Problem with Freespace 2

[schmosef]

I was feeling nostalgic the other day and installed Freespace 2 on one of my workstations.

I think I either had a G400 or maybe a TNT2 based card when I played it all those years ago.

Anyway, it hangs a few seconds into playing a mission.

I tried Freespace 1 and it seems to play ok, but I ran out of time and haven't had a chance to play a complete mission.

I'm running the SE drivers (version 1.7.0.89) on a P650 card in this particular machine. It's a shuttle XPC with an Intel 875P chipset and a P4 3.2 GHz cpu running Windows XP Pro SP2.

I'm wondering if anyone has played this game recently with Matrox's newer drivers. I'm using the SE drivers because they fix a problem I had with Visual Studio not restoring properly from a minimized state.

I'm a big fan of these space combat games. It's too bad they haven't been financially viable to develop lately. I'd love a new X-Wing or Wing Commander type game to come out. Or Freespace 3. Those Volition guys really had a masterpiece with that series. MS had something with Starlancer, but blew it with Freelancer.

[SitFlyer]

Definitely one of the best games ever

I love that game. Reinstalling it has been on my to-do list for some time. Guess I need to make this a priority.

[az]

Oh yeah! I love that mission where you fly in that stolen alien ship to check out their biggest warship - most suspenseful ten minutes I've had in any game

I'd love another Freespace, but I'd LOVE another Wing Commander Privateer (didn't really like the ordinary wing commander games). I'll try out X2 in a few days. Any other recommendations in this genre?

Oh schmosef, sorry for the OT.

AZ

[schmosef]

No apologies necessary. Discussion on this game genre is very welcome.

If you like Privateer, you might like Freelancer. It's by Chris Roberts, the creator of the Wing Commander series (although I think he left during development). There's a free demo available from MS web site.

[az]

I played Freelancer (I think... or was it starlancer?). It had no real story, but the mouse flight worked far better than I'd thought (and was welcome, because my trusty old Logitech Wingman Extreme had somehow vanished, and I don't have a gameport anymore anyhow).

Privateer II: The Darkening was done by Chris' brother Erin, though.

AZ

[James_D]

Logitech Wingman Extreme also has a gameport to usb converter.. so you can use it on the usb instead of the gameport.


Well Freespace has a ok story if a little short, and if you have the original, I would suggest to check out lancersreactor to get the super mod that these people made for the game.. Its really like a sequel.

I would also try the Independece war series if I were you. Nice story, nice gameplay.

Best
JD

[KeiFront]

FYI, there are some excellent mods out for Freelancer.

[schmosef]

I've got Starlancer. And it was a good game. Freelancer was a big disappointment.

[SitFlyer]

Update.... On my Parhelia128, using the latest WHQL drivers, I have had zero crashes in FS2, just pure pleasure

Win2k - SP4, fully updated

[schmosef]

hmm... I'll have to give those drivers a try. But I need the SE drivers for work...

[KeiFront]

Schmosef, is the Visual Studio 2003 problem still not fixed then?

[schmosef]

It's fixed in the SE drivers, which, according to Matrox tech support, use a different technique for window management. They said that this alternate technique will eventually be incorporated into the regular driver set.

[az]

I'm currently playing X2: The Threat. It's a space/business sim with very beautiful graphics and music and very slow gameplay. I've played for 20 hours now and I haven't had a single fight yet (I tried to take on a freighter with my light fighter but I died almost instantly). The game's economy part is HUGE, and everything you do has repercussions (supply the ore mines with energy cells -> more ore -> ore prices fall -> more and cheaper ore dependant goods), you can buy as many ships as you want (and tell ships you are not piloting at the moment what they should do, if they have the correct comm modules installed). Ship sitze ranges from very small fighter to carrier class battleships and huge freighters which can haul stations (which you can buy and run, they're basically factories in space). There are lots of upgrades you can buy, there is a story, it's just that I really don't care about the trading aspect, but I have to do it since I need to make money to be able to afford a better ship, and it's cumbersome. But I've read that the first million is the hardest, once you've got a few factories up and running, the money should start flowing

It's actually a little like freelancer - nice ideas, lots of freedom, just the gameplay isn't really there. There's a playable demo here.

I must give the game some credit though: It's really beautiful and elaborate, I just think it's too elaborate. I honestly don't know how I am supposed to play it. I don't WANT to have to manage stations, freighters etc. I want to fly self-employed in my one ship (and maybe have others in the garage) and be able to make money off missions, not off trading runs.

AZ

AZ

[SitFlyer]

Major bumpage

I've recently discovered FreeSpace 2 lives, in the open source community

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

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php#1

If you want or need the latest build see here

You only need the torrent download if you don't already have FS2.

A ported FS1 to the new FS2, as well as new campaigns, is included in the updates

Enjoy

[VJ]

I loved the Descent series (I, II and III), we actually had a LAN-party back in 1995 (20 or so friends, with powerfull machines at the time), where Descent I was one of the most played games.
I lost track by the time Freespace came, but following this thread I have downloaded the open source FS2...


Jörg