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Freespace 1 & 2 (not 56k friendly)
BlackDove
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I just mentioned it in this thread here and it occured to me maybe it should get a topic of its own, since I know many old schoolers who have wanted to play this again but for some reason or another couldn't or didn't.
Figured since many here are from "Das Oldskoolen" some of you might want to revisit this in its new skin, and maybe if you haven't ever played it, you should give it a shot, so this post'll be both mildly informative for the newer folk, and include links for the older (something for everyone).
Freespace was one of the last good space sims released in 1997 and the sequel in 98 respectively. At the time, it rivaled Wing Commander, and when Wing Commander 5 turned out to be so much less than what it could have, Freespace sort of took the mantle of "best".
Any information regarding storyline I would write would be retarded, so I'll just link to the Wiki entries, for the first here and for the second here.
The game was largely forgotten because this was one of the last game Interplay managed to ruin as a publisher before they put the ability for you to play chess on thier website, and started reporting their annual income at $8.
In the internim of the past ten years, Volition (the people who made the game), released the source code for the game. Little by little a bunch of coders updated the engine, while a bunch of modders updated the models/graphics/textures, etc.
That about brings us to today. From the final retail patch which was 1.2 I believe, the version today is 3.6.9 and is being continuously updated. The game as a result, looks more like a game you'd see published today. This was all made possible by the people at Hard Light Productions. I personally am also involved to a degree with it as well.
So basically, you can get the old game(s) with all the trinkets in basically a single download from here for your respective system.
If you've played it before, I reccomend playing it again with all the new visual trinkets, and if you never have played it before, it'd be good to do so for some education on how things were with this genre that has died out.
[edit]Also, if you want the bump mapping and the latest graphics that make it look exactly like the screenshots(got released today), go here for the latest media VP's (replace the ones you got with the launcher), and follow the link to the latest build from there as well.
Or to be more specific, follow Tzen's instruction;
Figured since many here are from "Das Oldskoolen" some of you might want to revisit this in its new skin, and maybe if you haven't ever played it, you should give it a shot, so this post'll be both mildly informative for the newer folk, and include links for the older (something for everyone).
Freespace was one of the last good space sims released in 1997 and the sequel in 98 respectively. At the time, it rivaled Wing Commander, and when Wing Commander 5 turned out to be so much less than what it could have, Freespace sort of took the mantle of "best".
Any information regarding storyline I would write would be retarded, so I'll just link to the Wiki entries, for the first here and for the second here.
The game was largely forgotten because this was one of the last game Interplay managed to ruin as a publisher before they put the ability for you to play chess on thier website, and started reporting their annual income at $8.
In the internim of the past ten years, Volition (the people who made the game), released the source code for the game. Little by little a bunch of coders updated the engine, while a bunch of modders updated the models/graphics/textures, etc.
That about brings us to today. From the final retail patch which was 1.2 I believe, the version today is 3.6.9 and is being continuously updated. The game as a result, looks more like a game you'd see published today. This was all made possible by the people at Hard Light Productions. I personally am also involved to a degree with it as well.
So basically, you can get the old game(s) with all the trinkets in basically a single download from here for your respective system.
If you've played it before, I reccomend playing it again with all the new visual trinkets, and if you never have played it before, it'd be good to do so for some education on how things were with this genre that has died out.
[edit]Also, if you want the bump mapping and the latest graphics that make it look exactly like the screenshots(got released today), go here for the latest media VP's (replace the ones you got with the launcher), and follow the link to the latest build from there as well.
Or to be more specific, follow Tzen's instruction;
THE OFFICIAL PA EXCLUSIVE HOW TO GET THIS SHIT WORKING WITH NORMAL MAPS AND ALL THAT SEXY SHIT TUTORIAL (WINDOWS ONLY)
Download the installer.
Either install everything or just the stuff you want (at least the retail Freespace 2 stuff, duh). Don't bother with the Zeta MediaVPs if you want the new normal map stuff.
Download the newest exes.
Put them in the Freespace 2 folder and point Launcher.exe at fs2_open_3_6_10-20071028T.exe
DELETE the mediavps folder (or rename it to "lolwang" or something if you're paranoid)!!!!!!!!!!
Make a new mediavps folder and extract each of the following to it: this, this, this, this, and this
WTF I STILL DON'T SEE TEH NORMAL MAPZZ!!1
I had to install newer video drivers for my 6800 GO before they would work.
BlackDove on
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The only way Freespace 1 could have been better is if there were more missions, with more ships, and with bigger ships.
Guess what Freespace 2 did?
The only flaw of the Freespace games is that there were only 2 of them.
Play it with a high-quality throttle and joystick.
Seriously, take a game that already has one of the best levels of immersion and give it realistic controls? Gonna have to play without pants.
Obligatory awesome Freespace 2 video post. I think I have managed to post this video in every thread that mentions Freespace 2... but it sums the game up so beautifully.
You have to wonder what happened with Volition for it to go from Freespace 2, an incredibly well-written, well-acted piece of interactive fiction... to Saint's Row. 'nuff said. I didn't notice any excessive turn-over when they were bought by THQ, but I could be wrong.
If you're at all in doubt about whether to get this game or not, watch this video. If you're still not convinced, you simply cannot be awed.
The following are my favourite gaming moments ever:
Basically, I like big ships. If anyone else does, this is the game for you.
Now it's a one file download? Yes, thank you. They do have all the videos and stuff from the CD versions, right?
Dive.
Hit your burners, pilot.
Hey, why doesn't my game look as awesome as the screens?
I'm running OpenGL (recommended by the readme) with full everything, and I downloaded the hi-texture packs.
Specifically, there isn't any of that shiny bump mapping on my ships.
It also made me wish
It's an online installer - the installer downloads the game from remote servers. You can pick what content you want - just turn everything on, trust me, you want it all.
It's because of the RANGE. Juggernauts fight at ranges with their beams that make their missile batteries and gun turrets useless. Destroyers fight at ranges where they can actually hit each other with those guns.
There's also the fact that you can actually DAMAGE a destroyer, which makes you charge in and start blowing the hell out of it.
With a Juggernaut fight, it's "OH SHIT BURN AWAY BURN AWAY!"
a) How much the Colossus was a waste of time and money, a pure product of arrogance and linear thinking of "bigger is better". The ship was desperate just to down a crippled enemy juggernaught.
b) How much the Sathanas is useless without its 4 main beams (and how badass it is when they're all working, as shown when it destroys the helpless Colossus), basically demonstrating that the Sath's job lies elsewhere (making a star go Nova)
Yeah, it would've been nice to have the juggernaughts facing off, but they'd have to be different kinds of ships for that to work, and there was a point to be made with these two heavy hitters.
That could possibly be my bad, I took the latest screenshots posted in the screenshot thread, and there's a couple of experimental things in that thread that are still being tested and should be available for download in the next few weeks, namely the bump mapping effect that they've just put into the latest builds, with the latest model mapping. I can post links to that here when they're public. It'll just be a matter of overwriting a few files.
Yeah, the idea is really just to give it as much time as it needs, you're downloading if I'm not mistaken (if you choose all of it) several gigabytes, so I wouldn't expect it to go down lightning fast. It's just simply to wait it out, maybe leave to download while you're afk.
... a Perseus isn't good enough to stand in that path
Range isn't the issue. The issue is that the Colossus's weapon cover is so sparse and fire so slowly (this includes short range weapons. Only its flak cannons are up to snuff) that High Noon can potentially last an hour if the Sathanas comes in with one or two beams still online. A very long, boring hour. The Sathanas at full strength is a beast. The Colossus is a 6 kilometer iron clad turd.
Plus, I want this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PM69ICOhsE
No the whole thing is free. Download and play.
There is in multiplayer maps. At one point there was a modified version of the main campaign allowing 4 player coop. I'll see if I can find it.
Edit: http://ttfclusiop.t35.com/FreeSpace/Downloads/
First file.
It was designed for fleet engagements, where it would be surrounded, and be firing all it's guns at different targets. IE: Fire support.
The Sathanas was designed to kill one target, and kill it GOOD. It's rear is dreadfully underprotected.
No, it's all there. Whole games, assets etc. Technically while the assets did remain copyrighted, this doesn't use (almost) any of them. They've all been done from scracth in order to meet the new quality requirements and are basically just BASED off of the old stuff.
Wrong-o. Reread the FS2 EULA when you have the chance.
It has a clause allowing you to give free copies to your friends.
Hence why they can give it out free, and no one can do shit about it.
But it's really irrelevant, since the EULA states it's okay to copy for friends. And we're all friends here on the internets.
Wait... did you not run the covert-ops mission
Do we have anyone here who played some SquadWar, or made an interesting mission in FRED2? I've always wondered if anyone I knew back then posted on these forums. I used to play as RN-Wulfbane, and I designed the mission "A Stalwart Defence" that was very well reviewed.
Anyone?
BTW I loved Freespace back in the day, never played Freespace 2 though. The Lucifer fight at the end was spectacular!