BREAKING NEWS: Wing Commander Arena Announced! (February 22, 2007)

This looks to be very promising, but I'm hesitant about the arena type of gameplay. I hope it doesn't take away from the WC feel of the game. All in good time though, just so nice to see the CIC updated with new official WC news again.

So have we now entered the 3rd Age of Wing Commander?

I also love the new Gamertag link that shows up in this forum. Great touch guys!
 
Drizzt Do Urden said:
I may have to buy an Xbox 360 now. Anyone know what the current best price is on one?
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After going through a couple of websites, it looks like the "Core System" retails for $299, and the "Premium System", is $399. The XBox website indicates that a Gold account runs about $50 a year. That's about the limit of my knowledge on the console.
 
You will want a Premium System for this, since you'll download Arena and store it on the hard drive.

The Live Gold subscription can be offset with various other purchases -- you get a year worth, for instance, when you buy the XBox webcam addon
 
Spring for the "Premium", the "Core" package is useless. I had to get one myself as it was all they had left on the first day (got the last one there too!), and slowly upgraded to the Premium. You'll save a lot of money if you go for the $400 package.

Edit: Ah LOAF beat me to it. :p

Edit again: LOAF, are you unable to save arcade games on memory cards?
 
I believe you can save things to memory cards... but once you buy an XBox and a memory card large enough for Arena, you're going to spend more than the extra hundred bucks anyway... and you won't get the wireless controller or the headset or whatever else the nicer package comes with.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
I believe you can save things to memory cards... but once you buy an XBox and a memory card large enough for Arena, you're going to spend more than the extra hundred bucks anyway... and you won't get the wireless controller or the headset or whatever else the nicer package comes with.
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Oh definitely, the Premium is a much better deal all around. I was just wondering if there's an actual restriction on doing that or not. The only thing I like more about my Core system is the lack of chrome on the dvd tray. I like it all matte white.
 
To be honest...I'm not excited. This game sounds very multiplayer focused, and I don't care much for multiplayer. Anything short of a full sequel on the PC probably isn't going to do it for me. Still, it is good to see that Wing Commander hasn't been forgotten. Maybe if this game is good and people love it, we'll see something more.
 
glad to see a new WC game
for now that's all I'll say as my thoughts are drifting negative based on the screen shots but it's too early to be making an informed decision
 
according to the press release there is a single player mode as well.. I'll be very curious as to how that works out. but as a 'live' game, obviously the heart of the game will be taunting your friends as you blow the crap out of them in an intense 16 person melee
 
Legendary Game Franchise Delivers 16-Player Online Space Combat

REDWOOD CITY, Calif--Electronic Arts today announced the return of its beloved Wing Commander(TM) franchise with Wing Commander Arena
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I couldn't imagine any better way that they could put that. Their legendary and beloved franchise is returning.
 
Yes, and it's important to remember that this is *Electronic Arts"* phrasing -- not that of some biased reporter... EA specifically chose to begin their press release this way -- return, beloved, franchise... important words for us.
 
Am I the only one who cringes at the words 'Electronic Arts', 'XBox Live Arcade', 'focuses on multiplayer action' and 'Gaia Industries'? I cannot even begin to imagine what a horrible piece of junk this will be and without decent single player, story, that old 'interactive movie' feel and Chris Roberts behint the steering wheel, my bet is on 'I will hate it' rather than on 'will appeal to [...] long-time fans'.

Maybe this will be the revival of the series and a good title will follow, but I see absolutely no hope for this one. (All my personal opinion of course, you may or may not agree.)
 
Translation: "I don't care about the facts, I knows what I knows and that's that".

Gotcha.
 
Did Mario fanatics freak out when Mario Kart was announced (or better yet, Dr. Mario?). I can't remember who made that connection originally (or even if it's in this thread or another), but that's pretty much how this game feels to me. A fun WC side game with Multiplayer action.

It doesn't worry about story or FMV. Just kickass multiplayer action. And that's good enough for me.

Edit: To clarify, of course I want a full fledged WC sequel to Prophecy/Secret Ops, but perhaps this is the first step. And even if that full on sequel never comes, WC Arena is still a brand new official WC release! Something we've been lacking for a very long time.
 
Translation: "I don't care about the facts, I knows what I knows and that's that".
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Would you care to elaborate on the facts that should make me think this will be a great game and worthy successor to Wing Commander 3 and 4? Granted, I have not seen the final game and I believe nobody has, so of course my personal opinion (and that's all it is) is based on what I know about this company and read from the press release. And that is what I stated.

Did Mario fanatics freak out when Mario Kart was announced
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Well, I'm sure the action bits will be OK in Arena, just like they were in the previous Wing Commander games. The thing is, it wasn't only the action bits that got me to play WC, it was the story, the FMVs, the atmosphere, and I fear that those will be lacking, if not missing entirely, in EA's new offspring.
 
Steltek said:
Well, I'm sure the action bits will be OK in Arena, just like they were in the previous Wing Commander games. The thing is, it wasn't only the action bits that got me to play WC, it was the story, the FMVs, the atmosphere, and I fear that those will be lacking, if not missing entirely, in EA's new offspring.
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Like I wrote in the other thread, this is not *the* next installment of the series. It's a side-title developed for a rather limited console (yes, yes, the XBox 360 is a grand console and all that - but Live Arcade games are required to be small and accessible, so Live Arcade is an entirely different beast than the 360 on which it runs). There's nothing to worry about here.

(of course, people will always find some crazy reason to worry - I'm sure back when Wing Commander Academy and Armada were released, some people said the exact same thing you're telling us now, and they would've kept on saying it... right up until Wing Commander III was announced)
 
I have to agree with you on the Academy and Armada bit, that's the exact reason EA has got me ranting again now: This is yet another Wing Commander Academy but somehow I fear that instead of Wing Commander VI, only more WC Academys will follow it.
 
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