I always loved Space Sims, and recently have searched for some good ones that ressembled x2 or the supreme FREELANCER... and i bounced in the two worst steaming pieces of turd ever made:
1- Starshatter: The Gathering Storm
Buggy and heavy, you are unable to even land the spacecraft. I'll also throw rotten tomatos at ECHELON, who's so bad developed that the main missions stops at about mission 3 because you're supposed to land your aircraft into a carrier who's stopped BEHIND a mountain... thus making imposible for you to land.
2- Master of Orion 3
One of the reviews was: "HEY! Powerpoint is NOT a game engine!". I played Imperium galactica 2 and loved the style, thus going after this one afterwards... jesus christ, this one's is BAD beyond words. Complex, boring, ugly.... if you thought you RPMXP game with standard graphics and lame story was bad, play this game. You'll feel like, you're a genius of game design or something.