X-Wing VS Tie Fighter

X-Wing, the break through best selling video game, was thought to be the best game of all time. Everyone was surprised when Tie Fighter cam along, and blew X Wing right out of the skies. Tie Fighter just amazed us with its stellar graphics and original gamely. So there is much expectation towards X-Wing VS Tie Fighter, the third in the Star Wars flight simulators.

LucasArts fulfilled our wishes when we wanted to know what would it be like to play a multiplayer dogfight against our best buds. However, not everything in life is all perfect. With these fun filled multiplayer features we lose one of my favorite parts from last games, the story. X-Wing Vs Tie Fighter has no story or even a part where a guard checks to see your identification. The single player goes a lot like a simulator like in the last games. The game itself, on single player mode, is more or less a training mode for multiplayer games. So, it isn't bad.

Gameplay

Okay, X-Wing had only colored polygons and Tie Fighter had not so spectacular textures. For these two games the graphics were top of the line at the time. So I am not surprised that X-Wing Vs Tie Fighter is a knock out. With high resolution textures and even had better lighten effect then the last games.

Sound

Nothing new. All the crystal clear quality sound that you would typically find in a LucasArts Star Wars game. In the last games, the music were MIDI that ran off LucasArts' very own imues system. But unlike those games John Williams' original theatrical score, on CD. Unlike X-Wing CD edition and Tie Fighter CD edition which had CD music, that just sounded good not realistic. It inspired you to actually go head on towards a squadron of Tie Fighters. Hell, you can even play it off you CD player for listening in your car. And even there you would want to go head on with a squadron of Tie Fighters.

Controls

They are as responsive as the last games. Except, for one complaint about the compatibility with certain joysticks. When X-Wing came out, a special copy that was issued with a certain joystick in now incompatible with X-Wing Vs Tie Fighter. What up with that?

Multiplayer Games

This the reason they made X-Wing Vs Tie Fighter. You can go head to head with a maximum of four players on a free for all, or a team game. You can face off in infinite space or in an actual asteroid field. "They'd be crazy to fallow us." Han Solo (Empire). Instead of having one ship, you can also take several wing men along. Fortunately, you can actually get to control your wingmen. One of the best features about this game is there is a permanent Ranking System. It tells you and other on how great of pilot you are. There status determined by how many multiplayer games you have won or lost. From this you can chose with which you might want to fight with or against. You might be saying, "So what is the flaw?"  Well, X-Wing Vs Tie fighter runs poorly on slower modems. It is an unfair advantage to those who already got the speed of them T1 modems. Frame rate gets choppy, opponent start to disappear, and sometime missiles never hit the targets.

Overall

LucasArts made a excellent multiplayer game, not a single player game. We have been playing this game for all these years and some people have upgraded their PC to satisfy the requirements, never ever thinking that multiplayer games would be like this. Do not worry about that, LucasArts is saying that they will make and expansion set especially for those who miss the tutorials, and the Stories of the first player.


System Requirements

OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 95
CPU: Pentium 90 or faster required
MEMORY: 16MB RAM required
CD-ROM: 2X CD-ROM required; 4X CD-ROM recomended
GRAPHICS CARD: PCI graphics card required
SOUND CARD: 16-bit sound card required
INPUT DEVICE: Joystick required. DirectInput compatible devices also supported.
DIRECT X: CD includes necessary Microsoft DirectX Drivers.
MULTIPLAYER REQUIREMENTS: Pentium 100 or faster recommended for LAN or modem. Pentium 133 or faster required for Internet play.
LAN PLAY: Supports up to 8 players via IPX or TCP/IP Local Area Network.
INTERNET PLAY: Supports up to 4 players via 28.8Kbs or faster connection to the Internet.
MODEM TO MODEM PLAY: Supports 2 players via 14.4Kbs or faster modem.
DIRECT SERIAL PLAY: Supports 2 players via Null Modem Cable

X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter Demo
File size: 6.1 MB
Self-extracting archive.
File Name Location
xvtdemo.exe LucasArts FTP #1