How Goes the War Against the Humans?

“Men, we have fought through the war together. I have done the best I could for you."

The battle is over, and I have placed... third - which means I've brought home an Xbox 360 Elite and 11,200 MS Points to give out to the Wing Commander community. We'll be figuring out a way for you folks to earn that prize in the next few days - be forewarned, you'll have to be a real WingNut!

The tournament was amazing, and remains largely a blur to me. I scored very poorly out of the gate - I began by getting myself stuck in the Boneyard's warren of caves... and ultimately managed to score only six kills! Luckily the second round was in the Space Station, where I managed to make up the difference somewhat, putting me into seventh place out of eight who would continue on.

Everything changed in the second elimination round. I flew a Broadsword Behemoth almost exclusively and then placed second (24 kills) and first (25 kills) in the respective rounds. The folks in #WingNut were watching via GamerTagRadio and cheering for me, my brother and my sister stayed up to watch me play, I was getting a constant stream of congratulatory messages via Xbox Live (I'm sorry - I couldn't read them during the fight!) and I was on top of the world.

... but it turned out we had to redo the last match! Someone had been left out. With some grumbling, we reorganized and fought again... and again I came in first with 25 kills! It was just amazing. I progressed to the fourth round, where I again picked the Behemoth... but came in only third. I won't lie, I relied pretty heavily on tractor beams and torpedoes, after finding that more maneuverable fighters didn't work in such a giant melee - but it was a heck of a lot of fun, regardless!

My sincere thanks to Electronic Arts for including the CIC in the contest. The goal was, after all, to gain some good press for Arena... so there was no reason they needed to include our site. They already know that we love the game for its merits and regardless of how the wind changes in the blogosphere.

Finally, congratulations to Super Dunners from xbox360fanboy.com, who won the home theater system! A special thanks to GamerTagRadio, too - Godfree did a fantastic job of covering the event (and Arena in general - if you haven't heard his interview with Sean Penney, check it out!).

And of course thanks to our wonderful community - for cheering me on, for believing in me and for putting up with me for ten years now. After the battle was over, everyone in #WingNut celebrated by playing three more rounds of Arena with me! It seemed only appropriate.

We've Got an ASCII Convoy

Happy Birthday, ace!

Today is Brandon "ace" Strevell's birthday! From my earliest days on the internet, ace's friendship has been a constant - I can remember thousands of nights at Origin's Wing Commander Chat Zone, on IRC and then later in person. He's without question one of the finest men I've ever known. You may not see his name in lights every day, but he's been a CIC staff member since day one - and he's talked me down off more than a few ledges. On behalf of all of us here at the CIC (and surely the Wing Commander community in general), happy birthday!

Title Bout Tonight!

It's LOAF versus the world, tonight on pay-per-view! This evening at 11 PM EST I'll be facing off against fifteen Xbox 360 news sites to try and earn some cool prizes for Wing Commander fans! The tournament will involve multiple free-for-alls and culminate in a Bearpit match between the two luckiest survivors. The event will be broadcast live via GamerTagRadio Vision, which you can access here. Be sure to stop in #WingNut to wish me luck or to catch me for a few rounds of Arena today as I practice!

I can't promise you anything, but I will try - I've been training since the game came out, and I've earned all twelve achievements and learned more than a few neat tricks. I'm sure my opponents are similarly fearsome, though! You can read about the prizes here and the battle setup here. I feel like Blair getting ready to fight Flash...

Which ship should I choose? Speed, well-roundedness or sheer firepower? Feel free to make suggestions!

Download Wing Commander Academy

Thanks to Wing Commander Arena, there are quite a few new people who've filtered in over the last few weeks. WC fans, new and old, who are just getting started at the CIC have a lot of material to get acquainted with. One of these items is Wing Commander Academy. The WCA television show is an exciting part of the franchise that we have available to download in its entirety. All thirteen episodes are available in DivX format. Download the codec here or use something like VLC Player to watch the files. Once you've tried out a few episodes, also check out the interesting background information on the show below.

Episode 01 - Red & Blue (209 MB) Episode 02 - The Last One Left (209 MB) Episode 03 - The Most Delicate Instrument (223 MB) Episode 04 - Word of Honor (218 MB) Episode 05 - Lords of the Sky (209 MB) Episode 06 - Chain of Command (210 MB) Episode 07 - Expendable (209 MB) Episode 08 - Recreation (209 MB) Episode 09 - Walking Wounded (209 MB) Episode 10 - On Both Your Houses (209 MB) Episode 11 - Invisible Enemy (209 MB) Episode 12 - Price of Victory (209 MB) Episode 13 - Glory of Sivar (209 MB) Opening titles 1 (8.4 MB) Opening titles 2 (8.4 MB) Saga of the Warrior King Story - Download

Original Press Kit Series Bible & Scripts Viewers Guide History of the Warrior King Ships Guide Background Artwork Production Jacket

Explore Exotic Towns

Behind the Arrow

GameTrailers has posted yet another video of Wing Commander Arena's single player space station melee mode. The 1:36 minute video shows off combat from the game's FreeLancer-style 'behind the ship' angle. It actually shows one of the few uses for this 'coolest looking' camera perspective that I've found so far - navigating the hazed dome area of this level. You can watch it online here.

Be aware that Arena features many different maps and modes - including ones like Capital Ship and Bearpit which are a lot more exciting than the cool space station we've seen over and over in these videos.

• "Ship Blasting Gameplay" (43.2 mb WMV or 38.7 mb MOV)

A Prize Catch

1st Place:
- 50" 1080p Plasma HDTV
- Home Theater System
- Xbox 360 Elite
- Xbox 360 Wireless Controller
- Xbox Live Gold Membership
- Wing Commander Arena
- 11,200 Microsoft points

2nd-4th Place:
- Xbox 360 Elite
- Wing Commander Arena
- 11,200 Microsoft points

Bad Reviews

While the concept of a 16-player arcadelike space shooter is definitely a good one, the various aspects of Wing Commander Arena come together in a very jejune way, leaving behind a husk of a game that doesn't have enough variety or thrills to keep you excited for more than one or two matches. Give the demo a spin if you're innately curious, but you're probably better off not wasting your money on this one.

The list of missing features one normally expects in competitive multiplayer games goes on. There's no way to tell how many players are participating in a game. You can't set any match options like time limit, number of bots, difficulty of bots, items, weapons… All the things you would normally expect to be able to do in a competitive multiplayer game, you can't. Melee mode is timed but it doesn't tell you for how long (it's 10 minutes -- and you can't change that). When you join a Deathmatch game you aren't told what number of kills you're playing to, so games just go on and on with no end in sight. Games need to set a goal for players to work towards, otherwise you're just aimlessly -- well, playing Wing Commander Arena.

XBOX-360.FR has posted a third review, which is generally positive (and en francais). They found some gameplay elements awkward, but also believe it to be the most ambitious Xbox Live Arcade title ever made for a variety of reasons... and they hope for a sequel!

There are plenty of consoling quotes about why bad reviews don't matter, but in this case they probably do - every person who opts not to buy Arena because of a poorly constructed review means we're another leap further away from Wing Commander 6. We recommend that everyone post their own thoughts, as both IGN and GameSpot allow users to rate titles themselves (and, in fact, both sites' reader ratings are currently significantly higher than the professional rating).

Full reviews: GameSpot, IGN, XBOX-360.FR.

Open Your Internet Hole

There have been reports of difficulties connecting to Arena multiplayer games. The user will see a message that says unable to connect to game before being dropped back to the menu. This happens when the Xbox 360 is behind a router and the necessary ports are not being forwarded. AD found us instructions for identifying and fixing this issue. The whole process should only take a few minutes.

To find out if you're affected, turn on your Xbox 360 and load up the Dashboard. Navigate to the System blade, select Network Settings and test your Xbox Live Connection. Some of the steps can take a few seconds to complete. The results are meant to look like this:

IP Address: Confirmed
DNS: Confirmed
MTU: Confirmed
ICMP: Confirmed
Xbox Live: Connected
NAT: OPEN

The NAT item is especially important. If this says RESTRICTED or MODERATE instead of OPEN, you will need to configure your router and Xbox for online gaming. Tom McCann's website has easy to follow, illustrated instructions for D-Link and Linksys devices and walks you through all the steps on the Xbox. In addition to all that, Frosty had to disable the UPNP option to get everything working right. If you own a different brand router, the process should be very similar. You can also ask other Wingnuts for help on our Forums.

If your NAT is open you should have less trouble connecting to games. However, if another user in the game has a restricted NAT, you may not be able to connect all the same.

UPDATE: Wing Commander Themes Available!

Goodbye, Battlestations Midway pin-up girls, hello Kilrathi fighters -- Microsoft has released two Wing Commander Arena Xbox 360 themes on Live Marketplace! A "Terran Theme" and a "Kilrathi Theme" are now available for 150 MS Points each. They're very pretty - each blade gets a high resolution rendering of a different fighter with a different colored background. It also replaces the standard gray 'utility' background with the Confederation star or the Kiranka claw!

Kilrathi: Paktahn Tusk, Darket Stalker, Dralthi Rhino, Darket Raptor.

Confederation: Broadsword Behemoth, Broadsword Warpig, Arrow Eclipse, Rapier Vanguard.

Arena Review Revue

If you are looking for a fast paced action game, Wing Commander Arena is for you. Only playing for just a few hours, it feels like Wing Commander Arena has made its way in the top five Xbox Live Arcade Games. Overall, Wing Commander Arena is definitely worth the 800. I would definitely recommend Wing Commander Arena as a purchase for any hardcore gamer.

Wing Commander Arena is meant to be an instant pick-up-and-play experience, and that it does well. There are no cinematics, and the only story you will get is when viewing the Help and Options menu. Select your mode, select your ship, and your immediately playing. When starting out, I first thought much less of the game then what I do now. This was due to the fact that not a lot of people had downloaded it yet, and therefore I couldn’t get into any of the hot multiplayer action that was always talked about in press releases. Today after signing onto Live though, more people had it and I had a much easier time of getting into larger scale battles. The games are smooth as can be, and I have had zero lag in all my time of playing it.

In the end, Wing Commander Arena is a fine pick-up-play shooter, but you can't help but think about what could have been. It offers a lot of options for your 800-points and 16-player team battles can be quite enjoyable, but there's just not enough meat on its bones to constitute a satisfying meal. Its the kind of game you'll probably get sick of after a week, but if that's worth 800-points then go for it. At least it's not another pointless retro release.

On the Polaris Roads Again

• "Combat" - (49.1 mb WMV or 64.4 mb MOV)

Arena Meets the Press

All-in-all, Wing Commander Arena is what an Xbox Live Arcade game should be about- fast-paced pick-up-and-play action with a dash of depth. If you can live with being lost in space, and in only one plane of such a vast expanse, then download Wing Commander Arena post-haste.

Update: a second review is in! Ars Technica is also very positive:

As mentioned, there are a good number of different ships from the game's two factions, each of which is fitted with four different weapons and powers. The default control takes a little getting used to—moving in one direction and shooting in another is a little disorienting at first, though ultimately really satisfying—but is simple enough and becomes a blast once you get accustomed to the game's pace. It's all a bit more accessible to the mass market than a more traditional space sim would have been. The only downside? No live action FMVs. Well, that and the general lack of licensed content from the Wing Commander franchise used outside of the manual. I sincerely hope this game doesn't become the next Shadowrun but, judging by early reactions, I'm afraid such will be the case as the purists cry foul over this "dreadful abomination."

The Best Just Gets Beta

We need someone who has a sharp eye - you need to find ships that spawn facing the wrong way, misspelled words, comms sent by Pilot A but voiced by Pilot B, etc. You also need to look for holes in our missions. "What happens if I skip this navpoint" or "what if I blow all my torpedoes but fail to take out the capship". You will need to test the game as much as possible (as opposed to reporting a bug and then waiting for it to be fixed or not play anymore until next tuesday because you've already done your job for that week ), and we need you to respond quickly if we need a particular problem ironed out before we move on with a mission, or something like that. And we need to know what it is you're reporting, so you need to be able to communicate decently. No leetspeek.

Wing Commander Arena Released!

It's official, Wing Commander Arena is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace! Pay your 800 points, download the game and get out there - the Confederation or the Empire needs you. We will continue to follow the launch with the daily news and information you've come to expect... but you'll forgive us if we take a few hours off right now to knock down a few new enemy fighters for the first time in nine years.

If you're new to the site, please check out our background section for a history of previous Wing Commander games and an article explaining why they're so important. If you'd like to interact with other Wing Commander fans (and Arena pilots), then feel free to join in the discussion at the Crius.Net forums or #WingNut chat room. We're glad to have you aboard and hope you enjoy playing in our universe!

Summoned to Tourney!

The Tournie will start with 2 rounds of 16 person free for all up to 25 frags. The 8 editors with the highest frag count at the end of those rounds advance to the next round which will be 1 round up to 25 frags. The 4 editors with the highest frag count at the end of that match go to a 4 man free for all up to 25 frags. The 2 editors with the most frags go to a hosted "bear pit" match to see who can get to 20 frags first. There is going to be a splinter bomber ship in the pit with you and frags against him count as well. The editor who gets to 20 frags first wins the prize!

I'm not going to lie to you - I'm not a gamer. Just take a look at my gamerscore breakdown. Star Trek? The History Channel's Civil War? Feeding Frenzy? Any video gaming skills I have are arcane and useless. I may have an encyclopedic knowledge of Wing Commander continuity, but that's not worth much against fifteen professional video game players.

So, what's the plan? I'm going to spend the next five days training every moment I can, and I want you all to help me. How? Hunt me down and give me everything you've got wherever you can. It's many of your fantasies come true: kill LOAF over and over. My GamerTag is 'Bandit LOAF' - add me and let's practice!

Here's the list of competitors: EA Arcade, Kotaku, Game Informer, Xbox360Fanboy, PlanetXbox360, GamertagRadio, Unscripted360, KonsoleKingz, UncleGamer, Xbox360Achievments, 360Monster, Achieve360Points, Gamer’s Hell, Firing Squad and Bullz-Eye.

Now we make them sorry they were ever born!

UPDATE: New Sean Penney Interview

How will Wing Commander Arena be true to the Wing Commander series?

Sean Penney: First through the game play. The 18 player ships, drawn from WC favourites, are true in function and form to the originals. Of course, things change in 20 years and out on the frontier it's important your ship have some special upgrades. And some other old favourites will make an appearance as well, and we will introduce you to some new friends. Wing Commander fans have long wanted a multiplayer experience. Arena offers classic Wing Commander combat online with 16 players. For the fans who remember Armada, a dogfight in Arena is like a dogfight in Armada.

Second is our attention to detail. We are very cognizant of the Wing Commander continuity and brought members of the thriving and vocal Wing Commander community into the development process. We bring back classic ships and work in flavour from the original game to the movie. Arena has always been intended as an homage to the Wing Commander franchise and we very much wanted to do it justice.

Third is innovation. Wing Commander has always pushed the envelope. Every WC game set new standards in tech and design and changed the way we play games. Wing Commander Arena is doing the same thing with Live Arcade - from 16 player online game play to the number and depth of our modes to the beauty of our environments Arena is far and away more impressive than anything XBLA has had available before.

Are there any plans for more Wing Commander games?

Sean Penney: Time will tell...

Soldiers, Sailors and Spacemen of the Confederation Expeditionary Force!

"You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you."

In all seriousness, this is the big night: Wing Commander Arena will be released tomorrow morning on or about 5 AM EST. I do not have to remind you that it has been nine years since Wing Commander: Secret Ops, the last original Wing Commander release. Through all this time you, the fans, have kept the faith. The home fires have burned brightly through this long, cold winter as you have produced amazing fan games, written engrossing fan fiction, created magnificent fan artwork and done the hundreds of other things that have proved your devotion to this great series so many times. Let Wing Commander Arena be your reward - surely the first of many!

Many of you have had your doubts about Arena. This is perfectly reasonable - I have, on occasion, shared them. Powerups instead of upgrades? Frags instead of kills? Arena is not like any other Wing Commander game made before. There is no grand cinematic story, space combat is on a different sort of plane, it was built for a console rather than a PC... we have all turned over these facts in our brains endlessly. However: it is amazingly fun, it pushes the boundaries of Xbox Live Arcade, it maintains an utmost respect for Wing Commander's continuity and fans and most of all playing it feels like playing a classic Wing Commander game.

Arena is fun; more fun than I can express. Enjoy it for being new and precious rather than damning it for being strange and different. Sixteen player team matches to destroy massive capital ships? Dogfights amidst massive fields of space debris? Enormous space stations filled with tunnels and hiding places? A giant crater for the personal duels we've all been wishing we could fight? A massive Midway class carrier for us to defend? Who needs FMV, we have a universe to explore! There is ten times as much material here for us to discover than there has been in any other XBLA game, ever.

More games are on the way! Wing Commander Arena is groundbreaking for an XBLA title. Arena will sell and it will prove the franchise's viability to those cautious executives. The suits today are not the same ones who abandoned the series in 1998. Men like former Origin President Neil Young, who was instrumental in personally helping us establish this site a decade ago, are in charge of the company now. EA's Producers - fans themselves - are ready and willing, awaiting the go ahead to return to our universe. As First Decade begat Command and Conquer 3 so will Arena will lead to Wing Commander 7. I will stake my very reputation on it.

You are all the best of fans: you have personally kept Wing Commander alive and saved the series - just like we always promised you would. What's more, you've become my closest friends. There is no greater group of people in the world - and no one could ask for more from you than I have. You have my deepest thanks and my eternal gratitude. We've come a long way, and there's more work to be done... but today is our day. Enjoy Arena; you've earned it.

Now let's hit the flight deck!

Up All Night With #WingNut

We're just hours away from the online release of Wing Commander Arena... and I, for one, am like a kid on Christmas Eve. There's no chance I'll be sleeping tonight, so I've stocked up on caffeinated drinks and am spending the night Wing Commandering it out in #WingNut!

To pass the time we'll be watching (and commenting on) all thirteen episodes of Wing Commander Academy and Chris Roberts' Wing Commander movie. What better way to get in the mood for tomorrow's momentous release? If you're in the same boat, feel free to join in - festivities will start around 10:00 PM EST. You can learn all about connecting to #WingNut here.

Is your ship recognition up to par? Can you tell the difference between these three Dralthi?

UPDATE: GamerScore Scores Screens

They've also posted high resolution versions of six images released through the EA Arcade site several weeks ago:

... but wait, there's more! They've also posted full resolution versions of all seven images which today premiered at Microsoft's official site. We've updated the earlier news story with these versions, so be sure to scroll down to see them!

BREAKING NEWS: Amazing EA Contest Announced

UPDATE: Official MS Arena Site Launched

Microsoft has launched their official Wing Commander Arena website. It contains a summary of the game and a collection of screenshots showing off a variety of different modes... including seven images we haven't seen before! Check out that cool red Arrow Guardian! The official site is available here. They have also opened an Xbox.com forum for Arena, available here.

Update: GamerScore has released high definition versions of all seven of these screenshots. We've replaced the previous versions.

UPDATE: Arena Screenshots Released

UPDATED: Press Release Redux

Take Flight with Wing Commander Arena on Xbox LIVE Arcade this Wednesday!

Electronic Arts brings “Wing Commander Arena” to Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360 this Wednesday, July 25 at 9:00 a.m. GMT (2:00 a.m. PDT).

Flash forward to the year 2071: in “Wing Commander Arena,” players form an elite flying squadron to combat the enemy armada of the Kilrathi Empire. Featuring four modes of gameplay, nine maps and the first 16 player multiplayer combat on Xbox LIVE Arcade, “Wing Commander Arena” is the perfect mix of arcade fun and modern multiplayer chaos.

“Wing Commander Arena” on Xbox LIVE Arcade is a completely new iteration in the “Wing Commander” franchise. “Wing Commander Arena” will become available worldwide (with the exception of Japan and Korea) for 800 Microsoft Points and is rated E for Everyone.

Game Features

• The first Xbox LIVE Arcade title featuring multiplayer gameplay for up to 16 players over Xbox LIVE.
• Four gameplay modes: Single Player, Multiplayer Team, Free for All, and Duel
• Players can choose from 18 different ships that can be customized with cloaking devices, mines, energy weapons, missiles and more!
• Skill-based matchmaking for ranked games.
• Earn up to 12 Achievements and 200 Gamerscore.

BREAKING NEWS: Arena Press Release

EA Launches Into Space Combat With Release of Wing Commander Arena on Xbox LIVE Arcade

Beloved Game Franchise Now Available in Robust 16-Player Online Arcade Game

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced the worldwide¹ availability of a new take on its classic Wing Commander™ franchise with Wing Commander Arena for the Xbox LIVE® Arcade² this Wednesday, July 25. Up to 16 space pilots can take to the stars and blast opposing ships in a number of ways -- single player, multi-team, multiplayer duel and multiplayer free for all.

Wing Commander Arena takes the classic space combat game in a much more action-oriented direction, where dueling teams can pilot up to eight ships, each with their own unique assets. With 16 player play, Wing Commander Arena offers the largest multi-player melee experience to date. Players can propel their ships through space, fire torpedoes and unleash deadly particle cannons as they try to climb the leader board.

“We’ve updated the Wing Commander series and brought it to a new platform, making it an action-packed, pure arcade style game,” said Sean Penney, EA Wing Commander Arena producer. “We’re redefining the Arcade multi-player experience – the adrenaline rush you get in a 16-player fight is an unmatched experience and gives those who remember the Wing Commander franchise a new way to experience it.”

The game offers everything a space combat rookie or a veteran Wing Commander pilot would expect: four types of gameplay, eight maps including team maps, free for all maps and dueling maps, 18 different ships within nine environments and two races with light fighters, medium fighters and bombers. Online players compete for frag count, high score and dueling stats.

Wing Commander Arena is produced and published by EA and cooperatively developed with Gaia Industries. This is the second EA title for Xbox LIVE Arcade with EA’s first title Boom Boom Rocket™ currently available. For more information about EA’s Xbox LIVE Arcade titles visit www.EA.com/Arcade. The Wing Commander Arena game manual can be found at http://images.ea.com/ea/arcade/draft2cRGB.pdf.

¹ All Xbox LIVE Arcade markets except Japan.

² Players must have an Xbox LIVE marketplace account to play Wing Commander Arena.

Video Killed The Interactive Movie Star

It's a job that didn't exist even five years ago. The main difference is the fact that the story can branch in different directions, different things can happen, so unlike a conventional script that has one storyline. This one was great fun and I actually looked forward to going to work because it was new, because it was something I hadn't done before.

I'm amazed at the shelf life of this project. It goes on and on and there's new toys and a new generation of kids who watch it on tape. I'm not actually involved in the next one, they go back to the previous generation. I will be in the audience now for the new Star Wars.

Star*Soldier Gets Real

We Love a Parade

It's the Physics, Stupid

I still remember the day I ponied up for a sound card. It was for Wing Commander Privateer. Before that game released a speech pack I saw absolutely no reason to spend my money on sound. How absurd, I thought, why would I want to do that. But then the voice pack hit and I was at the store buying both a sound card and the pack.

Surprise! Happy Arena-Day!

Also, we want to dangle a metaphorical carrot in front of your face by saying that we have some exciting news surround Wing Commander Arena in the weeks to come. It's a small surprise, but a surprise that is exciting nonetheless. Anyway, that's all we are saying, so stay tuned.

A Wing Commander Arena surprise? Sounds more like a metaphorical Twix than a carrot! This should be a lot of fun - who knows what could show up? We'll have to keep watching their news page!

... and this just in! The very same site has published another update with eleven new Arena screenshots and an informal confirmation from EA that the game is indeed coming on 7/25! Hurray! They're still promising a surprise, too!

We've Got It Mead

Blade Runner and More— Syd Mead will be on hand in person to recall his experiences while working on the motion picture Blade Runner and to introduce his newest DVD release: Visual Futurist: The Art & Life of Syd Mead. The DVD takes the viewer behind the scenes and beyond the images he created for this film as well as Tron, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, private 747s, games, yachts, cars, and a seemingly endless list of major design projects around the world. Syd looks forward to entertaining questions and providing his unique perspective on topics of design for the film industry. Room 6B

CIC Birthday Party Just Around The Corner

You're all invited to come and join us on August 10 in our #Wingnut irc chat room. The gathering begins at 7:00 pm Eastern US time (4:00 pm Pacific and 11:00 pm GMT). Beginning at that point, we count down for one hour before updating the website with a bunch of special updates. Since the event falls on a Friday night/Saturday morning this year, we expect a great turnout. The party is one of the best opportunities of the year to meet fellow fans, get involved with fan projects and win plenty of door prizes. The main event only lasts for a few hours, but Wingnuts are sure to be chatting away (and blasting away in Arena, Prophecy and Armada) throughout the night.

First time users are welcome to stop by #Wingnut through our web interface any time. See you at the party!

She Moves On

The forums based RPG Wing Commander: Against All Odds has a new address, the forums can now be found at www.wcaao.net/board. Everything has been moved here, all of the accounts, the old threads and posts, the fleet status tool, and we are continuing from where we were before the change without any interruption.

For those of you unfamiliar with AAO, the RPG focuses around fleet and capital ship based combat during the Kilrathi War. Players take the role of task force commanders within the Confederation Navy and face the kilrathi in a variety of offensive and defensive missions, and may work with other players in joint actions to accomplish especially critical missions. Currently it is 2659 in the RPG and Confederation and Kilrathi forces are engaged in heavy fighting, trying to break the relative stalemate and achieve a breakthrough of some kind.

We are always looking for and accepting new players, feel free to check us out, and if interested sign up. We’d also like to extend an invitation to former players who had to leave the RPG due to real-life commitments to come back if they feel they have the time. If anyone has any questions about the RPG or how to get started, they can send me (ck9791) a message here or at the AAO forums.

In the Shadows of Giants

In addition, this year should see important new properties in the form of Crysis, Army of Two and Rock Band (the game’s peripherals alone should bring in massive revenue), and EA is also releasing Wing Commander Arena, a smaller project that may be a toe in the water to see if that franchise could again become feasible.

Saga Opens Paktahn-ing Salon

BREAKING NEWS: Arena Coming 7/25

Every Privateer Manual Has Its Thorn

When I recently attended a convention on Oxford, I was fortunate enough to make the acquaintance of a young pilot working at the fighter base. Mark Thornton’s boundless enthusiasm for his job impressed me so much that I decided to interview him for publication here. What I have compiled is condensation of our conversations about his training at the TCSN Academy. Here are the high points of his advice for rookie pilots.

I wrote Origin a letter a long time ago regarding opening my own custom software store, and asked them for any assistance about purchasing software, business licensing, etc... and they sent a HUGE mailer back to me with a bunch of stickers, promotion pages of upcoming games, and a nice letter wishing me good luck. Over the years though they were all thrown away, grrrrrrr. But I do still have all of their games! :) (thank you DosBox! :))

Anyway, Wing Commander Privateer came out soon afterwards and when I saw my name in the Flight Training portion of the manual, I FREAKED! It's great to be a permanent part of Origin's history!

As a little background, I've been in the United States Marine Corps for 21 years, I am a Gunnery Sergeant and work as an Parachute Rigger/Life Support shop head for all Marine Corps aircraft systems, and will retire in February 2008.

#1 - That's our boat, the USS Tarawa (LHA-1) in Pearl Harbor, on our way to Iraq in July 2005.

#2 - This is the deck of the USS Bowfin in Pearl Harbor. A must visit!

#3 - Here I am in my "spacious" Flight Equipment shop aboard the Tarawa. To my right is my Maintenance Chief in for a visit, and on my left is one of my Flight Equipment guys. My squadron patch is Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 163 (HMM-163) out of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, CA. (I'm now finishing my career at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona with Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron 1 (MAWTS-1)).

Music to Someone's Ears

BREAKING NEWS: Arena Manual Available!

Gaea Industries

Wing Commander 2 FM Found

Enjoy Interactive Movies

With or without controversy, interactive movies were doomed from the outset, and big-budget titles like Wing Commander III stuttered under the weight of their own ambition. Robert Paulsen explains: “It wasn’t so much that the genre failed, but that technology failed the genre. The ideas were just too far ahead of the technology. The budgets for these games got bigger but the end result was always the same - CDs couldn’t hold the information needed to give the games good video quality and true interactivity.”

Enjoy Intractive Movies

As science-fiction goes, Wing Commander is decidedly un-cool, yet ironically, probably the most realistic depiction of future space travel... with a little rust around the edges.

Disney Takes Point

Space Sim First Look: Tarr Chronicles

Like old-fashioned space sims, such as Freespace or TIE Fighter, Tarr Chronicles is all about climbing into a nimble space fighter and dogfighting it amongst the stars. At the same time, the game also promises a considerable amount of customization, along with some cutting-edge graphics.

Dirty Little Secret Missions

Gaia's Shy-A About-A 'Rena

Unscripted 360: So, I would assume that with a game, with a game like this, I mean it, it seems like it's just, it could be a retail game. When Microsoft increased the Xbox Live Arcade limit, did that help you guys at all?

Jeff Cameron: Well, it's still 50 megs, this one. We're, we're still catering to people that don't have hard drives so that they can download it too. So, it, it, yeah, when they raised the limit it didn't actually help us.

Damon Branch: Yeah, it will help us for future versions because the future versions we can put in a lot more levels and, you know, up the textures 'cause when we initially spoke with Microsoft they were like 'so, you know, you want to do this on Xbox Live Arcade or do you want to do it on the 360?', and we were like, well initially we thought of it as a box game, but then they introduced Live Arcade to us and we were, like, we could, like, down the graphics a little bit on the game and just make it as a XBLA game. The graphics wouldn't be as good, but for us it would be really cool to be in that new space. So we kind of came into this space really, most people coming from console game experience, and that's why, that's why kind of Street Trace and Wing Commander tend to look a little more like box games, 'cause the team is from that background and we're just trying to do as much as we can in those fifty megs and then next time around we'll be doing even more in a hundred and fifty.

...

Unscripted 360: Well, that's fantastic, now you just mentioned, and I know you guys are working with EA and their Wing Commander. So, what part of the team, is, is there a separate team doing that? Are you guys kind of like cross-developing between the two?

Jeff Cameron: Yeah, we, we, we cross develop between the two. I mean there is a focused Wing Commander team. Damon mentioned Street Trace, Street Trace was fundamentally finished towards the end of last year so the bulk of that team rolled on to Wing Commander. So you've got a lot of the same people working on both titles. But yes, there was a develop... a dedicated Wing Commander team for development there.

Unscripted 360: Now, how close are we to seeing this Wing Commander, 'cause I've been, I've been pretty interested in seeing that as well.

Jeff Cameron: That's, that's really close. We couldn't tell you a launch date on that, but that's really close.

Damon Branch: Yeah, we're not actually allowed to say anything about that because EA will come down and get us in a big lawsuit.

Unscripted 360: That's okay, we'll just, we'll just edit it out. That's okay.

Damon Branch: No, if we could tell you, we would...

7/18 Bombs Out

E3 Round-Up, Wing Commander Style

• Microsoft did not announce a price cut for the Xbox 360 console, but Bloomberg is quoting Vice President of MSGS Shane Kim as saying that they "definitely are working on that area." Looks like we'll be paying full price when Wing Commander Arena finally hits the Arcade, though!
• Sony, meanwhile, dropped the price of the 60GB PlayStation 3 to $499 and announced an 80GB variant for $599. Although there's no new Wing Commander title for the PS3, their dedication to backwards compatibility means that you can still play the PSX ports of Wing Commander 3 and 4 on a modern Playstation.
• Sony also revealed a spiffy new version of the PlayStation Portable (pictured below). The new PSP offers a host of improvements including a video-out port, an improved battery life and a slimmer, lighted design... all while still maintaining the same size screen! The new PSPs will also store game material on their UMDs, allowing for improved load times. This sounds like just thing for those who enjoy EA Replay's Wing Commander ports. You can pick up a slim PSP in September for $170.

Digital Badge of Courage

A nicely varied and level distribution of points here. Paladin (Shoot down 1000 pilots on Xbox LIVE) will take some time but anyone can do it with enough perseverance. I will probably never get an achievement like Untouchable (Reach wave 10 in Gauntlet without ever taking damage to your hull) just because I like to live hard, fast, and reckless. At least in my video games.

The Night They Drove Old Digital Anvil Down

With the exception of Will Wright, few of the any old, great designers have done much lately. Sid Meier's name is on a bunch of games, but it's not actually Sid in charge of development or design. Chris Roberts, of Wing Commander fame? Let's just say he had a conflict of interest with the Wing Commander movie and his projects at Digital Anvil, and that Microsoft's sudden, detail-free take-over of Digital Anvil has quite a few details if you scratch beneath the surface.

Three Seconds of Arena Footage

• Video - E3 XBLA Montage Clip (2MB AVI)

Stupid Axe-Box

The Final Countdown?

Space Sim Second Look: Project Sylpheed

The game plays in a similar way to Wing Commander on the PC years ago, except this has more confusing controls, poorer cutscenes and a much worse story... I’m pleased a space shooter has come out finally on the 360, but I would still like to see a full scale Wing Commander come back as that was the perfect one with great story, simple space shooting and nothing overly complicated, it was just right.

Flanker Fields Flashy Fighter

Since the alternative paint scheme seems to be liked so much I made this here render.

Melees, Midways or Meteors?

A clear winner has been apparent in our poll for a little while now, so it's time to wrap this one up. The Capital Ship Combat mode won out as the most anticipated multiplayer mode in Arena. With more than two thirds of the vote, it looks like Wingnuts will be lining up soon to take down battlecruiser after battlecruiser with a team of their friends. These results were probably tilted somewhat by the number of times we've seen this particular mode in the various videos and promo shots. Capturing Satellites received the fewest votes, but I think it'll be a big hit once players learn more about each game type. EA released two videos back in May that illustrate how strategic planning and coordinated assaults are the key to winning in this king-of-the-hill variant. On the other hand, the second-to-last Space Station Match choice should also be popular for pilots who want to quickly get to the action and blow up a lot of Kilrathi (or Terrans).

Sean Penney: The single player aspect of Wing Commander Arena contains four play modes. As in a classic arcade game, it offers infinite levels. The high scores are conveyed via Xbox Live to a rank list. The four different variants are Melee, Meteor Storm, Gauntlet and Proving Grounds.

"Melee" is a free-for-all against a large number of AI ships. They fight each other and the player. The level is a very cool space station map. The engagements have a time limit and at the end the rank list is transferred. Although you play against the AI you are nevertheless in competition with other players.

"Meteor Storm" is a fun small game in which one must defend up to three satellites against emerging, burning meteors and plundering pirates again and again. The play ends as soon as the satellites are destroyed. An online rank list is likewise included.

In "Gauntlet" your own space fighter is stationed on a Midway-class carrier, which has had some interesting change over time. The task is to defend the carrier against attacking enemies who want to destroy it. With each new wave of enemies you can expect a larger number of attackers, better ships or more intelligent pilots. Some really spectacular firefights emerge later in the level. Gauntlet also offers a rank list at the end for comparison with other players.

In "Proving Grounds" the player is taken to an extensive area with a lot of open space with pickups, obstacles and numerous targets to shoot at. In addition, some of them fire back. As the name suggests, this is a training mode. Regard it as a playground in which you can try all the ships, weapons or maneuvers however you want. Proving Grounds contains no time limit, does not count your firing and does not have a rank list.

Happy Birthday Hades!

DragonCon 2007 Fast Approaching

Haven't I Seen Your Face Before?

In the grand tradition of MANTIS and FreeSpace, Sierra Online has unveiled the first copy of Wing Commander Arena! It's an Xbox Live Arcade shooter based on the BattleStar Galactica license that seems to borrow Arena's concept point by point - 3D ships on a 2D plane, a more complex maneuver system, a limited set of single player missions... in fact, the game-as-announced does everything by halves. Battlestar includes eight ships to Arena's eighteen, allows eight players instead of sixteen and features five game modes instead of ten. Even their space backgrounds seem a lot less inspired. Where'd you go, Roger Wilco?

Perhaps this announcement will best express to those unfamiliar with XBLA how cool a concept Arena is - its very announcement is now inspiring a host of imitators the same way that the original Wing Commander lead to games like X-Wing and Star Crusader. Only time will tell if particular example innovates on the concept like the former or if it steals whole cloth like the latter. TeamXbox has posted an article on it here. They've also released some familiar screenshots. Pictured below: a Paktahn bomber heads into the Boneyard (left) and a Dralthi dogfights a Rapier (right).

Unclassified Sketches: Letter To Mrs. Chen

Waterloo Cubed

Just download the KUBE.EXE program, and when it ask for the picture file to load, use this one. It's a more or less slopy montage (I'm still playing around with the angles)... boy, when I think of all the possible uses... this is a very fun program.

Boom Boom Boom Rocket

Exactly what styles of music we can expect still remains to be seen, plus Bizarre hasn't announced a release date for the download pack as yet. However, there will five five new tracks and add-on pack is already shaping up nicely. "The audio is written, recorded and in the game, and right now the team are working on camera positioning and firework layout", explained Bizarre's Ben Ward. "It's actually a really in-depth job making the firework patterns all match up and play well, and we have a dedicated person at Bizarre doing exactly that right now."

Who's the Best?

1. System Shock (PC)
2. Ultima VI: The False Prophet (PC)
3. Final Fantasy VII (PS)
4. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GC)
5. Wing Commander (PC)
6. Super Mario 64 (N64)
7. Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (PC)
8. Close Combat (PC)
9. Combat Mission (PC)
10. IL-2 Sturmovik (PC)

It's Here: Wing Commander IV GameTap

As promised, the GameTap service has added Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom to their amazing library of classic and modern video games! The game is the original PC CD-ROM version and it requires a hefty one-time 1.5 gigabyte download and a 4.1 gigabyte slice of your hard drive... a shock to those who remember when the game's thirty megabyte demo took days of waiting and a lot of floppy disks. As with the original Wing Commander, the service has done right by the game by offering a bit of 'bonus materials' (pictured below), an online control guide and even scans of the game's manual (PDF) -- even though it's just an excerpt from the novelization!

GameTap is a pay service which allows players access to over 900 games (emulated to run on modern systems where necessary), including the original Wing Commander and the first six Ultima titles. An advertising-supported 'Lite' player also exists allowing players access to a rotation of games for free (as of this time WCIV is not available in this format). Subscriptions are available for as low as $6.95 a month... and a trial membership can be purchased for only 99 cents for the first month! It's a good bet more Wing Commander titles are on the way... the future of legal classic gaming looks bright.

Just Another Word...

Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom
With the Kilrathi thoroughly defeated in the previous game, earth had no more enemies to fear. What remained was the task of establishing and maintaining a sense of social and economic security. But like a scene from A Few Good Men, some people overstep the line in their quest to ensure freedom, like mass murdering civilian refugees and blaming the act on Border World colonists. Made for a whopping $12 million, a then unheard of budget for a video game, Wing Commander IV features a slew of notable acting talent, including the Jedi himself, Mark Hammill. While most other games focused on the fight for freedom, WC4 illustrates that what humanity does after winning the fight can be just as important.

Look For A Way Out

Imagine taking a snapshot of everything around you and then projecting the mosaic of images onto the inside faces of a cube. Then put yourself in the center of this cube. You could look around in any direction, and as long as you didn't change your position, you would never know that you were inside a cube. It's like you're in an advanced 3D engine - just without the ability to move.

1. Save the large PNG file to your hard drive.
2. Download KUBE.EXE from Ken Silverman's website.
3. Run the program and select the PNG file from step 1 when prompted.
4. Press the Escape key to exit the program.

Happy 4th!

Just One Word Off...

Tabula Rasa Round-Up

• PC Gamer - Richard Garriott on Tabula Rasa
• Hexus - Tabula Rasa producer talks about his fantasy universe
• The Escapist - Richard Garriott: The Escapist Interview
• WarCry - Richard Garriott Interview
• develop - Richard Garriott on the future of MMOs
• GameZone - One-on-one with NCsoft's Richard Garriott
• TVG - Tabula Rasa Q&A - Richard Garriott Feature

Crius Cadet Creates Camo Craft

Several camouflage schemes were tested as can be seen here. In the end the standard Space Forces Scheme was adopted.

Ascii Sector Rocks

Fan Trailer Parked

The Wing Commander community has seen a lot of fan made video productions in its time... everything from music videos to live action trailers. Now BrynS has taken that tradition to the next generation by creating his own tribute to Wing Commander Arena! This well edited piece, "Countdown to Launch!", combines footage from the Arena trailers with scenes and music from Wing Commander III.

A lot of the mainstream media sites are commenting on how excellent Arena is, but also warning that 'hardcore fans' won't appreciate it as a Wing Commander game. Here's the rub: they absolutely don't know what hardcore fans are thinking. They don't understand the simple joy of seeing the Kiranka logo again or of watching Rapiers and Dralthi dogfighting in HD. When you see a comment like that it means that Arena doesn't have a twenty million dollar film shoot -- but we know Wing Commander has always been about more than Mark Hamill. This new video, which connects the classic film productions to the new setting, is exactly the kind of message we should be getting out!

Download it here (27 mb xvid .AVI). You can also find a second mirror and direct stream at FileFront.

Fix DVD Movie Playback With Latest Enhancement Pack