I just bought both and was wondering which one would be better to start first. I've never played any game like these before so are they both on equal footing or is one better for a newer player to these types of games.

Descent 3 is a full 360 rotation game. I believe it is harder than Freespac2 in the fact that you don't have radar and can get lost easily.

FS2 is a space sim. It's equally difficult but not as hard to control as it's like flying a xwing fighter or so.

Install them both and try 1 level on each. That will make you realize which one you like most.

They're both AWESOME games...but quite different in gameplay...I don't think it really matters which you play first...they're both really good :)

I started with decent 3. Im sort of getting the hang of playing and finished the tutorial but all of the menu screens are messed up. The actual game looks fine but when I go into the menus I can hardly read anything.