I don’t know why, but for me space sim sandboxes are one of those “I want to love it so badly” genres that I just can not stick with. I’ve tried so many times, so many different games, I just can’t keep my attention on them long enough for the payoff that, when I read about it, sounds so amazing. Do you have one of those genres?
We’ve got a couple of posters up for sale in our store for the next week. These are timed exclusives, meaning they’ll be up for sale until next Friday, or until their edition size sells out, whichever happens first.
The Breakfast Club, reimagined as an RPG adventuring party! Available in an homage to the classic movie poster, and also a smaller edition size Movie Quote variant. Get some new art for your game room! All posters will be hand signed and numbered by me.
I’ll gladly take that regret off his hands.
I enjoy the aforementioned minutia of space sims. They actually get me MORE involved in the game.
I share your feelings about the space sims….for me, it’s the same thing with DOTA games…that sadly includes Overwatch (for me)
You’re not alone. I think it suffers from the same thing a lot of hero games do, in the sense that the developers focused a little too much on making the heroes fun and not enough on the game itself. Once you’ve played like 40 matches, you’ve experienced everything Overwatch has to offer. It doesn’t help that the maps follow a very established architecture. All the capture and cart escort maps look different, but they play pretty much the same with few variables. Start with rushing to an objective after getting by the possible spawn camps that has some elevated… Read more »
As someone who has been enjoying Kerbal Space Program with a (admittedly quite old) Saitek X52 joystick, I can say it’s quite fun.
But I can also see why some people wouldn’t like space sims. They can be incredibly frustrating to get things right.
can’t really compare KSP to games like X3, Eve, Evochron, etc.
it’s like comparing sim city with diablo
More like Sim City with GTA
I’m in the same situation as you, Tim
space sims look great but I can’t bring myself to enjoy it more than a few weeks before getting bored out of my mind
kind of like games like diablo to be honest, once I’m done with the main campaign, it loses all interest ^^’
What I’ve found interesting (or at least to be the factor that makes space sims a bit tedious) is that once I get a good enough ship, everything becomes a mop up procedure and very few things can challenge me. The Starpoint Gemini and Space Pirates And Zombies comes to mind when I think of examples.
I haven’t really seen a good space sim with a compelling story for quite some time either. Then again, I don’t think stories are ever told well in a sandbox game.
So true. I do like space sims. I’ve gone back to X-wing Alliance and enjoyed the beginning story but I found that the ‘battle simulation’ was fun to modify. I want a big space game, but with a core story that really goes on for awhile. I know it’s just wishing but that’s what I would pay for.
The best one I’ve played has been Freelancer. ATM I’m playing Elite: Dangerous for the second time. I know there is no story but the fun part is playing in a wing ( guild ) and doing stuff together. The lonely part is what usually drives me away from these games
I think people like you Tim can get interested in it if you have a friend around to help you learn the game.
I haven’t gotten involved in Star Citizen but do play Elite Dangerous regularly and have taught my friends how to play it. Big thing is that it seems daunting in that it has a lot of things to learn but it’s not really anything necessarily complex. I.E. docking can seem frustrating but once you learn it, it’s incredibly easy.
Elite Dangerous is the sort of game that is by my alley. I just wish it had some more complete “this is a living, breathing society” touches, and it wouldn’t just be up my alley, it would be my life wrecking drug like how Minecraft was for me back in highschool.
I generally play games for their story, so if the story isn’t really strong I’ll give up on the game pretty quickly, especially if the game is tedious or too difficult and/or complex.
I’m the exact same way when it comes to open-world space games. Ever since I got a taste of Freelancer back in the day (which I quickly became bored with), I’ve been hankering after that endless black horizon. But no matter which space game I try – and I’ve tried several down through the years – I always seem to get bogged down, bored and discouraged before I get too far in. At least, until this past year. I have found the promised land, Tim! An open-world space sim that actually makes things simple and fast-paced enough to keep my… Read more »
Came here to say this.. maybe with less flowery words…
Hrm, never heard of it. I’ll take a look.
I must third Max and Mildar, Rebel Galaxy is a lot of fun. It only gives 2 axes of travel though, X&Y, but it is still about exploration and combat. It plays more like a Sid Meier’s Pirates!: IN SPAAACE with the focus on broadsides on the ships and such, but it is really fun.
hmm.. could of sworn there was already a cad comic on rebel galaxy…
Yeah, I played Rebel Galaxy when it was first released. It’s pretty shallow in my opinion but it is pretty fun regardless though. It was a bit annoying that you only had 2 axes of travel though for a space game but it was still pretty fun and surprisingly has some depth to it. The storyline itself isn’t fun and there was no multiplayer at all for it so you won’t be playing it for too long of a time I think.
Yeah, I feel you… I really really reaaally wanted to love X3, Elite, EVE… But the grind is just unbearable to me. No Man’s Sky is the exception here, but it’s a bit different than the others, more “arcadey”. Man, all I want is to just be able to explore, go where no man has ever been… I thought that would be possible with Elite, but only after you spend a year grinding to get a mildly better ship for exploring, so instead of 234724872509 jumps to cross the galaxy, it takes 134724872509. That’s why I learned to make my… Read more »
As I’m into flight sims, I thought this would be right up my ally…but alas, it’s a bit boring to me. I thought it would be so much more….exiting. But none of them keep my attention for more than a few weeks. Once I get the mechanics down, there’s just not much to do. This is one genre that needs some good programmers to spice it up a bit.
I’m in the same boat in Ark. Taming dinosaurs was awesome in the beginning, but there’s such a grind and a timesink to get to the end content. And sure I could join a big tribe and fast forward to it, but then I haven’t earned it and it’s hollow anyway.
I got to ride a t-rex, though, so I guess I got my payoff.
I would never play one, I am too focused on my love of Elder Scrolls, however my brother was really into them and so I picked up X3 at his behest.
I then lost a few days of my life. The system was frustrating, difficult, and painfully slow… But darn it if I could just do a few more solar cell runs I could afford a bigger ship and gain 10x as much money on the next run… It’s only a few hours more I can do it.
Long story short: I really enjoyed X3
I love E:D, but then again I’ve always been kind of a solo guy in an MMO world. Cruising around in the inky void of space with some tunes in the background while I scan for bounties is very relaxing to me.
I do play E:D on and off, sometimes i feel bored but i usualy just start another similarily boring thing on second monitor 😀 Wurm online + Eve online works well together 😀
I would argue I haven’t given enough time to the space sims. They are soooo relaxing and enjoyable, I simply want to listen to the music and stare off in space for a while, then go play something a bit more action packed. For me, the I want to get into them but I simply can’t would be PvP FPSs. I’m not terrible, but it’s simply too stressful. I want to go and have fun with other people online, killing each other and such, but I just can’t get into it. I play a couple of rounds and just lose… Read more »
Closest I’ve gotten to space sims is one called Dark Space (I think), and that held my attention I think because it had RPG elements in it. Still dropped it fast though.
The posters are cool. I like the one with the movie quote. Though I have to say Anthony Michael Hall looks weird with a beard.
You’re in luck if you’re sick of boring Tutorials or back & forth Taxi missions. Star Citizen doesn’t have any of that =P It’s got “missions” which amount to ‘go here, if there’s NPCs to kill, kill them. If not, find the beeping beacon and get out of your ship to press a button on the beacon, then get back in. None of that boring content =P (that said: Praying for 3.0 to spice things up!)
Star Citizen is in early access and has been so forever though and it doesn’t look like that is going to change anytime soon. By the time they are fully released, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a sequel to Elite Dangerous by then. XD
Don’t get me wrong, they are doing some amazing things with the game but to me it looks like they are biting off more than they can chew.
I never got on with the X games or eve but I don’t find elite dangerous that hard to understand.
I’d be happy to teach the basics to anyone. The tutiorals aren’t very good, easier to have someone who knows how to do it and then play it with them.
Hard core sandbox/open world MMO’s, EVE online for example. I will dump months into those games, telling myself that I’ll be part of the “fun” group and not the “victim” group once I get a bit better, but games like those run on 90% victims and it’s hard to get out of it
To quote The Simpsons: https://media.giphy.com/media/3orif43Z42EitnOQH6/giphy.gif
10/10, would bore again
I’m kinda in the same boat, but it’s more that I know how great space games can be because I played Tie Fighter and Privateer back in the day, but all the games being made these days are just giant empty sandboxes with no content and lots of tedium. I’m really hoping Star Citizen’s campaign will be worthwhile because it looks like the multiplayer portion is going way too far down the sandbox rabbit hole.
The best flight sim I think I have played was X-Wing from Lucas Arts about a hundred years ago… The combat was good, music was good, story was familiar and also good. Other games of note were Privateer and the Wing Commander series. Both Chris Roberts games also good. One of my all time FAVORITE space sim games that did not get a lot of press I thought (I got it from Walmart for $5 and had never heard of it before) was Freespace and Freespace 2. I would recommend Freespace to anyone who wants to get into the Space-Sim… Read more »
Wow, are you secretly me? I could have made the exact same post. X-Wing/Tie Fighter/Alliance were the definitive space sims for me, along with Wing Commander and to a lesser extent Privateer. Also played the crap out of Freespace and Freespace 2, although when they came out they brought my computer to it’s knees, wasn’t until the tech caught up to the game that it really showed it’s colours.
I have to third this. X-Wing Alliance and Freespace 1 and 2 were two of my staples growing up. If the tedium of sandbox gameplay is one of your major obstacles to getting into a flight sim, these are much more story-driven and mission-based.
Freespace also has a really good overall story, that I recall (not that some missions weren’t better than others). It’s definitely one of those “best games you’ve never played” types.
My entire experience with playing video games that feature piloting a spacecraft begins with Rogue Squadron and ends with Rogue Leader. They completely held my attention, but they also completely scratched the itch. Why on earth would I want to fly anything else when I can fly an X-Wing? That’s like saying, “No more filet mignon for me; I’ll have the Hamburger Helper.” The only type of game that I just couldn’t hang on till the end for the payoff (not games that I hate and wouldn’t enjoy said payoff, or games that never have a payoff to begin with-… Read more »
RTS/4K games mostly.
Which is weird, because I’m totally into Strategy RPGS, but when it comes to trying to meticulously plan and strategize a grand long term maneu- Ok I’m already bored just trying to talk about them.
I’m also totally OK with tooling around space and trying to not get shot. My strategy is basically “Get as far away from your enemy as possible, then pick off the poor AI who doesn’t understand I’ve turned around so I can get a clear shot”
Though a nice In-Between game I’ve found is Rogue Galaxy which is one part Spaceship Sim, one part Ship-to-Ship, Avaste ye Spacelubber, I’m here for yer cargo combat.
fighters and other ships still go up and down, but what you do is stick to the old, “Turn Left or Turn Right”, with the exception of your turrets which you can aim freely.
*Rebel Galaxy
I was about to say, you must’ve played a very different Rogue Galaxy than I did.
Space like In Earth & Beyond can get my attention. 😀
for me its games like PuBG, i really want em to be fun, but when i get into it, even with friends, i lose intrest in less than 30 minutes. atleast i can in most cases get my cash bk from steam
Hey Tim, the video ad in the bottom right for TZV.TV is autoplaying audio. In case you hadn’t had that one pop up yet.
I honestly love Space Sim games, in fact Elite:Dangerous has spoiled me and i can no longer play other space games with their rigid and awful “flight” physics and controls. To me, Elite is like 18 Wheels of Steel or whatever those old Trucking Sim games were called. I used to LOVE those games as a kid, navigating the treacherous expanses of lawless emptiness for what felt like days….and that was just rural Arizona. I don’t enjoy the grind and overwhelming attention to little crap in most games, but space gets the creative side of my mind going, and I… Read more »
abou the only space sim I could get into is Kerbal space program, predesigned spaceships…ha, I forgot the solar panels again. okay, who put the ladder on top of the hatch
I will leave one note about ksp…
https://xkcd.com/1356/
Well if you haven’t tried FTL, I would recommend it. It’s not really a space sim per say, but it hits all of the right buttons.
I find 4K games have fallen into this area of I want to love them but can’t. It’s not that they’re boring though, it’s that they’re incredible timesinks. In my teens or 20s I would have been down with that but now there are numerous times where I look at a 4k game and really want to play, then look at the clock and wonder if I can really justify the amount of time it would take. Also, as I’ve gotten older my willingness to do research or homework for games has vastly diminished. Back in my university days I… Read more »
Empyrion – Galactic Survival
It’s still in alpha, but what an alpha. It’s like a better version of Minecraft in space for adults.