSO team, but I'm talking a proper finale from Volition. Then again, considering how Agents of Mayhem turned out maybe I don't want a proper finale from Volition. Majesty 2 was pretty and had some great ideas, but the hero AI lost its personality from 1. And yet its improvements to hero development, better graphics, modern control scheme, and much better music kinda spoiled Majesty 1 for me. I just want a game that mixes all the good parts of 1&2. Starships Unlimted is the most Star Trek 4X ever created, moreso than any of the actual licensed Trek 4Xs, and to this day it's still my favorite space 4X. Instead of massive fleetballs of ships, you're ordering around single large multipurpose starships that are custom-outfitted and intentionally limited in number. They operate kind of like Heroes of Might and Magic Heroes. They go on science missions, fight ancient monsters and anomalies, and you totally can be in a situation where a crucial outpost is under attack and a particular vessel is "the only ship in range." Also the way a ship will slowly taxi out of spacedock then suddenly zip away at warp speed really gives me that jump to warp speed vibe from Trek that Stellaris never did. It has a really unique combat system where ships choose a single maneuver and attempt to swing their clearly outlined firing arcs onto each other each round. Rookie ships can only do basic forward or reverse thruster maneuvers, but as the crew veterancy goes up the number and quality of maneuvers available to them increase until they're doing things like overtaking the enemy ship and doing a full 180 spin to blast their rear shields, so a veteran scout ship can run circles around a brand new heavily armed battleship with a green crew. Think Picard Maneuver style combat. I wasn't all that impressed with Distant Worlds when it first came out because STUN also does a great job of making your star empire feel like a living world by having your offworld resources physically mined and brought home by an AI-managed fleet of freighters. Want to steal an enemy mining base for yourself? Blow up that particular freighter of the enemy's and it'll be back up for grabs. The main problem with the game is it's really old and only runs in Windows 98 compatibility mode, and even then only in fullscreen, and if the game loses focus for any reason it becomes a flickery unplayable mess and you have to Alt-F4 and reboot to get it to work again. I wish we could get a proper Win 10 compatible build with widescreen support, even if it is the same graphics. Then again... all this nostalgia for the game coupled with recent disappointments with other space 4Xs makes me kinda want to jump through all the compatibilty hoops to play it again.

Franchises you wish were renewed, restored, reimagined, rereleased NT by Ice Cream Jonsey 04/14/2023, 7:43am PDT     Pengo NT by Ice Cream Jonsey 04/14/2023, 7:44am PDT     X-COM by they KEEP fucking it up! 04/14/2023, 8:47am PDT     Freespace, Majesty, Starships Unlimited. by Mischief Maker 04/14/2023, 9:38am PDT         Re: Freespace, Majesty, Starships Unlimited. by laudablepuss 04/14/2023, 10:57am PDT             Wait for a sale. NT by Mischief Maker 04/14/2023, 11:04am PDT                 I take it back. This is totally worth $20, compatibility mode or not. NT by MM 04/15/2023, 12:52pm PDT             Lemme know when you get it, I have tips. by Mischief Maker 04/14/2023, 11:06am PDT                 Re: Lemme know when you get it, I have tips. by laudablepuss 05/10/2023, 12:10pm PDT         Okay, I reinstalled STUN and I'm having an absolute blast. by Mischief Maker 04/15/2023, 12:59pm PDT             Thank *you*, looking up your recommendations here. NT by Ice Cream Jonsey 04/15/2023, 3:03pm PDT     No One Lives Forever by Rafiki 04/15/2023, 4:02pm PDT         Yes. She was a babe NT by Jack Bauer 04/15/2023, 10:08pm PDT     TIE Fighter by Squadrons ain't it 04/16/2023, 10:31am PDT         Obligatory: by MM 04/18/2023, 7:35pm PDT             Thank you NT by I will never not watch this 04/18/2023, 7:48pm PDT                 I just found out he did one for R-Type too! by MM 04/18/2023, 7:51pm PDT     Twisted Metal NT by They fucked it up since 2 04/16/2023, 5:07pm PDT     Pyro NT by pinback 04/17/2023, 3:47am PDT         Yes! This seems like it would be math heavy to recreate. NT by Ice Cream Jonsey 04/21/2023, 7:48am PDT     Hopes for Jagged Alliance III by Jack Bauer 06/13/2023, 9:42pm PDT