I'm looking for a "space trader/explorer" type of game. Any recommendations? Older games are fine, btw.
Eve Online
Spore
Mass Effect
X3, obviously.
Starcon 1 and 2, IIRC. They are or were on sale at GOG recently. StarCon 3 as well but it has a slightly different feel.
Thanks, everyone. Should have mentioned "off-line."
Also, if you haven't played System Shock 2 (avail. on GOG), you should. Graphics are dated, but the game play is excellent.
Edit: It's an First Person Shooter, tho.
Edit2: It's a First Person Shooter, tho.
Sword of the Stars: The Pit; one of my recent favorites, however it focuses more on exploration than trading...actually, there is no trading.
Starflight 1+2 (on Gog.com), heavy exploring, mining and trading to upgrade your ship.
GalCiv 2 rocks. Many wasted days on that game.
A lot of strategy games being recced. For purer trader/explorer/combat games there are:
FREELANCER (2003): trade and explore, either freeform or whilst following a storyline which is pretty pants, but does end inside a Dyson Sphere, which is cool, and also features a lot of John Rhys-Davies, which is cooler. It's okay and is mouse-controlled, so the flight model is more arcadey than in-depth.
TACHYON: THE FRINGE (2000): this is also freeform, but is more heavily combat-focused with lots of combat missions to fly and wingmen you can hire. Your character is voiced by Bruce Campbell, which is pretty cool. However, the flight model is a bit meh.
X SERIES (1999-now): a series of open-ended space-trading and combat games, beginning with X: BEYOND THE FRONTIER (1999). The most recent release is X3: TERRAN CONFLICT (2008) but you may want to hold out for X: REBIRTH, due at the end of this year. This is something of a reboot of the series, designed to be more accessible for newcomers.
If you want to wait until next year, there's two big games in this genre coming out.
ELITE: DANGEROUS: Due in mid-2014, this is the fourth game in the ELITE series, which created and defined the space trader/explorer genre. The initial release will be focused on trading, combat and missions. Later expansions will add the ability to land on planets and take on a bigger political/military role. The game will be set in a CELESTIA-style simulation of the entire galaxy, enabling you to travel to billions of star systems (though only a few hundred are inhabited), explore systems for minerals and so on.
STAR CITIZEN: Due in late 2014, this is the next big space game from Chris Roberts, the creator of PRIVATEER, FREELANCER and WING COMMANDER. Somewhat similar to ELITE: DANGEROUS (though with a much smaller scope), STAR CITIZEN will be focused more on crazy details (you can get up and walk around your spaceship if you want), more ships and a bigger focus on combat, to the extent of having a separate, mission-based and linear space combat game built into it.
Privateer 2: Darkening
It wasn't spectacularly received by the Privateer fans, but I enjoyed this one a lot.
Space Rangers 2 Reboot. If you can wait some time, Space Rangers 2 HD ( which will support modern resolutions and have an expanded storyline ). The Russian programmers are progressing a bit slowly on their English translation it seems.
I've noticed the term "steep learning curve" in reference to the X series. How steep is that exactly? Steep for someone who doesn't game much? Or just steeeeeeeeep?
I've noticed the term "steep learning curve" in reference to the X series. How steep is that exactly? Steep for someone who doesn't game much? Or just steeeeeeeeep?
It was pretty much a brick wall in the first X, which is why I never played much of it. The later games are apparently much more approachable, and of course today we have the advantage of official forums and online guides and so on to make things more straightforward.
The complexity of X isn't in the space combat or flight models, but more in the organisational stuff. In X you can have multiple ships, own factories and build space stations. It's more like an offline version of EVE, so there's a fair amount more going on than flying around and trading stuff (whilst blowing bad guys up).
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Sword of the Stars: The Pit; one of my recent favorites, however it focuses more on exploration than trading...actually, there is no trading.
Oh man, I should never have bought that game!
I. AM. Addicted.