I am thinking of using my free game key to buy this game but I do not own a joystick and do not want to purchase one (It's not a matter of price, I just have to much crap lying around that I don't use). Are the controls for this game any good with a 360 gamepad or a mouse and keyboard?
Also, is there a steep learning curve for this game or are the controls pretty intuitive?

I have always played the Freespace games with keyboard only. Important to note is that this is on a standard keyboard with a keypad (never played Freespace on a laptop if that is what you are using), as the keypad is necessary for steering the ship.
I find the controls to be perfectly suited for keyboard use, there are a lot of keyboard shortcuts in this game and though I always think of Freespace as an action game it's not far from being a simulation game in some respects.
The tutorials in the game do a really good job at introducing the controls, controlling the ships movement is intuitive. However, there are a lot of keyboard shortcuts and there is certainly an amount of learning to do... I say go for it!

Ok, I think I'll pick up the game. Thanks guys!

you can set it to use a mouse instead of the keypad, makes it much easier to aim as well.

stuck on first tutorial mission. cannot end mission when prompted to enter jumpspace. hotkey is bound to alt-j. when i press alt-j it brings up the chat menu and then i cannot access anything. doesn't initiate jumpspace. what am i doing wrong, because this seems like a simple issue.

I have the exact same problem as posted in the other topic.

Hi Bartershoess--are you using the Logitech joystick and Freespace on Windows? I'm trying to find a workaround to use the same joystick on the Mac version of Freespace.

Here's my best bet so far: http://www.usboverdrive.com/.

Thanks.