WC3 infobursts and other missing vids - when to watch during playthrough?

Thucydides

Spaceman
Hello,

I'm gearing up for a replay of WC3, and was wondering if there were 'canonical' points in the game to watch the PC version's deleted/missing scenes (infobursts in particular), e.g. watch no. 7 after mission X. Some are obvious - Hobbes' defection explanation, for instance - but others aren't. Based on the 3DO version of the game, do we know when these videos were meant to be shown? I thought it would be a nice touch to loosely integrate them into my play-through.

Apologies if this is described somewhere already and I've just missed it.

Thanks.
 
Yeah, Origin's Official Guide inserts the text of all the infobursts at their intended locations. The download is included with the GOG copy of WC3 if you don't have the physical one. They also exist at these points in the console ports of WC3. (For both these reasons, all of the videos actually happened, even if they're not included in the PC version)



infoburst.png
 
The newsbriefs were classified as "sliding" videos which meant that many were available for several serieses as an option until you chose to play them. Here's the list according to the script:

NEWSBRIEF 2 ("... the Kilrathi have ceased the time-honored practice of taking ejected pilots prisoner...")

Script - Tamayo/Tamayo (L) or Blackmane/Blackmane (L) or Caliban/Delius

NEWSBRIEF 3 ("... confirmation of a strategic withdrawl from outlying Confederation sector...")

Script - Tamayo L and Blackmane L

NEWSBRIEF 4 ("... Confed forces have liberated the enslaved population in the Cabrea system...")

Script - Locanda, Blackmane and Blackmane L

NEWBRIEF 5 ("... the population of Locanda IV has been all but wiped out...")

Script - IF Locanda 2 is lost then Blackmane L, Ariel and Delius

NEWSBRIEF 6 ("... new thrusts into Kilrathi territory...")

Script - Ariel, Caliban, Delius, Torgo

NEWSBRIEF 7 ("... stock markets across the Confederation took a nosedive...")

Script - Alcor and Freya

NEWSBRIEF 8 ("... Confed technoids have again pushed the envelope...")

Script - Alcor and Freya

NEWSBRIEF 9 ("... this week's killed-in-action...")

Script - Freya and Hyperion

NEWSBRIEF 10 ("... Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn of Confederation High Command has taken a leave of absence..."

Script - Freya

NEWSBRIEF 11 ("... critics wonder how the galaxy will shape itself after a successful conclusion...")

Script - Hyperion

NEWSBRIEF 12 ("... panic in the streets as the Kilrathi movie relentlessly towards Earth...")

Script - Proxima

NEWSBRIEF 13 ("... Ad-hoc government officials in that system are preparing...")

Script - Any

NEWSBRIEF 14 ("... captured Confederation transports and freighters have been used by the enemy...")

Script - Any BEFORE Blackmane 2

NEWSBRIEF 15 ("... Megastar Eddie Rickenharp..."

Script - Anywhere from Locanda through Delius

NEWSBRIEF 16 ("... a blitzkreig Kilrathi assault has taken the lives of thousands...")

Script - Torgo, Loki, Alcor, Freya and Hyperion

HOBBES VIDEO

Script - Alcor, Freya and Hyperion

The script also wants NEWSBRIEF 1 (the one from the intro) to be available for replay in ORSINI, LOCANDA and LOCANDA L... although I don't believe any version of the game does this.
 
Remind me again... why were the videos left out of the PC version? Was it just a disc space issue?

And why did they leave the Hobbes video specifically out? The newsbriefs all just add "flavor" or atmosphere to the story, but the Hobbes video is central to the main plot of the game. You'd think that one would have been prioritized for inclusion, above maybe one of the newsbriefs they did include. Was it just a poor decision to conserve disc space, or were there second thoughts about the "personality overlay" plot device, or poor test audience response or something like that?

I (like many of us) was unaware of the Hobbes video the first time I played the game, and it made for an extremely jarring story experience when Hobbes betrays you. You'd gone through all of WC2 and SO and half of WC3 (not to mention Freedom Flight) exploring his personality what would cause a Kilrathi to defect and whether you could really trust him. You go to bat for him on the Victory, and stand up to Cobra for him, and then out of the blue, with no explanation, it seemed Cobra was right and he was bad all along. If you don't go after him (I was a good soldier on my first playthrough and didn't because Eisen told me not to), he never speaks again... when you encounter him at Kilrah he never says a word, even in response to your taunts. It just made the game feel incomplete with a major character arc unresolved and unfinished.

While I'm not crazy about the personality overlay explanation (it seems too contrived and lets the writers off easy... hated it when Babylon 5 did it as well), at least it gave closure to what was one of the most significant story/character arcs that spanned two games, two expansions, and a WC novel.
 
The cuts were technical in nature. Wing Commander III was initially spec'd to require a second generation CD-ROM drive capable of reading 74 minute discs... but as the release got close it was decided that first generation drives were still too common to leave out... but they were limited to reading 63 minute discs. Which meant that about a hundred megabytes on each disc needed to be cut very late in the process. Why the news briefs, locker video and the final mission pep talks? Because they're all videos that don't require other changes be made to the rest of the game -- they have no impact on ship or character morale, no choices to record that change missions, etc.
 
Remind me again... why were the videos left out of the PC version? Was it just a disc space issue?

And why did they leave the Hobbes video specifically out? The newsbriefs all just add "flavor" or atmosphere to the story, but the Hobbes video is central to the main plot of the game. You'd think that one would have been prioritized for inclusion, above maybe one of the newsbriefs they did include. Was it just a poor decision to conserve disc space, or were there second thoughts about the "personality overlay" plot device, or poor test audience response or something like that?

I (like many of us) was unaware of the Hobbes video the first time I played the game, and it made for an extremely jarring story experience when Hobbes betrays you. You'd gone through all of WC2 and SO and half of WC3 (not to mention Freedom Flight) exploring his personality what would cause a Kilrathi to defect and whether you could really trust him. You go to bat for him on the Victory, and stand up to Cobra for him, and then out of the blue, with no explanation, it seemed Cobra was right and he was bad all along. If you don't go after him (I was a good soldier on my first playthrough and didn't because Eisen told me not to), he never speaks again... when you encounter him at Kilrah he never says a word, even in response to your taunts. It just made the game feel incomplete with a major character arc unresolved and unfinished.

While I'm not crazy about the personality overlay explanation (it seems too contrived and lets the writers off easy... hated it when Babylon 5 did it as well), at least it gave closure to what was one of the most significant story/character arcs that spanned two games, two expansions, and a WC novel.
So, assuming there is an opportunity to retell the story, how do you think it would be better to handle the plot about that character (with real plot branches)?

I have my own ideas about that, but I still wish I had read the WC2 script in its entirety before I deliberated.
 
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