X-wing Alliance was always the best out of all of those LucasArts fighter sims. Like, everything good about X-wing, TIE Fighter and XvT plus more!
It sort of surprises me that this IP died. There HAS to be a market for this kind of game now that space fighter sims are coming back.
Frankly there always was a market for them. I suppose the real issue was with half the sim makers listening to their most hardcore fans (you know the types who will fly 16 hour route flight without time skip and with full realism, adjusting fuel mixtures and propeller angles manually and probably even take the engine apart and put it together properly just to demonstrate superior knowledge) and made their games too realistic and unforgiving at the expense of fun. The other group went crazy with 'brains out' arcade bullshit that features 3rd person and isn't fun to anyone. And eventually some corporate douche just announced that "sims are dead, let's make dumbed down adventure/shooters for consoles where the player progresses through the insanely long 10-hour game on rails". Despite having invented save game that functions everywhere they also degenerated back to an era where saving was restricted to 'checkpoints'. I suppose 90's game devs engaged in massive inbreeding campaign that led to the proliferation of great 3D graphics and incredibly dumb design. It is ironic that many 90's games achieved so much more with inferior production tools and hardware than almost any modern game. I suppose it has to do with inventive devs making their companies worth something and then cashing out and leaving corporate suits in charge, this appears to happen in cycles with great depression in 80's and a renaissance in 90's followed by another great depression that is coming to an end with the renaissance being lead by independent companies and crowdfunding, as long as crowdfunding isn't strangled to it's cradle by cynical profiteers.
Oh yeah and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, a game I used to play over and over again when I was like 10
X-Wing on GOG TIE Fighter on GOG IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Windows version of STAR WARS®: X-Wing (1998) requires a controller or joystick. STAR WARS®: X-Wing (1993) can be played with a mouse and keyboard.
Is it bad that I liked TIE Fighter better? I thought it was cool how they decided to base a story on the Empire's perspective.
So here's the $20 dolloar question: Having never played these, and having no nostaglia to make them seem better than they are, are these worth $10 each?
If you love the Star Wars universe then yes. The graphics will be way dated but the gameplay itself (from what I remember 20 years ago) was very good. There's power management, damage states, cool storylines, and if I remember correctly some different story arcs based on performance - but that may have come later in X-Wing VS TIE Fighter and not been present in the first 2 games. The GOG deals also come with all the expansions so there is a LOT of missions to play.
My fondest memory of these games is from when I was in 4th grade and my best buddy and I stayed up all night long taking turns trying to beat the Death Star trench run in X-Wing. Was the first all-nighter I ever pulled. Good to know it has stick support! My X-52 Pro is far nicer than the piece of junk I was using that came with my Gateway 2000 486 I played this on in 1995.
Fair warning though, Hakija, both X-Wing and TIE Fighter are from early 90's. You know what that means? Yup, they will be hard. Hard but fair. And the feeling of success in both games is immense. Heck, I even took goal of doing all the secondary and secret objectives in TIE Fighter. No small feat I might add.
