im glad Freelancer is getting a bad review maybe . DA & MS will wake up and make add-on or something to give us fans what we want . so time can only tell hope they dont sit on there arse to long and let the excitment fade.

"We Die So You Dont Have To cause"

"Valkryie the offical ship the RES"

Actually the ship already sailed. Freelancer fell off the top ten list fast. Considering the five year development time for Freelancer I seriously doubt MS will throw good money after bad and bankroll an add-on or a sequel. A game really needs a huge following to warrant that kind of financial risk. Look around the Freelancer community and what do you find? One major fan site, this one. Now look at a blockbuster, any one of them, and you will see tens of fan sites just as busy as the next.
Remember, the only reviews the money men care about are the print reviews. Internet reviews have no credibility, and therefore no weight. The exception to this rule might be the larger corporate game sites, but even those don’t carry the same journalistic credibility as a magazine. Internet reviews are meaningless. This is a fact of life, not opinion. The reviews overall have been good, but not great. Great reviews would have been helpful in convincing the brass at MS to put up the cash for an expansion or sequel.




Ne frustra vixisse videar

I see where he's coming from and I have to agree... here's this huge, rich environment to play in, but in the end all there is to do is ferry stuff from one place to another and blow people up. That wouldn't be so bad if the random missions gave some interesting backdrop to it, but they don't. They stink. Fly to the nav point and blow something up, maybe seize/destroy some cargo. That's it. Privateer 10 years ago had better missions than this. Cargo runs during which you were guaranteed to be attacked. Multi nav-point patrols. Multi-system bounty hunts that had AI bounty hunters competing with you. Priv 2 had random SOS calls and such while you were out flying from place to place.

Now that I've gone everywhere and got everything, I feel like there's only 3/4 of a game here and it's mostly because of the boring missions. Plus other things that IMO are obviously unfinished (can't mention them here, they may be spoilers). I just don't think the game was quite ready to ship when it did, and it's a damn shame because it was close to 6 years in the making. A little bit more time to properly polish and flesh things out wouldn't have been so horrible, but I guess the suits at M$ studios couldn't sit tight, and had to give the "ship it or die" order. Blah.

Maybe an expansion pack will give me what I was hoping for... for another $40 of course. Rebalance mod might keep me going for a while, but I'm not sure if I'll be sticking with this game for a long time as I hoped I would be.


Ever get the feeling... you're standing on plastic?

Edited by - Painman on 03-06-2003 21:50:25

Edited by - Painman on 03-06-2003 21:51:46

so much about this game though has a half finished quality - basically everything not directly connected with the main story that is - I can't help wondering whether Microsh:te didn't step in and order it released.... while I do get enjoyment out of the game, I still can't believe how boring the game is once you're not story driven: so little investment went into creating the experience that was pre-hyped for the game, it drives home the disappointment more.... Anyway, what I mean is, what's driving most people here is the MP aspect and modding the game but essentially this game does not deserve such fawning reviews it has been getting (which most often are based on preview code and press releases ) . Its about time someone posted a real review of the final game.

Though having said that - perhaps the good reviews will inpsire an add-on that will properly make the playable universe more immersive?

Edited by - immateriaux on 03-06-2003 21:37:26

You want a real open-ended game? Try Morrowind. Instead of randomly generated "missions" each of the (over 200) quests is fully scripted and at the same time has certain random hazards that you can encounter. The game looks incredible, and you can literally ignore the story entirely.

There are only 10 kinds of people in the world:
those who understand binary, and those who don't.

First off, that review wasn't "bad".

On a scale of 1-10, anything under 5 is bad. 5 is average. 6 is above average.

However, that review was 100% truthful. He's right about everything he said. We're still finding it fun via multiplayer and interaction, not because there's more to do in the game. I'm sure we've all accomplished everything possible.

MS is giving up at least they could do is relese game tools so the fan base can mod it . look what it did for HAlf-Life and Quake.

HL and Quake are fully modded, Quake 2 engine is free for the moment.

Well that guy sure don't know the jewel he is playing, I mean, this game, I can do what I want and with the ship mods floating around, I'm in no doubt that this is it.

The only thing this game has going for it at the mo really is the community written MODS for example the rebalance mod is excellent

This guy probably didn't count on the modders...
I think this game has a lot of potential, also looking at the MP-part of the game (wich btw I haven't tried yet, but according to all the posts/replies it must be great). I'd say he underestimated the power of the fans...

Freelancer forever !!!

*** To Freelance, or not to Freelance, that is the question ***

you don't base a review on whether a game has fans!!!! And a game should never be released by a major software house that depends on a user community modding the game to give it some vestige of longevity... they dont even, as mentioned above, include modding tools! People have had to create them themselves... if this was an open-source or freeware game it could not be faulted, but as a long-term commercial release, it comes nowhere near living up to its own hype. And for those who say the game is brilliant, they simply have not played enough games.... Freelancer is good but there simply is not a lot to it... and there is not the freedom to "do what I want".... the game holds your hand ALL THE TIME. Fly to this this purple diamond, now fly to that purple diamond... Map! Who needs it? Just follow the in your face prompts. The game insults most intelligent gamers with its superficial game play and lack of variety.

Don't interrupt this posting ceremony.
Look at www.strategyplanet.com\jaggedalliance got to the forum and then Deidranna lives forum.
See all the UC update threads.
What is wrong relying on that? I ment the single player is great and the mod community just adds it up.
So it is Freelancer forever for me.

You said it Sweeper

*** To Freelance, or not to Freelance, that is the question ***

?

and i meant, and said,... the single player isn't great, there isn't enough to do, especially outside the main story .... the game is, however, definitely enhanced by this user community but other games are great AND are enhanced by the community....