So I was at a friend’s house yesterday and had a go on Halo Reach, and I really enjoyed the space level where you pilot the Longsword. This got me thinking, are there any decent flight-sim style games set in space? Preferably newer ones, so not Asteroids or X-Wing vs Tie-Fighter.
I recall a recent (or in-development) space simulator in the Battlestar Galactica universe. Look it up, my first impressions were pretty nice.
Descent Freespace 2 has an open source mod community at Hard-light.net. They just keep on adding effects to what is still one of the best space combat sims out there. Think of big beam laser cannons on space cruisers and you being able to fire a flurry of wiggly missiles Anime style being part of the '99 game and all the lighting is now Dx9/10. They’re also working on a BSG mod there.
HALO reach is for babies. Descent/Descent 2 are where its at for space flight games 
Unfortunately, they were both made in the 90’s, but they are still awesome
What they’re doing with Descent Freespace is simply amazing. There’s some guy sitting somewhere re-rendering all the first game’s cutscenes in HD with extra detail. That’s what I call devotion and dedication to the job.
well, there are Evochron games but i never played them. I love spaceship simulators, too.
FreeSpace 2 + FSOpen
No, it isn’t really “new”, but it is the best space sim out there and, with all the mods and FreeSpace 1 remake included, it’s probably the best deal.
Freelancer is pretty cool too… it’s a little more rpg-ish, while Freespace is a mission by mission thing. They’re both awesome IMO.
I heard EVE online is nice, but it’s a MMO, and I think it requires a monthly subscription or something.
It does. And you point and click to fly.
not any recently but I would suggest buying freelancer which is a tad bit old but is fun as hell https://www.microsoft.com/games/freelancer/
theres the X series. They are available from steam. AWESOME graphics and an evolving economy. You can actually have more than 1 ship and have them automatically trade(!). latest one is X3: Terran Conflict.
I was just playing this… looks cool, but there doesn’t seem to be much tutorial on how to fly the damn thing…
And I was flying around, following the arrows and stuff, and I was flying very close to a station of some kind… and then I wondered: what happens if I scratch my ship on it?
At the slightest bump, it pulled the camera outside the ship, and made my entire ship explode, with the words ‘GAME OVER’ on the screen… Seriously? :S
Erm, it’s not a driving game where the car will get damaged in relation to the impact, spaceships are pressurised because space is a vacuum, so any hole in the structure could lead to massive depressurisation, easily tearing the ship to shreds.
But it’s still supposed to be a game… Does all first person shooters get you killed in one shot? I mean, it can withstand a few missiles, why couldn’t it withstand a slight scratch. I thought it was a bit extreme.
Starfox is pretty good.