WC Saga Wants Your Desktop

The cold vacuum of space has erupted into absolute chaos. Klaxons echo stridently across the flight deck, announcing the unexpected arrival of a Kilrathi strike force. The FORCAP fighters have already engaged the Kats and are taking losses, and enemy bombers have broken through the defensive line and are nearly within strike range. Time is of the essence. Footsteps ring against the deck, mingled with the urgent shouts of technicians making desperate final checks of the fighters.

The canopy of your Hellcat V slides into position and seals itself shut. Your VDU crackles, and the image of the comm officer clears you for takeoff. You jam your throttle forward and feel the acceleration slam you hard against your headrest. Your Hellcat streaks out of the fighter bay and you peel off towards the oncoming attackers.

More Updates For Space Sim Fans

A pair of upcoming space combat sims have just released big updates. A whole bunch of new information has been released on DarkStar One since we reported on them a couple months ago. At the time, this German developed space sim did not have a website. Darkstar-one.com is now online to fill that void. It features forums and lots of information on game details. The team behind Darkstar is a big fan of the Wing Commander series.

I would really love to see the Wing Commander and Freelancer Community there, basically because I believe they can help bring ideas and suggestions to the game in order to recapture some of the "old" feeling most of us grew up with, something the team is really attempting to do and actually doing very well, especially when it comes to battle itself.

From the other side of the globe, StarCalibur, by Russian developer RevoltGames, has released a playable demo. It's a 130 megs download featuring both first and third person play modes. We covered the game last year when it was also known as Secret Sign. In addition to space fighter combat, the player occasionally controls planetary guns or carrier turrets. You can grab the demo here or here.