http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sim/freespace2/review.html

Since the early 1990s, Totally Games' X-Wing series and Origin Systems' Wing Commander series have maintained a stranglehold on the space-sim genre. Until last year, the space sims released by other companies were derivative of those two series yet generally had less impressive graphics, substandard gameplay, and dull plots. But some worthy challengers finally appeared in 1998 when Particle Systems unveiled Independence War and Volition released Descent: Freespace.
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