Vote for the Sites of the Year!

Somehow 2004 has come and nearly gone, and it's time to vote for the Wing Commander fans that have made your year better. Some older projects have gone quiet this year, but there are always new ones to take their place. And let's get to it.

Site of the Year
• Cyberion Systems - A relative newcomer, Cyberion opened his site in January and has created lots of models and interesting things for Wing Commander fans.
• Fleet Tactics - Psych and Jibbo have put together one of the most serious in-universe reference sites in many years.
• HCl's Wing Commander Editing Site - HCl was the master at hacking into WC games long before we ran site of the year contests. He continues to come up with innovative patches and fixes for our beloved series.
• Origin Museum - Joe and Paula have had a busy year offline, but their site serves as a tremendous monument to Origin. They now archive many of the last artifacts to leave Origin's Austin compound.
• Wedge009's Wing Commander - Wedge has assembled some of the most comprehensive data and files on the Wing Commander universe. His in-depth research of the various games provides a great resource and orientation for the series.
• Wing Commander 3D - Tolwyn's repository of 3D models and resources got a big update this year.
• Wing Commander in Russia - Black Joker's complete Wing Commander site serves as a major community pillar for Russian Wing Commander fans.
• Wing Commander Revival - Andreas Schmitt and HCl have been busy this year, but their site is one of the few older Wing Commander News sites out there that still updates with original content periodically.

Fan Project of the Year
• Flight Commander was made almost entirely from scratch by Eddie Benowitz. It is easily modifiable and comes complete with most of the features of the later Wing Commander games.
• Holding the Line endures as the longest running fan fiction series. At more than five years old, regular chapters continue to flesh out the story as it nears its ultimate conclusion.
• Privateer Remake expands on the original Vega Strike project to update and expand the original Wing Commander Privateer. They are now in the final open beta stages.
• Reckoning is the Privateer themed mod to the popular Freelancer game. Numerous Wing Commander additions give you the best of both games in one experience.
• Standoff has taken the Secret Ops engine to new heights. They are working to combine the best of early nineties Wing Commander designs with the latest Wing Commander engine to create an episodic release soon.
• WC Saga has utilized Freespace 2's powerful editing tools to create a sharp new experience. Their numerous updates should culminate in an exciting package soon.

PA Appreciates the Basics in Game Based Movies

The latest Penny Arcade article discusses how the Doom movie apparently won't feature the central location or enemies from the Doom game, Mars and Demons from Hell. The article mentions the WC movie at least got these two points correct (set in space with space cats). That's about where the compliments end however.

Last year we had the opportunity to hold the article's author hostage while forcing him to play Prophecy Advance. Tycho's a pretty nice guy, and it turns out he used to be a big WC fan too.