Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Gman on March 24, 2012, 06:37:19 AM
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I know that the thread regarding EA not being all bad by Predator (thank you for this btw pred) is similar to this, but the title says nothing about the game, and I only clicked it by chance, so I wanted to re post to make sure nobody misses this, as it's a very worthwhile topic.
Wing Commander was one of my favorite games back when it came out, and IMO the only thing that sucked about the whole franchise was the crap movie that was produced...although having the goddess Safron Burrows in it almost saved it.
I downloaded this game from the shack news servers at around 1.2 megs/sec, took less than an hour, although for a free game it is a very large file, well over 3 gigs. I've only played the first couple of missions of the first campaign, but it promises to provide a LOT of entertainment for the price (hah, free). There a several dozen types of fighters, and numerous capital ships and weapon types. It's a very familiar environment to the Wing Commander fan, but with a little better graphics and sound. You do have to install a sound program with the game, so if you find you're without sound, find the program in your windows start thingamajig and find the sound program there and install it if you neglect to tick that box at the end of the install, like I did.
The graphics are a little dated, based on the old Freespace 2 engine apparently, but they are still very good. There is about 9 pages of key commands etc, and you can assign a joystick to fly, however so far I've found that if you have 3 different USB devices for your HOTAS setup a la CH products, you can only select one of the controllers so far in the game - they are already working on a fix for this so the forums say. I'm using my Fighterstick and it is good enough for controlling your fighter or bomber, although you need to use your left hand for throttle still, and directional thrust control etc.
The voice acting is what you would expect for a free game, but it isn't that terrible, and mission briefings and the storyline is supplemented by rather long and involved text scripting, which I like as it gives you a D and D sort of involvement. The storyline so far is pretty decent, and it promises to give you a lot of huge combat missions in the future.
Another really exciting thing is that the game is extremely MOD friendly, and although this has only been out a couple days apparently the MOD makers are flat out designing new campaigns, ships, weapons, you name it.
I do have to say that this game sort of reminds me of the first time I tried Aces High way back circa 1999 ish, when it was a free download and free to play game just getting its teeth sunk and gaining a foothold in the gaming world. It's giving me the same feelings I had back then, of something very big and offering long term entertainment about to bloom.
There is a multiplayer component, but I haven't delved into it at all yet, but I'm looking forward to it as well.
Do yourself a favour, and download it and try it for yourself. If anyone was at ALL a fan of the early Wing Commander games, you will NOT be disappointed with what these guys have done with an older engine, an idea, and its execution.
http://www.wcsaga.com/
The official site, but I'd use another place to d/l the file, they are much faster right now.
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Do you have a link?
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Yes, sorry about that Shift.
http://www.wcsaga.com/ - This is the official site.
http://angryjoeshow.com/2012/03/ea-approved-wing-commander-saga-launches-free/ - Another site that has a good long list of alternative download locations, as well as quick access to the trailer.
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Thanks Gman I'm going to give it a look. :aok
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Downloading it too... I loved these when they first came out!
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I've always said it to myself when I was playing FreeSpace2 very shortly after I got it, "It would be so cool of they made Wing Commander from the FreeSpace2 Engine....". That was when FreeSpace2 had came out... Now we have it. :x :noid
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If you use a CH stick, use Control Manager to combine all the controllers into one Controller ID. This will allow you to use all of your CH gear in the game. The issue is the game only looks at Controller ID #1 for controller information, which is why you're only getting your Fighterstick recognized.
ack-ack
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It's dead sexy for a free game. Wish I could do what AckAck did with my x52 and pedals... Oh well, twisty works ok for space games for the most part...
Wiley.
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Been playing it the last few nights. Yea it doesn't have the sexiness of Freespace Source code project but it does the job.
http://scp.indiegames.us/ (http://scp.indiegames.us/)
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Love wing commander, been playing since the very first on DOS, last one I played was with Mark Hamill, I truly thought that was one of the best and nicest designed games in a very long time.
here's a link from WC 4 ending:
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMD1VJeltUM&feature=related[/url)
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It is suggested that you play WC III first as WCS: Darkest Dawn is set in WC III's timeline. You can go to Got Old Games (http://www.gog.com/gamecard/wing_commander_3_heart_of_the_tiger) and buy it for $6.
ack-ack
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Here's some of the gameplay from Freespace SCP with the modified engine. Completely different from that of the WC.
http://youtu.be/ArDgznbpqAM (http://youtu.be/ArDgznbpqAM)
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I use the mouse for my flight and the controls seem "sluggish", not to mention that I can't invert it. Maneuvers that I instinctively use (from FreeSpace 2) have me going in the wrong direction more often than not. Though quick to compensate for the mistake, what would usually result in a smoked Kilrathi, has me "playing" with my target for a moment. Not that I'm complaining about that bit TOO much, it has cost me a mission or two. :lol They are CONSIDERABLY weaker than even the weakest Shivan ship. I also have to be careful when making runs on their capships as well, due to the inability to invert the mouse and sluggish response. In FreeSpace2 the mouse controls were instant, you could almost literally blow on the mouse and the ship would move. The other bit is the fact that the fighters seem to blow through their gun energy like it was almost depleted from the get go. One example being that what I remember about WC:III was that the Arrow's guns would last a bit longer than in WCSaga. You could actually KILL a Dralthi before you guns were depleted. This is with it's shields and hull at 100% and me using ALL guns and NO missiles.
That being said, they did an absolutely beautiful job with the graphics and the game play reminds me a lot of FreeSpace2. All in all, I am enjoying the game quite a bit. :aok I am curious if they will add the FreeSpace2 builder to it. Oh the fun I can have if they did... :x That was an awesome thing to play with for FreeSpace and FreeSpace2. Having to balance the capships and fighter crafts to the point where YOU made a difference isn't as easy as it sounds. The right amount of friendlies and enemies had to be within a certain "mark", all the while creating it so that you'll have fun while still being challenging. Again, I hope they release a builder for it...
Fun, fun, fun! :joystick: :x
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Thanks for the heads up Gman! Like the others I played WC back in the day and had a lot of fun with it. I downloaded the game last night. Ill give it a go over the weekend.
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Has anyone got a good profile setup for a Saitek X52, or at least a keyboard list of commands so I can do my own? Have searched the web and my web-foo is weak.
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Has anyone got a good profile setup for a Saitek X52, or at least a keyboard list of commands so I can do my own? Have searched the web and my web-foo is weak.
For WC, whatever is default, plus twist for roll.