Recently I decided to play the Freespace series once again. I finished the first installment only once - 15 years ago or so. I knew about the existence of Freespace Open back then, but I decided to play the original version to have the original experience. This time I went with the fully modded version. This requires an open-source version of Freespace 2 engine called Freespace Open. The community automatized the entire mod installation process with a great launcher called Knossos. Basically you install the original Freespace 2, then Knossos and launch the application. Then you have to point the installation folder of original Freespace 2 and voila! You have access to impressive amount of mods via Knossos.
The most noteworthy modification for people who want to play Freespace 2 with upgraded graphics is the Freespace Upgrade MediaVPs 4.6 pack. It contains high detail ships, backgrounds and other objects. You can also optionally install even better assets (strongly recommended!), HD menu, remixed music, HD game cut-scenes and briefing animations. For people who want to play Freespace 1 on Freespace Open engine there's the Freespace Port modification. Upgrade it with Freespace Port MediaVPs (some files are shared with Fresspace Upgrade MediaVPs 4.6) and you can play Freespace 1 on Freespace 2 engine with all eye candy modifications which make the game look quite modern. The only thing I had to change is anti-aliasing. The built-in is insufficient. So I went to graphics card driver options and turned AA and transparent AA to 8x. With this modification the game looks incredible!
Freespace 1 and Freespace 2 are one of the best space-sims in history. Impressive gameplay, which features ships of enormous size, interesting story and great narration are the most recognizable aspects of these games. The community has done an incredible amount of work to upgrade the graphics of both games, but it was a nightmare to install all of this manually. Knossos makes it a breeze. It's probably the best moment to revisit the Freespace games. There's also a lot of story mods (including unofficial continuation - FS2 ends with a big cliffhanger...) and even total conversions. Now I'm going back to Freespace 2...
www.gog.com
www.gog.com
The most noteworthy modification for people who want to play Freespace 2 with upgraded graphics is the Freespace Upgrade MediaVPs 4.6 pack. It contains high detail ships, backgrounds and other objects. You can also optionally install even better assets (strongly recommended!), HD menu, remixed music, HD game cut-scenes and briefing animations. For people who want to play Freespace 1 on Freespace Open engine there's the Freespace Port modification. Upgrade it with Freespace Port MediaVPs (some files are shared with Fresspace Upgrade MediaVPs 4.6) and you can play Freespace 1 on Freespace 2 engine with all eye candy modifications which make the game look quite modern. The only thing I had to change is anti-aliasing. The built-in is insufficient. So I went to graphics card driver options and turned AA and transparent AA to 8x. With this modification the game looks incredible!
Freespace 1 and Freespace 2 are one of the best space-sims in history. Impressive gameplay, which features ships of enormous size, interesting story and great narration are the most recognizable aspects of these games. The community has done an incredible amount of work to upgrade the graphics of both games, but it was a nightmare to install all of this manually. Knossos makes it a breeze. It's probably the best moment to revisit the Freespace games. There's also a lot of story mods (including unofficial continuation - FS2 ends with a big cliffhanger...) and even total conversions. Now I'm going back to Freespace 2...
Descent: Freespace Battle Pack
The heartless Shivans emerged through subspace near Earth, harboring technology light yea
Freespace 2
The year is 2367, thirty two years after the Great War. Or at least what YOU thought was
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