So overall, I've never played a Star Wars space sim and have absolutely no experience with Space simulators at all. So my first question would be if it's easy for beginners while still offering a good challenge? The second question I have is about the controls. I heard that it's only playable with a joystick but does that mean it's joystick only or just have poor M/KB controls. Also, can I use a Xbox 360 controller too?

XWA is a bit easier than most other space combat simulations around at the time. And it's easier than X-Wing or TIE-Fighter, so you should be fine, even though there are a few very hard spots in the game. The hardest part will be getting used to the controls though as pretty much every key on the keyboard has at least 2 functions. They game won't even launch without a gamepad/joystick attached to the computer. You will also have to use the keyboard a lot, there are just too many functions that are often needed during missions. Should be working, I can try that for you. I will report back tomorrow, unless somebody else is faster than me. ;)

Thanks for the answers. I may as well try out the game. Heard a lot of good things about it. Even if I don't enjoy it, I'll at least be supporting GOG. Thanks again.

I use an Xbox controller it works well, without fiddling with mods it is very twitchy as in no dead zone. The triggers cant be mapped without mods (their default is throttle). But it has plenty of buttons that you can map for all the most important functions.

The good thing is that TIE Fighter, XvT and XWA have training missions, which go through the controls one step at a time.

Yeah, the lack of a dead zone setting for the 360 controller affects many old games, and certainly all of the X-Wing and TIE Fighter games.

What I use is a combination of vJoy (a virtual game controller) and Universal Joystick Remapper.

Firstly remove all controllers and install vJoy. Once that is installed (it is a driver and software) set it up to mirror the type of controller you want to use for the games (typically one that has the same number of axes and buttons as the controller you will actually use, but you may wish to remove some axes due to the difference between XInput and DirectInput (that old games use).

Secondly, plug in your controller. Make sure that Windows sees vJoy as the primary controller from the Control Panel settings.

Then load up Universal Joystick Remapper. It is a self contained AutoHotKey program. Point it at the vJoy controller (should be controller 1) and take the input from your 360 controller (probably controller 2 at this point). Use the remapper tool to set up the axes and dead zones and sensitivity, along with buttons and such.

Now you should be controlling the vJoy virtual controller by using your 360 controller, so you get the added advantage of the additional sensitivity and dead zone settings. :)

Lastly, use the game setup to choose vJoy as the controller and begin!

Another benefit of vJoy is that I've found that being XInput, the right thumbstick left-right axis does not work in DirectInput games. Instead, the right thumbstick up-down axis controls what would logically be the left-right axis (e.g. rolling in X-Wing Alliance). With vJoy and Universal Joystick Remapper you can map the left-right axis on the right thumbstick to the up-down axis on the vJoy virtual controller and vice versa. Now when you play, the XInput vJoy virtual controller lets you use the right thumbstick's left-right axis to roll left-right in X-Wing Alliance as would be the logical setup.