Wing Commander Ranked Fourth Best Game Of All Time
Wing Commander gets high marks in a lot of polls (up another point at Gamespot!), but this one is especially important. The special 200th Issue of Computer Gaming World (February 2001 - "From Pac-Man to The Sims") is full of historical articles and "of all time" features. Their readers, not just a select batch of editors, but their readers, ranked Wing Commander fourth best game of all time. Furthermore, competition was extremely close between 2nd, 3rd and 4th place (see below). And it was up against very noble competitors. Castle Wolfenstein (not Wolf-3D, the original Castle Wolfenstein!) got second and Sim City got third. Just a mere few votes behind came Wing Commander. Other noble and popular games came in lower.
The CGW Readers' Choice Top Ten BestWe can only imagine would have happened if the CIC got wind of the voting beforehand. Anyhow, this issue also looks back at some past rankings. In their November 1996 150th Issue, Wing Commander ranked seventh, again just behind Sim City, but also behind Ultima IV and a few others. It's interesting to note that in November 1996 Wing Commander Armada and Wing Commander 3 were just two years old, and Wing Commander 4 wasn't even a year old. Plus, WC fans were looking forward to Privateer 2 in a month. Needless to say, there were a lot of hyped up Wing Commander fans around. Yet in 2001, Wing Commander fans can not only maintain the series' position, they can improve its ranking and so nearly dominate the polls. Wing Commander fans are certainly keeping the spirit alive. Also, this issue also contains various other mentions including a historical look at a "PC Gaming Timeline" from 1990 and a blurb about Wing Commander 2 by Thierry 'Scooter' Nguyen that TC typed up.
1) Half-Life (1,971 votes)
2) SimCity (1,542 votes)
3) Castle Wolfenstein (1,541 votes)
4) Wing Commander (1,532 votes)
5) DOOM (1,448 votes)
6) StarCraft (1,392 votes)
7) Sid Meier's Civilization (1,331 votes)
8) Diablo (1,188 votes)
9) Zork (1,153 votes)
10) X-COM (1,100 votes)
WING COMMANDER II: VENGANCE OF THE KILRATHIThis is the CGW in the gold foil cover. It also comes with a CD that includes twenty old games. There was a rumor going about that Wing Commander 2 might be on this disc. This is *not* true. War Craft 2 is the nearest game (namewise that is.. X-Com, Elite or Elite Plus would be the nearest genre-wise I suppose). Since there's so much in this mag, it can be a hard one to found. The first four stores I checked were sold out. And if Wing Commander 2 were indeed on this disc, the fifth store would now be sold out too.
A high-concept, summer-blockbuster space opera -- that's the best way to describe Chris Robert's magnum opus. There are those who feel that either the third or fourth WING COMMANDER games were the best that Roberts put out, but they're just plain wrong. WCII did what modern action games are trying to do: It fused narrative and action together into a tight package. It gave you a compelling reason to fly forth and tear those Kilrathi ships in battle. It made you care about its various characters, and then taunted you by killing them off. It also tapped into the inner Star Wars geek within, by providing one of the first opportunities to flitter around in space and blow things up. Hopefully, Chris Roberts will find a way to use current technology to replicate the experience, and not try to make any more movies."
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