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Looking for Any 3D Space Games

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saotomefirst

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 16, 2012
108
1
Rio de Janeiro
Hi there MacRumors Community!

I'm a big fan of 3D space shooters like Freespace and Freelancer, games where you can change and customize your ship to face your enemies in open space. However, I have been unable to find a game to replace these 2 old tiles in my Windows game library. The best I could find was a Star Trek game - I guess it was called Bridge Commander or something like that - I did like the repair system but I didn't really enjoy sitting on the same ship for almost the entire game story, saving those blue torpedoes almost until the end of the game...

Now I'm coming to the Mac, and to my surprise there are a lot of game titles available both at both the App Store and Steam, more than I expected. So, I'd like to know if you guys have any recommendations for me. Preferably lighter games that could run on the 13'' 2012 MBP - OS X or Windows 7, I already have a Bootcamp partition for other purposes.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
 
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DoghouseMike

macrumors regular
Jan 18, 2011
162
16
UK
I've played Galaxy on fire on my phone/ipad, and they're pretty good, haven't sprung for the mac version yet though.
Freespace 2 (and its plethora of mods) are pretty nifty too.

This though just looks awesome if they can manage to pull it off, it'll be an amazing game
 
S

saotomefirst

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 16, 2012
108
1
Rio de Janeiro
DoghouseMike said:
I've played Galaxy on fire on my phone/ipad, and they're pretty good, haven't sprung for the mac version yet though.
Freespace 2 (and its plethora of mods) are pretty nifty too.

This though just looks awesome if they can manage to pull it off, it'll be an amazing game
Click to expand...

Freespace 2 is actually the game I own - and no, it won't run on my Macbook - does not recognize mouse movements T_T

Now, that game, if ever launches, I'll buy it. Thanks for the tip!

@ Northwestern thanks for the tips too, I'm taking a look at them right now :D
 
SandboxGeneral

SandboxGeneral

Moderator emeritus
Sep 8, 2010
26,482
10,051
Detroit
You should also take a look at Endless Space on Steam. I just bought it a couple of weeks ago, but haven't had much time to get into it yet. It does play a lot like Civilization V too.
 
blesscheese

blesscheese

macrumors 6502a
Apr 3, 2010
698
178
Central CA
Ok, you said looking for "any"....

The game Terminus was released in mid-2000, and pretty much died a lonely death, due to a bunch of other games being released at the same time, and no marketing budget. It was released for PC, Mac, and Linux all on the same set of CD's...anyway. there are places you can download it off the interwebs, or you can buy it from Amazon or ebay. I managed to locate a manual for it, and have been meaning to put it up on replacement docs.

It won't run at all in Mac OS now, but runs like a champ in XP or Win7 with an updater, that I could send you if you are interested.

If you google "terminus game review" you can find more info...

BTW, I love it...it is very realistic, and no weirdo aliens...the basic plot summary is, in the future, man has colonized the Solar System, and now Mars wants to break away...people have kinda compared it to Babylon 5 because of the "jump gates" but I don't find it anything at all like Babylon 5...
 
NunoBerny

NunoBerny

macrumors regular
Feb 12, 2012
195
0
Lisbon, Portugal
Northwestern said:
You should check out these space games for Mac:

Galaxy on Fire 2 Full HD + in-app purchase of two add-ons Valkyrie & Supernova

X3: Reunion

X3: Terran Conflict

X3: Albion Prelude
Click to expand...

I wouldn't bother with X3: Reunion, but X3: Terran Conflict is awesome.
Much, much better than Freespace (which I played a lot on my Amiga!).
Haven't player X3: Albion yet, but if it improves on TC, it's a keeper.

As for Endless Space, it's a different kind of game. The 3D is there as eye-candy, nothing more.
I played it a bit, but it wasn't as good as I expected. I little too obscure (especially the tech evolutions). Still, it's a nice game.
 
blesscheese

blesscheese

macrumors 6502a
Apr 3, 2010
698
178
Central CA
saotomefirst said:
Freespace 2 is actually the game I own - and no, it won't run on my Macbook - does not recognize mouse movements T_T

Now, that game, if ever launches, I'll buy it. Thanks for the tip!
Click to expand...

I missed that in the original reading of the thread...you know, there have been a lot of fan mods of Freespace 2 over time to keep it up and running.

I've been waiting for This--Battlestar Galactica mod for years; in fact, I was saving an old G4 to play it, but it looks like it will work on my latest and greatest Intel Mac.

PS--Diaspora is *free*!
 
S

saotomefirst

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 16, 2012
108
1
Rio de Janeiro
Solomani said:
How about FTL? Been available for Mac in the past year.
Click to expand...

If by FTL you mean this game then I already own it, and although it's quite good, it's much too simplistic (2D ...)and not what I was looking for...

I did find a game that was worth buying: Strike Suit Zero. It has almost everything I was searching for on a 3D space shooter game and more - although I did find the customization system a bit weak. I also had never experimented a game with a mech-like fighter, and I must say it's a lot of fun!

However, I'm still searching for a ship game with an open, dynamic environment for players to interact with. So if you have any suggestions, please feel free to post here and let me know :D
 
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Cougarcat

macrumors 604
Sep 19, 2003
7,766
2,553
Starlight Inception is early Access and will be finished soon. It's heavily inspired by Freelancer and Wing Commander. Not sure if it's what you're looking for though as it's mission based and not open-world. Windows-only, but they're looking at Linux/Mac ports.
 
Dirtyharry50

Dirtyharry50

macrumors 68000
May 17, 2012
1,769
183
You can get all the Wing Commander series of games now on gog.com and the early ones are setup to run in OS X. The more recent ones are for Windows.
 
GSVNotInvented

GSVNotInvented

macrumors newbie
Jun 10, 2013
4
0
UK
Well the game that started the whole Space Adventure genre, Elite, is being Kickstarted and is in the Alpha testing phase scheduled for release this year.
It wil be a Mac and PC adventure so get ready to steal someones ship while they are nagotiating with the Station Load Master!

The Alpha Build is only available on PC, but the final release will have a native Mac package 3 months after general release.

http://elite.frontier.co.uk/
 
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saotomefirst

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 16, 2012
108
1
Rio de Janeiro
Thanks everyone for your replies! I know the topic is old but I'm still searching for a game to fill the gap I have in my library.

I already took a look at these games, and I must say I got really impressed with Elite: Dangerous, although it does seem it's already past Kickstarter phase... Anyway, I will keep an eye out for it and see how it develops.

And ofc I'm still open to sugestions, if you have any :D
 
K

knightlie

macrumors 6502a
Feb 18, 2008
546
0
No love for Oolite, the awesome Elite clone? Some great mods available for it, and it looks great.
 
S

saotomefirst

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 16, 2012
108
1
Rio de Janeiro
Dirtyharry50 said:
Check out Strike Suit Zero on Steam.
Click to expand...

I already have it, Dirtyharry. In fact, I loved the gameplay so much I'm playing all over again :D Even bought the Heroes of the Fleet and Raptor DLCs - although I still prefer the original Strike Suit, except on very specific situations...

Unfortunately, the "ship upgrade" system really leaves something to be desired. Ok, you have a secondary objective to pursuit on every mission, but other than that it's just a linear upgrade you will have to follow. I would've preferred if instead they'd let me choose the upgrades I wanted for the ship I'm flying - for instance, the Interceptor could really use a bit more shields, while the Bomber lacks speed.

Also, I'm a big fan of Open Universes - nothing against following missions but I liked the experience I got from Freelancer to actually have to fly to my mission going through worlds and stelar systems. This is one of the things I'm really looking forward to see well implemented on a space fighter game.
 
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