10 ms·

Yes, there were at least two genres where LucasArts seemed to make games that were strictly better than Sierra's: adventures and (arcade-ish) flight simulators.

Yes, there were at least two genres where LucasArts seemed to make games that were strictly better than Sierra's: adventures and (arcade-ish) flight simulators. Not only better, but the best. For flying games, Origin was a contender, but despite all the advanced graphics and FMV, flying and shooting in Wing Commander was not as fun as in X-Wing and TIE Fighter.

mrguyorama 6y ago
I played only Wing Commander: Prophecy (one of the last ones) and I found it way better than the older star wars games, probably just a normal passage of time thing honestly. If you love those kinds of games and are missing them, check out Freespace, which you can get cheap on GOG, and the Knossos launcher, which allows you to download mods like the open source re-implementation of the game engine which vastly improves things, and some fan made campaigns/overhauls including a great Wing Commander style one. Alternatively, EA (the owners of Origin's intellectual property) recently released StarWars Squadrons, which has a short campaign that certainly scratches that old itch. However I don't know how I feel about the multiplayer.
- ahartmetz 6y ago
  This is not the first time I hear good things about Freespace. I had the first one, and I didn't think it was as good as X-Wing or TIE Fighter. Guess I should try the open source version of Freespace 2...
  - brutus1213 6y ago
    I spent so much time on Decent/Freespace. The other game that gave me the same feeling was MechWarrior 3 (I had just learned of derivatives in school and used to gawk that they showed the derivative for heat production in the HUD). Modern games have beautiful graphics but just don't recreate the feeling. Alternatively, perhaps, I am a different person and unable to enjoy the simple pleasure.
- robertlagrant 6y ago
  Still remember those Hornet missiles from FreeSpace. So satisfying! (Veteran pilot of Elite, TIE Fighter, X-Wing and Wing Commander here.)
- paulryanrogers 6y ago
  Wing Commander 3 and 4 were much better engines than the first two games. Even with some fondness in my heart for Privateer those early WC engines were awful. And modern patches and tweaks the controls still leave them feeling jerky and imprecise. There have been fan efforts to port them to newer engines, though all look janky IMO. Here's hoping for a proper remaster.
NikolaNovak 6y ago
Hmm, I thought Red Baron by Dynamics@Sierra was quite a critical and popular success as far as "arcade-ish flight sims" go...
- tclancy 6y ago
  Man, I forgot I owned that and both of the Aces Over games. I miss things that came with spiral-bound manuals. No idea why though.
  - darepublic 6y ago
    The spiral bound manual for Red Baron was great, learned a lot of of WW1 history from it
- ahartmetz 6y ago
  I was thinking of the "Aces" games which were not that great IMO.
AndrewBissell 6y ago
I played and still love many of the LucasArts adventure games: Sam & Max Hit the Road, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Grim Fandango. But the game which still holds the biggest emotional resonance for me all these years later is Gabriel Knight II: The Beast Within. Maybe there's just something about the full motion video format that allowed me to identify more with the characters or something, but I still find myself replaying scenes from it in my head every now and then. Robert Holmes's score added so much to it (and even the non-FMV predecessor) as well. The X-Wing series were definitely hands down the best arcade flight sims though.
- cpard 6y ago
  The biggest emotional resonance for me was the first Gabriel Knight - Sins of the Fathers. I still have memories of the scene where Wolfgang dies. Amazing game and I feel blessed that I had the opportunity to play games like these as a child.
  - AndrewBissell 6y ago
    Sins of the Fathers was great too! I even read Jane Jensen's novelizations of both games in the 90s.
    - cpard 6y ago
      you just made my day! I didn't know that these books existed. Now I have to find them and read them. Thank you so much.
      - AndrewBissell 6y ago
        Best of luck finding them! I think they're long out of print but maybe there are copies on eBay or electronic versions.
        cpard 6y ago
        Yeah, that's what I quickly realized by searching around. Best bet is to try and find used copies on eBay or something.
hnick 6y ago
Privateer, though... I loved the hell out of that game. I don't think we had a Star Wars variant but that would've been something.
tdumitrescu 6y ago
When I was a kid I absolutely preferred Sierra's adventure games, especially the King's Quest series. They were so much more sincere and aesthetic, while the Lucasarts ones were more cartoony and full of corny jokes that broke the 4th wall. (To be fair Space Quests did this a lot too, and those were great.) I was always offended by the point-and-click interface which felt dumbed down compared to the bare text input. Even if the latter was of course severely limited and frustrated a lot of gamers, it always felt more open-ended and limitless to me. You never knew when some longshot idea you typed out would actually work, like yeah you really are on the same wavelength as the designers. I used to dream about making games like that with far more advanced parsers and dictionaries (but like so many, I tended to get sucked into the rabbit hole of building the engine and development tools rather than the actual games).
- juanuys 6y ago
  The curse of the programmer! The one game I finished recently: a polyomino puzzle game, but of course had to make a solver from scratch first. But at least I finished it :)

mrguyorama 6y ago

I played only Wing Commander: Prophecy (one of the last ones) and I found it way better than the older star wars games, probably just a normal passage of time thing honestly. If you love those kinds of games and are missing them, check out Freespace, which you can get cheap on GOG, and the Knossos launcher, which allows you to download mods like the open source re-implementation of the game engine which vastly improves things, and some fan made campaigns/overhauls including a great Wing Commander style one. Alternatively, EA (the owners of Origin's intellectual property) recently released StarWars Squadrons, which has a short campaign that certainly scratches that old itch. However I don't know how I feel about the multiplayer.

ahartmetz 6y ago
This is not the first time I hear good things about Freespace. I had the first one, and I didn't think it was as good as X-Wing or TIE Fighter. Guess I should try the open source version of Freespace 2...
- brutus1213 6y ago
  I spent so much time on Decent/Freespace. The other game that gave me the same feeling was MechWarrior 3 (I had just learned of derivatives in school and used to gawk that they showed the derivative for heat production in the HUD). Modern games have beautiful graphics but just don't recreate the feeling. Alternatively, perhaps, I am a different person and unable to enjoy the simple pleasure.
robertlagrant 6y ago
Still remember those Hornet missiles from FreeSpace. So satisfying! (Veteran pilot of Elite, TIE Fighter, X-Wing and Wing Commander here.)
paulryanrogers 6y ago
Wing Commander 3 and 4 were much better engines than the first two games. Even with some fondness in my heart for Privateer those early WC engines were awful. And modern patches and tweaks the controls still leave them feeling jerky and imprecise. There have been fan efforts to port them to newer engines, though all look janky IMO. Here's hoping for a proper remaster.

NikolaNovak 6y ago

Hmm, I thought Red Baron by Dynamics@Sierra was quite a critical and popular success as far as "arcade-ish flight sims" go...

tclancy 6y ago
Man, I forgot I owned that and both of the Aces Over games. I miss things that came with spiral-bound manuals. No idea why though.
- darepublic 6y ago
  The spiral bound manual for Red Baron was great, learned a lot of of WW1 history from it
ahartmetz 6y ago
I was thinking of the "Aces" games which were not that great IMO.

AndrewBissell 6y ago

I played and still love many of the LucasArts adventure games: Sam & Max Hit the Road, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Grim Fandango. But the game which still holds the biggest emotional resonance for me all these years later is Gabriel Knight II: The Beast Within. Maybe there's just something about the full motion video format that allowed me to identify more with the characters or something, but I still find myself replaying scenes from it in my head every now and then. Robert Holmes's score added so much to it (and even the non-FMV predecessor) as well. The X-Wing series were definitely hands down the best arcade flight sims though.

cpard 6y ago
The biggest emotional resonance for me was the first Gabriel Knight - Sins of the Fathers. I still have memories of the scene where Wolfgang dies. Amazing game and I feel blessed that I had the opportunity to play games like these as a child.
- AndrewBissell 6y ago
  Sins of the Fathers was great too! I even read Jane Jensen's novelizations of both games in the 90s.
  - cpard 6y ago
    you just made my day! I didn't know that these books existed. Now I have to find them and read them. Thank you so much.
    - AndrewBissell 6y ago
      Best of luck finding them! I think they're long out of print but maybe there are copies on eBay or electronic versions.
      - cpard 6y ago
        Yeah, that's what I quickly realized by searching around. Best bet is to try and find used copies on eBay or something.

hnick 6y ago

Privateer, though... I loved the hell out of that game. I don't think we had a Star Wars variant but that would've been something.

tdumitrescu 6y ago

When I was a kid I absolutely preferred Sierra's adventure games, especially the King's Quest series. They were so much more sincere and aesthetic, while the Lucasarts ones were more cartoony and full of corny jokes that broke the 4th wall. (To be fair Space Quests did this a lot too, and those were great.) I was always offended by the point-and-click interface which felt dumbed down compared to the bare text input. Even if the latter was of course severely limited and frustrated a lot of gamers, it always felt more open-ended and limitless to me. You never knew when some longshot idea you typed out would actually work, like yeah you really are on the same wavelength as the designers. I used to dream about making games like that with far more advanced parsers and dictionaries (but like so many, I tended to get sucked into the rabbit hole of building the engine and development tools rather than the actual games).

juanuys 6y ago
The curse of the programmer! The one game I finished recently: a polyomino puzzle game, but of course had to make a solver from scratch first. But at least I finished it :)