Looking for a Space Sim

If you can find it, this was my favorite a few years ago.

Freelancer.

i can really reccomend X3-Albion Prelude, it's one of the best IMO,
it can get pretty complicated but it's also good to start with since you can decide what you wanna do and how fast you wanna step forward

I would also recommend one of the X3 titles.

galaxy on fire 2 HD

also... Battlestar Gallactica

Other people recommended Freelancer already so I will go with 2 of my favourite space sims(apart from Freelancer):

Darkstar One

Galaxy on Fire 2

Galaxy on Fire is quite generic while in Darkstar One you dont need to buy new ships(in GoF and freelancer you have to).
In Darkstar you have to look for artifacts in order to upgrade your ship.

I heard Elite: Dangerous was meant to be good...

How has nobody mentioned the Homeworld series yet?!

search star citizen

Star Citizen! FTL! Fallout 3 DLC!

Freespace 2

Lots of mods also upgrade pretty much everything about the game and a fair number of fan made campaigns. Good one is Blue Planet.

Do not get it from Steam since the Steam version does not work. The GOG one does.

Freelancer,

Limit Theory (in development)

Endless Space!

Freespace 2, Freelancer, and the upcoming Star Citizen are my suggestions xD

Thanks for the tips, I'll start with Freelancer then, and after that I'll see.

Escape Velocity Nova is what you're looking for. I'll tell you why.

• It has a free trial you can play for 30 day's which is freaking awesome and almost entirely unheard of. Outside of unfinished "betas".
• It has a great economic system that allows you to shape your own future. Whether you would be a trader or a pirate. You could follow any of the 6 storylines the game has to earn money that way as well.
• Combat is one of the best I've seen in the Space Sim series. Here's a video if your curious. That guy's taking the long approach, but the gameplay is there.
• As far as exploration goes, the game gives you over a hundred planets to visit, buy supplies to outfit your ship with, buy shipments to trade with other planets to make a profit and to eventually take over if you have the fleet to do so.
• You're a ship commander and as one you can build a said fleet of almost any ship in the game to be at your disposal.

I love this game. /endsalespitch :D

Lots of good suggestions so far. Here's a breakdown. Most of these you can find on gog.com if not on Steam.

Space Flight Sims:
The Wing Commander series, especially 3 and 4.
X-wing and TIE Fighter, two of the finest examples of the genre.
Freespace 2 has been mentioned, I will just echo the suggestion.
Freelancer has been mentioned, for very good reason.
Privateer 1 and 2.

• 4X Space Strategy games
  The original Master of Orion 1&2. They're certainly old but when people talk about the classics of space sim games, this is on everyone's lips for good reason. Still some of the deepest gameplay for the genre you will ever find. You can get it free here.
  Galactic Civilizations 2, after getting it on release day years never played any other space 4x games for years until...
  Sins of a Solar Empire came out a couple of years later. Rebellion seems to be the version to get nowadays, I've never tried it since my interest in 4x/space rts isn't what it used to be.
  Sword of the Stars 1. I haven't spent as much time with this game as I would like to, and have spent less time with this game than it deserves. Cracking good entry in the genre, often bundled and often discounted so maybe look for it on the cheap. The sequel was a sad affair, by all accounts:Very buggy on release and still problematic.

• Other Space RTS, TBS, hybrid strategy games
  Star Wars: Empire at War is probably one of my favorites simply because of the subject matter, the fact that it's easy to get into but still provides a tactical and strategic challenge, and that it holds up well, graphically and mechanically, after several years. There are lots of mods as well to increase the value, including other SF settings such as Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, and Star Wars expanded universe.
  Star Control 1&2, or the free version The Ur-quan Masters.. This ranks up there with Master of Orion as best space game series. Again though, it is old and outdated-looking but the enduring gameplay set the bar very high for similar games to come.

That should be a good list.

Aquanox 2 ... just pretend it's liquid space :P

Wingcommander. an oldie, but good.... i'm pretty sure you can get it in some abandonware sites, or gog.com

If all you're interested in is space simulation, how about Kerbal Space Program?

Space Engineers.

Played it a few hours and it was fun.

One of best sims I played: Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos.
Ships do have inertia (and it feels you are flying heavy ship) and thrusters on all 3 axis
Also has pretty good story.

I would recommend that you start with one of the following:
Freespace series (some of the best games in the genre, and not overly hard to get into either)
Tachyon: The Fringe (Bruce Cambell lends his voice to this excellent space sim)
Wing Commander series (Prophecies is probably the best for beginners, excellent stories and Mark Hamill is in this series)

First episode(10-20 hours of game play) of Squadron 42(optional singleplayer{and co-op if you want} campaign of Star Citizen) will released for Star Citizen backers this Fall. Its dogfighting module(testbed for flight and vehicular fight mechanics) is released last June and it is quite fun. But SC is not completed yet nonetheless I would recommend backing it before next winter -expected release date for alpha Persistent Universe(aka. alpha of the full game not just its modules.)

Elite: Dangerous released 24 days ago. Its many necessary features isn't in the game yet, they released the game premature- not as severe as X: Rebirth but ED is not a complete game. Its most standing out feature is 400 billion star systems but most non-colonized star systems are buged and almost all of them aren't colonized yet. Do not start with this game to genre, play another space sim first.

X: Rebirth was failure at release, most of us still call it X: Stillbirth. Its economy is better than E: D and we didn't see the SC's economy yet. You can create your own trade empire, build stations etc. but only thing X: R better than older X games is its graphics.

X3: Terran Conflict and its expansion X3: Albion Prelude are good space sims with a bit outdated graphics. I would recommend X3 if you don't want to wait for PU alpha of SC or fixes for ED.

If you don't mind old graphics Freelancer, Starlancer, Privateer/Wing Commander serries and X-wing/Tie Fighter serries are very good games and you can download Elite the first game of the genre from Elite: Dangerous store.