BREAKING NEWS: First Arena Screenshots! (February 22, 2007)

I'm gonna have to be unpopular a bit and say I have mixed emotions about this.

I LOVE the fact that EA still have Wing Commander on their minds in some way. Could this be the start of something awesome to revitalise the series? I hope so.

But it's not a Wing Commander game to me. WC had a plot where I would get sucked into the game via the plot and the characters. From what it looks like, there is no plot. It's an arcade game with pickups for crying out loud. Pickups that will spawn wingmen for you or something equally ridiculous. a virtually 2d plane? Ok ok, yes it's an arcade game on a console... but that's my point... the only WC game I can think of with this lack of depth is WC Academy.

There's a number of different series/bands/whatever that I used to support as much as I could.. even when what they released wasn't really what I was hoping for - I thought that if I kept supporting them then there'd be more, and the next time it'd be better. Didn't happen that way. If this is successful then EA will probably think this is the way the WC series should go.

The game will probably be fun, and good for a muckaround. When I first heard that there was a new Wing Commander game coming out for the XBox i immediately thought i would have to go and buy one just to be able to play it. Then I saw the gameplay vid and read the article about it. Definitely changed my mind.

Summary:
Pros: Love that EA is still thinking about Wing Commander.
Cons: Disappointed it has resulted in a seemingly mundane arcade shooter.
Overall: I have more hope for the WC series continuing now (though I always believed it would come back)... I just hope it doesn't follow the formula of Arena.
 
I understand your feelings. I'm just taking it for what it is: a fun, NEW, WC spinoff game for all of us WingNuts lucky enough to have a 360.

It may not be a "real" WC sequel, but I'm very happy that we're getting it.
 
as I recall, academy was not an xbox live game, nor was it as cheap as this one will be to purchase.

This game looks like the best arcade game I have seen in ages. So for what it is, I really couldn't care less if it has Mark Hamill or an in depth story.

As a stand alone it is great.

As a wing commander mod it would be great.

As an official re-launch of EA's "beloved" franchise, it goes beyond great, its friggin' awesome!
 
It's an arcade game with pickups for crying out loud.

And it's a super fun one where you fly all kinds of Wing Commander ships. Arena will be the third Wing Commander game to feature "pickups" by the way. Armada Proving Grounds had all kinds of items ("Hades picked up a Photon Cannon!") you absorbed into your ship by flying over.

Cons: Disappointed it has resulted in a seemingly mundane arcade shooter.

Well, one thing that a lot of us are very happy about is that it's not a mundane arcade shooter at all. It's about the most elaborate game available for the XBox Live Arcade service that there is. Individual little modes in Arena are more elaborate than some entire games that are for sale right now. When you're assaulting an enemy capital ship with half a dozen of your friends, you need to be mindful of who on your team is flying the bombers, who's escorting in fighters, and who's running defense on your own carrier. Meanwhile, a full squad of Kilrathi played by live players is out there plotting how to best do the same against you. If you think you'd just like the practice, you can launch out of a Midway-class Carrier and defend it against pirates and Kilrathi raiders. If you're more into one-on-one fights, then you can jump in the "bearpit" and duel Wing Commander aces from around the world as fellow pilots watch from the sidelines and cheer you on (or your opponent).
 
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I just dont see how apart from using some WC ship models and using "Kilrathi" and "Confed" that this relates to WC. (EDIT: Oh and using a few of the old callsigns)
I will reserve my judgement from now on until I see some more detail on the game though. I dont want to spoil what is obviously a momentus occasion for a lot of people here. It is for me as well, as I love the series. I just hope this isn't the direction the series will continue to go.
 
The video certainly helps me out with regards as to what to expect. I'm likin' it so far. Especially the music during the title screen. Thanks Conrad!
 
WC had a plot where I would get sucked into the game via the plot and the characters. From what it looks like, there is no plot.

I think it's a bit too early to jump to that conclusion.

I agree, it can be an easy one to jump to. But, nevertheless, that's really just an assumption at this point.
 
Even if it doesn't have a plot, neither did Armada and Academy, and those were both great games.. especially Armada! Up until my disks fell apart from overruse I used to play Armada relentlessly.

And it was every bit as immersive as story driven WC games.
 
Even if it doesn't have a plot, neither did Armada and Academy, and those were both great games.. especially Armada! Up until my disks fell apart from overruse I used to play Armada relentlessly.

And it was every bit as immersive as story driven WC games.

I didn't find Academy quite to my taste, but Armada was great. Someone made an Armada clone, called "PiArmada", that was a pretty decent imitation. Unfortunately, I haven't heard of any updates in a while.

Only one map came with the game, but I found it pretty easy to mod them. I created a couple of them based on the maps from Armada (Someone posted them on the WCNews universe maps page).
 
Even if it doesn't have a plot, neither did Armada and Academy, and those were both great games.. especially Armada!

Academy was a nice game, but I personally found it a bit on the dull side, especially because of it's lack of plot. To each their own, I guess, but I personally could only have so much fun playing missions without story.

As for Armada, if I recall correctly, there was a plot of sorts with the gauntlet missions. That said, even with the gauntlet plot, Armada didn’t hold my attention the same way as other WC games did.

I still have a fully functioning, CD version of Armada. Since I downloaded DOSBox, I’ve installed and played WCI, WCII, WCIII, WCIV, and Privateer. As of right now, I have yet to install Armada.

Again, I suppose it’s more of a “taste” thing… But Armada just isn’t my favorite WC product.
 
I find the opinion on Armada usually divides directly between those who have played it online and those who haven't. Armada is spectacular when you're doing what it was designed for... but unfortunately very few people ever got the chance to.

Luckily, we won't have that problem with Arena.
 
I find the opinion on Armada usually divides directly between those who have played it online and those who haven't.

That's probably a good point. Armada was intended to be a multiplayer game. And, I've simply never played it with other players.
 
Not your fault, it was ahead of its time... by a significant degree. Origin realized this late in development, which is why it was sold as a 'strategy' game.

Not to denegrate the strategy mode -- I know people who are absolutely in love with it, and it has a certain romantic simplicity... but it was a multiplayer game from day one.
 
I think I lost my ARMADA disks (I also cannot find my Strike Commander disks!!! damn!)... but I'd be interested to try it out, if I can find them!
 
Who *are* you people?
I can't speak for everyone, but I lurk here a lot and only come out when someone digs up the old WC corpse to rape it a little bit. WCA looks like a fun little online shooter, but it's far from the 21st century coming of Wing Commander. Where's our first-person space combat sim? WHY have these gone out of style? :mad:
 
The biggest reason is joysticks -- people assosciate space sims with joysticks, and sales suffered on the last generation of them (by a huge amount).

If you remember back in the day, a new computer game with a cheap flightstick (and more often than not - a copy of Privateer, best selling OEM game in history)... but today that doesn't happen. Flight sticks in 2007 are a rare and expensive hobbyists tool that make everyone think of complex airliner 'sims.

That's where FreeLancer, which made everybody angry for exactly the same reasons, came from -- an attempt to do a space game that was explicitly removed from the concept of needing a joystick.
 
Freelancer was so close to instant classic! *sigh* but it was still fun and I do occasionally dust it off for a fun romp through liberty space in my savegame with a maxed out Titan ;-)

Rogue fighter? *blam* Liberty Navy? *blam* ;-) ~~~
 
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