Spacehamster’s Blog

It’s been a awfully quiet time for new PC games, which means its time to play the oldies but goodies. I had a go at Sid Meier’s Pirates, and it’s still as addictive as ever - which is bizarre when you consider how limited that game world actually is. I lost an entire afternoon to that game.

Another game that I stumbled upon, almost completely by accident, was Freespace 2. I confess that I’ve never played this game before. When it was first released, my PC wasn’t fast enough to run it and I’ve avoided it ever since. What an idiot I am. The iiNet servers had a free legal copy of it available for download. I installed the game and played it last night.

Wow.

For a game that’s almost a decade old, it still packs quite a punch. The graphics look quaint nowadays, but there’s still something about the presentation and gameplay that’s still very appealing.

It’s pretty obvious that I’m on a “space simulator” kick at the moment, probably as a response to way too much turn-based gaming. So I also pulled Freelancer and Independence War 2 out of storage as well. They still hold up incredibly well - Freelancer for its strong storyline and excellent voice acting. And IWar2 for its great graphics and solid gameplay mechanics. Which shows that even 7 years later, when you get the fundamentals right a game will last and last.