Gaming

Not first person, but Starsector is my go-to for my SciFi fix. Trading, pirating, smuggling organs and selling them on the black market, exploring star systems for suitable planets to establishing your own thriving colony...there is a ton of options and something for everyone.

https://youtu.be/acqpulP1hLo

The biggest competitor to Star Citizen right now is Elite: Dangerous. I've played it a lot and it's pretty good. You can play solo or online, too. It can feel a bit slow and it doesn't hold your hand when it comes to learning how to play. There's combat, trading, and exploration. Also pretty active communities online.

If you want to go back in time a bit, there's also the X series from Egosoft that's spanned back many years. There are a few installments and more is being developed. These games are definitely more colorful in several ways than Elite: Dangerous. More of a focus on the Rule of Cool than trying to be real sims.

Haven't played Star Wars: Squadrons, so I don't know the state of the multiplayer side of things. It does offer a solo story mode, apparently. May be worth looking into.

Every now and again I'll think about games like Freelancer, Freelancer 2, X-Wing, and the Wing Commander franchise for straight sit-in-cockpit combat action. Those are very old- early Mid 1990's to early 2000's. If you feel like something retro and can run them, those are options. I wish we had more games styled after those early space sims.

X4: Foundations?

Gotta mention FTL: Faster Than Light. Not a 6dof game, but great fun commanding your crew and navigating some fun encounters.

There's always No Man's Sky, I haven't played it for a year or so but I know they have added a ton of new stuff in the last few updates. Maybe not completely fulfilling, but could kill some time pleasantly

I was just browsing Steam and found SpaceBourne 2, which I mentioned in another Freelancer-related thread. But it looks pretty solid/promising, based on the reviews. I wishlisted it, but can't personally vouch for it.

I'm currently loving a bunch of games in the factory building genre so can I offer you some Dyson Sphere Program in these trying times?

Imagine factorio but you're in a mecha suit building factories spanning multiple planets eventually multiple stars, to build exponentially more complex resources until you're able to shoot swarms of dyson reflectors and eventually build a rigid sphere in orbit.

Still in Alpha after several years, but exquisitely polished, runs fine on legacy machines, excellent responsive dev team, combat is being added soon.

If you're into colony sims, check out Space Haven.

I mean, Hotline Miami in space still counts?

Heat Signature

Outer Wilds and Subnautica don't have ship fights but they give off a similar feel to star citizen/ no man's sky (to me).

https://store.steampowered.com/app/753640/Outer_Wilds/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/264710/Subnautica/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/848450/Subnautica_Below_Zero/

Launch Everspace 2 (especially since you've kickstarted it), it's a great one of those and not as intimidating as something like Elite Dangerous. Although, if you want to go deep, that's the way to go..

Try Everspace. It's a roguelike space shooter. Controls feel very free and intuitive. There's also a sequel that's out now that's more of an open world space RPG (same shooting mechanics but not a roguelike). But you can try the first game for only 4 dollars and see if you like the combat.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/396750/EVERSPACE/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1128920/EVERSPACE_2/

If you like sandbox building, Space Engineers. There are so many good mods to give the game some life and nothing is more satisfying than building your own ship from materials you mined.

For your space reading adventure I love Escape Belocity: Nova. It's very old but I've had so much fun with it if it's runnable on new machines.

Rebel Galaxy is an exploration/open world-ish space game with weird controllers but a pretty fun gameplay. You get to fine-tune different classes of ships with a variety of weapons, shields, engines, etc. while completing missions to earn money and earn reputation with different factions.

It's basically Sid Meier's Pirates, but in space and with a modern look. I found it highly entertaining.

I'll second the recommendation for the X series from Egosoft and the latest X4 has had a number of expansions that make it worthwhile, it's made by a small team and is a bit fiddly at times but it's definitely worth a shot.

While not a flight sim I'll give a recommendation for Hardspace: Shipbreaker. Spend some time salvaging old spaceships in zero-g.

I can't help but feel that all of us old timer "why won't they make another Tie Fighter?" guys did not show up when they did exactly that on Star Wars Squadrons.

But also, hey did you know they made another X-Wing/Tie Fighter game called Star Wars Squadrons? That happened.

If you like the idea of building your ship and then using it to blast pirates into little pieces, you could give Avorion a go. It’s currently half price on Steam and is a bit Minecraft in space. It had no player view though, everything is done from space craft from mining to trading to combat.

Combat mand flying feels like The Expanse if you have seen / read that.

Definitely get the Mass Effect Trilogy. You could probably play through the whole thing before starfield comes out if it hooks you like it did for me.

Descent

If you're into classic 6DoF games, then the Descent series (including Freespace) and Forsaken are go-to plays for me. We're talking late 90's/early 00's, though, so take that with a grain of salt.

I'm hopeful for Starship simulator. It is not out yet, but it looks promising. I've always wanted a game with a ship with a working crew you interact with or become a part of. I have not ever found anything good enough.

I enjoy X4, but I actually though the exploration aspect in Rebirth was better (unpopular opinion I'm sure). I do like how you can give your captains orders and then just hitch a ride and see how it goes.

Everyone always says FTL, which is fun, but the crew don't really have roles or personalities. They are there and they man the ship, but that's it. And you're always in a rush to do anything which always just ends with a space battle.

Similar for Space Haven. If the crew has assigned departments and ranks rather than just assigned tasks I think it would be closer.

Probably not what you are looking for but I found myself enjoying the JumpLight Odyssey demo yesterday. Has a very 1970 Anime vide ala Star Blazors.

Stellaris! It's a game like civilization, but in space. I have hundreds of hours in and it has been responsible for many nights of me staying up late than i should. Constant free updates and many options for paid dlc to expand your options.

Starfox 64

@ThunderQuack is Eve Online still around that used to be fun