Hi everyone! I am a big fan of the point-and-click adventure genre, which is why I joined Gog, and have been very happy with all of my game purchases. However, I am also a really big fan of flight/space simulators. I noticed Gog has a couple of Space Flight simulators, and am deciding on which ones to buy. I'm really looking for one with plot but that is also very open when it comes to going places. (I don't know if one exists, but I have always thought it would be great to have a game where you go from space to the surface of a planet in real-time, with all the atmosphere and all that. Like I said, I don't know if any game has ever even done that.) Basically I'd like a space sim that doesn't condense the "traveling" segments into videos or really short segments. On the other hand, I'd also like a lot of action. Are there any good GOG games that have both of these traits? Right now, I'm looking into the Wing Commander games and Independence War 2, but its hard to determine game play from the product page.

Thanks!

Here on GOG, Wing Commander Privateer might be closest to what you're looking for. You travel freely to different places in the galaxy (like planets and space stations), buying and selling stuff to make money in order to upgrade your ship, buy weapons etc. You also have a lot of dogfighting action on your travels and a plot line to follow. You don't get to land your ship manually though.

I've played 2 space flight simulators, x3 and freespace 2.
x3 is big. HUGE actually. Very open ended, do whatever the heck you want. There's also a story background.
But I found it boring for the sheer lack of major action.
Freespace 2 is full of action and has a great story... but limited areas to go. You jump in, do the mission (which may or may not go as planned... might not go anywhere near what the briefing states. I like that.) jump out and get ready for the next mission.
Back to x3: you're in space most of the time and there's a trading economy, you go from station to station, star system to star system in real time. You buy your ship, you upgrade your ship. It's huge.
Freespace 2 you are, without exception, always in space. You escort, bomb, intercept... basically a small cog in the big machine. You don't even enter your name, you enter your callsign.
x3 the story was pretty much centered around the player.
Anyway, I found x3 boring because of the money factor...
I don't think anybody has ever been able to fit all of those features into a single game that works for it.

X3 on steam is exactly what you are looking for I bet. Very great game.

Thanks, guys! I'll look into these. Just a question: Not incorporating my original posts about expansive worlds and stuff, in general how good are the Wing Commander games, Inependence War 2, and freespace 2?

For something like an open world game in space you could try some modern clones of elite, like Evochron (indie) and the X series. I haven't tried them but evochron looks pretty good.
Hopefully they'll bring them to gog someday soon as well.

I think freespace 2 is epic... especially with the source code project which adds mods and greatly improved graphics.

I start the thread about open world, free roaming game and one title that caught my attention is Space Rangers 2.

Here's what person told me about that game in that thread:

"Well if you like space, and I think you do;) Then go for Space Rangers 2 This game is huge, with many star systems, and very fun...If you haven't played it you are missing out, as you won't get bored, what between the turn based space fights, to the RTS robot combat, to the text adventures, and arcade-astroid style fun...You can increase your pilot's skills, choose from a lot of different ships and a multitude of equipment as well to plug into it...You can even build bases to help fight against the 'robot' menance....It's worth a long look! :-)"

Iwar has most of what you're looking for. Haven't tried some of the recent games like X3. As for landing on a planet and doing everything else, your best bet is probably games from 3000AD. Unfortunately, that's likely to be your worst bet as well.

Star Control 2 and 3 aren't "sims", but they are space exploration games that do not condense travel. They're very free-form, and you have a ship you get to upgrade. Very great games, and very worth playing. Star Control 1 is just a tactical game, so skip that one. Star Control 2 and 3 take the base tactical game and then turn it into a campaign that plays similarly to Starflight. Combats use arcade style battles, and you can recruit additional NPC ships to be in your fleet. (I use the term 'fleet' loosely, because you really don't ever get more than a few ships.)

Independence War 2 is very much in the vein of what you are looking for. I-war 1, Freespace, and the Wing Commander games apart from Privateer (which is also in the vein of what you want) are very mission-based military space sims. They are all very good, but not quite in the vein which you specified. You sound more like you want an open-ended, exploration-based space sim so I would go with Independence War 2, Wing Commander Privateer, Star Control 2, or Space Rangers on GOG or the X3 games for a newer series of games on Steam.

I-war 2 has the uniqueness of also having a newtonian flight model which is very cool and from reviews both pro and user it seems it does not have loading screens for when you travel from place to place in a very big galaxy. It's on my backlog to play. :) While it does have installations that you can dock to, I don't think you land on planets or you control your character physically walking around in the space stations. All-in-all though, the game hits a lot of the points you are looking for - action, seamless travel around the galaxy, expansiveness, open-endedness, etc ...

Gamespot Review

Second votes for I-War 2 here at gog (get a joystick)

~or~

the X suberbox at Gamersgate
http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-XSBUS/x-superbox-bundle

Eve Online is sweeet...

X3 or Eve Online - only these two games will interest you.