[Mongoose]

This is the sort of thread where I'd be willing to pay cash money for Battman to come in for a bit and lay into things.  Not that I'd necessarily agree with all of his points, but it'd be damn fine reading regardless.

[Klaustrophobia]

I'd pay double to prevent that.

[Colonol Dekker]

In the spirit of the first few posts,  are there any upcoming space games with some semblance of  story other than the X game and star citizen then?

KSP career mode falls into where?

[Phantom Hoover]

Enemy Starfighter!

[Akalabeth Angel]

Speaking of Star Citizen, are those ships going to remain as DLC after the game's launch? 265 dollars for a ship??  I would expect that a game which offers in-game content as purchasable items would have a modified progression curve (that is, slower)which would encourage its players to take the easy way and simply buy the ship. Does not sound appealing to me.

On topic don't know of any story-based games on the horizon. I backed one a while ago, Starlight Inception, but apparently it sucks balls so- haven't played it haha. They should just make another Xwing game, even if it were set during the prequel trilogy I'd buy it. Maybe EA has something in the works (as they have all the star wars licenses).

[Colonol Dekker]

Enemy Starfighter!

That looks like Homeworld 2.

[Mikes]

Yeah but Chris Roberts has never managed to make a story that wasn't mediocre, so I can't say I'm expecting much out of it.

Care to post examples of great stories?

Wanna bet a lot of people will disagree they are great?

freespace 2

Freespace indeed had an interesting story....  but if we talk about "characters" "character development" and "character interaction" and compare that to CRs masterpiece Wing Commander 4? I mean ...  Freespace had some "characters" alright , even interesting ones in the case of Bosch (and who else? yeah ... ) , but ... know what I mean? ;-) lol.

Part of Freespace appeal is that it's presentation is so bleak and sterile, true, but a large part of Wing Commander's appeal is that it is the exact opposite and shines in areas that are sorely lacking to nonexistent in Freespace (i.e. characters and their interaction).

Or in other words .... The Wing Commander's series strongest points are Freespaces weakest points and vice versa: Just like Wing Commanders mission design and gameplay doesn t hold a candle against Freespace, Freespace doesn't have a chance against the characterisation and sheer immersion of the WC series and ... in the case of WC4 the realisation that  you are in the middle of the next best thing to a playable Science Fiction blockbuster movie where you can actually fly the spaceships.

I wouldn't really compare either game in the sense of "better or worse" as each games strong points lay in such vastly diferent areas where the other is rather weak in comparison.

Speaking of Star Citizen, are those ships going to remain as DLC after the game's launch? 265 dollars for a ship??  I would expect that a game which offers in-game content as purchasable items would have a modified progression curve (that is, slower)which would encourage its players to take the easy way and simply buy the ship. Does not sound appealing to me.

On topic don't know of any story-based games on the horizon. I backed one a while ago, Starlight Inception, but apparently it sucks balls so- haven't played it haha. They should just make another Xwing game, even if it were set during the prequel trilogy I'd buy it. Maybe EA has something in the works (as they have all the star wars licenses).

Star Citizen is 100% crowdfunded and CR has spoken out against grindy gameplay and pay to win multiple times.

So if there is a game to have a chance to not succump to the usual greedfueled pay to win schemes that rule the mass market industry then it is this one.

That said, we'll see how it all turns out when this thing releases

[General Battuta]

Wing Commander is kitch, FreeSpace is avant garde. The villains in Wing Commander are allegories for historical events. The villains in FreeSpace are an intrusion of the Lacanian real into the human symbolic order.

Wing Commander is cozy and 'immersive', an escapist fantasy into a world of heroism, war, and friendship. It coddles the player with the appealing notion that they have stepped into another world full of people and objects. It reassures and endears.

FreeSpace is uncomfortable and frightening. It challenges the player to confront the alien indifference of the universe and to recognize the hubris of the human narrative. It is exactly functional and transcends the idea that immersion for its own sake is necessary.

[General Battuta]

This is why Wing Commander inspires more Wing Commander and FreeSpace can inspire thought.

[Mikes]

Wing Commander is kitch, FreeSpace is avant garde. The villains in Wing Commander are allegories for historical events. The villains in FreeSpace are an intrusion of the Lacanian real into the human symbolic order.

Wing Commander is cozy and 'immersive', an escapist fantasy into a world of heroism, war, and friendship. It coddles the player with the appealing notion that they have stepped into another world full of people and objects. It reassures and endears.

FreeSpace is uncomfortable and frightening. It challenges the player to confront the alien indifference of the universe and to recognize the hubris of the human narrative. It is exactly functional and transcends the idea that immersion for its own sake is necessary.

oh I fully agree with you in regards of the Freespace story being in a leage of it's own, either accidentially or on purpose. (Sometimes I wonder if an actual Freespace 3 would have ruined it all with an utter cliche ending ;-) )

However ... one can't help but wonder how Freespace 2 would have turned out with the same story and message, but with much more attention to characters, character interaction and development coupled with better presentation ...

... sorta like Blue Planet maybe

In any case... Wing Commander imho does show what the medium can aspire to as far as "presentation" goes ... content, not so much, yeah. But nevertheless the production values and presentation does imho make it a rather huge milestone for the medium of computer games, especially considering how fra***** early on it was released.

It's one of the few games that could in some sense be considered as a "true" interactive movie experience. How much that is worth or not can be discussed of course, but I would argue that showing what is possible at such an early date deserves recognition on it's own, even when the actual story was utter cliche ;-)