[mikhael]

Yes, J3Vr6, the introduction to WC:P is indeed the same as Freespace 1. The difference lies in the fact that WC:P had a story that built from that plot hook. In Freespace, that was the totality of the 'story'. We had our basic universe, but we didn't have any real characters in it.

Besides, WC:P had better capships, fighters, and bombers. And the selling point of the game was the story, not the fact that capships were big.

[J3Vr6]

I wasn't talking about the huge capships.  I honestly don't remember how big they were.  I just remember the graphics were dissapointing.

I will admit and agree with you that the story seemed that much more there, and that has a lot to do with it being part 5 in the series.  You had 4 games before that that developed the relationship between the kilrathi and the humans, plus the characters.

But, I dunno, Prophecy didn't do it for me...

[Nico]

Originally posted by J3Vr6
Which Wing commander had Biff from Back to the Future?  

WC3, 4 and P all had Tom Wilson ( Biff Tanen ) has Todd "Maniac" Marshall, which is, btw, my favourite character of the whole series
And to the credits of Wing Co Prophecy, you have Syd Mead's ( Syd Mead, Visual Director and Conceptor for Blad Runner, Aliens... ) awesome designs for the Nephilims. That alone is worth seeing.

[IceFire]

I liked Prophecy for all sorts of reasons but I liked WC3 and WC4 for different ones.  Honestly they could have almost made WC3 and WC4 into movies without the gameplay there was so much spent on sets and actors....

But I did like the WC Movie for its quirky setting as well.  It had awesome theme music too...definately not a blockbuster but I'm kind of glad they did it just the same.

WC2 was probably a pinnacle in many ways.  That was awesome.

I also do not knock Descent: FreeSpace at all for taking a "cog in the wheel" approach to the player character.  Still it does lack depth in that way sometimes....

[mikhael]

"Cog in the wheel"? More like "ant among swarm of ants". No one had a name or face or life or story, with the possible exception of Snipes and Bosch.

WC2, btw, was the game that got me interested in space combat games. If it weren't for WC2 I'd likely never have even bothered with Freespace or Xwing or any of the rest.

[kasperl]

i am getting WC 1 and 2 from HOTU now, as part of the WCSaga thingy, they just ripped WC3, and it ought to have the music.

[kasperl]

well, WC1 feels like it is an Arcade game, which is good, really. it is rather hard to play with these controlls, and i don't have anything like a manual or a list of what key does what, and i haven't found an options screen either. I got to mission three, and now i keep dieing.

anyway, does anyone have a key list or something?

[Col. Fishguts]

For WC1: http://users.cybercity.dk/~ccc12836/wcmd.html

..and WC 2: http://www.blacklance.org/WC2/

[Bobboau]

can't you just reconfigure them, or look them up in an in game look up

[kasperl]

thank you, Colonel Fishguts.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

I don't anyone has answered your book question:

yes there are books. a number of them actually, and they're canon because they're either the books of WC: III & IV, or because the WC III manual refers to events in the other books (like the battle for earth).


anyway, personally I like WC I -> III the most. For the war against the cats.

Prophecy: Secret Ops is a fav too because


as for the old games: Origin once made a win95 version of the three first games. These were called the Kilrathi Saga.

You can still buy them online (second hand) but you'll pay big bucks cause they're collector's items.
or you might try to get WC:KS via other means. It's certainly out there in cyberspace.

[01010]

Never liked the Wing Commander series at all, seemed to mostly consist of "Fly to nav point A, then B, watch out for the asteroids/enemies/minefields at point C then fly back to the ship".

I don't mind a decent story but when it's a game I'm buying I'd like to be able to play it too.

[Ace]

Originally posted by 01010
Never liked the Wing Commander series at all, seemed to mostly consist of "Fly to nav point A, then B, watch out for the asteroids/enemies/minefields at point C then fly back to the ship".

I don't mind a decent story but when it's a game I'm buying I'd like to be able to play it too.

Sounds a lot like Mik's comment that all FreeSpace involves is pointing and shooting at ships until the screen is empty.

[Nico]

Originally posted by 01010
Never liked the Wing Commander series at all, seemed to mostly consist of "Fly to nav point A, then B, watch out for the asteroids/enemies/minefields at point C then fly back to the ship".

Which is like Freespace save for the fact that in FS you stay at point A

[01010]

Originally posted by Ace


Sounds a lot like Mik's comment that all FreeSpace involves is pointing and shooting at ships until the screen is empty.

All I seemed to be doing was flying patrol missions every mission which involved pressing the autopilot key until something stopped me once (sometimes twice for added thrills) then someone talking for a bit, then flying back to base.

I think my main problem is that I cut my teeth on Elite and Frontier: Elite 2 and almost every space combat game after those (even though they weren't really combat games) seemed to lack what I wanted.

Privateer was damn good though.

[kasperl]

i got WC 1 and 2, plus expansions, in a single package from HOTU. it's the KS, but without WC3 due to size restrictions. it's about 70 megs, but HOTU gives you about 25kbps max.

[mikhael]

Originally posted by Ace
Sounds a lot like Mik's comment that all FreeSpace involves is pointing and shooting at ships until the screen is empty.

That pretty much sums up my thoughts on Freespace combat--especially considering how bad the AI is.

That's one thing Freelancer had over pretty much every other space combat game I've played. There were places you couldn't go and things you couldn't do because you'd get your ass handed back to you in pieces if you popped through the wrong jumpgate/jumphole. There were times where you actually did have to run (not often).

Freespace and Wing Commander are both exactly the same in this respect: each and every mission is 'shoot enemies until there are no enemies', even when there are other goals. WC chained these missions together with a narrative, though, which Freespace does not do. Even better, Wing Commander branched (at least in 1 and 2) the missions based on how well you did or didn't do in the missions, making fulfilling secondary goals important. The worst that will happen to you in Freespace is that you'll have to refly a mission. In WC, the worst that would happen is that you would lose the game. I like that.

[kasperl]

well, in WC1, i have to re-open my save everytime i die, pretty damn annoying.

and if i eject, i can just get on to the next mission without any consequences.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by kasperl
and if i eject, i can just get on to the next mission without any consequences.

You tend to fail the mission if you do that though. Your failures do eventually come back to haunt you.

Also if you eject too much they kick you out

[kasperl]

ah.

well, i am not getting behond the first mission where you get the hosthot idiot pilot as a wingman.