Decent Space Sims?

[Azagoth]

Cannot believe anyone hasn't already mentioned Eve Online.

You want Space, Combat, Trading etc - well that games got it in spades - Its also a MMORPG!

You want to wait weeks for a single skill to train? If so, then EVE is your game.

 

[nikebee]

Try Freelancer by M$

its a bit old now but might be what ya looking for ?

http://www.microsoft.com/games/freelancer/

Gets my vote

Freelancer may be a fair few years old now, the character models look a bit dated but the space side of it looks wonderful and plays brilliantly.

The story mode is as deep as you want it to be, and the free roaming, fly anywhere in the galaxy and land on almost any planet or space station style gameplay is a joy to behold.

It's certainly not as indepth as X3, but the plus side of that is that the learning curve isn't... well... almost vertical like X3

 

[pduk]

You might like to try the Evochron games. They are by an independent developer, but of very high quality. I've been playing Evochron Renegades, but the new Evochron Legends is due out later this week and looks amazing.

www.starwraith.com

In essence it's free form combat/trading/mining/missions and so on, with excellent joystick control if you want that. It also lets you actually fly down into planetary atmosphere and then dock with a station on the planet surface, which I haven't seen done elsewhere.

It also supports multiplayer with player-run servers but this isn't something I've tried as yet.

 

[xander_uk2]

Wow, I forgot al about the Privateer games I had loads of fun with them. Also remember Freelancer! Can't beleive there hasn't been a follow up.

How is Eve these days? I did try it a few years ago but never really got into it

 

[moomoomoo]

http://www.firaxis.com/smac/

I put a vote for sid meiers alpha centauri been awhile since i have played it, but i remeber it been like civ 2/3 in space.

 

[Mucky_Pup]

Put another vote down for Freelancer, great game to play, still havent played X3 yet, may buy it soon though.

 

[Surfer]

Independance War II (I-War 2) the first one was brilliant also so under-rated

+1 Best space sim fighting with joystick (loved the flight mechnanics). I believe there was a B5 mod of it as well.

this is all....long long ago.....

Theres a couple of new space sims coming out (maybe already out) i forgot - too many games to keep track of... Jumpgate might be one of em.

 

[DJ_Switch]

Just noticed that Beyond the Red Line has support for Trackir. Think I might give the demo a blast...looks quite interesting.