Games of comparable quality to SC2??

[fluffy_banana]

Closest game to SC2 in terms of gameplay is almost certainly Starflight, although it's about six years older than SC2. Doesn't have quite the same lovable charm, but it does have similar 'explore a vast galaxy, find resources, upgrade ship, contact aliens'-type gameplay. Its storyline is a little less central to the game than SC2's, IIRC, but it does have one and it's reasonably interesting.

I'll have to second Planescape Torment. It's very well written, with quite an original setting.

Also, in the vein of Age of Wonders, there's Master of Magic, which AoW is heavily inspired by. You can think of it as a cross between AoW and Civilization. It also runs just fine in DOSBox.

Also, hi again everyone.

[Eth]

Hi, fluffy!  It's been, what, two years?  Welcome back!

[fluffy_banana]

Probably has! Hi there.

What's new, other than the site redesign (quite spiffing!)?

[ZEXy]

EDIT: I was also going to ask ZEXy if he/she is a frungylovers fan, but now that there's an icon I guess the question is redundant. Welcome to the forums!

Thanks for the welcome! I found PNF (through the Ultronomicon) just before all the pages came back online. I'm really happy to find everything in working shape and I'm just as happy to find wonderful new SC sites and groups through PNF.

I also should smack myself for not mentioning Starflight before fluffy_banana did. Whoops!

[Eth]

Probably has! Hi there.

What's new, other than the site redesign (quite spiffing!)?

Well, we have several new members.  Sedodes only posts every few weeks.  I'm working on a SC webcomic with a friend.  There are a lot of moderators now.  Um.  That's all I can think of.

[Smoke353]

i dont think there is any game like sc2 that is anywhere near as good.
starcraft is definitely my favorite game, but its kind of hard to compare it to starcon since they are such completely different games (except that they both abreviate to sc  )  starcraft was the game that got me into video games, i started playing it when i was 9 and i never really stopped playing it.

i do this with starcraft ^.^

[SuddenDeath]

Thief: The Dark Project (and its 'final version', Thief Gold). This game is the second best of all time for me, right after SC2
Thief II: The Metal Age is also good.

[Lukipela]

I always had trouble with the Thief saga because I'm too impatient, and an orgy of Save/Load gets frustrating. But they were certainly a novel take on the genre.

But LBA is still the closest I get to the same feeling of openness and humour.

[Eth]

I always had trouble with the Thief saga because I'm too impatient, and an orgy of Save/Load gets frustrating. But they were certainly a novel take on the genre.

It was brilliant, IMO.  A genuinely new gameplay style, but not horribly difficult. 

[Angelfish]

On the Mass effect comparison thingy: This vid shows it all really
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh6PGp9G2W8

[Megagun]

And there's an article to go with it, too: http://www.vidgama.com/2009/04/head-to-head-mass-effect-vs-star-control-ii/
And those who have played Mass Effect know that there are almost word-for-word copies of Star Control dialogue in Mass Effect, especially near those 'Ooh explain the universe to me since I somehow have lost my memory!' segments.

[Alen]

The plot is quite similar also, you can end up having sex with a blue alien in Mass Effect too!

[Smoke353]

And there's an article to go with it, too: http://www.vidgama.com/2009/04/head-to-head-mass-effect-vs-star-control-ii/
And those who have played Mass Effect know that there are almost word-for-word copies of Star Control dialogue in Mass Effect, especially near those 'Ooh explain the universe to me since I somehow have lost my memory!' segments.

I've beaten Mass Effect twice now and somehow never noticed this.   That Reaper looks an awful lot like an Ur-Quan though...

pit any Mass Effect Reaver against the entire fleet of Star Control II Kohr-Ah ships and it would be pure decimation for the poor pixelated Ur-Quans

I don't like that bit though.  If a transport who's main capability is cloaking can beat it, a fleet of ships built to annigilate planets certainly could.

[Alen]

The game makers defiantly played SC II before, and if anything the reavers are the Urquan.

[Lukipela]

It was brilliant, IMO.  A genuinely new gameplay style, but not horribly difficult.  

Oh yeah, I enjoyed them. I suspect I'm just too fixated on getting a perfect score.