A Talent For Chats

Maybe a Dingo Ate Your Video

1,000 Years of Computer Games

Taking A Shot At Starlancer

Aye, There's The Reference

Yesterday's quote came from the Emporer of Kilrah in Wing Commander 2, speaking with Crown Prince Thrakhath about his cousin Khasra.

Report from the Front

Here are some Wing Commander reviews from Germans who have been kind enough to submit them. The first comes from ToddMarshall@gmx.de.

Here's a short overview of my feelings about those so-called WC reviews.

"Wing Commander is based on a space combat game that's 90 per cent action and ten per cent story and characters"

10% Story and Characters? What Wing Commander did you play? WC Armada or what?

"Pilgrims are a dying race of humans that evolved to have incredible space-flying skills, but lost their 'humanity' in the process. How they managed to evolve from 20th century humans and then go extinct all in just over 600 years is never quite explained, but Darwin would have been proud"

It is explained... they got killed in the Pilgrim War.

"Maverick and Maniac fight to save the world for humans by ignoring just about every order they're given. They're so lovably independent-minded; it's amazing that any of these folks lived beyond their initial training."

That's only Maniac... and he does that since WC 1... so why didn't you recognize before ha? And Blair... he never ignored any orders... tell me where he did.

"The heart of Wing Commander isn't the story or the characters."

Again... are you crazy? We see a 8 million dollar FMV game with WC4... but the story isn't important?

"...the film degenerates into a series of space battles, ...."

Hey... what film did you watch? All WC Fans did complain about too few spacecombat scenes....and you say... its a series of them? Wow...I didn't see 'em... must have been in another WC Movie

"....there is some mistrust of these pilgrims for reasons that aren't explained."

Hey helloooo...what movie did you watch...didn't you see that chat of Blair and Paladin...or the mentioning of the Pilgrim war ha?

"Also, I didn't like the relationship between Angel and Blair. This is actually a storyline that happened in the original game, but there the pair were simply fellow pilots, and not in a superior/subordinate position. I don't buy a pilot falling for his C.O., especially in the middle of a war."

So the CAG Colonel Devereaux in Wc2 wasnt Captain Blairs superior officer or what...in THAT game we FIRST and MOST see that relationship....HEY WHAT GAME DID YOU PLAY?????

"The Tiger's Claw looks impressive from space, but inside it's cramped, with tight bulkheads and pipes snaking all along the walls, like the inside of a submarine."

That Tigers Claw was an old ship...like mentioned in WC1...hell.....do you know what WC is at all???

"...the Kilrathi look terrible. They're supposed to be lion-like, and they end up looking like rubber suits."

Ok...but how to make good Kilrathi without good budged? Ha?

"They have shamelessly stolen from everybody. The special effects and the fighter aircraft are pure Star Wars,....."

Hahaha... and other people said the air(?)craft looked like old tin cans...but If you think their Star Wars like and even the Special Effects...wow...thanks for the compliment..."

"...the music is practically note for note The Empire Strikes Back....."

Ha?...I watched that movie...and I listened to WC Soundtrack....where is that note.....the high C or the low E?

"the dialogue is Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo......"

ah..ok..well if you mean.....

" the characters are a cross between Ferris Bueller and Bill and Ted, and a climactic scene where Lieutenant Chris Blair (Freddie Prinze Jr.) is saved by the club-headed bigot who is his nemesis, is lifted straight out of Alien."

Guy...the characters are out of a 10 year old game, so...ah...forget it...."

"make the head fighter pilot gorgeous Angel (Saffron Burrows) who volunteers to die, but is saved at the end by a method so improbable they don't even bother to explain how it could possibly have happened, and who lives to plant a passionate kiss upon the lips of our Hero Freddie Prinze Jr. - amazing, since she appeared to be stone dead only seconds before - I know! Sleeping Beauty - and you have the makings of a hit."

Yeah...but if Arnold Schwarzenegger holds himself at position at the outside hull of a aircraft in "Eraser" thats realistic ha?

"But if you want non-stop Special Effects; inter-racial suggested sex (or was it interspecies?); lots and lots of bam bam boom boom whish whoosh; bad guys who aren't really bad at heart; good guys who "have the gift," that is the Pilgrim gift; and a space ship filled with gorgeous female fighter pilots who wear skimpy, sexy nightgowns to sleep even as their world teeters on Kilrathi destruction - WingCommander is the place you want to be."

Do I have anything to say about that?

""Wing Commander" is such a mind-numbing, awful, embarrassing, idiotic, corny, ludicrous, laughable, superficial, just plain bad, movie that I almost couldn't believe my own eyes or ears most of the time. How could 20th-Century Fox, the movie's studio, have the nerve to even release this...this...I can't even think of a word awful enough to criticize it with. "

Again...please go...dont no awful enough to send you

"The biggest downfall of the movie, however, was that it sucks. No, I mean it sucks, hard. Yes, it sucks, if I would have spent my $5 on the corner of Main street I don't think I could have gotten more suckage out of someone, er, thing. Oh damn, only 487 words so far, so I guess I'll go on about why this movie sucked. Hey! It'll be just like a high school essay. "

Anything else you can say`?

"Quite frankly, I honestly think that the team in charge of all of the animation got 3D Studio Max and bought "How to Make a Movie on your Roommate's Computer: For Dummies." Not only is the computer animation downright raunchy, but the blue screen and other special effects suck as well. "

Ah yeah...go and make it better...I wanna see

"Wing Commander, well, hahahahaha! Hehehe, oh boy, hahahahaha. Bwahahahahaha; story& Wing Commander, hahahahahahahahahhahahahahaha! "

And THAT you tell a critic yeah? Ok just wanted to know...The next please....

"I don't even think they filmed it in the right order. For instance, in one scene we see Maniac having sex with his co-pilot, but a few scenes later we see them meet in a bar, which appears to be for the first time."

Ah yeah...where was that? She DIED after that scene man...."

"Who knows, maybe it's better for all of us if Hollywood sticks to making movies and not signing licenses to game companies, and if developers stick to making games and not signing licenses to Hollywood. And after all of this, I have only one question on my mind - when will they learn?"

There it is...the REAL reason...you just dont watch the movie...you say...aha that movie is based on a game....it must suck....I tell you something.....THAT SUCKS!!

Finally I have to say only one thing: "WC rocks"

Thank you

Here's a report from the opening day of WING COMMANDER in Germany. I went to see it together with two friends at the LUXOR theatre in Karlsruhe (That's the cinema where we did also see the WC trailer that I reported to you a few weeks ago). We went to the 8.30 PM showing and we were really dissapointed that there were just 14 people (including us) in the evening showing on the opening day !!! Finally, after hearing some incredibly cheesy christmas songs the film started. We cheered a lot and all of us think that Wing Commander is actually an incredibly underrated film. We think that considering the low budget of the film Chris Roberts has actually acchieved a lot. Wing Commander has received almost exclusively bad critics in Germany, and it was even used as an example for about the worst possible movie by the magazine "Moviestar": It wrote in the review of "The 13th Floor": "Rusnak filmed a [...] hardly exciting Science Fiction Thriller, that drifts into chaos towards the end, but which is sure more worthwile than celluloid trash like WING COMMANDER". I think that it's very sad that a good film like Wing Commander gets that little attention while everyone hypes Star Wars 1 or other films that would have never been that successful without their ancestors.

Ore Market Crashes

Stock market analyst Tony Knox reports. The Hermes stock market took a battering last night, following some ruthless action on the part of speculators. It seems that large stocks of different ores have been hoarded up, only to flood the market when prices were favourable. As a result, the whole value of the ores market has dropped significantly, and many traders are trying to sell their surplus in an attempt to cover losses.