WC in Print

Gaming Moments (p. 74) includes the following letter:

While Playing Ultime VII. I came across a crashed spaceship in a farm field. When questioning the farmer about the ship, he recalled a stranger mumbling something about "killing someone named Rathy." Obviously a reference to Wing Commander and the Kilrathi. I felt a certain kinship with Origin and gamers everywhere that shared a little world (at that time) known as Computer Gaming. - Jesse Olivo.

Ad Lib Sound Card/Sound Canvas. The original PC had a speaker, but it lacked an audio processor and so was limited to "squeak, honk, and fart" audio. But along came a little game called WING COMMANDER that suddenly made it loud and clear that game audio didn't have to squeak, honk, and well, you know. WING COMMANDER's soundtrack also showed the power of a good General MIDI synthesizer, and the Roland SoundCanvas suddenly found a home in gamers' systems. Special mention should go to the Sound Blaster sound card for creating an industry-wide PC audio standard, and to John Miles and company for creating the much-needed development tools."

Wing Commander Ranked Fourth Best Game Of All Time

Wing Commander gets high marks in a lot of polls (up another point at Gamespot!), but this one is especially important. The special 200th Issue of Computer Gaming World (February 2001 - "From Pac-Man to The Sims") is full of historical articles and "of all time" features. Their readers, not just a select batch of editors, but their readers, ranked Wing Commander fourth best game of all time. Furthermore, competition was extremely close between 2nd, 3rd and 4th place (see below). And it was up against very noble competitors. Castle Wolfenstein (not Wolf-3D, the original Castle Wolfenstein!) got second and Sim City got third. Just a mere few votes behind came Wing Commander. Other noble and popular games came in lower.

The CGW Readers' Choice Top Ten Best
1) Half-Life (1,971 votes)
2) SimCity (1,542 votes)
3) Castle Wolfenstein (1,541 votes)
4) Wing Commander (1,532 votes)
5) DOOM (1,448 votes)
6) StarCraft (1,392 votes)
7) Sid Meier's Civilization (1,331 votes)
8) Diablo (1,188 votes)
9) Zork (1,153 votes)
10) X-COM (1,100 votes)

WING COMMANDER II: VENGANCE OF THE KILRATHI
A high-concept, summer-blockbuster space opera -- that's the best way to describe Chris Robert's magnum opus. There are those who feel that either the third or fourth WING COMMANDER games were the best that Roberts put out, but they're just plain wrong. WCII did what modern action games are trying to do: It fused narrative and action together into a tight package. It gave you a compelling reason to fly forth and tear those Kilrathi ships in battle. It made you care about its various characters, and then taunted you by killing them off. It also tapped into the inner Star Wars geek within, by providing one of the first opportunities to flitter around in space and blow things up. Hopefully, Chris Roberts will find a way to use current technology to replicate the experience, and not try to make any more movies."

Who's the Best?

It's Still a Contender

Prophecy Gold in the CGW Top Forty

Remember that Top 40 CGW Poll that ran throughout January? Shades noticed that the March issue of Computer Gaming World lists Prophecy Gold as 39th and Freespace 2 as 23rd. Freespace 2 is also ranked as top simulation while Prophecy Gold got 3rd place. While this shows FS2 was clearly the winner in this race, don't forget it was just a couple months old (and therefore made many Christmas presents) in this January poll and Prophecy Gold came out in Fall of 1998.

Don't Forget This One's For Print

CGW Vote that Actually Counts!

Tiberian Sun is no Wing Commander

The in-game movies, as in the previous games, combine high-class computer graphics with video schlock. TIBERIAN SUN may not represent the low point of Michael Biehn's 15-year post-Terminator career slump, but his jaw-flexing performance as the Commander McNeil isn't going to move him to Hollywood's A-list anytime soon. The best that can be said about Jones' performance is that you rarely catch him checking his watch. The villains fare somewhat better, with Joe Kucan a vigorously hammy Kane and B-movie vet Frank Zagrino appropriately zealous as second-banana Slavik. The plot sure ain't Shakespeare - heck, its not even WING COMMANDER - but it certainly has enough cheesy zest to keep you awake. It's bad, all right - but in a good way.

Our Daily Bread

I mentioned Ultima IX in an update yesterday... Samcat was kind enough to bring over the demo last night, and it is SWEET. I ran out in the middle of the night to pre-order the special edition... of particular note is the incredibly music, by Wing Commander veteran George Oldziey. If you haven't yet done so, grab the current CGW and try out the demo!

PrivOnline in Review

Here's a quick wrap-up of what we know about the most likely next Wing Commander game...

November 1, 1999: Yahoo News publishes an article stating that Origin will develop a massively multiplayer Wing Commander game.

September 28, 1999: GamePen does an article on Andy Hollis which mentions that he is not among those working on 'Wing Commander Online'.

September 18, 1999: CGW runs an article about Starlancer which mentions the 'upcoming online version' of Wing Commander.

September 11, 1999: PC Games interviews Alan Pavlish, who says that he is working on an online game set in the WC universe.

June 30, 1999: Origin registers PrivateerOnline.com.

June 19, 1999: Maximum PC mentions Wing Commander Online in an article about Andy Hollis.

Another Wing Commander Online Mention

This Time Your Vote Really Matters

Not that they doesn't matter in the current Gamespot Poll, Blair is barely in the lead with a 1% advantage over The Avatar at 29%. Nevertheless, this time we have the opportunity to affect the next "Top 40 Games" listing in CGW magazine. From about seventy-five titles, you can vote for up to ten. Origin games on the list include Wing Commander Prophecy Gold, Ultima Online, Jane's F-15 and Longbow 2. You can find the voting page here.

The editors of Computer Gaming World want to know your favorite games. Vote now, see the results in next month's issue.

Monthly Positions

Just got the new (July) issue of CGW, and Wing Commander makes a few appearances in the Top 100 lists. Prophecy Gold is ranked as the number one Top Simulation/Space Combat Game, as well as the number 13 total. Prophecy is ranked 4 & 27 on each list, respectively.

CGW Follows Crowd!

No, it's not a bad Derek Smart joke... here's Computer Gaming World's mention of Wing Commander...

The Ugly

Wing Commander Movie: Yikes. Okay, so we weren't expecting Citizen Kane or Star Wars Episode 1 anyway, but this steaming pile isn't even rental-worthy. Memo to game designers. Stick to computer games.

This movie is probably already on video, but you can hear how Chris Roberts justified this "experiment" and read a retrospective of the entire Wing Commander series.

CGW Exudes Wing Commander in February

After my long hard mission to reserve Wing Commander Movie action figures and buy a copy of Das Boot DVD I returned to my secret lair to find the February Computer Gaming World in my mail box. This month had an article with reviews of three 'minor' space sims: the Descent Freespace addon, Hardwar and Prophecy Gold. Our boy outranked both of the others, scoring 4 stars (out of 5)... although the article (see below) kept calling Secret Ops 'Strike Ops' or something... CGW also had an interview with JMS (B5 creator), who said he played 'all' of the WC games.

Wing Commander: Prophecy Gold Edition

Publisher: Origin
Price: $39.99
www.origin.com

For all of its visual grandeur, Wing Commander Prophecy followed the same well-worn path as its ancestors. The enemies were different, but little else changed. Missions remained simple affairs, the movie interludes provided most of the interest. Wing Commander Prophecy Gold Edition (WC:P) is more of the same.

The package includes the original Prophecy and an additional CD containing the Secret Ops missions (available free on the Internet for a time in 1998)/ The documentation includes the background fiction that was on the Secret Ops Web site.

WC:P Gold is still a solid blast-fest with gorgeous graphics, especially on PCs equipped with 3D cards. The missions are the only downside. You fly the assigned waypoints and kill all the bad guys at each, then rinse and repeat. The Strike Ops missions take this to unimaginative extremes. They are stuffed to overflowing with multiple waves of enemies, turning an amusing game into a monotonous shooting gallery.

There is some added value in the Secret Ops package. Instead of sandwiching in video, the package uses the game's graphic engine to provide new storyline vignettes. Your ships are fitted with new, rapid-firing weapons - you'll need them in the packed arenas in Strike Ops. Earlier Wing Commander spaceships make encores, but you can't piloted them.

Strike Ops adds little that Prophecy didn't already beat into the ground. I'd recommend WC:P Gold if you missed the original release, but Prophecy owners won't find much added value.

Expert Advice

Well, a copy of 'PC Gaming Expert' appeared in my mail box today... not exactly sure why it came, but it's apparently some sort of strategy guide by the CGW people. Anyway, the following blurb about Prophecy tactics appeared...

Even if you've finished the original, these tactics still make good sense for the add-on missions, which are available online.
Enemy Mantas are heavy fighters, meaning they can dogfight and carry capital-ship-killing torpedoes. Always go for Mantas first in any mission, especially the red ones, as they carry torpedoes.
When playing a mission that requires defending something, pull up the Navigation map with Ctrl-N and target the ship you're protecting. The red lines indicate who is attacking the targeted craft, hence showing you the specific enemy fighters on which to focus.
When making runs against the alien capital ships and their turrets, make sure to take advantage of auto-sliding. That way, you can maintain your direction and speed, and still keep your sights set on your target. Make sure while auto-sliding to go around your target, rather than attacking it head-on.

CGW Ranks Gold

The new issue of Computer Gaming World (December, 1998)'s cover article, Holiday Hot 100, features Wing Commander Prophecy Gold as the #5 Space Sim for this year. Gold trails I-War, Heavy Gear II, Starsiege and Descent Freespace... read their comments on Gold below.

The age-old space-sim series makes this list again. This title was No.1 on last year's list, and it's still a great WING COMMANDER game. It features gameplay reminiscent of earlier WING COMMANDER games, has less annoying FMV, and sports some of the most beautiful graphics ever seen in a space sim. By the time you read this the GOLD EDITION, which includes both the original release and SECRET OPS (the stand-alone expansion pack that was released on the Internet), will be available in stores. This complete packages is a good pick for WING COMMANDER fans.

At Long Last...

Yay! A respectable news magazine (CGW, no less) has finally tackled (well, almost tackled) the big question: who would win in a fight, Chris Blair or Luke Skywalker? Check out page 34 of their September issue for a whole list of such match ups...