Good point really, I read a review in the UK edition of PC Zone (Febuary 2003) that said they were purposefully going for the slightly cartoonish look as opposed to the true reality look. It worked fairly well I think.... but it is all down to personal taste - and IW2 is a great game

Fair enough, it's not the game for you. I enjoyed i-War 2 and think it pulled off the illusion of dynamism well (liked the distress calls bits) and the combat and flight model was great.

I think though, it was more of a sim than FL tries to be and much more difficult to master. I think, on the basis of the demo, i'll enjoy FL too, particularly with more options to explore.

i agree - iwar2 has that "dark" look which i just love (along with sensational graphics etc etc of course)...

I would prefer I-War if there only would be a good mp mode!

"Learn a man to make fire and he´ll be warm for the day. Put a man on fire and he´ll be warm for the rest of his life" - Unknown

I much prefer Freelancer

Its kindof funny you brought this up because after playing the FL demo, i really didn't like it that much, a day later i had the sudden urge to play I-war2 again. Forgot what a great game it is.. (still looking for my copy of Freespace 2)..

I have to agree.. the first thing that popped into my head going through I-war2 again was that..

I-war2 would be awesome with a Co-op multiplayer mode.. (FL multiplayer is sort of a co-op but not really)..

And then ofcourse there is the original I-war (need to dig out the Voodoo for it) which IMHO has the #1 best intro of any game (nice and long), plus great play too.

Frankly Iwar2 and FL are VERY different games. One is a realistic sim, the other is more of a arcade shooter w/ a plotline. I dig em both, personally, though I really don't have the time for something like Iwar2. FL is very easy to just pick up and go, while Iwar2 is deep and immersive.

just my personal take and I respect your opinion...

I tried the demo of Iwar2 and was not hooked... I lost interest quickly.. It was "pretty" but lacked an open style of play I was looking for.

Freelancer, on the otherhand, has got me hooked.. I dont know why, but it is one of those games that grab me.. (like dune2, original wolfenstein, wing3 and priv did)

There is just so much add-on potential to FL that will get you playing more and more.

actually iwar2 is much more open then freelancer ... though I prefer Freelancer over it, cause somehow I-war2 did not get me dragged into its universe ... though freelancer lacks there for my feeling aswell abit, still somehow more motivating to play (and the sp campagn in fl takes you more by the hand, where you are in I-war2 more free, at least at the beginning, I stoped playing it after a few days, cause I get somehow bored, first the fights where to hard for me, and later than I did not know really what to do, no motivation to do anything, might get better later, but I replayed than freespace instead, more fun ^_^)

The full version (or marketing beta in my case) is leaps and bounds better than the demo. The demo is just that, a way to demonstrate the game, but it's by no means all there is to Freelancer. Try the multiplayer. It's as open as you can get.


Stormtrooper Tactics 101: Okay class, repeat after me. "There he is! Blast em!" Very good.

Edited by - SirCarcass on 28-02-2003 20:35:33

Well that's just the demo and most all program's look cartoonish that's nothing new! Anyway nothing can be really judge untill you try the full reatail release and get into every aspect of the program but to each of their own! Oh Welcome aboard Happy Hunting!

You know, it a shame that someone cannot just combine the open-endedness of FL and the sim-ness of I-war2 because I am now disappointed in both, I like FL for the gameplay aspect, though it does seem to be Priviteer on sterrodes(sp?) I really do not like the 3rd person perspective is there a way to get into the cockpit to provide a more sim-feel to it? as it is, FL is a fancy Xbox/arcade game with a storyline and some quests generators and RPG elements, it sure seems to be missing that sim feel to make it a totally blissful interactive experience. Let casual gamers play an Xbox version, PC games of this callibre NEED to be designed for Hard-Core gamers, else there is disappointment.

I wonder if the voice overs in the full retail are as generic and the same as the demo?

FYI... I disliked IWar2 only because you were too locked into a particular base you could not dock and explore other planets and bases outside the scripted story. It strength was in the sim-ness and weakness in gamplay. Where FL I think has it flip-floped around, strong gameplay but arcadish/non-simulation like combat.

Can we fly first person from the cockpit?

The mouse control is novel but I was hoping for a stik!

FWIW... Cheers, and thanks for any knowledgeables who can answer my questions...

Lynx

Some of you are saying that I war2 is better. Ok i quickly installed a demo of !War2 and when i saw that complex flying a sais OMG. i even didn know how to move and then all those functions and i dont know. Didn like a demo uninstalled it and gone back to FREELANCER which is unbeliveable good. Like on old days of Privateer. First part of course. Second Privateer doesnt deserve a name Privateer 2.

Alright, here's the take of someone that played completely through IWar2 and loved it and has played the demo of Freelancer and is in heavy deliberations about whether or not to buy it.

IWar2 was AMAZING! Simplay amazing! Fantastic graphics, great combat, and a pretty fun story to go along with it. It almost had everything. But, once you finished the SP, it was over. The MP portion wasn't very good, it didn't have any kind of co-op mode, and once you finished the SP story, that was it...you had the best ship, the best weapons, and nothing to do. You could keep flying around, stealing cargo or answering distress calls, but why? You would never get a better ship, never get any better weapons, etc..

My concers about Freelancer go along the same line, so I'm hoping that someone out there who has played the beta could let me know about them:
Are you just going to eventually get the best ship with the best weapons and find yourself with nothing to do except for the same, repeated, randomly generated missions?
Does the persistant server you can run reset everything when you shut it down and start it up the next day to play with your friends some more?
Once you've explored the universe, is that it? Or is there really enough to keep you going?

Please let me know.

-Elias

Man, if only X2 were going to be multiplayer....ugh.