SWC Ship of the Day: Rapier II

The SWC version of the Rapier II is awfully smooth... like soap! Delicious soap...

Destroyer Them!

Linux Them Up

Now That's High Technology

In what looks like a merging of elements from his Wing Commander and Privateer creations, Chris Roberts will redefine the space combat sim once again later this year with Freelancer. The game's narrative is set in the early 30th century, when humans are traveling the stars and life on Earth no longer exists. Humanity is divided into four factions based on the cultures of the old Earth nations. It's an age of exploration and exploitation for humanity in the universe.

A surprising innovation is how this space combat game is meant to be controlled--the interface has been designed with a mouse in mind. It works much like the way it does in a first-person shooter, where you move the mouse to direct where you want to look. Most functions of your ship can be operated with it, including targeting your weapons. The mouse was chosen as the primary means of control so that learning to play Freelancer would be easier compared with previous space combat games, like Wing Commander, which had complex interfaces and steeper learning curves.