Wing Commander- Least Favorite game.

Least favorite Wing Commander

  • WC1

    Votes: 1 2.1%
  • WC2

    Votes: 1 2.1%
  • WC3

    Votes: 2 4.3%
  • WC4

    Votes: 2 4.3%
  • WCP or SO

    Votes: 4 8.5%
  • Privateer

    Votes: 3 6.4%
  • Privateer 2

    Votes: 6 12.8%
  • Academy

    Votes: 10 21.3%
  • Arena

    Votes: 14 29.8%
  • Armada

    Votes: 4 8.5%

  • Total voters
    47

frostytheplebe

Seventh Part of the Seal
I'm sure that at some point long ago this was discussed, at length. But we do have some newer people here and I would like to get theirs, as well as everyone elses opinion as well. Which, in your opinion was the worst of the Wing Commander Series?

Some people have said they don't like Arena because they were disappointed that it wasn't like the other WCs. They were quickly shot down.

Others griped about the overall weirdness of the story from Privateer 2, which I can't argue with.

But the one that takes the cake and no doubt the biggest disappointment is more of an add-on then an actual game... that's right, WC Academy. When I first laid eyes on this game, I had such high hopes. I thought, "Wow here we go, you can design your own missions, and fight huge battles. My eyes went all starry with the idea of a fleet of Waterloos and Gilgameshs surrounding 3 Confed Class dreadnoughts squaring off against a Kilrathi Strike force with an overwhelming number of fighters.

What a let down. While I know my hopes were somewhat unrealistic given the game engine. A few decent capship fights with 2 to 3 ships might not have been out of the question. Instead, where the possibilities could have been near limitless, the game fell badly short.
 
Of all the Wing Commander's I've played, my least favorite would have to be... Privateer Online.
 
Academy for the same reasons. Although It did let me hone my skills as a pilot. I actually didn't fly to well in WC2 until after I played Academy (then I rocked).
 
I think Kilrathi Saga WC3 is one of the most disappointing games in the series. After having played the 3DO version, playing a bit of the PSX version (still playing it now) and finishing the PC DOS/Kilrathi Saga versions. Here we have a game which brought WC3 to windows 9x. But rather than upgrade things like comm videos to be in full colour, or add the news clips/hobbes video from the console games. There's no real differences between it and the dos version other than the remixed music which while a nice touch, isn't as great a change as the other items. At the moment Playstation seems to be the best version of WC3, sure the graphics aren't quite up to pc level, but the video looks better without the interlacing, the comms are colour, and you can take off/land within carriers unlike the 3DO version.
 
Hard to say... but it begins with A.

Can't say about Arena since I haven't played it. I'm tempted to choose Academy, but because of playability I say Armada.
 
Hehe, yes, but WC3 PSX has one fatal flaw you aren't mentioning that kind of puts it behind other ports -- it's far and away the worst gameplay experience of any WC3. It was slow and clunky on an original Playstation with elaborate awkward controls. They opted not to refine the experience for the console and the game suffered.
 
hmm, for me it was easily prophecy and secret ops - i really dislike the "new" "physics" in that engine, the ships are all too floaty, at least under keyboard control.
Academy isn't great, but it's a nice game in many ways, and it effectively adds the simulator that was missing in wc2.
 
yeah, I really can't comment on the gameplay aspect. I don't own a playstation. I bought the game and am running it in PCSX. Works very well, not seeing any graphical glitches, but the controller is not a playstation controller. :) The space engine is quite fast/smooth when emulated on a pc.
 
I decline to answer this preposterous question ('worst' WC). While there are certainly one or two titles in that list that I could say is my least favourite, that is only in consideration against other titles in the series and certainly, on their own, they all have strong points which prevent me from being willing to vote for any one of them.
 
I'd say the Secret Operations add-on for Prophecy. The add-on was an experiment before many people had internet speeds capable of downloading the game in a reasonable time frame.
 
I'm the one that voted Wing Commander IV. Not that it was a bad game, it was just the worst of the wing commander crop.. from clunky textures to horrid flight model (am I the only one who never thought wc3 and 4 were actually fun to fly in?) and a plot that turns Malcolm McDowell into the bad guy *again*

so really as far as a 'worst' game goes it is leaps and bounds ahead of the average game, and is keeping very good company.. and I'd still rather play it than hordes of games that came out at the same time.
 
Not surprisingly, I voted for WC 3. After WC 1, 2, Academy, Privateer and Armada, it didn't feel very WC to me at all. The love was gone, the (Terran) ship designs incredibly boring, the Kilrathi painted in a particulary bad light. It's a great game but I prefer every other WC game to it.

Academy was a bit of a letdown and still, I had countless hours of fun with it.
 
Yup, WC3 for me too. Gameplay was boring, and while the story had a wonderful grimdark feel to parts of it, it was ultimately a lot sillier than people give it credit for. It's definitely a good game, just not that good.

Not to mention it does all the stuff people hate about the film in a more aggravating fashion and somehow gets away with it.
 
Hehe, yes, but WC3 PSX has one fatal flaw you aren't mentioning that kind of puts it behind other ports -- it's far and away the worst gameplay experience of any WC3. It was slow and clunky on an original Playstation with elaborate awkward controls. They opted not to refine the experience for the console and the game suffered.

However, I owe that game a lot. My motherboard was shot for a while and I could afford a WC3 PSX quicker than a MB. Thankfully, Funcoland (!) had one copy left - four discs, no box, no manual for $10.

I blew through that game in two or three days. Took me a while to figure it out but man was it worth it. I also owned the WC4 port but thought the texture compression on it was horrifying.
 
"Least Favorite Wing Commander Game" and "Worst Game of the Wing Commander Series" are two slightly different things. "Least Favorite", to me, implies of all the games I've played. Since I've only played WC1-4, Prophecy, SO, and Privateer, I was, reluctantly, forced to vote for Privateer.

However, I don't think Privateer was the worst game (I just never had the patience to fly enough of the early missions to afford a decent ship!). I probably would vote for Academy for that...namely because it was the one WC game that I never felt the urge to TRY to play. Mission editors are great, and fun to tool around with occasionally, but an entire game they do not make, at least not the immersive experience I expect from Wing Commander. And the fact that it was built on the WC2 engine, my least favorite flight engine of the series, made it worse (WC2 was saved by it's story and very good ship design).

I can't weigh in on Armada (which I've never been able to get to work, for whatever reason), Privateer 2 (which I've never been able to find, although I'll admit given it's lukewarm reviews I haven't looked that hard), or Arena (which I won't be playing unless it is ported to PC or PS3, i.e. never).

As to the games I have played:
* I don't think you can be a WC fan and dislike WC1...it's against the rules somehow
* As I already said, WC2 had an awesome story, and I really liked the stark differences among the ships and many ideas behind the engine, even if the engine itself was poor
* I loved the reboot of WC3 and the use of live actors. The engine and story were pretty good too.
* WC4 had an even better story than WC2, in the very good WC3 engine improved further by deadlier missiles and probably the best AI I've seen in any kind of flight or shooter game.
* Prophecy was weak on story and on ship design, but was an absolute blast to play.
* SO had the same fun gameplay of Prophecy and was free, so one couldn't complain. Plus it made mods like Standoff possible.

So, that just leave poor Privateer...which was a great idea that pushed the boundaries of the possible for it's day, but might have been better had it been made with the WC3 engine...
 
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