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Satellite Lessons
There's more on Xbox Live Marketplace!... sort of. Microsoft has added HD versions of three of the official Wing Commander Arena trailers to the Game Videos section. Included are the Capital Ship trailer and the amusing 'How to Capture a Satellite' and 'How NOT to Capture a Satellite' videos. All are free and worth watching again in HD. From MajorNelson's blog:
Content: Capital Ship Battle
Price: Free
Availability: Only in Canada, United States
Dash Text: [ESRB: E (Everyone) FANTASY VIOLENCE] Witness the epic frenzy of a 16-player Capital Ship battle!
Content: How NOT to Capture a Satellite
Price: Free
Availability: Only in Canada, United States
Dash Text: [ESRB: E (Everyone) FANTASY VIOLENCE] Team tactics are critical to success in Wing Commander Arena. Here we show you what NOT to do…
Content: How to Capture a Satellite Trailer
Price: Free
Availability: Only in Canada, United States
Dash Text: [ESRB: E (Everyone) FANTASY VIOLENCE] Effective teamwork will be the difference between victory and getting fragged. Here we show you a few good maneuvers…
You can find the internet versions of these trailers here. Unfortunately, for some reason these are only available in the United States and Canada.
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More Reviews
Planet Xbox 360 has published a review which is fairly positive (7.3/10). They take issues only with legitimate problems - the lack of a tutorial and the game's failure to allow groups of players to continue between matches without going through the invitation proccess again:
By design, most Xbox Live titles are designed to be easy to pick up and play. Not so with WCA. The Help screen doesn’t help much at all, leaving gamers to learn as they go. There is no in-game explanation of the items on your HUD, what each power up does, or the purpose and use of the satellites. You’ll have to learn and remember as you play, or go to EA’s website for an instruction manual.
All in all, Wing Commander Arena attempts to revive the past with a lukewarm effort that many fans might find to be blasphemous. WCA was built around the multiplayer experience, but the inability to keep your group of gamers together in player matches goes against the spirit of Xbox Live. Hopefully EA will patch this major flaw, but in the meantime, the Live Play and Replay Value scores take a hit.
GameZone has published a moderate review (6.1/10) which speaks to the truth of the matter we've been shouting all along - this is a multiplayer game:
Outside of the multiplayer, there’s no real reason to download Wing Commander Arena. I’d suggest only downloading this if players are desperate for 16 player action over Xbox Live.
It's worth discussing their biggest problem with the game: "perhaps the biggest letdown for hardcore Wing Commander fans will be the simplicity of controlling the ships." That's an interesting criticism, because a lot of people are shouting that the game is too complex (it's also a credit to the immersion of the original games - which were, by and large, not very complex at all)! Finally, Eurogamer has published a very bad review... which argues the opposite, saying the games is too complex:
There are other gripes - the bland visuals, the way defeated players just wink out of existence, and the way the rubbish music doesn't even loop properly - but it seems rather pointless to list them all. Wing Commander Arena is a rudimentary shooter, the sort of thing that might have passed muster as a homebrew PC title ten years ago, but an unimpressive trudge for console gamers today. While there's obviously a limit to what you can do with an HD game in 50Mb, a few less game modes and a lot more polish on the actual gameplay could have made this one of the most attractive multiplayer titles around.
This seems to be another case of a jaded reviewer who just isn't looking at the game contextually - there's nothing like Arena on Xbox Live Arcade...
Full articles: Game Zone, Planet Xbox 360 & Eurogamer.
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