Star Wars: X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter for Windows

XWing vs TieFighter is a fine game space shoot-em-up/flight-sim. You can fly craft ( aka fighter or starfighter ) of the Rebel Alliance or the Galactic Empire. Plenty of intense action and variation in the scenarios. Multiplayer options are included ( required to earn a higher 'rank' ), with scenarios being customizable.

All of the famed fighter craft of the Star Wars movies ( X-Wings, Y-Wings, Tie Fighters, etc. ) and many lesser known fighters ( Z-95, Missile Boat ) of the Star Wars universe are available.

The game is played from the view of your fighter's cockpit; you can see all your important gauges there ( laser strength, throttle, shield strength ) from the straight-ahead view. You can also view your own ship as if you were inside another ship.

Many game controls are on the keyboard; you can fly your fighters with the keyboard, but a joystick is the preferred control. The keyboard also allows you to send messages to friendly or enemy ships if you're in a game with human friends/opponents.

Unfortunately, Lucasarts decided not to have a campaign with the base game ( a campaign is in the Balance of Power expansion CD ), dropping my rating from a potential 5 stars to 4 stars.

Scenarios

The scenarios of the game employ different ships; sometimes a T/F ( Tie Fighter ), sometimes a Missile Boat ( carries enough firepower to destroy a medium-sized capital ship ).
The general difficulty of the scenarios has a fairly wide range; also, you can change the difficulty of some scenarios ( which adjusts the amount of points you can earn from playing it ).

There are five main types of scenarios: Exercise, Melee, Tournament, Combat and Battle.

An Exercise scenario is to help teach you the basics of starfighter combat; a Melee is often a mission where the objective is to destroy the enemy fighters or protect a large craft ( from being destroyed ); a Tournament is a group ( 3 or 5 ) of Melee missions; a Combat Engagement is a mission with a variety of objectives; a Battle is a group ( 3, 5 or 7 ) of Combat Engagements.

Most scenarios have certain options. The difficulty can be varied, changing the quality of computer controlled pilots ( friendly and enemy ). Some randomization can be set, causing ships or cargo to be placed in different areas. The number of waves of a group of fighters can be set to none ( no replacement fighters arrive ), default ( standard amount for the specific scenario ), or unlimited ( replacements every time the group is destroyed or leaves ). Starfighter collisions can be set on or off ( 'on' setting causes damage to ships when they collide ).

Multiplayer

Multiplayer action is preferable to single-player action; playing against someone superior to you can be a learning experience; playing against someone inferior to you can be satisfying ( to get a victory ).
Two CDs are provided; one CD can be used for both single and multiplayer playing, the other for only multiplayer ( allowing two people to play if the game was only purchased once ).
Multiplayer connection can be by LAN ( local area network ), IP address, direct modem, or direct serial cable.

Your rank and medals

You begin the game as a pilot with no points and a rank of "Target Drone" as you gain points your rank improves to a limit of "Ace 1st level" if you don't use any multi-player scenarios; playing the multi-player scenarios allows you to get a Jedi rank. The record of the scenarios you've played and the results ( victory or defeat ) are kept in a dossier. If you successfully complete a scenario your dossier will note a small medal next to the scenario; it's not that important, but looks nice.

Bugs, problems, etc.

No campaign in the base game ( there is a short campaign with the Balance of Power add-on )
The CDs are mis-labeled! Who knows how many of the packages
were sent with this fault
With more than 4 people in a multiplayer game, the game becomes 'laggy' ( slow ) or choppy

Note:
My video card is from S3, but not Savage series