It just occurred to me what game Freelancer really reminds me of, and I know a lot of you may think this is weird if you haven't played it, but anyone else feel it's very similar to Interstate 76 in a lot of ways?

For those of you who don't know, Interstate 76 (still once of my favorite games of all times by the way) was a car game, but you mounted weapons on your car similar to the hardpoints on a ship. It had both 1st person and 3rd person view, but 3rd was preferred because it was easier to see and keep track of targets, etc...like in Freelancer (though both were usable and I'm sure some preferred 1st). It wasn't open-ended at all (the biggest difference) or a space game, but even stuff like blowing up cars and salvaging their weapons and such was similar, and so was the way it controlled and played. Heck, it even had "life bars" appear above cars and slowly go down just like in Freelancer. I'm even beginning to wonder if the developers were inspired by this game (at least as far as control and combat) now that this occurred to me.

Just curious if anyone else felt this way, or if they hadn't thought about it up to this point, this rings any bells?