LGR - Star Wars X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter - PC Game Review 

MSN gaming zone. Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time. Fun times.

"What are TIE fighters even made of, aluminum foil and scotch tape?" Yes. The Empire considered building the ships to survive getting hit to be more expensive than just replacing the ship and pilot when it exploded.

This makes me suddenly want to see your input on the Unreal Tournament series. (Mainly 2004 because that was my jam, but any would be interesting in my book!)

My heart lit up when you said you checked out XvT from a library. This makes me happy as a librarian.

If any game deserves a reboot, it's this one..

This was one of the greatest games ever made. Complicated but fun as hell once you got the hang of it.

WHAT?! I bought the original and was highly disappointed by it, having come off of Tie Fighter and X-Wing before, and only now, *years later*, do I find out they actually released a full campaign as an expansion?! I feel sooooo jipped now...

I played all four games in the X-Wing series as they came out, loved 'em all, but for slightly different reasons: X-Wing was any aspiring pilot's dream, and was amazing, even though crazy hard in some places, TIE Fighter saw the mechanics cleaned up to near perfection, and being able to see the Empire's point of view was great, XvT was all about the multiplayer, so it honed your skills and opened up the galaxy, XWA was mainly about the campaign experience, at least for me, picking up battle trophies was awesome, and being able to use transports was something I hadn't known I'd wanted to do, heh. When XvT first came out, I didn't know about TCP/IP, but the idea of multiplayer was amazing, so a friend and I figured it out, then joined a XvT gaming group online (I was surprised there were so many already, since I'd gotten the game just a few months after release), where they had already setup match finding rooms on IRC. The community evolved quite quickly, smaller groups of a few dozen combining into leagues with hundreds, then thousands, from all around the world (the first time I experienced anything like that). Very quickly tournaments were setup, and the community became well organized. Lag could be game breaking, and there were some people who exploited it, but for the most part, it was a great community, and most 1v1 matches weren't terribly effected. Trying to get more than 2 people in a game just increased the lag issues, so 1v1 furball was the most popular online (LAN parties were another story of course, lol). On a rare occasion we'd get a few people we knew all had solid connections (as time passed, some people got access to cable, DSL, or T1 lines, so games would usually be more stable if they hosted) to play a co-op campaign mission, which was amazing, but using voice chat increased lag on dial-up, so we didn't do that til everyone had cable. Most of us tried switching over to X-Wing: Alliance, which is prettier, but was much more susceptible to lag, so most stuck with XvT until Star Wars Galaxies came out and the Star Wars gamers moved on. I was really into the series already, but that XvT multiplayer turned it into my favorite game of all time.

I purchased this game the day it was released. And the first manufacturing run mislabelled the discs. The "Master Game Disc" is actually the "Multiplayer Disc" and vice versa. Fun fact

makes sense that ties are destroyed instantly, they have no shields

You continue to be one of the very best RU-vidrs out there. A lot of my favorites have been in slow decline for about a year, but you've been getting better and better ever since I discovered your channel. And the bits at the end, with the links, you go that extra distance and make it funny :D

Awesome! I hope you get around to reviewing more of the classic Star Wars games from the 90s. (Rebel Assault II, and Dark Forces II always stand out to me because of their live-action gameplay/cutscenes).

how did I not see this before? my god this really takes me back...

playing the campaign in coop was such a blast! Way ahead of its time.

As much as I liked this game (without Balance of Power), I much preferred Tie Fighter due to having a campaign to play through.

That desktop at 1:54 - no words for it...its just....perfect...

your vids truly are timeless.

Thanks for reviewing this. The memories :) Went down the rabbit hole and went thru my own DOSBox collection. Just finished playing Hexen (if anyone remembers that one :) )

And it was fab to see a Super Star Destroyer in these games for the first time ever!!!

Those Mechwarrior boxes look freaking awesome!

I remember loving this when it came out, my brother bought the game and paid to have the family PC upgraded to a Cyrix PR200+ just to play it. It did need dial-up access for multiplayer (which I didn't even have Internet at the time) but one thing you could do was loan disc 2 to a friend, they could install just a basic version of the game, call into your PC via Modem and play skirmishes that way. The lack of a campaign was a downer though, makes me wish we'd picked up Balance of Power. Cool review!

Awesome review. Would love to see a play through.

TIE Fighter was actually my first experience with the Star Wars universe. Saw it on one of my dad's coworkers computers at the computer store where he worked. I was enamored, and was given it as a birthday present. Not knowing any better, I assumed the Empire were the good guys, since you play as them. When I first saw the movies years later I recognized a TIE Fighter and realized that that game and the movie I was watching were related. However I was very confused why the good guys were fighting against the Empire.

They should also release a story-driven campaign expansion for *_Star Wars: Battlefront_*.

I remember back in the day, I customized all the sounds in the game. I mixed IRL missile and jet sounds to play when proton torpedos were fired for exemple, and added way more star wars music to play in the background than the music available in the game! That was awesome!

Very nice review! Thanks!

I remember when libraries used to let you borrow PC games. They were the good old days.

Hoping for some Jedi Knight too. Great fun as always.

I loved this Game as much as X-Wing and Tie Fighter! With the Expansion it is unbeatable!

oh man I forgot just how frustratingly difficult this game was!!! Totally makes sense that it was made for multiplayer too! I love it when you review games that I had completely forgotten about from my 90's youth! Thank you Clint, big ol' thumbs up!

This game was absolutely my favourite! Oh man, I'm getting some good memories.

I do miss this so very much. Found some old players on Elite dangerous who remember me, The legendary" Blue Raja" also known as"Dances with A-wings "

That first target you were shooting and the general look and feel of the game reminds me of _Independence War_. I need to review that game at some point...

I have fond memories playing this. I remember this being the only game I needed a joystick for, but it was awesome back in the day. It's a shame that there aren't many games that use joysticks anymore, they were a cool feature.

Ha! I've been waiting for this review, I loved this game as a kid

I loved this game so much. It was one of the first "real" immersive games I had ever played. The fact that your keyboard felt like a spaceship control board was awesome. They combined action and simulation perfectly. It makes me remember Mechwarrior 3 by Zipper Interactive ( who always went for realism of simulation in action games ).

Holy shit R2. I lost it at that man goddamn

Videogames from the library were the bomb :D

I still love this game. It was my first Star Wars game on the PC, too!. Lots of hours spent on this game. Fond memories of multiplayer in a clan on MSN Gaming Zone.

Wow now this game looks friggin good. Love to play Star Wars games with space battle! Awesome review as always!

Ace pilot from all three games here. I would have to say that this line of games was probably the best representation of space combat.

Love this game, Watto song never left my head ever since I played it. Glad to hear it's in GoG

3:30 - OK, that was worth a chuckle.

I remember looking at this in magazines back in the day and knowing I could never afford a pc that could play it.

I wish they still made this series. Definitely one of my favorites as a kid.

I still have this awesome game... Came out with the expansion too.

I remember playing this game on my old Compaq computer it was magical back then to me impossibly still is today

AWESOME!! i almoust seer a tear! almoust. the sound and the soundtrack we unique at that time!

MechWarrior 2 series :)

played a ton on the gaming zone (with AOL dial up). Also, I booted up a few years ago and played a few rounds with friends via Game Ranger. Still fun remembering the tips and tricks on some missions.

I had this game back then. And I had a lot of fun with it!!

Great review as always and thank you for the new lgr website re-design, it was fantastic CD\, DIR and finding your list of games, real throw back to the old days.

Will you do X-Wing: Alliance as well? Also awwwyiss I see those Mechcommander boxes, I hope we see a review of those games.

Oh god. I remember X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter: Academy Edition (or something like that it was named.) You start playing it, complete some tutorial, then is supposed to land in a bigger ship. Except you can never get the ship inside because the collision detection is faulty.

It's crazy how similar Star Wars Squadrons is to the X Wing and Tie Fighter games. I love it!

Loved this game in the old days. Looking forward now to Squadrons which seems similar.

X-Wing vs Tie-Fighter was the death of the X-Wing (1993) and Tie-Fighter (1994) series of combat simulators.

kudos for theme hospital on the shelf. that game was the bomb

I'm now forever convinced that that is exactly how you sounded as a kid, Clint. It's just too perfect with the voice you have now.

I remember a friend having Tie Fighter and being like wow the PC has some really cool exclusive games. I never realized this was a Quake 3 esque styled game I thought it was well what Balance of Power turned out to be. Anyways great review, I liked how you borrowed this from a library! I don't remember a library here allowing you to try out PC games.

Back ind the day I never had a chance to play this but played a lot of original Tie Fighter. My first SW game was Dark Forces - always will love this game.

I had an unofficial expansion for this game too. One mission had you fighting a Star Destroyer that was constantly spinning on its axis.

I still play it. Now & then.

Great work

I had this when I was younger, think I still do. It is hard to tell with how tightly everything is packed around the house. I played this very often along with X-Wing and later Shadows of the Empire for the N64. Also had the Dark Forces sequels. Anyone else feel like playing these instead of the new Battlefront?

I remember being in the top 10 on Case's Ladder for this game. My first competitive online game I played. One person would host for 5 minutes, then the other would host. The person hosting would be at a disadvantage because of the lag. When balance of power came out the advantage switched to the person hosting.

Loved this game as a kid.

This game was a major part of my childhood, I sadly missed the other entries in the series as a kid, but I thankfully had the expansion anyways. I loved watching my dad play then hop on myself and blast me some rebel scum. I really wish there was a new entry in the series. Space combat is my favorite thing in sw

I loved this game wayback when... I loved the A-wing!

Loved this game and everything in the series.

I absolutely loved this game in the late 90s.

Loving LGR, a lot of great content and reviews plus all the great stuff you find at thrift shops. Hope another thrift shop video is coming soon. Ever think of doing a review of Starlancer?

Balance of Power was my all time favorite PC game I ever played. I spent hours playing that game. When internet access became more... accessible, I downloaded mods for it that made it even more fun. Somewhere in a tote full of old PC stuff, I still have the disks.

Great stuff. This is my father-in-law's favorite game of all time!

I remember the game came in 2 CDs. One was for the main game and the 2nd CD featured a limited multiplayer version of the game, which you could install on your friend's computer. My version had an interesting manufacturing screw up. The labels between those CDs had somehow been switched in the factory. It caused some head scratching the first time I installed the game.

I loved that game back in the day. I got it as part of the collector's edition. It prompted me to throw a Star Wars themed mini LAN party using my then new Pentuim 3 with Voodoo 3 card and my frind on my old Pentuim 2 with Voodoo 2.

Played the heck out of X-Wing and Tie Fighter back in the day.

I used to watch my friends play this when I was younger. I was never a big star wars fan. But my times have changed. I've been following you guys on discord for over a yr. I keep putting this off in hopes of playing it when it's 100% complete. I'm playing x-wing now the 98 version on steam and having so much fun with it. Might have to play TFTC next :) It is installed and rdy to go thanks to angels easy install guide. I gotta give a shout out how you guys always respond on the discord. Angel and Phoenix answer me In minutes to get TFTC working proper.

This game along with Duke Nukem 3D, Total Annihilation and Warcraft 2... The LAN parties of the late 90s for me. Great memories. Though I used to lug 2 PCs around (plus CRT monitors ...) which kinda spoiled it a bit. Another great vid LGR!

There was a mission editor that we got hold of. EPIC! you could make any mission you wanted. Also we played over lan, Good times :)

There was a group called Emperor's Hammer that created SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much content for this game....so many missions, campaigns, you could even pilot different spacecrafts if I am not mistaking...

I liked this game back in the day and I played it solo only. My favorite fighter was the Tie-Advanced: maneuverable, fast, missile options, shields for durability, and 4 lasers instead of 2 lasers. I always shot with 4 lasers simultaneously - only then had I the feeling of being able to hit someone, instead of fast-firing one laser at a time.

God I remember salivating over Voodoo2 gfx card ads like they were centerfolds.

Loved this game so much

I saw this game at friends house played a few hours and hooked me so much I bought my first pc just to play this game it was a Pentium 166 with 16meg 1.2 gig hdd

I remember buying a nrw joystick for that and playing the bits and shits out of it for months. I loved it back then

1:17 that mechwarrior 2 nostalgia hit

Ha. I worked on this. Glad you like it.

I remember spending far too much for this game brand new at Toys R Us (more than I paid for X-Wing Alliance prior!) and having an absolute blast with the game regardless of the multiplayer-heavy focus. A long-time favorite of mine, and a game that I hope to be able to try out online sometime soon since I never even bothered with it back in the day.

My friends and I played this at work on their LAN. They had several Windows PCs and we surreptitiously installed this on several machines. Our job was to 'man the phones overnight for roadside assistance' but we would really spend the nights in dog fights that were occasionally interrupted by a ringing phone. Good times indeed!!!

Oh man, now I really want to buy that whacky Farm Simulator control panel and play some flight sims with it.

Love the video! Please post more lgr thrifts I am obsessed with them!!!

I started my personal PC experience way back in the day with X-Wing. I still have the boxed edition. I also have XvT in the boxed edition. Imagine those games done in modern state of the art graphics that could push a Titan RTX to its limits - it would be like flying in the original trilogy.

Loved this game

THAT LASER SOUND is engraved in my brain.

oohh the lan parties we had with this game!!!

Man, that death scream/music haunted my childhood

Man, Rogue Squadron was the balls. I’d love to see a review of that🤞🏻

Holy f***. Nice collection, dude.

I had a very similar experience. I LOVED TIE Fighter and couldn't wait to play this but when I finally got to I found it confusing and unimpressive. I never knew about the expansion. That would've helped.