Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn released

DoctorQuest · March 22, 2012, 02:03:43 PM

I've talked about this bad boy before but the time has finally come.

A completely free space combat game set in the Wing Commander universe.

www.wcsaga.com

As you might expect the servers are a bit overwhelmed right now.

Shelldrake · March 22, 2012, 02:59:09 PM

Downloading right now from Gamershell.

tgb · March 22, 2012, 05:05:36 PM

Is this legit? What I mean is, do they have the rights to the IP?

DoctorQuest · March 22, 2012, 05:17:44 PM

Quote from: tgb on March 22, 2012, 05:05:36 PM
Is this legit? What I mean is, do they have the rights to the IP?

It's an interesting question that is somewhat addressed by these comments. http://www.wcsaga.com/news-archive-2012/clarification-in-response-to-recent-media-stories.html

I'm not a lawyer but the key thing may be the fact that this is free game. While EA has not made any attempt to shut the thing down I suspect that would change in a heartbeat if money was involved. But according to the link above EA probably could if they wanted.

OJsDad · March 22, 2012, 08:35:03 PM

Quote from: DoctorQuest on March 22, 2012, 05:17:44 PM
Quote from: tgb on March 22, 2012, 05:05:36 PM
Is this legit? What I mean is, do they have the rights to the IP?

It's an interesting question that is somewhat addressed by these comments. http://www.wcsaga.com/news-archive-2012/clarification-in-response-to-recent-media-stories.html

I'm not a lawyer but the key thing may be the fact that this is free game. While EA has not made any attempt to shut the thing down I suspect that would change in a heartbeat if money was involved. But according to the link above EA probably could if they wanted.

I wonder if EA is taking a watch and see attitude on this. Not to drop the hammer on them in the future, but if there is a lot of interest, then maybe EA may look at doing a reinvention of the WC universe. On the other hand, when is the last time EA has done anything with WC, they may not care.

Toonces · March 23, 2012, 12:59:21 AM

Is this a 3rd person over the shoulder spaceship game, or are you in a cockpit of a spaceship?

Jarhead0331 · March 23, 2012, 06:07:36 AM

There is no cockpit, but you get a hud, just like in the original Free Space games. It is not third-person/over the shoulder. I ran the first training mission last night and I must say, I'm totally impressed by what they've managed to do here. And, heck, its free!

Nefaro · March 23, 2012, 08:30:47 AM

Is it the "Wing commander saga: Prologue"??

I'm not seeing a link to the game in the download section. Figure I better grab it before EA gets after them.

Bah! Nevermind. The download link page was in the News section of their site.
http://wcsaga.com/news-archive-2012/the-darkest-dawn-is-cleared-for-launch.html

Shelldrake · March 23, 2012, 08:32:38 AM

Quote from: Nefaro on March 23, 2012, 08:30:47 AM
Is it the "Wing commander saga: Prologue"??

Prologue was the teaser release. The current release weighs in at 3.3 GB!

Nefaro · March 23, 2012, 08:34:03 AM

I edited my earlier post to include the news link with downloads listed.

Considering EA committed their army of lawyers in attempting to gain exclusive rights to the word "Battlefield", I wouldn't be surprised if they took notice before long.

Toonces · March 23, 2012, 12:42:08 PM

Yep.

I d/l'd it, not even sure if I want to play it, in anticipation of it "going away."

Gusington · March 23, 2012, 12:48:31 PM

^Never played any of the originals but I will dl it for the same reason. The guys at Rock Paper Shotgun really like it. Watch, when I get home it will be gone.

Nefaro · March 23, 2012, 06:03:58 PM

I started the prologue "training" campaign, and I can tell someone put a lot of time into bring the old Freespace engine up to date, and putting the WC stuff in.

As for the actual gameplay.. I dunno.. I'd probably rather fire up my Evochron:Mercenary or X3 as the space flight combat plays like a much simpler version of the latter with one-off missions. It's strength looks to be the effort put into the presentation, with the voice-acting and such (which can be a bit cheesy). If you get into a storyline, especially of the Wing Commander type, you'll like it.

Gusington · March 24, 2012, 08:21:07 AM

Not sure when I'll play, but downloading now. Sounded too good to resist and I started to get paranoid it may disappear before I got a chance.

EDIT: ok I've downloaded it and there are multiple parts. Is there an installer hidden somewhere?

DoctorQuest · March 24, 2012, 11:32:35 AM

Quote from: Gusington on March 24, 2012, 08:21:07 AM
Not sure when I'll play, but downloading now. Sounded too good to resist and I started to get paranoid it may disappear before I got a chance.

EDIT: ok I've downloaded it and there are multiple parts. Is there an installer hidden somewhere?

Gus, if your download was complete you should have a zip file containing several files PLUS a darkest-dawn-setup.exe. Click on that to get things started.