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X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter is one you just can't stop playing. It's as simple as that.
Gamers have been waiting a while to be able to climb into the cockpits of two of the best space combat games ever created for some head-to-head gaming. Though excellent games, neither X-Wing nor TIE Fighter included multi-player support, so a long time ago LucasArts announced a head-to-head version to rectify this. Things have changed a lot since that announcement. The Internet was not the major gaming arena it is now; 3-D cards weren't standard equipment; and TEN, MPlayer, and Kali were barely blips on the horizon.
XvT is a single- and multi-player game of space combat in the Star Wars universe. Gamers can jump into any one of nine crafts: the imperial TIE Fighter, TIE Interceptor, TIE Advanced, TIE Bomber or Assault Gunboat, or the Rebel X-Wing, A-Wing, Headhunter, or Y-Wing. Where are the B-Wing and the TIE Defender? Good question. This is not the old TIE Fighter or X-Wing games: It's been redesigned from the ground up, with a new front end and an entirely new combat graphics engine.
Melee and tournament missions are also included, but these are mostly dogfighting engagements geared toward multi-player play. You can pick your ship type, armament, and the number of ships in a melee, but only for your side: There is no custom mission creator a la ATF of US Navy Fighters. Plus, as you change ship types and armament, the AI opponents change to match forces, so you can't really set the engagement you want.
Of course, the real deal with XvT is the multiplay, and this is where it really comes alive. At the same time, it's the second area where it falls down. Multiplay is via LAN, direct connection, or Internet. There are a number of multiplay types, and most are simply a blast to play. One-on-one dogfights can be a bit boring since they quickly decay into turning battles, but there's even room for strategy here. XvT has a new flight model that puts more emphasis on the relation of turn radius to speed: Going slower allows for tighter turns. One issue is that you better make sure your ships are evenly matched and ground rules are clear (such as “guns only”), because the differences and ships and loadouts can lead to some pretty one-sided fights.
You can also flight co-op combat missions and team versus team, with a wing of X-Wings squaring off against a wing of TIEs. This is the finest part of XvT, and there are no complaints here. Four Rebel pilots can take on a mission to eliminate a destroyer, with different players engaging fighters and others doing bombing runs. Up to eight can get into the mix, and the result is great gaming. This is heady stuff, and you simply won't be able to get enough of it... ... when it works, that is. XvT is pretty stable, but there are many problems.
For Windows (32-bit Systems) [*Please review compatibility/platform sections]
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