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FreeSpace 2

April 10, 2024

FreeSpace 2 is a 1999 space combat simulation computer game developed by Volition as the sequel to Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War. It was completed ahead of schedule in less than a year, and released to very positive reviews, but the game became a commercial failure, and was described by certain critics as one of 1999's most unfairly overlooked titles.

FreeSpace 2
Developer(s)Volition
Publisher(s)Interplay Entertainment
Designer(s)Dave Baranec
Jason Scott
Adam Pletcher
Programmer(s)Dave Baranec
Artist(s)Jasen Whiteside
Writer(s)Jason Scott
Mike Breault
Composer(s)Dan Wentz
Scott Lee
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
Release
Genre(s)Space combat simulator
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

The game continues on the story from Descent: FreeSpace, once again thrusting the player into the role of a pilot fighting against the mysterious aliens, the Shivans. While defending the human race and its alien Vasudan allies, the player also gets involved in putting down a rebellion. The game features large numbers of fighters alongside gigantic capital ships in a battlefield fraught with beams, shells and missiles in detailed star systems and nebulae. Free multiplayer games were available via Parallax Online which also ranked players by their statistics. A persistent galaxy was also available as SquadWar for players to fight with each other over territories.

In 2002, Volition released the source code for the game engine under a non-commercial license. This code became the core of the FreeSpace 2 Source Code Project, which continuously improves it and enables new features. In cooperation with the FreeSpace Upgrade Project the game's graphics are kept up to date.[3] The improved game engine is also used by various mod projects, for example The Babylon Project and Diaspora which are based on the science fiction series Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica respectively.

Gameplay edit

 
A corvette and a destroyer attacking each other with beam cannons

FreeSpace 2's gameplay involves the player piloting a starfighter using mounted weapons to destroy enemy starfighters, performing reconnaissance behind enemy lines, or escorting other starships.[4][5] Its flight model is based on a looser interpretation of space physics instead of realistic Newtonian physics.[6] Hence, the ships are weightless and feel more responsive, though they require constant application of engine power to move.[7] The result is that the game plays more like a "WWII dogfight simulator" unaffected by gravity.[8] Although joysticks are the recommended controller for this game, the mouse is a viable alternative.[9] Single player mode is executed in the form of a campaign, which follows a story as a linear sequence of missions are executed.

The pre-mission briefing stage is where the player gets information on the background and objectives, and selects the ship and weapons.[10] The choices of ships and weapons increase as the player proceeds further along the campaign. Certain missions, however, will dictate certain ships and weapons to be used. Weapons can be classified into primary weapons and secondary weapons.[10] Primary weapons are kinetic and energy weapons, while missiles and torpedoes are classified as secondary weapons. Each weapon has its own specifications such as its rate of fire. They also inflict different damages on hulls (body of the ships) or shields (the protective energy fields surrounding the ships), or possess special effects such as shutting down specific electronic systems or propulsion.

The player flies around in a fighter with a first-person, in-cockpit view with a fully customizable fixed head-up display (HUD) as the visual interface.[11][12] The HUD displays video communications and relevant data on the ship's status and performance, weapons, objectives, and targets. It can also warn players from which direction missiles are locking onto them from, thus becoming an aide for launching countermeasures or taking evasive maneuvers.[13] Players have to maneuver into position and shoot through both shields and hull to destroy enemy ships.[14] While hull damage is unrecoverable, shields recharge over time. With the game supporting force feedback technology, joystick players will find their controllers vibrating or putting up resistance when they engage the afterburners or collide with objects.[15] Similarly, certain events, such as engaging afterburners and firing powerful weapons, will shake the screen as a form of visual feedback.[13]

FreeSpace 2 has many helpful features available. The player can target enemies attacking a protected objective or match speeds with them. Power can be shunted between shields, engines, and weapons, thereby allowing faster recharge of shields, afterburners, and weapons at the expense of other subsystems. These features can be ignored without any detrimental effects on gameplay.[16][17] The mission parameters are not rigidly fixed, as there is an allowance for the failures of some primary objectives.[13] When the mission is concluded, a post-mission briefing will be conducted to discuss the mission, and the performance of the player, before the next mission can be taken on.

FreeSpace 2 allows multiplayer games to be played across a local area network (LAN) or over the Internet via the free services provided by Parallax Online (PXO).[18] The player can communicate with the other network players vocally through FreeSpace 2's own voice chat capability.[19] LAN play allows the players to play the standard player versus player modes such as deathmatch, or cooperate to complete multiplayer missions. They can even join in games which are already underway.[20] The same can be done over PXO but with the added incentive of having the players' statistics of kills and deaths being tracked on a ladder (ranking) system.[15] Players can also form up or join squadrons in SquadWar, an online persistent galaxy hosted by Volition on PXO, where squadrons fight each other for territories.

Plot and setting edit

FreeSpace 2 takes place entirely in outer space. The playing area is vast when compared to the small starfighters piloted by the player and the effective range they have. This space is populated with interstellar bodies such as stars, planets, asteroids, etc.[17][21][22] The implementation of nebulae as an interactive environment is one of the most distinctive and crowning aspects of FreeSpace 2.[23][24] Flying through a nebula involves impaired vision, and occasional disruptions to flight electronics. Nebulae have become known as an eerie and suspenseful arena of play.[5][8]

Journeys between star systems are achieved by "jumping" through jump nodes and traveling through subspace, while shorter intra-system distances are done by "hopping" into subspace at any time.[25] All ships in a mission either "jump" or "hop" to make their entries and exits. The game's starship designs are clearly distinguishable between the three races.[17] Terran starships tend to be plain and practical, the Vasudans' starships are artistic with sleek lines and curves, and the enemies' ships—the Shivans—are sharp, pointy and asymmetrical in insidious black and red colors.[14] FreeSpace 2 also features humongous capital ships, hundreds of times larger than the fighters, and armed to the teeth with beam weapons and flak guns. These ships are commonly scripted to seek each other out and engage in massive duels.

FreeSpace 2's story is brought out via narrative pre-rendered cutscenes, the pre- and post-mission briefings, as well as in-game chatter between non-player characters, and scripted mission events.[15][24] The structure for the story is linear without any branching paths for alternate storylines, though there are optional covert missions which can further flesh out the story.[13] The story can only be continued by clearing missions and progressing through the campaign. However, players are given the option to skip a mission if they have failed it five times in a row.[16] This gives those who are interested in the story, but less skilled, the chance to continue on with the story without frustration.

Characters edit

The player takes the role of a pilot in the ranks of the Galactic Terran–Vasudan Alliance (GTVA). While the appearance and name of the pilot can be customized by the player, the player never gets to personally interact with other characters in the game. The pilot is also never shown in the game's cinematics or any other media.

Just like the player's pilot, most of the other characters are low-key. The non-player character Admiral Aken Bosch, however, plays a crucial part in moving the story. As a prominent antagonist from the start, he sparks off a rebellion which escalates the scale of action, and brings in the other antagonist force, the Shivans, into the story. The storytelling took on a character-driven approach with expositions taking the form of cutscenes in which Bosch gives out monologues, revealing the purpose and driving forces behind his actions. A few established voice actors were brought in to give a polished touch to the voices in the game.[24] Academy Award nominee Robert Loggia voiced the player's commanding officer, Admiral Petrarch, and Admiral Bosch was voiced by Ronny Cox. Kurtwood Smith and Stephen Baldwin participated in bit roles as well.

Story edit

The game begins 32 years after the events in Descent: FreeSpace. Following the end of the Great War, both the GTA and PVE cemented their alliance by combining together to form the Galactic Terran–Vasudan Alliance (GTVA)—a single entity formed to cement the alliance between the Terran and Vasudan races after the destruction of Vasuda Prime by the Lucifer and the subsequent collapse of all subspace nodes to the Sol system as a result of the superdestroyer's destruction inside the Sol–Delta Serpentis jump node.[16] Despite this alliance, opposition still exists to this union in the form of a faction of Terrans led by Great War veteran, Admiral Aken Bosch, who leads the rebel group under the banner of the Neo-Terran Front (NTF). The NTF's rebellion led to the faction gaining control over the Sirius, Polaris and Regulus star systems, while engaging the GTVA for 18 months, before launching attacks on the Vasudan systems of Deneb and Alpha Centauri.

Seeking to stop the NTF from securing Deneb, the GTVA launch a campaign in the star system, though they are shocked to find Bosch within. An effort to stop him fails badly, and so the GTVA focus on securing the star system, with great success. Just as further engagements against the NTF are about to commence, an incident in the Gamma Draconis system leads to the 3rd Fleet of the GTVA being reassigned to the star system, where they learn that the Shivans have returned, along with the discovery of an artificial jump gate that leads to Shivan space. After securing the device and passing through it, the GTVA discover a nebula along with more Shivans, and a cruiser of the NTF, the Trinity. Despite efforts to secure and recover the cruiser, the Trinity is destroyed, and the GTVA fleet focus on dealing with the Shivans, before returning to Gamma Draconis for reassignment.

The NTF rebellion soon becomes the focus of attention once again after attacks intensify, eventually leading the GTVA to quell an attack on a space station with their latest ship, the enormous capital ship GTVA Colossus. Dwarfing all other capital ships, this juggernaut-class ship's power proves more than a match to many NTF ships, defeating a major officer in the rebellion. Seeking to capitalize on this, the GTVI (Galactic Terran–Vasudan Intelligence) organise an operation with their SOC (Special Operation Command) to investigate and uncover information on Bosch's ETAK project, which is nearly wrecked when a Vasudan admiral attempts to hit Bosch's flagship, the Iceni.

Following the latest campaign against the NTF, GTVA forces re-engage Shivan forces in the nebula, while testing out new weapon and technology prototypes such as an AWACS cruiser that enables better vision in the nebula, a TAG missile that enables friendly capital ships to instantly lock on to the "tagged" enemy ship, and the Pegasus-class stealth fighter. With the aid of these new technologies, the Alliance destroys a Shivan Ravana-class destroyer. The 3rd Fleet soon return to GTVA space, where Bosch launches an assault to get the NTF to the Jump Gate. While the NTF loses many ships, the Iceni escapes with Bosch on board, thanks to sabotage preventing the GTVA Colossus from firing on it. While pursuing Bosch into the nebula, the GTVA attack Shivan nebular gas mining operations, only for the Shivans to retaliate with a juggernaut-class warship of their own, dubbed the Sathanas. The Sathanas enters Terran–Vasudan space, despite an effort to destroy the jump gate linking the nebula to Gamma Draconis; the node between the two system had stabilised at some point. With the Shivans encroaching on GTVA space, the Sathanas is engaged by the Colossus as it enters the densely populated Capella system and, thanks to the player's efforts in disabling its beam turrets, is destroyed in the engagement.[26]

The Alliance Fleet soon resumes its efforts to track down Bosch, and discover that Bosch had built a device that enables him to communicate with the Shivans, which was the purpose of ETAK; the Alliance realise the jump gate was activated by Bosch, who had been stealing artefacts from archaeological sites looking into the Ancients, and had been hoping to meet and contact the Shivans. The Shivans respond to his transmission, and in turn board his command frigate, the Iceni, capturing him and fifteen other crewmen before attempting to destroy the Iceni. The GTVA manage to save the surviving crew of the Iceni and the ETAK device, but as they try to intercept the Shivan transport carrying Bosch, they discover a second jump gate in the nebula. The Alliance destroyer, the GVD Psamtik, attempts to secure the jump gate, but is destroyed by another Sathanas juggernaut shortly afterwards, forcing the GTVA to pull out. During this time, the GTVI and SOC launch a secret operation within the nebula, at great risk, to recover an operative and check the other side of the gate, discovering the threat posed to the GTVA by the Shivans is much greater than they had thought.[27]

The Alliance devises a plan to halt the Shivan invasion while evacuating civilians and others from the Capella star system, by collapsing the two jump nodes from Capella to the rest of GTVA space. The Alliance plans to recreate the same conditions that collapsed the Sol jump nodes—namely a sufficiently powerful meson explosion, using a number of Great War-era destroyers, including the Bastion, which the GTVA send out to collapse the Capella–Epsilon Pegasi node by detonating its payload while it is within the node.[28]

The plan works but it is pyrrhic victory, as the GTVA loses the Colossus, their only match for Shivan juggernauts, in a diversionary engagement at the other end of the Capella system. With not much left to do but escort the remaining evacuation convoys to the Capella–Vega jump node while a second payload is sent to the jump node, the GTVA soon begins to detect activity from the system's star, which is being bombarded with an intense subspace field by numerous Sathanas-class ships. This causes the star to go supernova, destroying the fighting GTVA and Shivans in system. The player can choose to flee the scene when the warning is given or stay and die defending the remaining ships, which affects the ending slightly.[29] In the ending cutscene the player's commanding officer, Admiral Petrarch, delivers a speech about everything the Alliance has lost, speculating on the nature of the Shivans and why they destroyed the Capella star, and if the player decides to stay, a small tribute is paid to the player's heroic actions as Petrarch informs his wingmen of his sacrifice. The Admiral concludes by saying that the Alliance now has the means to recreate the Ancient subspace gate, implying that there's a chance the node to Earth can be restored and that this conflict didn't bring only sorrow, before signing off.

Development edit

The news of FreeSpace 2 being in development was confirmed in a chat on November 6, 1998. FreeSpace 2 was developed in less than one year. The Volition team revealed they had written up a story and will be targeting high-end hardware with dogfights for a greater number of ships and even larger and more deadly capital ships.[30] The team set themselves the goals of setting new standards for both single-player and multiplayer space combat simulations,[19] and started to modify the FreeSpace game engine for FreeSpace 2.[31] This team was the same team which had worked on Descent: FreeSpace, plus several new members. In order to flesh out the story, Volition hired Jason Scott as a full-time writer before work even started.[32][33] The linear mission structure was adopted as it was decided it would help the immersion factor of the story greatly.[10] As the relations between the Terrans and Vasudans dominated the first game, it was decided to scale the focus down to a personal level with Admiral Bosch and his decisions to rebel. Scott's close work with the designers, and co-ordination of the voice recording process helped to tightly integrate the story into the missions, giving a more sophisticated feel to the story.

Due to time constraints, a lot of the initial ideas were dropped from the final version of the game, such as atmospheric battles, and new weapons types like a "subspace missile artillery strike". The team made major improvements to the same FreeSpace engine from the first game.[10] By revamping the core of the graphical engine, and adding 32-bit support, they sped up the interface screens and graphic processing.[34] Hardware acceleration for the graphics was also decided to be a requirement to target the high-end machines of 1999.[30] This allowed for a greater number of ships visibly active on the battlefield, satisfying the team's penchant of having great numbers of fighters and capitals ships duking it out in a big battlefield, instead of "multiple small-ass" battles.[30] The shifting of their target focus to higher end machines also fulfilled their top priority of having capital ships many times larger than fighter crafts.[31] The team also followed real world concepts for some of their designs. The Pegasus stealth fighter was modeled on the stealth technology of the 1990s for people to relate to it easily. The game was restrained from becoming too realistic by the team's recognition that most gamers only want believable worlds to have a blast flying around in and blowing things up.[6]

Compared to the graphical changes, the artificial intelligence (AI) of the computer-controlled characters was only slightly changed. The justification given was that the team felt the AI worked very well for the first game. All they had to do was to tweak it a little and fix some bugs.[31] There was, however, a lot of work done in improving the multiplayer portion of the game. For FreeSpace 2, the player's personal computer was assigned a greater role in predicting the possible consequences for other players' actions. This reduced the amount of data needed to be transferred between the computers, which would result in a smoother playing experience. Beta testers were recruited to stress test and troubleshoot the multiplayer mode as well.[35] SquadWar was implemented as an attempt to establish a sense of continuity among the players in the form of a persistent online territorial fight, along with pilot statistics and ladder rankings. Volition hoped this concept would help to establish a strong, online community and build up the game's lifespan.[36] The process of fixing the bugs detected was even publicly published on the game's official website as the "Bug Fix of the Day" feature.

FreeSpace 2 was released on September 30, 1999, one month ahead of schedule,[37] although the team had to quickly come up with and release a patch (version 1.01) for a software bug which prevented recognition of a CD during the installation process.[38] Three months later, they released the next and final patch (version 1.20) to fix several other bugs.[39] The release of FreeSpace 2 was considerably muted compared to its predecessor Descent: FreeSpace.[40] Its publisher, Interplay, did not organize contests for it, nor did they generate pre-release hype up with the same drive as before. They also posted the incorrect system requirements for the game on their site. FreeSpace 2 was also placed on less-visible shelves than Descent 3. When GameSpot awarded FreeSpace 2 the "Sci-Fi Simulation of the Year" award, Interplay pushed out the "Sci-Fi Sim of the Year Edition" to capitalize on it.

Despite Volition's interest and desire to develop add-ons and expansions for FreeSpace 2, Interplay told them to stop.[40] Volition was then acquired by THQ in 2000. As Interplay owns the rights to the FreeSpace series (as well as the Descent series) and Volition's owners, THQ, is only interested in pursuing development on what they own, Volition was unable to continue developing the FreeSpace franchise.[41] Faced with source code which became practically useless to them, Volition released the source code for only game engines to the public under a noncommercial license on April 25, 2002.[42][43] Mike Kulas, the President of Volition, said this was to give those outside the game industry a chance to look at the code of a commercial software product, a desire he and Matt Toschlog had when they were not yet in the industry. In the years since, no sequels to FreeSpace 2 have been made and Interplay has only published a limited re-release of it on February 2, 2004, to commemorate the company's 20th anniversary.[11] Interplay, by that time, was in financial trouble, failing to pay rent and wages to its workers. Seeking investors to inject it with funds, Interplay changed business strategies: instead of developing and publishing single-player games, it sold licenses to those games and looked towards developing massive multi-player online games.[44][45][46] Derek Smart, creator of Battlecruiser 3000AD, had casually mentioned his interest in the Freespace license, but nothing significant came out of this.[47][48] In 2013, Interplay acquired the remaining rights to the FreeSpace franchise for $7,500 after THQ went to bankruptcy court.[49]

Reception edit

Reviews and awards edit

 
The game's backdrops have received high praise from reviewers

FreeSpace 2 has garnered high praise from most established reviewers. FreeSpace 2 received numerous "Game of the Year" awards for 1999, and was nominated for "Computer Simulation Game of the Year" during the 3rd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards.[65] Every review praised FreeSpace 2's graphics. From the ships to the backgrounds, the reviewers were pleased with the details Volition had paid attention to, such as the thematic differences in the ship designs between the races, the textures and clarity of the backdrops, and even the realism of the explosions, though FiringSquad pointed out explosions from torpedo strikes were lower in quality. The nebulae feature was also praised for its rendered atmosphere, which reviewers described as tense and paranoia-inducing as they keep expecting enemy ships to appear out of the gases in a deadly ambush.[12][17] Even though a couple of reviewers wrote that the nebulae made them dizzy, they still liked the feature.[4][20] Combatsim even claimed FreeSpace 2 was unrivaled among its space combat peers in the graphics department.[66] The graphical standards were such that when XGP reviewed the Anniversary Edition in 2004, Wehbi found the graphics to stand up quite well to the recent games then.[11]

GameSpot felt FreeSpace's story was "both deeper and darker" than either the Wing Commander and X-Wing series, establishing invincible foes who never lost their stature despite the player learning of plausible ways to defeat them. Game Revolution felt the story was "first rate" for being able to "build several different conflicts into an unforgettable climax", nicely presented by the emphasis of story telling by means of in-game events.[24] While Eurogamer supported the story as intriguing, it also marked down its rating of the game for the way the story was told. The reviewer felt the "just a cog in the machine" story-telling approach left him apathetic towards the non-player characters and missions in the game. FiringSquad, however, said it created a "very believable military atmosphere", which helped to show how things revolve around big events, instead of just around a single person. Combatsim.com offered another angle; Reynolds said the gameplay elements of FreeSpace 2 are "light years beyond the competition" and more than offsets the loss of being personally immersed in the game's universe.[66]

FreeSpace 2's key attraction is its dogfights. CNN.com said the close-ranged dogfights make for engrossing, and exciting skirmishes.[67] FiringSquad described it as a "total thrill" to be among 20 fighters flying in between opposing capital ships with beams, missiles, and flak all around and warnings going off, as they try to seek out and destroy their opposite numbers, a view which GameSpot agreed with.[23] The game's AI was judged adequate to provide for such fights, being cunning enough to trick others to crash into the walls of narrow openings, and good enough to detect and warn their wingmen of enemies coming up directly behind them.[18][22] There are those who expressed minor disappointments with the AI tending to collide too often with other objects.[15] While the dynamic mission objectives were celebrated for coming up with twists and turns to spice up the story,[14][16][24][66] there were a few who found these "in-game red herrings" overused instead.[5] Sharky Extreme praised FreeSpace 2 for having the enormous capital ships, as this burst the "trapped in a bubble" trend in Wing Commander- and X-Wing- type games.[22] Instead of the action simply coming to the player, it flows all around, and the player is the one who has to go and seek it. The scenes of these giant ships duking it out, with many gnat-like fighters swarming around in their little dances of death, have led reviewers to feel a sense of epicness,[8][15] comparable to reliving battles in science fiction series like Babylon 5 and Star Wars.[5][66] Similarly, PC Gamer praised the scaling of ships and battles and said that they "[came] as close to creating the feeling of a World War II naval battle in space as any game has ever come. That's what fighter combat, in space or on Earth, should be all about".[51]

Opinions were generally favorable towards FreeSpace 2's multiplayer implementation.[14][17] SquadWar received favorable responses from the reviewers who were impressed by its persistent nature and statistics tracking.[13][15] While the required registration with PXO was considered a troublesome process by a few, the gameplay itself was a smooth experience with no lag at all.[18][22] Other reviewers' experiences with lag were different. Reynolds of Combatsim.com said Internet gaming was laggy with ships jumping places, but LAN gaming was smooth sailing.[66] GameSpy's reviewer said lag became more apparent on a dial-up connection during a multiplayer mission with four or more players. FiringSquad's reviewer's experience was similar but he said the lag was not enough to hinder his enjoyment of the multiplayer action.[12]

Blake Fischer reviewed the PC version of the game for Next Generation, rating it five stars out of five, and said that "no self-respecting space-combat junkie should live without it".[53]

GameSpot, in electing FreeSpace 2 as one of the "Greatest Games of All Time", pointed out that while most of the game's features could be found in its predecessor or peers, its "sheer quality of presentation and gameplay" was the key reason for their choice.[23] Computer and Video Games has acknowledged it as offering the best dogfighting among the space combat classics.[68] Ars Technica also posed FreeSpace 2 as the last significant stage in evolution of the space combat genre as of 2005.[69]

Fans of the FreeSpace series have created modifications (mods) of FreeSpace 2. The first mods were just custom campaigns, with series of missions created through FRED2, the mission editor freely packaged with FreeSpace 2. One such mod which gained notability was Inferno, which sets its story decades after the conclusion of FreeSpace 2. Released in July 2003, the mod was hosted on established sites, such as GameSpot and CNET, as part of their FreeSpace 2 contents.[70]

Sales edit

Despite glowing reviews, FreeSpace 2 was a commercial disappointment.[71][72] In the United States, it totaled sales of 26,983 copies by the end of 1999, according to PC Data.[73] Writing for Daily Radar, Andrew S. Bub remarked that the game "horrifically" underperformed and was one of the most unfairly overlooked titles of the year.[71] FreeSpace 2 was a runner-up for GameSpot's 1999 "Best Game No One Played" award, which ultimately went to Disciples: Sacred Lands.[74]

FreeSpace 2's sales were acknowledged as disappointing, and described as awful by Kulas. He, however, stated that as the team had stayed within budget by sticking to schedule, Volition should at least be breaking even with the estimated final sales of the game.[75] In NowGamer's interview with Jim Boone, a producer at Volition, he said that this could have been due to joysticks' being sold poorly because they were "going out of fashion" and more modern first-person shooters, such as Quake, were "very much about the mouse and [the] keyboard". He went further on to state: "Before that, when we did Descent for example, it was perfectly common for people to have joysticks – we sold a lot of copies of Descent. It was around that time [when] the more modern FPS with mouse and keyboard came out, as opposed to just keyboard like Wolfenstein [3D] or something".[76]

Source code project edit

Main article: FreeSpace 2 Source Code Project

With the release of the game engine's source code, the possibilities of changing the game greatly opened up, and the fan community made use of the code to update the game using recent technology. Led by Edward Gardner and Ian Warfield, the FreeSpace 2 Source Code Project was formed to standardize changes and maintain a core engine for others to take advantage of. Using the new fan-updated engine, projects such as Beyond the Red Line, based on the new Battlestar Galactica, and The Babylon Project, based on Babylon 5, have become possible.[77] PXO, the free Internet gaming service handling SquadWar, was initially acquired by THQ in their 2002 acquisition of Outrage Entertainment (renamed as Outrage Games).[78] The service was continued until July 2003, when Outrage Games was dissolved and PXO terminated. The components of its website were, however, later handed over to the FreeSpace 2 Source Code Project to help them create a similar service in tracking statistics and rankings.[79]

References edit

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External links edit

April 10, 2024
freespace, 1999, space, combat, simulation, computer, game, developed, volition, sequel, descent, freespace, great, completed, ahead, schedule, less, than, year, released, very, positive, reviews, game, became, commercial, failure, described, certain, critics,. FreeSpace 2 is a 1999 space combat simulation computer game developed by Volition as the sequel to Descent FreeSpace The Great War It was completed ahead of schedule in less than a year and released to very positive reviews but the game became a commercial failure and was described by certain critics as one of 1999 s most unfairly overlooked titles FreeSpace 2Developer s VolitionPublisher s Interplay EntertainmentDesigner s Dave BaranecJason ScottAdam PletcherProgrammer s Dave BaranecArtist s Jasen WhitesideWriter s Jason ScottMike BreaultComposer s Dan Wentz Scott LeePlatform s Microsoft WindowsReleaseNA September 30 1999 2 EU October 8 1999 1 Genre s Space combat simulatorMode s Single player multiplayerThe game continues on the story from Descent FreeSpace once again thrusting the player into the role of a pilot fighting against the mysterious aliens the Shivans While defending the human race and its alien Vasudan allies the player also gets involved in putting down a rebellion The game features large numbers of fighters alongside gigantic capital ships in a battlefield fraught with beams shells and missiles in detailed star systems and nebulae Free multiplayer games were available via Parallax Online which also ranked players by their statistics A persistent galaxy was also available as SquadWar for players to fight with each other over territories In 2002 Volition released the source code for the game engine under a non commercial license This code became the core of the FreeSpace 2 Source Code Project which continuously improves it and enables new features In cooperation with the FreeSpace Upgrade Project the game s graphics are kept up to date 3 The improved game engine is also used by various mod projects for example The Babylon Project and Diaspora which are based on the science fiction series Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica respectively Contents 1 Gameplay 2 Plot and setting 2 1 Characters 2 2 Story 3 Development 4 Reception 4 1 Reviews and awards 4 2 Sales 5 Source code project 6 References 7 External linksGameplay edit nbsp A corvette and a destroyer attacking each other with beam cannonsFreeSpace 2 s gameplay involves the player piloting a starfighter using mounted weapons to destroy enemy starfighters performing reconnaissance behind enemy lines or escorting other starships 4 5 Its flight model is based on a looser interpretation of space physics instead of realistic Newtonian physics 6 Hence the ships are weightless and feel more responsive though they require constant application of engine power to move 7 The result is that the game plays more like a WWII dogfight simulator unaffected by gravity 8 Although joysticks are the recommended controller for this game the mouse is a viable alternative 9 Single player mode is executed in the form of a campaign which follows a story as a linear sequence of missions are executed The pre mission briefing stage is where the player gets information on the background and objectives and selects the ship and weapons 10 The choices of ships and weapons increase as the player proceeds further along the campaign Certain missions however will dictate certain ships and weapons to be used Weapons can be classified into primary weapons and secondary weapons 10 Primary weapons are kinetic and energy weapons while missiles and torpedoes are classified as secondary weapons Each weapon has its own specifications such as its rate of fire They also inflict different damages on hulls body of the ships or shields the protective energy fields surrounding the ships or possess special effects such as shutting down specific electronic systems or propulsion The player flies around in a fighter with a first person in cockpit view with a fully customizable fixed head up display HUD as the visual interface 11 12 The HUD displays video communications and relevant data on the ship s status and performance weapons objectives and targets It can also warn players from which direction missiles are locking onto them from thus becoming an aide for launching countermeasures or taking evasive maneuvers 13 Players have to maneuver into position and shoot through both shields and hull to destroy enemy ships 14 While hull damage is unrecoverable shields recharge over time With the game supporting force feedback technology joystick players will find their controllers vibrating or putting up resistance when they engage the afterburners or collide with objects 15 Similarly certain events such as engaging afterburners and firing powerful weapons will shake the screen as a form of visual feedback 13 FreeSpace 2 has many helpful features available The player can target enemies attacking a protected objective or match speeds with them Power can be shunted between shields engines and weapons thereby allowing faster recharge of shields afterburners and weapons at the expense of other subsystems These features can be ignored without any detrimental effects on gameplay 16 17 The mission parameters are not rigidly fixed as there is an allowance for the failures of some primary objectives 13 When the mission is concluded a post mission briefing will be conducted to discuss the mission and the performance of the player before the next mission can be taken on FreeSpace 2 allows multiplayer games to be played across a local area network LAN or over the Internet via the free services provided by Parallax Online PXO 18 The player can communicate with the other network players vocally through FreeSpace 2 s own voice chat capability 19 LAN play allows the players to play the standard player versus player modes such as deathmatch or cooperate to complete multiplayer missions They can even join in games which are already underway 20 The same can be done over PXO but with the added incentive of having the players statistics of kills and deaths being tracked on a ladder ranking system 15 Players can also form up or join squadrons in SquadWar an online persistent galaxy hosted by Volition on PXO where squadrons fight each other for territories Plot and setting editFreeSpace 2 takes place entirely in outer space The playing area is vast when compared to the small starfighters piloted by the player and the effective range they have This space is populated with interstellar bodies such as stars planets asteroids etc 17 21 22 The implementation of nebulae as an interactive environment is one of the most distinctive and crowning aspects of FreeSpace 2 23 24 Flying through a nebula involves impaired vision and occasional disruptions to flight electronics Nebulae have become known as an eerie and suspenseful arena of play 5 8 Journeys between star systems are achieved by jumping through jump nodes and traveling through subspace while shorter intra system distances are done by hopping into subspace at any time 25 All ships in a mission either jump or hop to make their entries and exits The game s starship designs are clearly distinguishable between the three races 17 Terran starships tend to be plain and practical the Vasudans starships are artistic with sleek lines and curves and the enemies ships the Shivans are sharp pointy and asymmetrical in insidious black and red colors 14 FreeSpace 2 also features humongous capital ships hundreds of times larger than the fighters and armed to the teeth with beam weapons and flak guns These ships are commonly scripted to seek each other out and engage in massive duels FreeSpace 2 s story is brought out via narrative pre rendered cutscenes the pre and post mission briefings as well as in game chatter between non player characters and scripted mission events 15 24 The structure for the story is linear without any branching paths for alternate storylines though there are optional covert missions which can further flesh out the story 13 The story can only be continued by clearing missions and progressing through the campaign However players are given the option to skip a mission if they have failed it five times in a row 16 This gives those who are interested in the story but less skilled the chance to continue on with the story without frustration Characters edit The player takes the role of a pilot in the ranks of the Galactic Terran Vasudan Alliance GTVA While the appearance and name of the pilot can be customized by the player the player never gets to personally interact with other characters in the game The pilot is also never shown in the game s cinematics or any other media Just like the player s pilot most of the other characters are low key The non player character Admiral Aken Bosch however plays a crucial part in moving the story As a prominent antagonist from the start he sparks off a rebellion which escalates the scale of action and brings in the other antagonist force the Shivans into the story The storytelling took on a character driven approach with expositions taking the form of cutscenes in which Bosch gives out monologues revealing the purpose and driving forces behind his actions A few established voice actors were brought in to give a polished touch to the voices in the game 24 Academy Award nominee Robert Loggia voiced the player s commanding officer Admiral Petrarch and Admiral Bosch was voiced by Ronny Cox Kurtwood Smith and Stephen Baldwin participated in bit roles as well Story edit The game begins 32 years after the events in Descent FreeSpace Following the end of the Great War both the GTA and PVE cemented their alliance by combining together to form the Galactic Terran Vasudan Alliance GTVA a single entity formed to cement the alliance between the Terran and Vasudan races after the destruction of Vasuda Prime by the Lucifer and the subsequent collapse of all subspace nodes to the Sol system as a result of the superdestroyer s destruction inside the Sol Delta Serpentis jump node 16 Despite this alliance opposition still exists to this union in the form of a faction of Terrans led by Great War veteran Admiral Aken Bosch who leads the rebel group under the banner of the Neo Terran Front NTF The NTF s rebellion led to the faction gaining control over the Sirius Polaris and Regulus star systems while engaging the GTVA for 18 months before launching attacks on the Vasudan systems of Deneb and Alpha Centauri Seeking to stop the NTF from securing Deneb the GTVA launch a campaign in the star system though they are shocked to find Bosch within An effort to stop him fails badly and so the GTVA focus on securing the star system with great success Just as further engagements against the NTF are about to commence an incident in the Gamma Draconis system leads to the 3rd Fleet of the GTVA being reassigned to the star system where they learn that the Shivans have returned along with the discovery of an artificial jump gate that leads to Shivan space After securing the device and passing through it the GTVA discover a nebula along with more Shivans and a cruiser of the NTF the Trinity Despite efforts to secure and recover the cruiser the Trinity is destroyed and the GTVA fleet focus on dealing with the Shivans before returning to Gamma Draconis for reassignment The NTF rebellion soon becomes the focus of attention once again after attacks intensify eventually leading the GTVA to quell an attack on a space station with their latest ship the enormous capital ship GTVA Colossus Dwarfing all other capital ships this juggernaut class ship s power proves more than a match to many NTF ships defeating a major officer in the rebellion Seeking to capitalize on this the GTVI Galactic Terran Vasudan Intelligence organise an operation with their SOC Special Operation Command to investigate and uncover information on Bosch s ETAK project which is nearly wrecked when a Vasudan admiral attempts to hit Bosch s flagship the Iceni Following the latest campaign against the NTF GTVA forces re engage Shivan forces in the nebula while testing out new weapon and technology prototypes such as an AWACS cruiser that enables better vision in the nebula a TAG missile that enables friendly capital ships to instantly lock on to the tagged enemy ship and the Pegasus class stealth fighter With the aid of these new technologies the Alliance destroys a Shivan Ravana class destroyer The 3rd Fleet soon return to GTVA space where Bosch launches an assault to get the NTF to the Jump Gate While the NTF loses many ships the Iceni escapes with Bosch on board thanks to sabotage preventing the GTVA Colossus from firing on it While pursuing Bosch into the nebula the GTVA attack Shivan nebular gas mining operations only for the Shivans to retaliate with a juggernaut class warship of their own dubbed the Sathanas The Sathanas enters Terran Vasudan space despite an effort to destroy the jump gate linking the nebula to Gamma Draconis the node between the two system had stabilised at some point With the Shivans encroaching on GTVA space the Sathanas is engaged by the Colossus as it enters the densely populated Capella system and thanks to the player s efforts in disabling its beam turrets is destroyed in the engagement 26 The Alliance Fleet soon resumes its efforts to track down Bosch and discover that Bosch had built a device that enables him to communicate with the Shivans which was the purpose of ETAK the Alliance realise the jump gate was activated by Bosch who had been stealing artefacts from archaeological sites looking into the Ancients and had been hoping to meet and contact the Shivans The Shivans respond to his transmission and in turn board his command frigate the Iceni capturing him and fifteen other crewmen before attempting to destroy the Iceni The GTVA manage to save the surviving crew of the Iceni and the ETAK device but as they try to intercept the Shivan transport carrying Bosch they discover a second jump gate in the nebula The Alliance destroyer the GVD Psamtik attempts to secure the jump gate but is destroyed by another Sathanas juggernaut shortly afterwards forcing the GTVA to pull out During this time the GTVI and SOC launch a secret operation within the nebula at great risk to recover an operative and check the other side of the gate discovering the threat posed to the GTVA by the Shivans is much greater than they had thought 27 The Alliance devises a plan to halt the Shivan invasion while evacuating civilians and others from the Capella star system by collapsing the two jump nodes from Capella to the rest of GTVA space The Alliance plans to recreate the same conditions that collapsed the Sol jump nodes namely a sufficiently powerful meson explosion using a number of Great War era destroyers including the Bastion which the GTVA send out to collapse the Capella Epsilon Pegasi node by detonating its payload while it is within the node 28 The plan works but it is pyrrhic victory as the GTVA loses the Colossus their only match for Shivan juggernauts in a diversionary engagement at the other end of the Capella system With not much left to do but escort the remaining evacuation convoys to the Capella Vega jump node while a second payload is sent to the jump node the GTVA soon begins to detect activity from the system s star which is being bombarded with an intense subspace field by numerous Sathanas class ships This causes the star to go supernova destroying the fighting GTVA and Shivans in system The player can choose to flee the scene when the warning is given or stay and die defending the remaining ships which affects the ending slightly 29 In the ending cutscene the player s commanding officer Admiral Petrarch delivers a speech about everything the Alliance has lost speculating on the nature of the Shivans and why they destroyed the Capella star and if the player decides to stay a small tribute is paid to the player s heroic actions as Petrarch informs his wingmen of his sacrifice The Admiral concludes by saying that the Alliance now has the means to recreate the Ancient subspace gate implying that there s a chance the node to Earth can be restored and that this conflict didn t bring only sorrow before signing off Development editThe news of FreeSpace 2 being in development was confirmed in a chat on November 6 1998 FreeSpace 2 was developed in less than one year The Volition team revealed they had written up a story and will be targeting high end hardware with dogfights for a greater number of ships and even larger and more deadly capital ships 30 The team set themselves the goals of setting new standards for both single player and multiplayer space combat simulations 19 and started to modify the FreeSpace game engine for FreeSpace 2 31 This team was the same team which had worked on Descent FreeSpace plus several new members In order to flesh out the story Volition hired Jason Scott as a full time writer before work even started 32 33 The linear mission structure was adopted as it was decided it would help the immersion factor of the story greatly 10 As the relations between the Terrans and Vasudans dominated the first game it was decided to scale the focus down to a personal level with Admiral Bosch and his decisions to rebel Scott s close work with the designers and co ordination of the voice recording process helped to tightly integrate the story into the missions giving a more sophisticated feel to the story Due to time constraints a lot of the initial ideas were dropped from the final version of the game such as atmospheric battles and new weapons types like a subspace missile artillery strike The team made major improvements to the same FreeSpace engine from the first game 10 By revamping the core of the graphical engine and adding 32 bit support they sped up the interface screens and graphic processing 34 Hardware acceleration for the graphics was also decided to be a requirement to target the high end machines of 1999 30 This allowed for a greater number of ships visibly active on the battlefield satisfying the team s penchant of having great numbers of fighters and capitals ships duking it out in a big battlefield instead of multiple small ass battles 30 The shifting of their target focus to higher end machines also fulfilled their top priority of having capital ships many times larger than fighter crafts 31 The team also followed real world concepts for some of their designs The Pegasus stealth fighter was modeled on the stealth technology of the 1990s for people to relate to it easily The game was restrained from becoming too realistic by the team s recognition that most gamers only want believable worlds to have a blast flying around in and blowing things up 6 Compared to the graphical changes the artificial intelligence AI of the computer controlled characters was only slightly changed The justification given was that the team felt the AI worked very well for the first game All they had to do was to tweak it a little and fix some bugs 31 There was however a lot of work done in improving the multiplayer portion of the game For FreeSpace 2 the player s personal computer was assigned a greater role in predicting the possible consequences for other players actions This reduced the amount of data needed to be transferred between the computers which would result in a smoother playing experience Beta testers were recruited to stress test and troubleshoot the multiplayer mode as well 35 SquadWar was implemented as an attempt to establish a sense of continuity among the players in the form of a persistent online territorial fight along with pilot statistics and ladder rankings Volition hoped this concept would help to establish a strong online community and build up the game s lifespan 36 The process of fixing the bugs detected was even publicly published on the game s official website as the Bug Fix of the Day feature FreeSpace 2 was released on September 30 1999 one month ahead of schedule 37 although the team had to quickly come up with and release a patch version 1 01 for a software bug which prevented recognition of a CD during the installation process 38 Three months later they released the next and final patch version 1 20 to fix several other bugs 39 The release of FreeSpace 2 was considerably muted compared to its predecessor Descent FreeSpace 40 Its publisher Interplay did not organize contests for it nor did they generate pre release hype up with the same drive as before They also posted the incorrect system requirements for the game on their site FreeSpace 2 was also placed on less visible shelves than Descent 3 When GameSpot awarded FreeSpace 2 the Sci Fi Simulation of the Year award Interplay pushed out the Sci Fi Sim of the Year Edition to capitalize on it Despite Volition s interest and desire to develop add ons and expansions for FreeSpace 2 Interplay told them to stop 40 Volition was then acquired by THQ in 2000 As Interplay owns the rights to the FreeSpace series as well as the Descent series and Volition s owners THQ is only interested in pursuing development on what they own Volition was unable to continue developing the FreeSpace franchise 41 Faced with source code which became practically useless to them Volition released the source code for only game engines to the public under a noncommercial license on April 25 2002 42 43 Mike Kulas the President of Volition said this was to give those outside the game industry a chance to look at the code of a commercial software product a desire he and Matt Toschlog had when they were not yet in the industry In the years since no sequels to FreeSpace 2 have been made and Interplay has only published a limited re release of it on February 2 2004 to commemorate the company s 20th anniversary 11 Interplay by that time was in financial trouble failing to pay rent and wages to its workers Seeking investors to inject it with funds Interplay changed business strategies instead of developing and publishing single player games it sold licenses to those games and looked towards developing massive multi player online games 44 45 46 Derek Smart creator of Battlecruiser 3000AD had casually mentioned his interest in the Freespace license but nothing significant came out of this 47 48 In 2013 Interplay acquired the remaining rights to the FreeSpace franchise for 7 500 after THQ went to bankruptcy court 49 Reception editReviews and awards edit ReceptionAggregate scoresAggregatorScoreGameRankings92 0 55 Metacritic91 100 54 Review scoresPublicationScoreComputer and Video Games8 5 10 8 Eurogamer7 10 52 GamePro nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp 50 GameSpot9 4 10 15 GameSpy92 100 12 IGN8 9 10 16 Next Generation nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp 53 PC Gamer US 93 51 The Electric Playground8 5 10 18 FiringSquad90 17 AwardsPublicationAwardPC PlayerBest Space Combat Game of 1999 56 Intelligamer1999 Sim Game of the Year 57 CGW2000 Premier Award Winner 58 GameSpotSci Fi Simulation of the Year 59 GamePowerBest Sim of 99 60 GameSpySim Game of the Year 61 FiringSquadBest Action Game of 1999 62 Computer GamesSci Fi Simulation of the Year 63 PC PlayerAll Time Top 100 Games 64 GameSpotGreatest Games of All Time 23 nbsp The game s backdrops have received high praise from reviewersFreeSpace 2 has garnered high praise from most established reviewers FreeSpace 2 received numerous Game of the Year awards for 1999 and was nominated for Computer Simulation Game of the Year during the 3rd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards 65 Every review praised FreeSpace 2 s graphics From the ships to the backgrounds the reviewers were pleased with the details Volition had paid attention to such as the thematic differences in the ship designs between the races the textures and clarity of the backdrops and even the realism of the explosions though FiringSquad pointed out explosions from torpedo strikes were lower in quality The nebulae feature was also praised for its rendered atmosphere which reviewers described as tense and paranoia inducing as they keep expecting enemy ships to appear out of the gases in a deadly ambush 12 17 Even though a couple of reviewers wrote that the nebulae made them dizzy they still liked the feature 4 20 Combatsim even claimed FreeSpace 2 was unrivaled among its space combat peers in the graphics department 66 The graphical standards were such that when XGP reviewed the Anniversary Edition in 2004 Wehbi found the graphics to stand up quite well to the recent games then 11 GameSpot felt FreeSpace s story was both deeper and darker than either the Wing Commander and X Wing series establishing invincible foes who never lost their stature despite the player learning of plausible ways to defeat them Game Revolution felt the story was first rate for being able to build several different conflicts into an unforgettable climax nicely presented by the emphasis of story telling by means of in game events 24 While Eurogamer supported the story as intriguing it also marked down its rating of the game for the way the story was told The reviewer felt the just a cog in the machine story telling approach left him apathetic towards the non player characters and missions in the game FiringSquad however said it created a very believable military atmosphere which helped to show how things revolve around big events instead of just around a single person Combatsim com offered another angle Reynolds said the gameplay elements of FreeSpace 2 are light years beyond the competition and more than offsets the loss of being personally immersed in the game s universe 66 FreeSpace 2 s key attraction is its dogfights CNN com said the close ranged dogfights make for engrossing and exciting skirmishes 67 FiringSquad described it as a total thrill to be among 20 fighters flying in between opposing capital ships with beams missiles and flak all around and warnings going off as they try to seek out and destroy their opposite numbers a view which GameSpot agreed with 23 The game s AI was judged adequate to provide for such fights being cunning enough to trick others to crash into the walls of narrow openings and good enough to detect and warn their wingmen of enemies coming up directly behind them 18 22 There are those who expressed minor disappointments with the AI tending to collide too often with other objects 15 While the dynamic mission objectives were celebrated for coming up with twists and turns to spice up the story 14 16 24 66 there were a few who found these in game red herrings overused instead 5 Sharky Extreme praised FreeSpace 2 for having the enormous capital ships as this burst the trapped in a bubble trend in Wing Commander and X Wing type games 22 Instead of the action simply coming to the player it flows all around and the player is the one who has to go and seek it The scenes of these giant ships duking it out with many gnat like fighters swarming around in their little dances of death have led reviewers to feel a sense of epicness 8 15 comparable to reliving battles in science fiction series like Babylon 5 and Star Wars 5 66 Similarly PC Gamer praised the scaling of ships and battles and said that they came as close to creating the feeling of a World War II naval battle in space as any game has ever come That s what fighter combat in space or on Earth should be all about 51 Opinions were generally favorable towards FreeSpace 2 s multiplayer implementation 14 17 SquadWar received favorable responses from the reviewers who were impressed by its persistent nature and statistics tracking 13 15 While the required registration with PXO was considered a troublesome process by a few the gameplay itself was a smooth experience with no lag at all 18 22 Other reviewers experiences with lag were different Reynolds of Combatsim com said Internet gaming was laggy with ships jumping places but LAN gaming was smooth sailing 66 GameSpy s reviewer said lag became more apparent on a dial up connection during a multiplayer mission with four or more players FiringSquad s reviewer s experience was similar but he said the lag was not enough to hinder his enjoyment of the multiplayer action 12 Blake Fischer reviewed the PC version of the game for Next Generation rating it five stars out of five and said that no self respecting space combat junkie should live without it 53 GameSpot in electing FreeSpace 2 as one of the Greatest Games of All Time pointed out that while most of the game s features could be found in its predecessor or peers its sheer quality of presentation and gameplay was the key reason for their choice 23 Computer and Video Games has acknowledged it as offering the best dogfighting among the space combat classics 68 Ars Technica also posed FreeSpace 2 as the last significant stage in evolution of the space combat genre as of 2005 update 69 Fans of the FreeSpace series have created modifications mods of FreeSpace 2 The first mods were just custom campaigns with series of missions created through FRED2 the mission editor freely packaged with FreeSpace 2 One such mod which gained notability was Inferno which sets its story decades after the conclusion of FreeSpace 2 Released in July 2003 the mod was hosted on established sites such as GameSpot and CNET as part of their FreeSpace 2 contents 70 Sales edit Despite glowing reviews FreeSpace 2 was a commercial disappointment 71 72 In the United States it totaled sales of 26 983 copies by the end of 1999 according to PC Data 73 Writing for Daily Radar Andrew S Bub remarked that the game horrifically underperformed and was one of the most unfairly overlooked titles of the year 71 FreeSpace 2 was a runner up for GameSpot s 1999 Best Game No One Played award which ultimately went to Disciples Sacred Lands 74 FreeSpace 2 s sales were acknowledged as disappointing and described as awful by Kulas He however stated that as the team had stayed within budget by sticking to schedule Volition should at least be breaking even with the estimated final sales of the game 75 In NowGamer s interview with Jim Boone a producer at Volition he said that this could have been due to joysticks being sold poorly because they were going out of fashion and more modern first person shooters such as Quake were very much about the mouse and the keyboard He went further on to state Before that when we did Descent for example it was perfectly common for people to have joysticks we sold a lot of copies of Descent It was around that time when the more modern FPS with mouse and keyboard came out as opposed to just keyboard like Wolfenstein 3D or something 76 Source code project editMain article FreeSpace 2 Source Code Project With the release of the game engine s source code the possibilities of changing the game greatly opened up and the fan community made use of the code to update the game using recent technology Led by Edward Gardner and Ian Warfield the FreeSpace 2 Source Code Project was formed to standardize changes and maintain a core engine for others to take advantage of Using the new fan updated engine projects such as Beyond the Red Line based on the new Battlestar Galactica and The Babylon Project based on Babylon 5 have become possible 77 PXO the free Internet gaming service handling SquadWar was initially acquired by THQ in their 2002 acquisition of Outrage Entertainment renamed as Outrage Games 78 The service was continued until July 2003 when Outrage Games was dissolved and PXO terminated The components of its website were however later handed over to the FreeSpace 2 Source Code Project to help them create a similar service in tracking statistics and rankings 79 References edit Gone Gold EuroGold 2001 02 10 Archived from the original on 2001 02 10 Retrieved 2023 10 04 FreeSpace 2 Ships to Retail Press release Interplay Entertainment 1999 10 01 Archived from the original on 2000 10 18 Retrieved 2024 01 04 Getting started FreeSpace Wiki Retrieved 2012 03 06 a b Byron Hinson n d Freespace 2 Review ActiveWindows Retrieved 2007 10 26 a b c d Alec Norands n d FreeSpace 2 Sci Fi Sim of the Year Edition Allgame Retrieved 2007 10 26 permanent dead link a b Volition Watch staff September 1999 Interview with Philip Holt Volition Watch Retrieved 2007 10 30 Kevin Rice 2001 12 11 Reviews Clusterball GameSpy Archived from the original on 2007 10 12 Retrieved 2007 11 09 The game would greatly benefit from a more space sim feel like that in Freespace or Starlancer where ships are far more responsive and essentially weightless a b c d Richie Shoemaker 2001 08 13 Freespace 2 Computer and Video Games Archived from the original on February 7 2007 Retrieved 2007 10 31 Jakub Wojnarowicz 1999 09 05 Freespace 2 Demo Review FiringSquad Retrieved 2007 10 25 a b c d PC Paradox staff 1999 07 16 Freespace 2 Interview PC Paradox Archived from the original on 2000 05 30 Retrieved 2007 10 25 a b c Khalil SniperCloud Wehbi 2004 05 12 Freespace 2 Interplay 20th Anniversary Edition Review XGP Archived from the original on 2006 11 15 Retrieved 2007 10 26 a b c d Matt Mix Fox 1999 10 10 Freespace 2 GameSpy Archived from the original on 2007 10 15 Retrieved 2007 10 26 a b c d e Richard KZ Knight 1999 01 31 FreeSpace 2 Review MakeItSimple com Retrieved 2007 10 26 a b c d Cory McGray 2002 PC Reviews FreeSpace 2 Realm of Gaming Archived from the original on 2007 10 11 Retrieved 2007 10 26 a b c d e f g Stefan Desslock Janicki 1999 10 15 Freespace 2 GameSpot Retrieved 2007 10 26 a b c d e Trent C Ward 1999 10 01 Freespace 2 IGN Archived from the original on October 1 2002 Retrieved 2007 10 26 a b c d e f Jakub Wojnarowicz 1999 10 12 Freespace 2 Review FiringSquad Retrieved 2007 10 25 a b c d Marc Saltzman n d FreeSpace 2 The Electric Playground Archived from the original on 2007 10 10 Retrieved 2007 10 26 a b JB 1999 04 19 Interplay Announces FreeSpace 2 IGN Archived from the original on February 17 2002 Retrieved 2007 10 25 a b Mark KILLZAT Jackson 1999 11 12 FreeSpace 2 Speedy3D Retrieved 2007 10 26 Tal Blevins 1999 07 02 Freespace 2 IGN Archived from the original on March 6 2002 Retrieved 2007 10 25 a b c d Edward Grendel Zybul 1999 11 02 FreeSpace 2 Review Sharky Extreme Archived from the original on 2008 01 01 Retrieved 2007 10 26 a b c d Matthew Rorie 2005 11 14 The Greatest Games of All Time Freespace 2 GameSpot Retrieved 2007 10 26 a b c d e Johnny B 1999 10 01 FreeSpace 2 Game Revolution Archived from the original on 2008 05 14 Retrieved 2007 10 26 Volition staff 1998 02 26 Subspace Technology FreeSpace Reference Bible Volition p 4 Archived from the original Word 97 on 2012 02 04 Retrieved 2007 11 09 Vasudan Commander At 0345 hours the GTVA Colossus destroyed the Shivan juggernaut Sathanas near the Gamma Draconis jump node in Capella This victory proves without a doubt our technological superiority over our Great War nemesis For the second time the Alliance defeated a species which has annihilated entire civilizations across this galaxy With the Colossus we will have nothing more to fear Volition 1999 09 30 FreeSpace 2 PC Interplay Entertainment Admiral Petrarch Nine Sathanas juggernauts have now entered the Capella system and Intelligence has sighted even more in the nebula converging on the jump node to Terran Vasudan space We are on the threshold of a new apocalypse Though the juggernauts have not engaged our warships they have set course for the Capella star We can only speculate about their intentions but this development cannot bode well for the Alliance Volition 1999 09 30 FreeSpace 2 PC Interplay Entertainment Admiral Petrarch Preparations are now underway to collapse the Epsilon Pegasi jump node A Great War era destroyer the GTD Bastion will contain multiple meson warheads that will detonate inside the node Scientists believe an explosion of sufficient magnitude will cause this node to collapse as evidenced by the destruction of the Lucifer 32 years ago The detonation of the Lucifer s reactors sealed off the Sol jump node in Delta Serpentis and severed all contact with Earth Volition 1999 09 30 FreeSpace 2 PC Interplay Entertainment Terran Commander We are detecting a massive shockwave emanating from the Capella sun All units proceed to the Vega node You are advised to leave the system immediately Volition 1999 09 30 FreeSpace 2 PC Interplay Entertainment a b c Michael Diedrich Zarathud 1998 11 20 Chat with Volition FreeSpace Watch Archived from the original on 2007 11 11 Retrieved 2007 10 30 a b c Ryan Wissman 1999 08 22 Lisa Bucek on Freespace 2 Speedy3D Retrieved 2007 10 25 Volition Watch staff September 1999 Interview with Jason Scott Volition Watch Retrieved 2007 10 30 Ron Dulin 1998 12 31 Freespace 2 GameSpot Archived from the original on 2003 04 15 Retrieved 2007 10 25 Ed Finkler 1999 08 20 Interview with Dave Baranec Freespace2 org Archived from the original on 2000 03 11 Retrieved 2007 10 25 Serious FreeSpace2 Beta Testing Blue s News 1999 08 25 Retrieved 2007 10 25 Interview with Nathan Camarillo Volition Watch August 1999 Retrieved 2007 10 30 Volition staff September 1999 Learn the history of Volition Volition Archived from the original on 2007 09 11 Retrieved 2007 11 01 Volition staff 1999 10 05 FreeSpace 2 Patch 1 01 Volition Archived from the original on 2008 01 30 Retrieved 2007 10 31 Volition staff 1999 12 03 FreeSpace 2 Patch Version 1 20 Volition Archived from the original on 2008 01 30 Retrieved 2007 10 31 a b Michael Diedrich Zarathud 1999 11 08 Freespace 2 In Need of Support From Its Publisher FreeSpace Watch Archived from the original on 2007 11 11 Retrieved 2007 10 30 Mike Kulas 2000 09 08 Volition Interview Volition Archived from the original on 2008 01 30 Retrieved 2007 10 31 Sulic Ivan 2002 04 25 Freespace Source Code IGN Archived from the original on May 1 2002 Retrieved 2007 10 25 Volition Copyright Volition 2003 09 07 Archived from the original on 2007 10 10 Retrieved 2007 11 02 Simons Andrew March 14 2005 Wither Interplay Orange County Business Journal 28 11 California United States Richard Reisman 1 2 ISSN 1040 3000 ProQuest 211141562 Cecil Mark May 10 2004 For Interplay The M amp A Game No Longer Entertains Mergers amp Acquisitions Report New York United States Thomson Media 1 ISSN 1099 3428 ProQuest 222672078 Chuang Tamara June 27 2004 Struggling California Computer Game Firm Hopeful New Direction Can Aid Fortunes Knight Ridder Tribune Business News Washington United States p 1 ProQuest 464029130 Derek Smart and Freespace 3 Blue s News 2004 07 15 Retrieved 2007 10 25 Thorsen Thor 2004 07 16 Rumor Control 179 DS in November and 29 99 GameCube games GameSpot Retrieved 2007 10 25 Interplay Buys Freespace Rights For a Cool 7 500 Archived from the original on 2013 08 05 Retrieved 2014 12 02 Nash Werner 2000 11 24 Review Freespace II GamePro Archived from the original on May 12 2008 Retrieved 2007 10 26 a b Tyler Wilde 7 June 2014 FreeSpace 2 Review PC Gamer Retrieved 7 September 2015 Gestalt 1999 10 15 Freespace 2 Eurogamer Archived from the original on 2008 12 01 Retrieved 2007 10 26 a b Fischer Blake January 2000 Finals Next Generation Vol 3 no 1 Imagine Media p 102 Freespace 2 Metacritic Retrieved 2023 11 08 FreeSpace 2 Reviews GameRankings Retrieved 2007 10 26 Best Games of 1999 PCPlayer March 2000 GamePower staff 2000 02 07 Intelligamer 1999 Game of the Year Intelligamer Archived from the original on 2001 06 05 Retrieved 2007 11 01 FS2 CGW Premier Award Winner JPG Computer Gaming World 2000 01 25 Retrieved 2007 11 01 GameSpot staff 2000 01 10 Science Fiction Simulation of the Year GameSpot Retrieved 2007 11 01 GamePower staff 1999 12 02 Top Four 99 Simulation Games Sims PC only GamePower Archived from the original on 2000 03 01 Retrieved 2007 11 01 GameSpy staff 1999 12 14 The GameSpy Best of 1999 GameSpy Archived from the original on 2007 11 11 Retrieved 2007 11 02 Jakub Wojnarowicz 1999 12 30 The Best Games of 1999 FiringSquad Retrieved 2007 10 26 The Year s Best Computer Games Magazine April 2000 PC Player staff n d PC Player All Time Top 100 Games PC Player Retrieved 2007 11 01 3rd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards The Academy of Interactive Arts amp Sciences 2000 05 11 Archived from the original on 2007 12 23 Retrieved 2007 11 03 a b c d e John Reynolds 1999 11 02 Descent Freespace 2 Combatsim com Retrieved 2007 11 10 Thomas Crymes 1999 07 22 Can FreeSpace II fulfill the hype CNN com Retrieved 2007 10 31 Martin Korda 2001 08 13 Edge Of Chaos Independence War 2 Computer and Video Games Archived from the original on December 1 2008 Retrieved 2007 11 10 Imagine the best of X Beyond The Frontier trading fighting and building up an empire Wing Commander IV a superb FMV driven storyline and FreeSpace 2 the best space based dogfighting around all bought together in one game Jeremy Reimer 2005 10 10 The evolution of gaming computers consoles and arcade Ars Technica Retrieved 2007 10 26 Freespace 2 Inferno Mod GameSpot 2004 07 07 Retrieved 2007 11 03 a b Bub Andrew S January 3 2000 Andrew s Views Presents the First Annual System Shocks and Trespassers Awards Daily Radar Archived from the original on March 3 2000 Orange 2000 04 14 Freespace 2 Sales Numbers FreeSpace Watch Archived from the original on 2009 01 23 Retrieved 2007 10 30 Staff April 2000 PC Gamer Editors Choice Winners Does Quality Matter PC Gamer US 7 4 32 33 Staff The Best amp Worst of 1999 GameSpot Archived from the original on August 17 2000 Retrieved December 21 2019 Volition Watch staff November 2000 Interview with Mike Kulas Volition Watch Archived from the original on 2001 03 09 Retrieved 2007 10 30 Tom Senior 7 February 2011 Volition Would Commit Murder to Make Freespace 3 PC Gamer Retrieved 29 May 2015 Joe Blancato 2007 06 19 Gaming s Fringe Cults The Escapist Archived from the original on 2014 02 02 Retrieved 2007 10 25 Outrage acquired by THQ Press release Business Wire 2002 04 04 Archived from the original on August 5 2003 Retrieved 2007 11 03 via web archive org PXO NET A Free Internet Gaming Service From Parallax Online n d Archived from the original on November 5 2007 Retrieved 2007 11 03 External links editInterplay Entertainment Corp FreeSpace 2 website archived by Internet Archive Volition FreeSpace 2 website archived by Internet Archive Volition FreeSpace 2 website Archived 2014 03 24 at the Wayback Machine FreeSpace 2 at MobyGames FreeSpace 2 at IMDb nbsp Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title FreeSpace 2 amp oldid 1194716215, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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