What happened to space fighters/simulators?

[Entroper]

BenKenobi88 said:

Why is this:

still the best space sim/fighter in over 10 years?

Ok, there have been others...Freespace was a great attempt at a space simulator, and I bet there's others I missed out on.

But they're probably all at least 5 years old! Why have we gotten so many FPSs and RTSs with graphical and gameplay improvements continuously over the years, but not flight games?

Surely I'm not the only one who thinks it's awesome to get a joystick or gamepad and shoot down a bunch of baddies...why does this genre not get developed more?

A great attempt?  Freespace (and much more so, Freespace 2) was @#$%&*ing awesome!

BTW, I'm in the middle of a game of X-Wing Alliance.  :)