The greatest space combat series ever. PLUS, it's so true to the Star Wars brand that you feel like you're actually flying X-Wings & Tie-Fighters (ect.) and part of the Star Wars environment. Top shelf flight, response, and a diverse amount of ships & flying styles for each. On top of that it has TONS of missions.
And the graphics were top shelf for it's time as well.
It's criminal this game/series hasn't been remade by now.
With this game, you now know what it is like to fly in a spacecraft. Before you're about to become a pilot, if you want to know what it feels like to ride in a flight craft or a spacecraft and that you prefer it in a Star Wars style, this game and Rogue Squadrons will definitely provide you those feelings well.
In this game, you would most likely have to be in a PC game w/ a joystick (required). Yeah! Getting these things are a pain, esp. when there aren't many of them or that few people have/used them nowadays. But if you think about it, how would you think the cockpit of a flight craft (whether in fighter or large-passenger ones) would realistically look like. They're most likely what this game would look like, a joystick w/ many buttons to press on (though probably more than what you have on a keyboard). Not only is this game realistic (1997 and nowadays), but the simulation feels real and engulfing, just as much as any other good, flight-simulation games.
The only con I can think of is that while the graphics look great as of the 1997 standards, it still feels weird as of nowadays. Also, the space (while technically limitless) feels limited. You'll deal w/ spacecrafts, frigates/starships, and space stations, and impacting/crashing them will feel real. (and that's it!). The background is just black w/ a bunch of stars. There's no planets in it. This can get problematic to some people who're trying to turn their spacecrafts around to their targets w/o losing direction. They do have those targeting screens at the bottom of your screen, though they'll be "damaged" if your health is low. But, that's the only thing you can rely on to reach your targets, that there's no alternatives like looking out the window. Also, there's limited-to-not much asteroids or debris you'll need to avoid encountering.
So while it's missing some things on making it more realistic, it's still realistic as it is and it'll feel like a real flight simulation. You can arguably say that X-Wing vs. Tie Fighters is one of the many groundbreaking, flight simulation games in the 90s.
Fun and tense, this game gives you the opportunity to relieve famous Star Wars moments. I had some problems configuring it to work with joystick, but I managed to sort it out and I was enjoying it for weeks!
X-Wing vs TIE Fighter is an amalgamation of ships from both sides of the Star Wars conflict that were available in the classics Star Wars: X-Wing and Star Wars: TIE Fighter. While the graphics have slightly improved over its predecessors and the gameplay is more or less the same it just doesn't have the same charm as the original games, especially the awesome single-player campaigns.