The EA Arcade site for Wing Commander Arena has been updated with fantastic new content! Included are four new movies -- two fast-paced high-resolution trailers and two funny 'instructional' movies about satellites: You need to head over to the official site and watch them right now! Take a moment to post to their forums, too - lets show EA what a great community we've formed. There's also a new 'ship fact' which reveals the name of one of the yet-unseen Darkets (Raptor)! It also shows how dedicated the Arena team is to classic Wing Commander continuity: Unfortunately there's no high-res Darket Raptor wallpaper yet, but there is a tantalizing thumbnail: Video #1 - "Capital Ship" (57.6 MB .MOV) Video #2 - "Fighter Combat" (45.1 MB .MOV) Video #3 - "Satellite 1" (33.6 MB .MOV) Video #4 - "Satellite 2" (39.4 MB .MOV) -- Original update published on May 15, 2007
That is dedication to the universe. LOAF, you were definitely right when you said the Arena team was the most sensitive to the universe and its continunity. I applaud them for taking the time to go over the world Origin created and build from it in their own direction, while maintaining the highest degree of respect I have seen for what came before. And if that bio is any sign of what other new fiction we have coming, oh man oh man. I can't wait to see the forums implode from all the new debates! Well, as long as they implode and don't go down that is.
If they are willing to put this much effort into accuracy and fan service for an arcade title.. it gives me so much hope for what they'll be willing to put forth for a new Wing Commander title in the future!
I wonder why you don't miss the cockpit view? Like THAT it plays like an ego-shooter! There isn't much left from the old Wing Commander feeling, is it?
I've missed cockpits since WC3, I'd love to see them come back someday. Arena is a fun game without them, though, and I'm not some cynical jerk obsessed with finding a way to feel bad about good news. ... and what is the Wing Commander feeling? I've done everything from playing the Wing Commander card game to attending the premiere of the movie, and I loved every minute of all of it. I'm not going to ignore an awesome new game because it doesn't follow some specific formula.
I will always miss cockpits and dimly lit rooms and joysticks, but this game seems so fast paced that you really would be limited if you couldn't get a panoramic view. I love that they added the zoomed in camera angle, it'll make it that more gratifying to watch your opponent explode, but really with 16 human (yes, humans) opponents and players.. you are constantly going to need a FULL view of your surroundings to survive. 1990's AI is one thing, but real live players are a whole new level of difficulty.
I have to wonder if people claiming they don't see the Wing Commander elements are even watching these videos. These are really slick. The Wing Commander music in them is great. The instructional Satellite videos also do a great job demonstrating the strategy element. You can't just fly around blasting. You actually do plan and work together with your team to complete your objectives in Arena.
Yeah, it all seems to be coming together nicely now -- these latest EA videos look sweet. I like how they've pumped up the music for these promotional videos too; there's a lot of WC4 tracks in the videos as well as some WC3, which were audible in the previous gameplay movies, but too much in the background for my liking. I assume the voice, sound fx and music volumes will be adjustable in the game and I suppose for teamspeak use the music would have to be toned down -- I like my WC music front and centre! I wonder if Oldziey was involved in any of the resampling of the music or if Gaia have mostly used his original samples and tweaked them? Cheers, Bryn
Speaking of watching these videos, I seem to be having trouble doing that. Everytime I click on one of the videos on the Arena site, the media viewer window pops up and screen shows an esrb rating but the video never starts. So then I downloaded the videos using the link in the news post. But when I start to play them using the quicktime player, theirs sound but no picture for a few seconds then it crashes. I updated it to the newest version with the same results. Any suggestions? I really want to see these new videos!
I get the same problem with the latest QuickTime (currently 7.1.6). Plays okay for just over 10 seconds, then the video freezes while the sound keeps going. After that, the player becomes unresponsive and I have to close it. Oh well, the music really is a nice touch.
Yeah! That music is awesome - and like the graphics and the camera angles, it seems to be improving consistently as the developers get more time (look at the new Midway textures!). If you don't like it then you can pipe in your own classic WC music - the Xbox operating system lets you replace a game's music with your own mp3s quite easily. I don't think Mr. Oldziey had anything to do with the remixes, though; I think he's moved on to bigger things... you may have seen his name in the credits for Grindhouse!
You can even hook your 360 up to your pc and stream all your songs to the xbox. Saves a lot of time and space on your 360s harddrive. After all, gotta save room for WC Arena 2, 3, 4, etc. Although I've always liked the music in the past games, it does get a little repetitive after several missions. I've always wanted to blast kilrathi to sound of great bands like HIM, The 69 Eyes, Lacuna Coil, and many others and now I'll have my chance! Man I can't wait till this comes out!
