lol, it's more realistic. You're inside of your ship. You can use your mouse but I find joystick more fun. Pressing keys to roll your ship is retarded! just twist it Freelancer is more of an action game, whereas this is a space-shooter simulator. As if you were ACTUALLY in outerspace with your ship and shooting things. its very realistic. as for free- you can download the game for free (not too large of a file actually) and play in the offline simulator. Just be sure to buy the Phoenix ship and equip the best guns, generator, shield, etc (its all free in the simulator, you're not spending any in-game currency). MAKE SURE TO GET A DUELIST modx, and if you don't understand how to dock your ship back into the station, buy the Docking modx too. after that, press Launch. to spawn some enemies, type /ai 1 all the way to /ai 5. (in the online simulator you can spawn up to lvl 28 i believe) to dock back in with the docking modx, target the big green sphere and fly into it. it'll automatically dock for you. real airforce pilots play this game because it's so realistic.