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.
Downloading right now from Gamershell.
Is this legit? What I mean is, do they have the rights to the IP?
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.
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.
Is this a 3rd person over the shoulder spaceship game, or are you in a cockpit of a spaceship?
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!
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
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!
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.
Yep.
I d/l'd it, not even sure if I want to play it, in anticipation of it "going away."
^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.
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.
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?
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.
Ah, I see it now. Thanks Doc.
I have been reading through the manual and watched the leadup to the first mission. Very impressive so far. IMO the quality rivals a commercial product. The only decision whether to jump right in or to go back and play the prologue to find out what happened to the Wellington! :)
Quote from: Shelldrake on March 25, 2012, 08:07:42 AM
I have been reading through the manual and watched the leadup to the first mission. Very impressive so far. IMO the quality rivals a commercial product. The only decision whether to jump right in or to go back and play the prologue to find out what happened to the Wellington! :)
The prologue does a good job of bringing you up to speed on the various controls in the context of their use in a mission. If you have time I would certainly recommend it.
:) I loved my Wing Commander Days. Remember the FMV in Wing Commander III? It was like being in an interactive movie ;) And it was one of the few roles where Mark Hamill was actually half decent lol. Crazy to think that Prophecy was released in 1997! *counts fingers and toes* FIFTEEN YEARS AGO!!!
Anyone remember that other space sim that have a decent video story with it starring Clive Owen? Was it Privateer?
Quote from: Ulfang on March 26, 2012, 07:43:08 PM
Anyone remember that other space sim that have a decent video story with it starring Clive Owen? Was it Privateer?
Yep. Privateer 2 The Darkening.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET6UEXAmc68 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET6UEXAmc68)
And you just forgot to mention that Christopher Walken was in it as well?!?
It looks delightfully cheesy. I may have to track down a copy. Is the game's video quality better than that on youtube?
Walken's interactive video?
Does it closely resemble his "The Continental" skits on SNL? :o
^God I hope so. Champagne?
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mediaite.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2009%2F11%2Fthe-continental.jpg&hash=79c35fb6ea0266cb8a6d85127ddb99a831b4db6f)
I'd forgotten about that .... nice tash lol
I'm enjoying this version of WC, I just need a flight stick to make it better. Trying to fly with keyboard isn't helping my kill count. 8)