Wing Commander Fans?

[Sprockett]

Just a heads up in case you're interested.

Wing Commander Saga

These guys have created a new chapter in the Wing Commander series, it's been done independently, the original copyright holders have let them go ahead with it, and the best part - they're giving it away for FREE.

It just got released and I'm downloading it now so I haven't played yet. Trailers look intriguing though. I'm in no way affiliated with the project; just an old Wing Commander fan hoping for another game and thought there might be a few others on here that might want to check it out, too.

Did I mention FREE?

 

[Maguscreed]

I would be curious as to a report back including a few screens from actual in game combat.
I loved the old wing commander games but the only attempt previous to this so far at redoing it was horrible.

 

[quickdraw2011]

Wing Commander Saga: Feature Trailer - YouTube

 

[Sprockett]

I would be curious as to a report back including a few screens from actual in game combat.
I loved the old wing commander games but the only attempt previous to this so far at redoing it was horrible.

Well, I managed to d/l and install it, but only had 10 minutes to play using a 360 controller. From what I've seen so far it's definitely Wing Commander. The voice acting sounds a little amateurish, but when you consider it's done by a fan team it's really not bad at all. Gameplay seems solid, and very reminiscent of the originals.

I won't post screencaps, but here's a link to a gameplay vid:

Wing Commander Saga: Raw Gameplay Footage #1 - YouTube

I found one problem. During my first launch I realized you can rotate your ship 360 degrees around the center axis while sitting in the hangar at a complete standstill. Seems strange, maybe something that was overlooked. All in all though, it felt like playing one of the old games with higher resolution graphics.

I'm going to set aside some time this weekend to dig out my Saitek flight sticks and give it a real play through.

 

[Trucidation]

Am at work right now lol, but can't wait to see if this holds up. Used to love playing WC, but the last few attempts I tried via DosBox etc were just horrible. Thanks for the heads up!

*is still sad at the dearth of decent space sim games that aren't mindless shooters*

 

[Maguscreed]

Am at work right now lol, but can't wait to see if this holds up. Used to love playing WC, but the last few attempts I tried via DosBox etc were just horrible. Thanks for the heads up!

*is still sad at the dearth of decent space sim games that aren't mindless shooters*

To that I would say have you tried freelancer (old) or Darkstar One (new)
Darkstar is actually pretty cool and available on steam for like 10 bucks now with all it's problems fixed. Probably the best graphics of any space sim oriented game and an interesting ship with upgrade features and related content.

 

[Trucidation]

I loved Freelancer. Even played a couple of the larger scaled mods, although it was frustrating that many things that "could have been" were not.

Please for the love of all that's holy don't recommend the shooter-type games trying to pass themselves off as space sims. I disliked DarkStar One and Space Force: Rogue Universe because other than shiny new graphics they bring nothing to the space sim genre.

The Star Wolves series is a nice jaunt in a different direction though. Barely any economy to speak of, but the pilots' rpg-like skill tree development is something we haven't seen in other games of this genre.

Someone really needs to combine all the great features of all these games.

 

[Maguscreed]

It was the X series that I hated.
At least the promo from g4 was funny.




...and in all fairness DSO did have a open universe, trading and other features that were all found in freelancer that you apparently loved. Granted the story pushes you along much more directly.

 

[Trucidation]

Open universe? I could be remembering a different game but wasn't it DarkStar One that had systems which all consisted of exactly the same configuration: one planet in the background, a distant asteroid field, and one space station. "Hundreds" of systems which were carbon copies of each other with the only difference being the background.

You also did not get to change ships, only weapon upgrades. As for factions, it used the laughably generic "pirate" and "police", unlike Freelancers' actual multiple factions. Freelancer may have been a "space sim lite" but DSO was nothing more than a shooter wrapped in a cockpit.

 

[Maguscreed]

Nah DSO had multiple stations and planets in most the systems, towards the end it got kind of sparse but it was in the storyline. You had decent control over travel though the system worked fairly similar to freelancer only instead of keys, you have to keep upgrading the lightdrive to travel to farther locations.

Most the artifacts were inside mined asteroids, maybe that's what you are remembering.