Slashdot Mirror
FreeSpace 2 Gets Reissue As Limited Edition
Rastor writes "The PC space combat sim FreeSpace 2 is being re-released as a special Limited Edition via the Interplay Store! According to Volition Watch: 'There will be 2000 copies available, and only through the Interplay store. They will be numbered copies and will be selling for $49.95.' Why should Slashdotters care? Besides being a highly-rated game when released in 1999, the source has been released and a Linux port is available." VolitionWatch also notes "all the extra add-on campaigns and MODs available... literally hundreds of hours of gameplay time" - a limited-edition re-release is an interesting move in a world where games normally go from full-price to budget to bargain bin, and rarely return.
If you've never played it, it has the most impressive capital ships evar. They really convey the sense of scale - it can take a while to fly the length of a capital ship and they shoot beams wider than your fighter - without making you feel ineffectual (e.g. you can destroy those beam cannons if you can deal with the flak and the anti-fighter beams.)
And later on (MILD SPOILER) you're fighting in a nebula, so you can't see anything, which works wonderfully.
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
when i can get it for 15$ on ebay?
i already have my copy (fantastic game, i really recommend it) but just curious, other than the numbering, what makes it worth the 49.95?
Newsie, Moderator, www.tauniverse.com
My original submission did not refer to this game simultaneously as "under-rated" and "highly-rated". That's the wonderful Slashdot editors at work. :)
This kind of thing needs to be done for other old DOS games that are hard to get working on new computers. X-COM (the REAL X-COM), Descent 1 and 2, Mechwarrior 2 (original, expansion and mercs), and TIE FIGHTER (the real deal, not XWA or XWVTF) are all games that need to get done like this. I mean, its easy to do, profitable and brings joy to everybody.
I can not begin to tell you the epic tale of how I have tried to make the DOS version of Mechwarrior 2 work in Windows XP and/or linux. I am soooooo close!! $)%*&%#%
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Freespace 2 has long been my favorite game, and I hold that it's been something of a huge underdog. A re-release of such an amazing game is really refreshing coming from a company that has made so many boneheaded decisions lately.
http://www.insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?Artic leID=8124
Hanson has announced they are re-releasing "Mmm-Bop" with bonus remixes including a special rap version that will have you listening for hours on end!
Forgive me for being cynical but why would I pay $50 for a 5 year old game with some add ons. Interplay is dying and this is a rather pathetic attempt to drum up some cash flow.
Freespace 2 is one of those great games which makes you wonder why on earth it didn't sell better.
In fact, I believe it is one of the only mass-produced American games to sell for more than the original MSRP on eBay several years after its release. It's not uncommon for a copy of FS2 to sell for $75.
But enough on the price of the game. The game itself is sweet. Gameplay is simply awesome. The graphics are amazing -- not even taking their age into consideration.
I've only played the CD-rip version of the game which didn't include the music, cutscenes, voices, or cinematics (which I am told are some of the best parts of the game). Even still, the gameplay is excellent, the storyline is pretty cool, and it's addicting as hell. (Word to the wise: Don't start this game the week before exams!). It's a pretty unique experience being caught in the midst of two capital ships battling it out, and has yet to be duplicated in any other game.
Plus, the engine's open source! There's a working linux port and a mac port! (The mac version is still under development and doesn't have a permanent website. You have to hunt around to find it). Even cooler is that a bunch of coders ported the entire Freespace 1 campagin to the FS2 engine.
So. In short, go out and buy this game! You will not regret it. It has much more longetivity and replay-value than most games made today.
Oh yeah. You can still download the CD-Rip for free. Chances are that HOTU will take it down in the next few days, as the game is now commercially availible once more. (Would somebody seed this as a torrent?)
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
First, you say
I've only played the CD-rip version of the game
then, you say
So. In short, go out and buy this game!
hmmmm....Interesting contradiction
-Vib, videogame freelancer for news0r.com, videogame.net, and vnorby.tk
So, its available for free download for Linux, but costs $50 on Windows? That makes NO SENSE! And if you go to the linux page, they talk about how the code has been released to the public, but you still need to buy the game to play? Maybe I'm missing something here, but if the code's free, why do you need to buy. free!=costs, if you get my drift.
:P
If this is somehow obvious, if everyone else knows why this is, then for god's sake don't mod me down, reply.
The Icculus site isn't so informative. Was the Linux port standalone? Or was it some kind of wrapper around the Windows version? Do you purchase a Windows version and then purchase/dl something from Icculus?
Not really, since the only reason the HOTU CD-rip is online at all is because the game is no longer available at any retail outlets.
And I resent the hell out of the fact that interplay is selling me back my favorate game, while refusing to make the follow up, Freespace 3. Oh, sure there is a petition but this is interplay were talking about here, they canceled fallout 3 and disbanded Black Isle which was still producing incredible games. Volition wants to make FS3 but Interplay holds the copyright. So yeah, I purchaced this, but I gave them a one out of ten on there feedback from, because Interplay has done some absolutly stupid, dumbass stuff over the past 5 years.
Did Glenn Beck rape and kill a girl in 1990? gb1990.com
The website gives the platform as Windows 9x. I know there's a compatibility wizard for running 9x programs on XP, but there's no guarantee that the wizard will be successful (that I'm aware of, anyway).
What are the chances of being unable to play Freespace 2 under XP, and is the price tag worth that risk?
... to descent 3 which I believe is from the same company? I tried the fs demo a while ago but wasn't impressed and thought D3 was much better.
You know, they did release updated versions of these games, using the X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter engine. You just have to buy either this or this.
May require some mild tweaking to run under Win2000/XP. (Compatibility mode, software mode rendering, etc.)
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
Running Windows XP with a GeForce4MX, I can't get the setup to recognize 1024 resolution... any ideas?
Twice in the last two days you've gotten me all hyped at the prospect of free games. both times its turned out that only part of the game is free, the rest either costs or is binary-only. knock it off. use "somewhat free" to describe games that are not totally free.
FREE AS IN 'COSTS MONEY' IS NOT FREE.
FREE AS IN 'CAN'T SEE ALL THE SOURCE' IS NOT FREE.
THIS IS NOT A DIFFICULT CONCEPT.
GET IT STRAIGHT, DORKS.
The cd-rip version only has the files required for the 640x480 resolution :(
Even so, 640x480 doesn't look that bad, and you can probably find the files needed to do 1024 on the net.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
Subject.
Thanks for the heads up dude, I appreciate it!
Interplay lost the rights to the Planescape setting (which is no longer supported by WoTC, at any rate). No chance of it getting re-released. Ever.
you didn't mention the SCP the FS comunity's main open source expansion, forum located here. were getting close to makeing relese 3.6, wich will include full HT&L suport, spec mapping, glow mapping, 32bit texture suport, all of that for both DX8.1 and OGL, a whole bunch of new weapon options for modders. here is a good example of what it's capable of, with a start Trek conversion featureing 18,000 poly ships converted from the BC mod comunity here's some more
Hard Light Productions is the primary source for anything Freespace. They're quite active, what with the FS Source Code Project, dozens of hosted projects, a couple of total conversions, and even an ever-developing Wiki-based Freespace Knowledge Base. The often-frantically active forums are, of course, the nerve center of activity at HLP.
Visitors are always welcomed in the traditionally warm HLP style, but beware! Once you join, forever may it guide your destiny!