GameSpot Promotes Wing Commander Like Few Others (April 2, 2006)

ChrisReid

ChrisReid

Super Soaker Collector / Administrator

A lot of classic Wing Commander previews and features from the 1990s come from print magazines, but there are a handful of major gaming websites that predate the CIC and were around to cover the series. GameSpot, which has existed almost as long as the web itself, reviewed Wing Commander IV and Kilrathi Saga a full ten years ago in 1996. By the time Prophecy was hot stuff in 1997, GameSpot was ready with an exclusive preview of the game. This eight-page whopper summarized the setting, provided detailed biographs and exclusive pictures of each of the fighters, discussed the guns and missiles in great detail (don't miss the fancy renders provided by Origin), biographied the cast and even summarized a few missions. It was a substantially more weighty preview than many "hands-on impressions" done for modern titles today and gave us all a tantalizing look at the amazing new game.


Their editorial staff gave the game a solid 8.6 in the review (and a 7.4 for Prophecy Advance in 2003) and then went on to create an in-depth online strategy guide. This clocked in at almost three times the length of the preview and included specifics on every weapon, enemy and mission in the game, plus tactics and tips for successful pilots. Since the site's format and layout have changed significantly over the years, I'm actually surprised that these pages still live on to today. With the surge in popularity of WCP this year, both this guide and the CIC's original walkthrough can continue to help fans today.


In 1999 GameSpot created a big fancy feature to celebrate the release of the Wing Commander Movie. The development of the film itself was analyzed, a thorough history of all the games was written and the site conducted a huge trivia contest. The game feature was compiled by none other than GameSpot's current editor-in-chief, Greg Kasavin, and the contest's grand prize was a signed copy of each major game in the series!

The sheer number of articles relating to Wing Commander, combined with GameSpot's massive popularity, have helped the franchise to maintain its prominent spot in gamers' minds over the last few years. The overwhelming response to readers' feedback features has provided a glimpse at the huge base of fans the series still has today. Here's a look at a handful of their other updates that have promoted Wing Commander.
So what's the bottom line? To be perfectly honest, after playing Wing Commander: Prophecy, we were more excited about the WC series than we had been in a very long time. The team has really gotten back to the game's roots, designing a product that is more engrossing, playable, and suspenseful than any offering the series has made in quite a while..

There aren't a lot of licenses that have made it as far as Wing Commander has.. Boasting a fresh design team that is dedicated to gameplay above all else.. Wing Commander: Prophecy has been given a fresh new lease on life, one that could take the venerable series well into the next millennium.
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Original update published on April 2, 2006
 
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Yeah, every ship is named after some sort of water animal. The aliens themselves are just as similar to fish as insects in many ways.
 
Their ships may be named after some fish, but not all of them such as "Orca" which is a whale.

But they are most certianly meant to be insect-like. How are the aliens themselves similar to fish aside from some of their ship design? :confused: And dont they even get nicknamed "bugs"?
 
Chris did say water animals. Besides, "kill the bugs" sounds better than "kill the fish".
 
Edx said:
Their ships may be named after some fish, but not all of them such as "Orca" which is a whale.
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Eh, that's an incredibly minor technicality and a pretty lame exception to bring up. We're not writing a research paper.

Edx said:
But they are most certianly meant to be insect-like. How are the aliens themselves similar to fish aside from some of their ship design? :confused: And dont they even get nicknamed "bugs"?
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Yeah, of course. As I said, there are similarities to both fish and insects. However, with a whole slew of aquatic ship designs and code names, the preview in question is perfectly reasonable calling the aliens fish-like in this context. Also, the concept work for the sequel to Prophecy and Secret Ops had the Nephilim existing in some sort of "liquid space" on the other side of the wormhole.
 
ChrisReid said:
Yeah, of course. As I said, there are similarities to both fish and insects. However, with a whole slew of aquatic ship designs and code names, the preview in question is perfectly reasonable calling the aliens fish-like in this context. Also, the concept work for the sequel to Prophecy and Secret Ops had the Nephilim existing in some sort of "liquid space" on the other side of the wormhole.
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Well, like I said, I cant see why they are like fish-life in anything but ship design. Like starship trooper aliens, if they had "fish-like" ships they woudlnt call them "the fish-like aliens", no they'd still call them bugs. If the Kilrathi had fish-like inspired type craft would we call them fish-like aliens as well, even if we know they looked feline?
 
Ah, but this was a preview--they didn't have access to the entirety of the finished game like we do now, so I think they can be excused for not knowing everything about it.
 
Eh, that's an incredibly minor technicality and a pretty lame exception to bring up. We're not writing a research paper.
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Or are we?

I was going to ask you to co-author "Analyzing the De-Emphasis on Ichthyological Nomenclature in Higher Order Nephilim Starship Class Developments" with me.
 
The Orca is not a High Order Starship. Or the Bugs are not High Order Nephilim. Or something.
 
Edx said:
Their ships may be named after some fish, but not all of them such as "Orca" which is a whale.

But they are most certianly meant to be insect-like. How are the aliens themselves similar to fish aside from some of their ship design? :confused: And dont they even get nicknamed "bugs"?
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Orcas are *not* whales despite being labeled "killer Whales". They are in fact a very large and aggresive relative of the dolphin.
 
AD said:
Orcas are *not* whales despite being labeled "killer Whales". They are in fact a very large and aggresive relative of the dolphin.
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Hehe yeah.

Edx said:
Well, like I said, I cant see why they are like fish-life in anything but ship design. Like starship trooper aliens, if they had "fish-like" ships they woudlnt call them "the fish-like aliens", no they'd still call them bugs. If the Kilrathi had fish-like inspired type craft would we call them fish-like aliens as well, even if we know they looked feline?
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When Delance is raising good points, it's time to stop. And like Ijuin said, all we knew about the Nephilim at the time of this preview was their fish-like ships pretty much. Obviously, this was a preview, so nobody had any clue about how their operated or what they really looked like. The only glimpsed we had of them up their point could easily make them seem like an aquatic species. Your examples don't apply. Nobody knew that the Nephilim really had insect-like traits when the preview was written, and even in the end, there's a lot about the race that still reminds people of fish. I can't believe we're talking about this.
 
Ijuin said:
Ah, but this was a preview--they didn't have access to the entirety of the finished game like we do now, so I think they can be excused for not knowing everything about it.
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ChrisReid said:
Your examples don't apply. Nobody knew that the Nephilim really had insect-like traits when the preview was written, .
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But it doesnt look like a preview, its a summary of the game. It even talks of secret ops, being released in the past tence. Sorry that you think this is a pointless thing to bring up, I just figured that anyone that had played the whole game could call the Nephilim fish-like is very funny. :D

@AD: Well shut my mouth :p I hate getting those kind of details wrong. I was sure an Orca wasnt a fish so I just googled it and didnt bother to read very far.
 
Edx said:
But it doesnt look like a preview, its a summary of the game. It even talks of secret ops, being released in the past tence. Sorry that you think this is a pointless thing to bring up, I just figured that anyone that had played the whole game could call the Nephilim fish-like is very funny. :D
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Well, it's not. We see the fish-like ships with their fish-like names ships far more than we see the aliens themselves. Even when we do see the aliens, it's only in certain FMV scenes where they look like insects. They look plenty aquatic on the comm VDU. And if you're going to delve into the theoretical backstories on the complex nature of their species, then there's also the bit about how they come from a realm of liquid space. So it's not funny.
 
Liquid space? Where's that?

Anyway, remember that one of the piots do say they would make nice gumbo, which is made of sea food.
 
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