Wing Commander article

Phillip Tanaka

Swabbie
Banned
For those who are able to, you might want to get the latest edition of Hyper, because they do a big article on Wing Commander. I'll be picking it up this Thursday.
 
Well I really only caught a glimpse of it, when I was at thr shop. Hyper is a Australian multi format video game magazine, and the article is part of their look at old games, I think. When I get Hyper I'll send a transcribe and scans of the article to that address, if you like.
 
I had a look at it the other day... while it's always cool to see WC articles appear in the media, this one is unfortunately rather poor. Still, at least they mentioned WCP GBA, a bit of advertising for a new WC game is always good.
 
Design? How do you mean?

I don't buy magazines, but a friend who had far too many Hypers gave me a few - I think one of them had a preview of WC4. There was also a PSX-Pro magazine moaning about the poor conversion of WC3 to Playstation.
 
Design as in graphic design. That's quite an engaging spread for a magazine--first time I've ever seen a gaming mag put some actual time into working on the design.
 
Maybe we shoudl tell them about UE... they may include it in the next issue as a follow up - could get some more fans, and let old fans who didn't know about it that the series really isn't dead. Besides, we've gotten a few magizine spots and the like before for UE, why should this be any different?
 
You could give it a go. But by the look of things, WC isn't nearly as popular in Australia as it is in Europe. That's where the mags you refer to were made, aren't they?

Originally posted by Phillip Tanaka
Poor conversion? You think? At least it wouldn't crash your computer all the time.
Hey, I can't recall ever having a crash from WC3. Anyway, it was what the reviewer said - something about twitchy controls, tailing a Kilrathi and about to make the kill, then the controller would 'die' for a few seconds.

Originally posted by Cam
Design as in graphic design. That's quite an engaging spread for a magazine--first time I've ever seen a gaming mag put some actual time into working on the design.
I think that's the norm for Hyper. Pity they couldn't refrain from juvenile captions about the cockpit view. :/
 
Originally posted by Wedge009
I think that's the norm for Hyper. Pity they couldn't refrain from juvenile captions about the cockpit view. :/

And pity we don't see more creative design work in other mainstream magazines! (but hey, there's always Adbusters and the like)
 
Those are the worst goddamned captions I've ever read...

"Can I sit on your lap, big boy?"
"Man, you should do that in the privacy of your bedroom..."
"Pussy in your Pocket" - The only Cats in Prophecy were on YOUR side...

Who wrote these captions? Better yet, where do they live so I can take their life over? :p
 
Hey, did Chris put that article up, or is that from one you have yourself? But yeah, I agree that magazines can be downright stupid sometimes, considering they are a professional source of news compared to things such as fan sites and such. But they do get marks for one caption. I'm not sure about the 'quiet, ropey types' but they must have had moi in mind when they said it. :)
 
Originally posted by Wedge009
I don't buy magazines, but a friend who had far too many Hypers gave me a few - I think one of them had a preview of WC4. There was also a PSX-Pro magazine moaning about the poor conversion of WC3 to Playstation.
Hmm... I vaguely recall a Hyper with a Chris Roberts interview that (for some reason I can't recall) I thought was interesting... it might have been the WC4 preview one, since it was definitely around that time. Would be neat if you could check that up.
 
Originally posted by Wedge009
I don't buy magazines, but a friend who had far too many Hypers gave me a few - I think one of them had a preview of WC4. There was also a PSX-Pro magazine moaning about the poor conversion of WC3 to Playstation.

Well, if you ever find any of those.. we'd definitely appreciate some sort of scans.
 
Well, Dad has a scanner, but I don't think he'd appreciate me asking him to scan non-work/study related stuff. I've never used it before so I wouldn't know how to work it anyway (it's hooked up to his computer).

Anyway here's an excerpt from the British PSX-Pro magazine I was talking about, Issue #5, dated April 1995.
The Wing Commander series suffers from an annoying trait that has followed it throughout its life span. Basically, the games have been nothing short of superb on the PC, but all attempts to convert them to other formats have failed in quite miserable fashion.

<snip>

Unfortunately, despite all the game's presentational plus points, you can't disguise the fact that it doesn't play very well. The in-game graphics are a credit to the artists, but the coders of this version should be shot.

Imagine the situation - you're hot on the heels of a Kilrathi fighter, and you've worn down his shields and caused loads of structural damage to his craft. You're lining him up for the final killer shot when all of a sudden your ship stops moving completely. For no reason. This generally lasts only a few seconds, but that's plenty long enough for you to lose your target. Not only is this annoying in the extreme, it also makes the game a lot more difficult than it should be and ensures each mission lasts far longer than is really necessary.

<snip>

Maybe I've been spoilt by the PC version, and I suppose I shouldn't really let that cloud my judgement on this, but when you know for a fact that the grass in this case is so much greener on the other side of the fence, it's difficult not to feel a little deflated.
Does anyone else suffer this bug with WC3 on the Playstation?
 
Now that you mention it, I find that the game does sometimes freeze for one or two seconds when you shoot down a target, or you enter into an area with enemies. But I haven't, to my knowledge, encountered a situation where the controller has died. Sometimes it seems to on the original Wing Commander on the Nintendo, but I can't recall anything from HOTT.
 
Originally posted by Phillip Tanaka
That's everyone. It's something I hate too.
But usually Hyper makes better captions than that. At least, that was the case 6 or 7 years ago...

Originally posted by Quarto
Hmm... I vaguely recall a Hyper with a Chris Roberts interview that (for some reason I can't recall) I thought was interesting... it might have been the WC4 preview one, since it was definitely around that time. Would be neat if you could check that up.
I had a read of it last night, it was a very basic preview with the usual Star Wars reference, and screenshots of what I think was the demo.

Originally posted by Phillip Tanaka
But I haven't, to my knowledge, encountered a situation where the controller has died.
I only said 'die' 'cause I was writing from memory. That problem I was referring to is what I typed up below.
 
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