Freelancer

Hobbes

If you liked Elite, you will absolutly love Freelancer.

I have to say I really enjoyed the game. The attention to star systems was incredible. For example you see a planet in the distance with rings, and fly up to it the rings become dust/asteroid clouds. There really is a lot in this game going for it, so it would be a waste of time listing them off.

The bad points to the game...
1. Despite what the box says, you have to follow the storyline to get access to other jump gates/ships.

2. The storyline is good, but the ending was nuts hard and the ending made no sense (except to leave it open for Freelancer2).

3. After completing the storyline, I found one extremly profitable trade route and became a millionaire after a while. After some searching and finding the best ship/weapons there is nothing in main core space that can touch me (seriously, even if they come in waves).

I've even been to border space and nomad space which is a bit tricky pretty much of the same thing. Apart from finding the easter eggs/wreaks there isn't much more to do?


Have to try multiplayer now.

DeVore

Started playing it last night and would have to agree with Hobbes.

It plays sweet in 1024x768x32 on my 1.4 Athlon and GF3(128).

There are a few things that I would have liked to see in it... (like variable pricing ... it would seem that a product that sells for 20 credits on a planet, will always sell for 20 credits there... )

The combat is easy enough to get into (at least so far) and I'm certainly kicking 6 shades of brown stuff out of them within 2 hours of starting I'd racked up 20 kills so you get thrown into the action pretty much from the start.

I'm gonna play it on lan in coop mode with my flat mates and see if we cant get a permanent server up on the network and visible to the outside.

DeV.

Hobbes

Oh yea, I checked and that trade route (jumphole) I mentioned is locked off in multiplayer.

Basically there are three ways to get around (apart from flying)

Trade Routes - These are like tunnels that accelerate your ship to get from one planet to another fast. They tend to have the occasional pirate who disables the tunnel (you can also disable the tunnel while inside it or outside).

Jump Gates - This warp you from one system to another. They are normally in the outer areas of the system.

Trade Routes/Jump Gates are owned by certain factions so if you are at war with them they may be disabled or open fire on you.

Jump Holes - These are natually occuring jump gates. Some jump holes don't allow large ships and others need to be aligned for you to go through. It is also mentioned in game that jump holes have dangers with them, although I think it's more to allow the jump gate faction to keep a monopoly.

Also..

There is a forth method of transport mentioned in game but I don't think it is in the game (haven't found it yet).

Wook

i hated the game
'your new around here arn't you ?' geezes i know you can just press escape but com'n try to put in some different lines ppplleease !.
trade routes sure enough but then what ? bought the biggest meanest ship in around a week playing and that was the end of it.
fly -kill some pirates- fly- unload- repeat to different destination
the game mentiones that you can be whatever you want to be..but you got two choices.. trader or shooter.
its really boring, it just misses the 'elite' feeling.

DeVore

I have a feeling that its got a limited shelf life as far as single player goes alright... but it could be kinda cool to run a server of it and play co-op...

For the moment, I'm not looking for my money back.

DeV.

DeVore

Hobbes... is there any idea of supply and demand or variance of prices over time at the same location?

I used to love finding really obscure trading routes in Elite and exploiting them until they expired.

I'm not wild about the "rise'n'repeat" aspect of the game that Wook mentioned. I think if I get the biggest ship and find a great trade route that doesnt expire I'll probably stop playing or try it online...

DeV.

Ivan

Originally posted by DeVore
I have a feeling that its got a limited shelf life as far as single player goes alright... but it could be kinda cool to run a server of it and play co-op...

For the moment, I'm not looking for my money back.

DeV.

What does co-op add that will increase its limited shelf life?

I was tempted to buy it (I'm a big fan of Elite) but I'm hearing rather bad reviews about it from alot of people.

Tusky

Can you get out of your ship and run around ?

Hobbes

After the single player ends there is a limit before it gets boring.

Apart from getting all the l33t weapons and ship there is exploring and wreak hunting. There also looking for hidden jump holes, a lot of these are in the border systems and either you have to fly around getting shot at or check at bars for clues to where the wreaks are.

As for the 4th mode of transport, I was unable to find it and I think I have hit every system (Including Nomad space which doesn't have a trade route but is really cool).

As for things to do, here is what I tried.
- Trader.
- Escort.
- Smuggler.
- Pirate (fun because the traders actually chase you).
- Miner.
- Missions.

Some of the system worlds are nice and have different out takes. The one I liked best was the Cosairs homeworld.

Hobbes... is there any idea of supply and demand or variance of prices over time at the same location?

No, the prices stay the same. With the exception of the one trade route though every other serious money making route requires about 30 jumps and your guaranteed to be jumped numerous times.

The multiplayer is the way to go I'd say for further playing. You can join together in groups and not everyone has to be with each other so you can hunt other players or take missions together. Your character is also stored server side.

The other thing going for it in multiplayer is the mod'ing ability of the game. Odds on someone has made a fluctuating price scheme (I hope). But I have seen the Ship mod which adds everything from a tie-fighter to a Shadow war ship from Babylon 5.

Can you get out of your ship and run around ?

Kind of , you can interact with people but it's very limited (Bar, Stock Market, Ship Shop, weapons shop).

Venom

Tis a good wee game alright. The GFX are pretty decent and the 3d astroid feilds and junk feilds are awsome. Makes combat in them like something out of The Empire Strikes Back

Dev, the missions get alot harder towards the end of the first chapter, zone, area. Id a maxxed out liberty heavy fighter and it took me 5 goes and pure luck to get past one bitch of a mission. Since then I slapped in a cool ship mod, so Im now flying Bobafett's Slave 1

The cutscenes not being able to be skipped really ****ing sucks tho. And the bar talk is boring as hell as its the same script over and over, and even when the info happens to be about Trent, he still comes accross as only vaughly interested.

Hobbes what 4th mode of transport are you looking for?

OddBall

If only . .. If only . . .they came so close to making a gem - then fell flat on their faces . . .

take x-tension / x beyond the final frontier - you could buy your own base - get loads of ships you could change whenever u wanted - buy trading ships and let your base send them off to get raw materials or sell your stock - like a sector ? Destroy every other base and monopolise the place - now that was a good game with a long long life.

Ah well , maybe they'll update it with a mega patch - microsoft are experts in releasing patches . . .

GoneShootin

i finished the demo of said game last night, and loved it !

if i can find a store that sells it at a good price (NOT GAME) then the limited singleplayer would hurt too much

any recommendations on where to purchase ?

Wook

can give you a copy...

GoneShootin

official statement

wook, i sincerely hope that you are offering me a 2nd hand fully liscenced version of said game. not a hacked copy from an original disk














pm sent m8 ;-)

flav0rflav

You guys have seen Eve Online, right?

meglome

Lads can we cut out the ...nudge, nudge... wink, wink.. give me a copy of that please. Warez is warez and not allowed.

I think I'll download the demo today and have a blast at the game.

Hobbes

Originally posted by Venom
Hobbes what 4th mode of transport are you looking for?

If you haven't completed the story line then don't read the spoiler

The artifact is a hypergate key for the hypergate that links the Nomad planet to the creators of the nomads. The guy who talks about it mentions that there are numerous hypergates all over the shop. So I'm wondering if hypergates exist, or will just be used as an excuse to put on add on patch.

Btw, the best ship is the Cosairs Very heavy fighter (called the Titan). You can also buy the level 10 shields at Cosairs homeworld but the cost will be huge (even getting there). Total cost for me came close to 2 million when you factored in all the stuff I had to buy just to get to the corsairs homeworld.

Venom

Not mad on the look of that ship tho Hobbes so I wacked in the Slave1 mod. Its a super heavy fighter with all level 10 slots only it looks the like dogs bollocks and handles like a dream.

Ill pass on your spoiler untill I finish the game tho

Detonated Sauce

There are many many mods out for freelancer now. For instance one allows you to purchase and pilot battleships. It really adds a new level to the game

po0k

What's the situation regarding mods and modding tools, are there public versions already released with the game or any plans to do so in the near future?


/-edit-/

/me looks at above post

Oh, right. Fair enough. I'll just go download those so shall I?

po0k

Originally posted by Venom
Not mad on the look of that ship tho Hobbes so I wacked in the Slave1 mod. Its a super heavy fighter with all level 10 slots only it looks the like dogs bollocks and handles like a dream.

Ill pass on your spoiler untill I finish the game tho

Slave looks like a rip-off of Boba Fett's ship....

Tusky

Originally posted by SyxPak
Slave looks like a rip-off of Boba Fett's ship....

please say thats a joke...

As for "freelancer" ive played it for about 3 hours - im on mission 3 where

you gotta escourt these ships past "poitns" and you get atacked by a wave of pirates, up until this point all the fighting was v.v.v.easy but this seems impossible, if i try and keel em i get completely bombarded and shields go down in seconds, if i try and dodge them its impossible to kill,do i need to do more "jobs" and get a beter ship ?

this game is brilliant..BUT and its a big BUT it gets repeditive after about what... 1 hour 30 mins

same thing over and over even the dialoug doesnt change

NeoSlicerZ

Screw the titan!!

EAGLE!!!

EAGLE!!!

EAGLE!!!

po0k

Originally posted by Tusky
please say thats a joke...

/me removes foot from mouth

Tusky

Originally posted by SyxPak
/me removes foot from mouth

haha well you never know with some people :rolleyes:

LoGiE

Have this game two weeks and am slighty dissappointed. I think if it wanted to become a elite beater it left out some vital elements...

- Trade is far to basic with only a handful of goods to trade.
- Whats up with illeagal goods etc? Fines&Why not have dodgy guy's in the bar looking to buy guns/drugs
- What about Larger ships that require crews ala Frontier? not just fighters.
- Equipment is not varied enough and its stupid having the ability to imediatlly fix your shield and hull with batteries and nanobots.
- Flying through a planets atmosphere. Surely it couldn't be to difficult consideing it's old hat now.
- Being asked if your new everytime you enter a bar is a stupid mistake and gets extremely annoying!

I'm hoping mods or total conversations might sort out some of the above. The Babylon5 taotal conversion is looking good already:)

TacT

finally a few more people played it and enjoyed it

I've been playing the game on and off since it's release.
There is a server up on www.jarhedz.com, join #jarhedz.fl for server pass.

I'm currently trying to get them to install some mod or other to add to mp immersion, I love the game but it's mostly because of it's potential, it has so much, is so beautiful but lacks that lastability that other games have to offer. Once you've completed the sp campaign, got your ship/lvl10 weapons, nomad cannons/blaster's there is not much left to do because your untouchable and everything is pretty much a walk over.

The thing I like about it is you can pick it up anytime and play.
There are some great mods available and you can find answers/downloads about installation etc at www.lancersreactor.com/t (if you haven't pld single player yet, don't read the spoiler forum!)
In mp it's great fun, flying missions together, levelling up, getting the best ship etc, but alas once you've done that it fizzles away because once you figure out how to get rich quick, where to get the best guns/shield/thrusters/ship money can buy your untouchable again, although player vs player battles are great fun. (Eagle wins

I've been beta testing this mod terra-empire atm and it's a lovely mod that could make MP much more fun all around, featuring new systems, planets, ships, weapons, upgrades etc etc
One other that could really make mp nice is frostworks lvl2 mod.

I am awaiting my expansion pack but the mods are keepin me happy for now :cool:

here's a few screenies from my terra-empire beta test, thus far (new mining zones RULE)

http://members.boards.ie/tacticalanni/screen1.jpg
http://members.boards.ie/tacticalanni/I%20love%20mining.jpg
http://members.boards.ie/tacticalanni/screen13.jpg
http://members.boards.ie/tacticalanni/so%20tempting%20to%20blast%20to%20bits.jpg

With regards the monotonously identical monologue etc, make good use of your escape key for docking animations/cinematics etc..

Praetorian

I only got this yesterday from my buddy in Microsoft. I've only got 60 Kills so far but it is good fun, despite the repetitive dialogue. Can someone please release a game on DVD....Please!!!