[MdaG]

As the topic suggests, is there an equivalent of Wing Commander today?
I own all five Wing Commander games and love them to death, but I wish there was something today that's measurable with them, but with today's standards. Basically what I'm looking for is a game with a nice story where I'm a pilot and it plays similarly like Wing Commander.

PS: I already own all the X-wing and Tie Fighter games as well.

[I Love Cookiemonster]

omg omg omg Wing Commander Rules!!!!

still hoping to play the first 2, what's your favorite?

Only games i can recommend are Starlancer(which is pretty difficult in comparison to wing commander) and X-wing Alliance. both are about 8 years old. But those games arn't being made anymore. I remember Xenocrazy or something like that(it started with X, i could look it up but i'm to lazy ) which was pretty good. Never seen it in stores though. Wouldn't know about any other game

[Catbert]

Try the freespace games. They're not recent, but they're awesome and any computer today can run them nicely. I've played them in my 7 year old rig (which was only average by then's patterns) and it runs smoothly always.

[MdaG]

Originally Posted by I Love Cookiemonster

omg omg omg Wing Commander Rules!!!!

still hoping to play the first 2, what's your favorite?

Only games i can recommend are Starlancer(which is pretty difficult in comparison to wing commander) and X-wing Alliance. both are about 8 years old. But those games arn't being made anymore. I remember Xenocrazy or something like that(it started with X, i could look it up but i'm to lazy ) which was pretty good. Never seen it in stores though. Wouldn't know about any other game

Actually my favorite game is the first Wing Commander along with its' two expansion packs tightly followed by the second game along with its' expansion packs I've not been as drawn in by a game ever since then. Wing Commander was the first game to ever make me feel hatred for the enemy. That's how strong the story pulled me in. I think it was back in 1992. I replayed the games back in 1997 and they rocked even then. However I'm not sure I'd appreciate them today (apart from the nostalgia) due to the really dated 2D graphics and relatively clunky controls.

X-wing Alliance is already in my collection. It didn't impress me as much as Tie Fighter did, but it was a good ride nonetheless. I've played both Starlancer and Freespace and while they were OK, they didn't compare to Wing Commander.

I'm not partial to space operas and I'm currently eying Ace Combat 6 on the X360. Maybe it can offer me what I want?

[ozzie]

I have never played it, but remember reading good reviews of Tachyon: The Fringe.
Did you also play Freelancer?

[a|A]

Yeah, the closest you'll get these days are games like Freelancer and The X series. But god I hated X2 and X3.

I'll stick with Starcontrol 2 thanks

[JohnGreenArt]

I liked Privateer, and I believe there are a number of remakes/updates of it that run on current machines.

[Catbert]

Don't I get any love? I don't believe nobody played Freespace, fuck sakes.

[undeaf]

I was very disappointed with X-wing Alliance. The impression that I got was that it was basically X-wing vs TIE fighter with a facelift and the scope of the game needlessly crippled, probably in a panic attempt to make it unlike x-wing vs TIE fighter. They took away almost all options to play anything other than a linear campaign on the rebel side. And the multiplayer options regressed horribly - the options for competitive games were rudimentary, and it didn't even allow you to play the single player campaign in co-op.

But it had some interesting mods for it. There's an impressive graphical update - replacement models for most of the ships in the game. And there's a patch that allows two players to control one craft, with the second player controlling a turret - too bad the multiplayer is so bad. Maybe there's also patches for some the other issues.

[MdaG]

I have played games in the *space and *lancer series, but I can't keep them apart for some reason. It was a couple of years ago too. Last game I can recall one went through gates to jump between systems.

[Huz]

Yes, Wing Commander was brilliant. I haven't managed to find a worthy successor to it either, but there are a few contenders, most of which have been mentioned here.

It's worth pointing out that the X series of games (e.g. X - Beyond the Frontier) are very much biased towards the trading aspect of space travel, so they're much closer to Privateer than the 'main' branch of Wing Commander. They are also rather lacking in storyline, although there is a half-arsed one there if you can be bothered. I personally found them rather tedious, due to the amount of flying through empty space you're forced to endure, punctuated by lame battles that aren't much fun either.

Another game worth a mention is the Battlestar Galactica game that was released on the Xbox a few years ago. I don't have much experience with it, but for the short time I grabbed the controls, the gameplay felt very much like Wing Commander Prophecy.

If you're not averse to a bit of fan-produced fun, there are a couple of surprisingly competent Wing Commander fan games out there: Unknown Enemy and Standoff. These games both utilise the 3D engine from Wing Commander Secret Ops - the freebie companion to Prophecy - and add their own fiction and game assets to form new episodic adventures. Unknown Enemy has you fighting for the Union of Border Worlds, while Standoff is some kind of re-imagining of Wing Commander 2 - can't rememember the details. They're both great fun and have a very nostalgic air about them, as they both revisit capital ships from the older games and utilise the older, pre-Prophecy style of dramatic music.

I would recommend Unknown Enemy first and foremost, as it's the best fan game I've ever played. Not that I've played much of that rubbish...

[MdaG]

After watching some trailers and playing the demo it seems like Ace Combat 6 might be what I'm looking for. It's got online support as well which is something I've missed in my previous favorites.

[Christian IV]

OK< Excellent topic.

The genre of space sims is going through something of a fan created reinassence, due to devloted efforts of some very dedicated and talented people and the game industry is finally taking notice and making some moves back into this area, which it turned its back on a little while ago for a while, which is sad because CGI is easily one of the best mediums for this genre.

I agree the Wing Commander series is awesome including some the remarkable aspects of WC III and WC IV which used full motion video and some top ranked actors for the story line, though I agree I and the add ones are remarkable and very very excellent. Chris did a fantastic job on them all.

There is a very strong community in support of the WC seriec, visit the main site at http://www.wcnews.com/ for all their activites, also for manuals, tech pubs, and mods for all the games, which are blossoming in fan made mods in several game engines as already noted, speifically in both the Freelancer and also the Freespace engines, there are some great mods just now being completed in the Freespace engine that are superb and run flawelessly on the latest platforms XP, and have wonderful graphics. Check on the Freelancer Starlancer community site at

http://www.lancersreactor.com/

for the mods for WC there, and for activity on the Freelancer side of things

The main two leading contenders other than WC as already noted are both
Freelancer/Starlancer by Microsoft, and Freespace, which includes Freespace I with add ons, Freespace II with add ons, and a myriad of remarkable mods as FS was released with full mod tools for the community and that community has risen to the challenge from the very first release of the titles by Origin. As noted, there is a modern fully modern system compatible free version that runs very well on the latest systems and has very high quality graphics.

Other exellent titles in the general space genre are as noted, Tachyon, which can be played on XP in the emulation version available on GameTap, similar to Privateer, ORB and Homeworld (resource and building and fleet action games with beautiful graphics), the X Universe which is a resouce and building game series but with tricky controls that also has a very large community of support, you can also try EVE an mmorpg that has possibly some of the most astounding graphics of any current space sim but in my humble opinion it suffers the same limitations of the X universe, slow grinding and complexities that detract, I would also recomend to you Independece War I and II, I is hard to find and tricky you need to adjust the page file size but it will run on XP, though there are some what steep ship controls to learn for these, but they are fun, I have not tried any of the Star Trek games other than brief reviews for game structure and mechanics, so can't speak on them, and am only now exploring the Star Wars game titles, but in that genre i can recomend Knights of the Old Republic, it is an awesome and remarkable game with much to recomend it, and there are quite a few other titles by LucasArts in the Star Wars universe, and by other companies including both the KOTR titles, I, and II, the Star Wars Battlefront I and II, and Star Wars Empire at War which I have not played yet.

Sooo, I am sorry I can't assure you of finding something similar in all ways to WC I, but there are other interesting games out.

Oh, I did forget, there is indeed a modern version of Privateer with upgraded graphics called Privateer Gemini Gold, http://privateer.sourceforge.net/

[MdaG]

As I only have a Linux computer nowadays most suggestions above aren't playable to me right now.
Anyways, I just discovered Project Sylpheed. It might be a candidate as well.

[Terramax]

I only every played the 4th, but yeah, Wing Commander Rocked. Nothing to do with the game experience. I just loved the cut-scenes. Give me all the extra costumes, extra vehicles, extra weapons, etc when you complete games, but for me the best thing to get for completing a level/ game is a kick arse live action cut scene.

Damn we need more live action cut-scenes in games these days. Terrible acting or otherwise. Just added to the unique experience.

[Kolorabi]

The most recent game in this genre (that I can think of) would be Tarr Chronicles. It's flawed and buggy, and the translation is a mess, but I still found it entertaining. Some info here:

http://www.quazar-studio.com/tarr/eng/index.html

(it can be bought from www.gamersgate.com, btw)

[MdaG]

Originally Posted by Kolorabi

The most recent game in this genre (that I can think of) would be Tarr Chronicles. It's flawed and buggy, and the translation is a mess, but I still found it entertaining. Some info here:

http://www.quazar-studio.com/tarr/eng/index.html

(it can be bought from www.gamersgate.com, btw)

Doesn't Project Sylpheed and Ace Combat 6 count?
Thanks for the tip though.

[Kolorabi]

Originally Posted by MdaG

Doesn't Project Sylpheed and Ace Combat 6 count?

Project Sylpheed is an older game than Tarr Chronicles. But if the space-based setting isn't important, I guess Ace Combat 6 counts.

[MdaG]

The space setting isn't really important. I just want the "me hotshot pilot with a personal life that's interesting and the world/galaxys faith is determined by me"

[Melanie68]

Wing Commander blue prints

Those look cool.