Legend of Space Flight Sims Returns

Legend of Space Flight Sims Returns by Cameron Hills
Friday, October 4, 2012
Source article: "Wing Commander creator returns to game dev with new space sim" on Gamasutra, October 4th, 2012

    Sometimes a game captures your imagination with thing no one had imagined before.  Future actions being restricted by past choices?  That may have been a feature of the Ultima games by “Lord British” Richard Garriott, but was practically unheard of in the space exploration genre in 1993 and is still rare today.  The game designer of such games as Wing Commander, Privateer, and Starlancer, Chris Roberts, has today announced his return to PC game development.

http://privateer.sourceforge.net/images/screenshot-5-kilrathi-gothri-explosion.png

    Privateer was a space exploration and flight simulation in the same general universe as his previous Wing Commander series.  <Review>  Starting out with an old scout ship, the player has to decide how he or she will make their money.  Do you spend hours trading commodities, become a bounty hunter, or go after those rich traders as a Pirate?  Depending on your choices, you may be frozen out of important stations in the later game and may even be hunted by the military and other bounty hunters.  Thus, your choices come back to haunt you.
    So what makes Privateer different from other games in the same genre?  Next to Galaxy on Fire 2 (GOF2) it is more complex, next to X2 it is far less complex and time consuming, and compared to Galactic Phantasy Privateer provides a better flight experience.  Privateer hits that perfect sweet spot of gaming experience.
    With Chris Roberts’ return to gaming with his announcement of Star Citizen the PC gaming Space Sim crowd has reason to celebrate.  Our evenings and early mornings are booked up for the foreseeable future.

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