Which WC games had the best visual style?

Which had the best visual style? (please check no more than 3 options)

  • Wing Commander / Wing Commander II / Academy

    Votes: 27 69.2%
  • Wing Commander Armada

    Votes: 4 10.3%
  • Wing Commander III / Wing Commander IV

    Votes: 11 28.2%
  • Wing Commander Prophecy / Secret Ops

    Votes: 10 25.6%
  • Wing Commander Arena

    Votes: 4 10.3%
  • Privateer

    Votes: 10 25.6%
  • Privateer 2

    Votes: 1 2.6%

  • Total voters
    39
Wing Commander 1 here, as well. I still think the paintjob on the Scimitar is the coolest.

As for Privateer, I would have lumped it with Armada. Armada expanded on some of the feel of SWC, which Privateer also shared to an extent. Plus, they had a ship in common; the Gladius. I'd have to say Armada comes second for me, if only for the Kilrathi cockpits.
 
-Wc1 and 2 for the cartoon style
-Prophecy for the midway and the confed ships with lot of curves. (Except Wasp who look like my trashbox)
-I love strange cinematic and artworks in privateer 2; look like they took everything they found around for build the backgrounds. But in-space mission was too sad.
-Arena is way better but reminds me "micromachines" toys.
 
Couldn't vote. Wanted to - but couldn't.
There's no way I'd put WC1 with its real cool cocpits and very "wingcommander'ish" look of ships in one line with stupid "plastic models colored by colorblind maniac" of WC2/Academy.
It's not about WC2 itself - it's just ugliness of the models. (IMHO)
 
Blasphemy! ;)

As you would say so. :)
Everyone has his/her opinion, so does MjavTheGray.
When saw WC2 for the first time - I was shocked. To see flying toys (bright, colored kid's toys) of a spacecrft size - it was something. The storyline did its job - and I loved WC2 no less than I did love WC1. But my love of WC2 is not about visuality.
 
Strange. I'm curious, Mjav; what year did you first play WC2? I recall being nothing but impressed by the graphics at the time.
 
For me it was in cycles of even/odd. I prefer the odd number games to the even number. WC2's kilrathi fighters felt too fat, WC4's texture were too dirty/busy, etc. Of them all I'd have to say WC1 wins, if only because it has somehow managed to capture the feeling of the Pacific Theater in Space artistically. The colors and styles of the art just did it somehow. I really miss that in all the space shooters I've played since. They either go so overboard that it's neon colors or they're so bland it's all slight variations of gray and subtle modifications of the same mesh.
 
Couldn't vote. Wanted to - but couldn't.
There's no way I'd put WC1 with its real cool cocpits and very "wingcommander'ish" look of ships in one line with stupid "plastic models colored by colorblind maniac" of WC2/Academy.
It's not about WC2 itself - it's just ugliness of the models. (IMHO)

Show me a Wing Commander game that does not inherently look like Wing Commander.

It's impossible because it's Wing Commander- part of your argument falls apart by existing :p
 
Strange. I'm curious, Mjav; what year did you first play WC2? I recall being nothing but impressed by the graphics at the time.
It was never question of graphics. Detail level of WC2 is much higher than the WC1 one. But it is the question of looks. WC2 ships were detailed, were coloured, were everything - except their look. They didn't give me impression of space craft, at least - WC spacecraft, that's all.

And the year I first played WC2... Let me think. WC1 was 1995, WC2 was 1997. Somethibg like that. WC3 & WC4 were both 2000.
 
Maybe that has something to do with it. I played the games when they first came out (when they were state-of-the-art), and that was when the Wing Commander games were pushing the graphics envelope of the time. '97 was the year Prophecy was released, so I can imagine that - given every other game released since - that the art style wasn't impressive.
 
Strange. I'm curious, Mjav; what year did you first play WC2? I recall being nothing but impressed by the graphics at the time.

Actually, I agree with Mjav somewhat... when I first played Wing Commander II (in 1991!) I didn't especially like the look. A certain element of character that was present in the Wing Commander I character and ship drawings was lacking... I've never been able to put my finger on exactly what it was. Mostly, I think, the empty menu screen on the bases and the Concordia just doesn't have the atmosphere of the Tiger's Claw.
 
Ah, there I agree: having only a single room, no killboard etc. did take away a lot of the immersion.

But I immediatley fell in love with the ship designs in WC 2.
 
It took me some time to really like the human ships -- I loved the Kilrathi ones immediately. I think the biggest problem was that the manual didn't have those wonderful line drawings of the different ships... that *really* helped your imagination connect to what you were seeing in Wing Commander I (and even later manuals would give you a high res version of the ship art that would help in that fashion -- WC2's silhouettes were a shame.)
 
I remember how shocked my brother and I were when we saw the WC 2 manual and the spartanic rooms. We just couldn't understand why they didn't keep the WC 1 style in those matters.
 
And I *still* don't understand. I wish I knew more people who worked on those games... I'd love to hear their stories.
 
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