FreeGames/SecretOps

Link: http://standoff.solsector.net/
Genre: Starfighter "sim"
Platform: Win32
Rico factor: For StuartFraser, around one and a half Rico. People with less in the way of mad piloting skillz may get hacked off by the difficulty (I suppose you could try playing on easy).
Multiplayer: I don't think so

For some reason, Origin/EA decided to release the expansion to WingCommander V as a standalone game, and do so for free over the internet. Then they bundled it with the original game and stopped so doing, and now they've released it again. By this stage it's almost ten years old, but it runs fine in hi-res mode, and the graphics don't look all that dated. There's less plot than you get from a Wing Commander game you'd actually pay for, but the blowing up stuff is still fun and unlike certain games I might mention you can at least see what you're doing in every mission.

Then there's Standoff. Standoff is a fan-made total conversion of SecretOps? which is set between WC2 and WC3 (following the plot of the novel Fleet Action), with animated cutscenes and voice acting (some good, some terrible). It isn't quite finished yet but still very playable. It's not quite a full-budget Origin Systems WingCommander, but it's closer than anything else since 1997. Standoff's fifth episode was released recently and included a major grapical update and some more cutscenes for Episode 1. It also included some bugs, but most of them have been squished by now.

What it does right

Atmosphere. Being a commercially-made game it has a certain amount of polish and pretty much everything about the game feels right.

Speed. The pacing of the game and the handling of your fighter feels right; space combat is appropriately chaotic and missions are tactical as well as reflex-based. Which brings me on to

Tactical map (press ctrl-N, then zoom), which is invaluable, pauses the game, shows you what everyone's target is. Makes escort missions much easier.

Plot (standoff only) is great, though odds are you'll probably hate the protagonist for a while due to how pathetic he is. Fortunately there's plenty of people around to sympathise with if you do.

(Standoff) There are Kilrathi. This is always a good thing. Many games would be better with Kilrathi in.

What it does wrong

Difficulty curve. Doesn't really have one. There are a mixture of medium, hard and impossible missions but not in any sort of pre-set order. Standoff is equally silly insofar as Episodes 2 and 3 are much easier than the first one. Difficulty itself is somewhat towards the high end - game was originally an expansion pack after all.

Plot (secret ops only) is not really up to Wing Commander standards.

Mission design gets a bit repettitive (again, Standoff is better) with lots of patrolling and fighting off enormous swarms of enemy fighters interspersed with occasional strike missions.

I have no idea if you could play this without a joystick.

Bugs (standoff only) - there's a memory leak somewhere which causes the game to crash sometime around the third mission you play. Quit when you die and it'll never be a problem, you'd never last three missions without dying anyway. (Well, I don't. Then again I am playing on Nightmare).