Anyone here have FREESPACE 2?

[Softball]

With all the talk about playing X-Wing Alliance, I got to thinking about another great space sim, Freespace 2. This game was designed back when PIIIs and Voodoo3s were the top of the line hardware, and it was one of the first games to run at 1024x768 resolution. I am going to try and find my copy of Freespace 2 and see if it will run on my system. It apparently has a full mission editor and MP support.

Gamespot gave FS2 a 9.4 / 10 back in the day, so it must be a pretty decent game. I remember playing the SP campaign, but I never thought to try the MP part of it. Anyone have any input or experience with FS2?

FREESPACE 2 FEATURES
A single-player campaign with over 30 missions. New scenarios include flying with Vasudan squadrons, piloting advanced stealth fighters, and "painting" targets with TAG (Target Acquisition & Guidance) missiles. Command up to eleven squadmates in battle. Order them to defend, attack, disarm or disable your target.
An in-depth combat system enables players to target and destroy subsystems, disabling engines, defensive turrets, missile batteries, and fighterbays.

Armed with cutting-edge weaponry, new fighters and bombers hurl the player into complex, fast-paced WWII-style dogfights.

Encounter 70 space-faring vessels, including these new ship classes:

With over 80 turrets, Juggernauts span six kilometers from bow to stern and are virtually indestructible. Stealth fighters are engineered to minimize their EM signatures, rendering them invisible to sensors except at very close range. AWACS enable allied ships to target hostiles in the volatile environment of the nebula. Gas miners gather deuterium-rich nebular gas to fuel fusion-powered vessels. An innovative and immersive nebula environment changes gameplay dynamics. Impaired visibility, communications, and targeting ability create opportunities for ambush and new combat tactics. Up to 12 players can battle in dogfight, team vs. team (8 players max.), and cooperative missions via LAN, TCP/IP, and modem.

Parallax Online (PXO), a free multiplayer matching service, records player rankings and lists available on-line game servers.

"SquadWar" pits squadron against squadron in a multiplayer battle for control of the universe. PXO tracks the results.

Create and customize singleplayer and multiplayer scenarios with FRED 2, the new and improved mission editor. Exchange missions with other designers in the FreeSpace on-line community.

3D acceleration (required) improves frame rate and generates stunning graphics (e.g., higher polygon detail for ships and "free" alpha blending and fogging for nebula effects).

Supports the latest hardware innovations, such as Pentium III, EAX, A3D, Force Feedback, and Voice Messaging.


Here is the link to the Gamespot review:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sim/freespace2/review.html

and here is a link to the FS2 web site:

http://www.freespace2.com/



I know we have enough games on our plate already, but I have had a peaking interest in space sims as of late. For those who are mildly interested in space combat sims, then this might be a good starting point.

[Hammer]

Dude... I told you we were looking at that too!!! ;)

It runs just fine on XP.

"I know we have enough games on our plate already, but I have had a peaking interest in space sims as of late. For those who are mildly interested in space combat sims, then this might be a good starting point."

Me too!!!

It is also available for free download as abandonware off of HoTU. It is missing voice acting, cutscenes, hi-res textures and movies.

You can get the hi-res textures, music and voice acting from another spot... I am working on getting the cd's to host the missing files and/or cd images.

The source code has been released for this game as well and there is a big project underway to update it. They have written an OpenGL module amongst other things. There are several mods out or in progress for this game as well... A couple of sites:

http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/fsscp/index.php

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/karajorma/ ... intro.html

Note you will not likely be able to buy FS2 at any reasonable cost. Two copies sold on ebay recently for 202.50 and the other was over $100 last I looked. I curse myself for trading mine in a few months ago! You may be able to (especially in Europe) find it in stock somewhere in the white label version for a reasonable price.

X-Wing Alliance is readily available for $9.99. I think for the long run FS2 will be a better game.

[Softball]

I found this while looking through various FS2 sites. Pretty good info:

http://home.planetinternet.be/~twuyts/x ... /index.htm

[Nemisis]

I am currently in a bidding war on E-Bay for FreeSpace 2!!

The closing date for the Auction is 11/5/03 or for you Americans 05/11/03 (why do you put dates the wrong way round???)

Nemisis

[Hammer]

Nemesis,
I would not go very high on that... it has sold for over $200 on ebay - some folks are nuts.

You can download the game for free, sans a few parts. I will rectify the missing parts as soon as I get a copy (on the way) and make the space on my server...

Granted you will not have the box and manual, but...

[Nemisis]

Understood Steel but i am not going to go nuts for this one as i have more important things to get like memory and new graphics card for the new mother board and rest of the things i need for my upgrade so the maximum bid i am going to put in is about $20 and at the moment i am only at $10 so no worries yet bud!

If i don't get it i will look for your updates on finding the full games and upgrades, as i think it will be good to get a bit of SCI-FI into WOF as well as it will really broaden our scope a bit.

Always looking for way to increase WOF's appeal to the rest of the gaming world.

Great bunch of guys having good fun doing what we like best! Gaming.

Nemisis

[Nemisis]

I won the Auction for Freespace 2!!!

It includes original packaging manuals and the three games disks!!

And i got it for £17 not $200

Who on earth paid $200 for it??? way way way to much you could get a serious upgrade on your PC for that!!

Will meet you guys in Space soon.

Nemisis