Wing Commander

[optimusjamie]

So, I've been thinking about the recent return of space sims, like Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous and to a lesser extent KSP itself, and I've been thinking about the old Wing Commander series. I never played them, being way before my time, but I did fall in love with one of Roberts' later games, Freelancer.

Anyway, should I check out the old Wing Commander games, or have they been truly surpassed by later games?

[Awaras]

They definitely have aged, but are worth checking out if you can get past the graphics. Also, Descent: Freespace 1 and (especially) 2 are a must if you haven't played them. Descent 2 still has an active community that has done wonders to update it's graphics.

[RuBisCO]

Oh god here come the nostalgia flash backs!

Descent was just plan awesome, I think I still have Descent 3 on my gaming drive... yep I do, I loaded it up a few years ago for the epic funs, not very many zero gee 1st person shooters but those are my personal fav.

[Awaras]

Oh god here come the nostalgia flash backs!

Descent was just plan awesome, I think I still have Descent 3 on my gaming drive... yep I do, I loaded it up a few years ago for the epic funs, not very many zero gee 1st person shooters but those are my personal fav.

The Descent series were zero gee first person shooters. Descent: Freespace 1 and 2 were space fighter 'simulators' similar to wing commander and the X-wing games.

Both series were made by the same company I believe...

[RuBisCO]

The Descent series were zero gee first person shooters. Descent: Freespace 1 and 2 were space fighter 'simulators' similar to wing commander and the X-wing games.

Both series were made by the same company I believe...

Why thank you for informing me that the sky is blue, I'll take that into account and try to read wikipedia in english instead of hazetau.

Anyways optimusjamie try WC Privateer: that olds space merchant sim also has a soft spot in my nostalgia gland.

Yes google has just informed me you can get it on GOG for $6. I once tried to get my origional copy to work on WINXP years ago and failed miserable, so hopefully GOG version has been upgraded for modern OS. My version of D3 was linux and still works like a dream on that OS.

Edited July 17, 2014 by RuBisCO

[Godot]

So, I've been thinking about the recent return of space sims, like Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous and to a lesser extent KSP itself, and I've been thinking about the old Wing Commander series. I never played them, being way before my time, but I did fall in love with one of Roberts' later games, Freelancer.

Anyway, should I check out the old Wing Commander games, or have they been truly surpassed by later games?

One, I think the last, game went into a similar direction like Elite or X ... Wing Commander: Privateer and Privateer 2 ...

especially Privateer 2 had extentive cinematics, featuring (among others) Jürgen Prochnow and Clive Owen

Here an excerpt of the intro (unfortunately just in 240p ... I can assure you that the cinematics in the game itself were of much beter quality )

[sal_vager]

Oh gods these games are the best, descent, frontier, wing commander....

Don't forget x-wing and tie fighter, freelancer and starlancer, tachyon and i-war !

There's a new game that's really close to wing commander as well, but I forgot its name and can't find it in my history, I was looking at it the other day.

[Guest]

Wings of St. Nazaire? It sure does look like Wing Commander, maybe even too much. The thing that made WC games great was their story, the characters and memorable setting, which wouldn't lose a thing if re-rendered in HD. The graphics are dated, though, and in this resolution, it's hard to play in fullscreen.

[RogueMason]

...starlancer...

You, good sir, rock. Starlancer is genuinely awesome, and it's one of my favourite older PC games. Unfortunately, it's nowhere near as well known as its successor, hence my comment

Unfortunately, I haven't played any of the others and I doubt I ever will, now, but at least Star Citizen and Elite Dangerous are coming.