Wing Commander III

Fruitcake

Spaceman
Recently been playing Wing Commander III again, and realized that maybe it's just really the greatest game ever. Defending humanity at the end of an epic everlasting conflict and losing hope with losing the Behemoth and Locanda(optionally). The evil Prince Thrakhath, the betrayal of Hobbes, death of Angel, punching Paladin, what a wonderful game this is.
 
Fruitcake said:
What a wonderful game this is.

:)


Isn't that the wonderfull thing about the wc series. Compared to other games it has aged very, very gracefully.
 
I agree with you Fruitcake, it's a jaw-droppingly awesome game. I had similar feelings when playing WC4 for the first time a few months ago. Plot, character development, involving the player in the story, great acting, strategy, humor, revenge, moral decisions, a cohesive universe throughout the games, personal choices, on and on and on...
 
That's one of the things I dislike about WC3 - he wasn't evil until WC3 :(. In WC2, Prince Thrakhath seemed to have a lot more depth... then WC3 turned him into a comicbook supervillain.
 
Yeah, but he had quite a hard time in between. Don't know if its a good explanation or not.
 
Quarto said:
That's one of the things I dislike about WC3 - he wasn't evil until WC3 :(. In WC2, Prince Thrakhath seemed to have a lot more depth... then WC3 turned him into a comicbook supervillain.

WC2 has a lot more depth overall, although I like WC3's story better. I find it sad Khasra didn't make it to part III.
 
Quarto said:
In WC2, Prince Thrakhath seemed to have a lot more depth... then WC3 turned him into a comicbook supervillain.

You can chalk that up to seeing the Crown Prince (and the Kilrathi in general) a heck of a lot less in WC3. I'm sure that theres a lot more to Thrakhath in WCIII - look at the novel - but the script didn't call for it.

Though your sentiment towards him is my own for Tolwyn in WC4. (I can see Borst and DePalma rubbing their greedy hands thinking 'McDowell is a great villian character actor! Lets make Tolwyn evil!')
 
Quarto said:
That's one of the things I dislike about WC3 - he wasn't evil until WC3 :(. In WC2, Prince Thrakhath seemed to have a lot more depth... then WC3 turned him into a comicbook supervillain.

I always looked at this as an indication that he believed the war to be coming to a close. He'd stealthily snuck up on his prey and now he was simply relishing the kill, but maybe I'm reading more into it than was intended.

LeHah said:
Though your sentiment towards him is my own for Tolwyn in WC4. (I can see Borst and DePalma rubbing their greedy hands thinking 'McDowell is a great villian character actor! Lets make Tolwyn evil!')

Ok the first title I played was WCIV so my view will be somewhat biased, however, playing back over WC2 and 3 if anything I only see words and actions that would support that he had that insane view of the world with him, especially WC3, McDowell just played it that way :)
However... reading the books it doesn't gel at all. Depends how much a part of the universe you consider the books.
 
WC3 and WC4 both treat Tolwyn very cheaply. He's a great character in Wing Commander 2 - he doesn't like *Blair*, and that's it. He's pals with Paladin and the Concordia crew are incredibly loyal to him (to the point of people like Sparks trusting him over Blair).

That's a realistic character. Somehow WC3 turned him not liking Blair (which wasn't even how WC2 ended) into him not liking *anyone*. And then WC4 turned him from not liking anyone to being a crazy space Nazi.
 
LeHah said:
You can chalk that up to seeing the Crown Prince (and the Kilrathi in general) a heck of a lot less in WC3. I'm sure that theres a lot more to Thrakhath in WCIII - look at the novel - but the script didn't call for it.
Yeah, the novels do flesh him out a lot... they make him impotent :p.

I think he gets about as much screen time in WC3 as he does in WC2, actually... the main difference, it seems, is that in WC2 he was paired with an evil sidekick that wanted him to betray the Emperor, and eventually tried to assassinate both of them (well, an assassination attempt on the Emperor is vaguely suggested). On the other hand, in the novels there's Baron Jukaga, and in WC3, there's Melek who spares your life and surrenders... so in WC2, even though he was the enemy, the contrast made him appear to be a good guy, while in the novels and in WC3, the contrast made him appear worse.

(and how weird was that impotency thing the novels established, anyway? What on earth made that particular revelation necessary?)

Though your sentiment towards him is my own for Tolwyn in WC4. (I can see Borst and DePalma rubbing their greedy hands thinking 'McDowell is a great villian character actor! Lets make Tolwyn evil!')
Yeah. Isn't it ironic how the most cinematic of the WC games was also the most cliche-ridden?
 
(and how weird was that impotency thing the novels established, anyway? What on earth made that particular revelation necessary?)

I believe this was introduced in Fleet Action to establish why there would be no direct heir, should Jukaga's plan to kill Thrakhath and the Emperor work.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
WC3 and WC4 both treat Tolwyn very cheaply.

I liked the fact that they used Tolwyn sparingly in WC3. His attitude of "I know what I'm doing and you don't" went well to further his dislike of Blair. We never see Tolwyn around anyone is Blair isn't there, so he could just be putting up his guard around him.
 
You've inspired me to replay WC2... I only just realised it must have been almost 4 years since the last time I did. Hell I think its been over 2 years since I last replayed WC3, where does the time go.
 
I think the last time I replayed any WC game from start to finish was when I was still a Bachelor's student :(.
 
I totally agree with you all. I think it was an amazing game, and it would have been cool if they had released a DVD version of WC III with 16 bit colours.
I finished playing though WC IV yesterday, and have begun playing though WC III again today. Though I couldn't get it to work on my newer computer, becouse I had my first PC standing nearby I installed WC III on it.
 
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