# Space Combat games for PC?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-combat-games-for-pc/523894>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [January 6, 2010, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-combat-games-for-pc/523894 "2010-01-06T13:19:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2010, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-combat-games-for-pc/523894/41 "2010-09-22T20:14:40Z")

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[Star Ruler](http://store.steampowered.com/app/70900/) was released a couple of days ago and sounds promising. Like what MOO 3 should have been.

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**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-combat-games-for-pc/523894/42 "2010-09-26T23:15:25Z")

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Just another post to mention that if you never played Tachyon:The Fringe before and you like this genre, you owe it to yourself to find it and play it. It has the soul that Freelancer lacked. About the only knock I’d put against it is that the region the game covers doesn’t feel particularly expansive (though that’s like saying _Firefly_ isn’t as good as _Star Trek_ based only on the size of its world).

I might cautiously recommend Space Rangers 2, which is about 5 years old now. The “space combat” is only a portion of the game, and it’s a fairly simple top-down style. You can also play an old-school ‘arcade-style’ game (and some text adventures, and an RTS on the planets). The game may be fairly accused of being a blend of several decent but not great different games. It does have a very realistic feeling open-ended game world, though. Your role in the galaxy is as big as you want it to be.

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**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-combat-games-for-pc/523894/43 "2010-09-27T03:26:37Z")

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Am I the only person who has played the two greatest space combat sim games EVER?!?!  
X-Wing and Tie Fighter. Hellooooo?

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**Author:** ![ramel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb8c5e/32.png) [@ramel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ramel)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-combat-games-for-pc/523894/44 "2010-09-27T03:58:04Z")

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> [@tagos](#):
>
> I’d buy wing commander 1-4, Elite 2 or 3, privateer all over again if they came out as professional products with even a half-decent graphics boost.

You’re in luck. Both Elite 2 and Elite 3 are being remade!

Elite 2: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CyM0\_7lf\_I](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CyM0_7lf_I)  
Elite 3: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7ip5orUlDM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7ip5orUlDM)

Neither project is completed, with the Elite 2 remake still being at a very early stage, but they’re improving.

Hopefully they could grow into something amazing

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**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-combat-games-for-pc/523894/45 "2010-09-27T11:37:25Z")

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> [@ramel](#):
>
> > [@tagos](#):
> >
> > I’d buy wing commander 1-4, Elite 2 or 3, privateer all over again if they came out as professional products with even a half-decent graphics boost.
> 
> You’re in luck. Both Elite 2 and Elite 3 are being remade!
> 
> Elite 2: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CyM0\_7lf\_I](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CyM0_7lf_I)  
> Elite 3: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7ip5orUlDM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7ip5orUlDM)
> 
> Neither project is completed, with the Elite 2 remake still being at a very early stage, but they’re improving.
> 
> Hopefully they could grow into something amazing

These things never really pan out but i wish them luck.

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**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/space-combat-games-for-pc/523894/46 "2010-09-27T13:55:30Z")

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> [@Zebra](#):
>
> Am I the only person who has played the two greatest space combat sim games EVER?!?!  
> X-Wing and Tie Fighter. Hellooooo?

I had serious issues with both those games.

X-wing was fundametally silly on a lot of levels, though the one that I will always remember is being able to disable a Star Destroyer with a few shots from a Y-wing Ion cannon.

Tie Fighter was entertaining until you stopped flying Tie Fighters and started flying ridiculous ships the game designers made up so you didn’t have to fly a Tie Fighter anymore.

Both games suffered from ridiculous issues with the energy management system (Best way to charge your shields? Route power to your weapons and then manually shunt it to your shields! Directing energy straight to your shields was ineffective at best.) and a lack of variety in opponents (Yeah, yeah, I understand, it’s a game based on Star Wars, and each side only had a couple different types of fighter.) . I gather they fixed some of these in later installments in the series, but if you’re talking about the originals, as far as I’m concerned, they got by strictly on the “Oooh, I’m flying an X-wing.” factor.

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