Translation by me ( I AM german !!! )
(1)
No one knows WHY or WHEN, but from time to time whole genres are about to face exctinction. Just as the classic adventure games were declared dead some time ago, the space sims followed shortly after.
Although the Wing Commander, Starlancer and Xwings were quite popular in the first months of the present millenium, it suddenly became very quiet in space. Too expensive to develope, joystick steering too impractical and not lucrative enough ( the limited number of Sifi fans given ) , that were the excuses the developers used when they abandoned the genre.
(2) A new hope
But the Jopystick-enthusiasts did not give up so easily. Looking for cannonfodder they soon discovered the potential of the Freespace 2 engine. The space opera has been developed in 1999 by Volition, and was offering a quite flexible editor for mission- and campaign-making from the beginning on. In april '02 FS2 was declared an open source project. For the fans it was clear that the aventure has just began.
The modders got to work and started to make new missions and entire campaigns. The engine proved to be flexible and offered a number of possibilities. The hobby-developers soon learned to include new ship types, new textures, new worlds - the first independent projects were born.
The (FS2) community split up by interest. While some were working on the "Wing Commander Saga", others tried themselves out on projects like STar Wars, Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5. Now, almost ten years after the starrting of their struggle, the hobby-developers could come up with their first succesful releases and revive a genre that had been declared dead.
(3)
„And so it begins.“ (Kosh)
Originally the boys from Sierra Entertainment wanted to make a spacesim in the Babylon 5 universe. But they soon found out the genre has its *traits* and they had been a little overconfident with their project. Sierra's Babylon5:Into the fire would never face its release. The rookies from THE BABYLON PROJECT proved to be far more enduring. After 9 years of development the game is available in its final version, for free, as a standalone game.
The small devteam around Ian Paul Andrews has *made something* not only Joystick fans will come to enjoy. Especially the fans of the Babylon 5 series will have increased heartbeating when they first climb into the cockpit of the famous starfury and fly around some Earthforce destroyers. Never getting tired, Andrews and his team have worked years to import all the processable contents of series into the game. They created their own standalone version, including an adjusted editor.
„There is a hole in your mind.“ (Kosh)
Two campaigns are accessible right after installation. In a small demo about the famous battle of the line, 10 years prior to the construction of BABYLON 5, the pilt tries to slow down the superior advancing minbari forces. A futile attempt, as the fans know. The second campaign is already complete and is set at the time of the first season of the series, during the wars against the "raiders".
The ones familiar with the series immediately notice the eye for detail. The story fits into the canon plot, the player is in the middle of things he heared about in the series. The missions are fully voiceacted, spoken by the developers and the fans - you hardly notice when listening to the radio messages.
„Do you have anything worth living for?“ (Lorien)
Also when it comes to graphics, a lot of work has been put into TBP. The textures vastly outperform the original Freespace 2 ones in quality, even more intensifying the feeling of beeing "in the middle of things". The skin of the shadow vessels is moving, hyperspace gives you the typical *uneasy feeling* and even the rotating of the sections of battleships and of Babylon 5 are true to the originals.
However, there is one major drawback about THE BABYLON PROJECT : It is way too short !
The demo campaign is finishes within an hour, the raiders are good for two more days of fun. At least there is *resupply* in the official forum : More campaigns are standing ready for download. From now on the developers are calling upon the fans. The editor is the true heart of the project. It is easy to operate and there are no limits to your own fantasy.
(3)
„Future is always born in pain.“ (G'Kar)
Chief-developer Ian Paul Andrews has good news for the fans. His work on the core is done, and now he can focus on the things the CORE has been made for : the design of atmospheric campaigns that tell on the story. So, he and his colleagues are once again developing. With the campaign built around the "CIVIL WAR" under the lead of Michael "Skullar" Rauch, the project is enlarged by 46 epic missions, including small video sequences and suitable voiceacting.
No fan would have hoped for new contents for the gracious TV-series, 10 years after its ending. But *the ones declared dead live longer*, which does not only apply to the series which has been surprisingly succesful in DVD-sales, it also applies to the genre of the space sims which comes to a new prosperity with this year's X3 from Egosoft, and the MMOG "Jumpgate Evolution".
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Well, at least my english is better than your german... lol
