I remember those predictions... They came out around the time I was full into hero's quest, king's quest, police quest, space quest... (mmm, come to think of it; they were not really creative with the game names back then....) Luckily the was also days of the tentacle! I was kinda worried about the predictions back then since I really really really liked those games!

See, my issue with X-Wing was it's a bit same-same game. You fly X-Wing, fight the Imperium. That's it, there is little variance through the game (other starfighters feel similar, missions tend to look same too, the only big difference is the final Death Star run). In TIE Fighter, though? You start piloting cheap, mass produced TIE, end up on black research fighters that show extreme difference from each other. Every ship in the game has unique traits, every short campaign is fought against different foe, and I really liked the irony in the fact the Imperial black research program that ran out of control was more dangerous to the Imperium than rebellion, though no one would ever know that due to the secret nature of the war waged in game.

Also, I just liked the plot wasn't 'oh no, the Imperium is building superweapon #38850583' like in every other SW game, the development of the fighters in the game is quite organic, and the plot gives a good reasons why Imperium didn't crush the rebellion between episode V and VI, plus reasons why we didn't saw most of the ships featured there at Endor. All in all, I have no idea why no one ever made a sequel or spiritual successor from another genre to this, TIE Fighter shown you can have a game where you play 'bad' side without needless mustache twirling villainy :(