A new comer! Plebe

[Bandit LOAF]

In the UK (where Priv 2 was released earlier) the game came with a pair of fairly well polished manuals (a 'hospital guide' and a 'flight guide', IIRC). In the US, the manual was a messy mix of elements from both.

I'm sure there's a story behind how and why that happened.

 

[Eder]

"Messy" seems a pretty good description of the manual, yep.

I remember somewhere there was a FAQ which addressed some of the manual's inaccuracies, and also stated that movie subtitles (or was it some other feature?) weren't added due to lack of time... but I'm not sure where it's from. Maybe one of the patches?

 

[Lynx]

In the UK (where Priv 2 was released earlier) the game came with a pair of fairly well polished manuals (a 'hospital guide' and a 'flight guide', IIRC). In the US, the manual was a messy mix of elements from both.

I'm sure there's a story behind how and why that happened.

It was like that in the german release too, I remember being really fond of those two guides.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

"Messy" seems a pretty good description of the manual, yep.

I remember somewhere there was a FAQ which addressed some of the manual's inaccuracies, and also stated that movie subtitles (or was it some other feature?) weren't added due to lack of time... but I'm not sure where it's from. Maybe one of the patches?

I believe this is the FAQ you're looking for: https://www.wcnews.com/webmirrors/tech/gamefaq/priv2.html

Doesn't mention a lack of time, but it does hit all the other points.

I hope to put both English and American Privateer 2 manuals online someday...

 

[TopGun]

How would you know?

I should have said, From what I've heard

Anyway I was going on the fact that Freelancer is more like Elite, and since From what I've heard Privateer is more like Elite

 

[Wedge009]

It's the spiritual sequel to StarLancer taking place several centuries in the future after the Western Alliance fled Earth to set up new colonies out in space to escape the war that you fought in during StarLancer.

I haven't played Starlancer, but I had a feeling that was the case. Wasn't there an ending to the war in Starlancer? So who were the "Coalition", then?

I liked Freelancer during the excellent story missions but I wish the story would've been longer because after I finished it I found the exploration to be really dull in that game.

I wanted to explore every new bit of space that each step of the plot opened. But then I accumulated too much wealth, and found myself taking the next mission, and the next, until I was thrust out of Liberty by the storyline.

Wedge, there are still several people playing online in a variety of mods but its still a poor experience online so don't try it.

I was curious to try it, since I haven't had any on-line gaming experience. Can't be bothered now.

 

[Eder]

Anyway I was going on the fact that Freelancer is more like Elite, and since From what I've heard Privateer is more like Elite

IMHO, Priv 2 still wins... you can't be like Elite if you're not open ended.

(Also, Priv 2 and FL both had lots of characterless ships and places, so they're both closer to Elite than Priv 1, at least in one aspect )

 

[Edx]

The game is well worth picking up, be forewarned there is no joystick support, it's a mouse only game. Despite the short plot the game is well done, I mean who can top having the classic George Takei as one of the voiceovers?

Yea, it has no mouse support but you dont miss it as its actually designed to be played like that, its not like a Wing Commander game thats controlled with a mouse which is horrendous. I find it a much better experience than with the joystick.

Freelancer is superb, because it tricks you (quite well actually) into thinking its more open ended than it is. So for a while its the best game ever

And the online experience isnt too bad, fun for a while but you need to "get into it" it or else theres nothing much to do.

BTW, how many of you have playd X2: The Threat? Well, neither have I (it wont run properly on my computer), but I bought that thinking it sounded cool. Anyway, it has possibily THE WORST cut scenes EVER. It really makes me realise how good Origin and Digital Anvil were at that. Seriously the cut scenes and writing are the worst I have ever seen in a game. I was sitting there thinking.. "this cant be happening, it cant be this bad...". But it really was...

Ed

 

[Maj.Striker]

Yea, it has no mouse support but you dont miss it as its actually designed to be played like that, its not like a Wing Commander game thats controlled with a mouse which is horrendous. I find it a much better experience than with the joystick.

I think you mean Joystick Anyways, I've heard many things about the X series but I've never had a chance to play any of them. From what I've seen they had terrific graphics but I'm a little unsure of everything else.

 

[Plebe]

Thanks all so far.........

Looks like Privateer 2 seems to be a good choice for me to try next. Still trying to like Prophecy in case it's just the Plebe in me. At home with a broken heel at the moment..........loads of time to fly. Looked at some of the write ups of Freelancer........ deep in thought. WC3 & 4 for now........"God, I love that boys spunk" Looking at problems with newer and older computers, no problem......I'm running a newish one and an old dog for WC3 etc. Easy.

So much here on the site. Never knew there were so many WC fans out there.

COOL!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Mekt-Hakkikt]

Looks like Privateer 2 seems to be a good choice for me to try next. Still trying to like Prophecy in case it's just the Plebe in me. At home with a broken heel at the moment..........loads of time to fly. Looked at some of the write ups of Freelancer........ deep in thought. WC3 & 4 for now........"God, I love that boys spunk" Looking at problems with newer and older computers, no problem......I'm running a newish one and an old dog for WC3 etc. Easy.

So much here on the site. Never knew there were so many WC fans out there.

COOL!!!!!!!!!!

I liked WCP's gameplay a lot: it was very fun to blow up many things fast with all those nice graphic effects. But story-wise it was rather a letdown.

Be warned about Priv2 though: it's a very good game I thoroughly enjoyed but it may be not immediately recognizable that it has something to do with the WC universe since it's set even more in the future than WCP and in an unfamiliar place of the universe.

Good luck with your heel.

I haven't played Starlancer, but I had a feeling that was the case. Wasn't there an ending to the war in Starlancer? So who were the "Coalition", then?
(...)

It's been a while but IIRC the war wasn't ended but you had blown up a good portion of the Coalition's fleet and their newest super weapons and equipment and managed to re-conquer the solar system just up to Mars. But Earth was still in the Coalition's hand...

The Coalition was the worst stereotype evil empire I've heard for a long time: while the Alliance were the "good states" (USA, France, Italy, UK, Germany and Japan), the Coalition were the typical evil rogue states: Mostly Russia, China, North Korea and the Arabic nations. They shot down hospital ships, used sneak attacks, exterminated civilians and took almost never prisoners.

 

[Edfilho]

The colalition was actually ruled by Emperor Ming from planet Mongo...

Priv2 is surelly great, and weird, and feels nothing like WC. Still great, though. the best non-hardware accelerated graphics. The art direction was very different from usual US space sims.

Priv is THE best space mercenary (in the lato-sensu) game. It is great. all of it.

WCP is very good, the best engine of all WC games. I find that wc1-2-priv's engine is too cluncky. the Vision engine just floooooooows. And it's pretty too. Not very good FMV though, compared to WC4.

WC3 and 4 are amazing. nuff said.

the original 2 are very fun and challenging (even if too clunky, as I said above). And the story is fun to follow, especially 2.

Armada is fun for a short while, but gets repetitive.

Academy is kinda useless. it's an uber-sim like the one in WC1. But it's barely a mission builder, way too limited in scope and depth.

I think you shoudl get and play all of them, and all of the Exp. packs too

Starlancer has a lot of potential, but the missions are scripted as hell. annoying, really.

 

[TopGun]

I Love Starlancer, but it could have been better, a proper Sequel would have been good, or at least a Mission Pack. I'm going to try out DOSBox to try my WC I and II