^^
I don't recall playing either of those games, but Mile Tyson's Punch-out as pretty freakin' hard when you got to the final Tyson. My brother beat him, and that was certainly a magical moment in our videogame-land.
The first time that I stole a 727 in GTA San Andreas and flew into Los Santo's jumped out over downtown and landed on top of a building where I watched over 100 cars crash and explode in the ensuing air liner accident.
The first time I got a loop kill in Battlefield 1942 where I jumped out of a plane, shot down my opponent with a bazooka and landed back in the cockpit to fly away.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
The first time I played through Final Fantasy III (or VI if you roll like that), and watched Kefka destroy the world. You definitely don't expect the game to change so significantly like that! Immediately following that, the feeling of despair is super strong since Celes tries to save Cid (if you're really good you can!) and when he dies, she tries to commit suicide. Very strong stuff from a video game back then.
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The first time that I stole a 727 in GTA San Andreas and flew into Los Santo's jumped out over downtown and landed on top of a building where I watched over 100 cars crash and explode in the ensuing air liner accident.
The first time I got a loop kill in Battlefield 1942 where I jumped out of a plane, shot down my opponent with a bazooka and landed back in the cockpit to fly away.
the first time i managed to get "lawn mower" kills in BF1942, where you fly a few feet above the ground and mow down all the campers on the other team waiting for planes to spawn. god i miss that game
Going to the washroom exactly when my cousin reached Ganon and killed him with the blue arrow in The Legend of Zelda in 1988 and missing everything completely. I have never seen Ganon again to this day and probably never will. The entire collective experience of playing through The Legend of Zelda (with a friend) with the gold cartridge in the NES when you still have your childhood imagination is something I have never been able to beat.
Aside from those moments of Legend of Zelda though...
Before EA bought them, scrapped them, and a decade later turned their name into their Origin direct delivery service.
Origin's Wing Commander series is the game series that has shaped the way I think of and desire games for the rest of my life. Sadly, we will likely never see space combat with live action ever again.
LOL I never noticed the major Star Wars ripoff at the end of that segment when I was a kid. I was too busy being blown away by it.
One of my favorite games growing up. So glad i downloaded it on my wii. So much nostalgia
Me too! I've been playing it on occasion on my N64 the past few weeks. I had to hunt down a controller to play it, which reminded me how horrible the N64 controllers were, but the game is a classic.
Aside from those moments of Legend of Zelda though...
Before EA bought them, scrapped them, and a decade later turned their name into their Origin direct delivery service.
Origin's Wing Commander series is the game series that has shaped the way I think of and desire games for the rest of my life. Sadly, we will likely never see space combat with live action ever again.
LOL I never noticed the major Star Wars ripoff at the end of that segment when I was a kid. I was too busy being blown away by it.
The Wing Commander series is one of my favorite series of video games (possibly soon to be supplanted by Mass Effect). But the amazing thing is that you can really see the progress of video game technology as you played the game, as each new game was vastly improved over the previous game
Wing Commander 1 was just a pure space combat game with really primitive interaction with your crew mates, but had some really cool concepts such as rank promotion, medal ceremonies, and you could use your wing mates and have to attend their funerals.
Wing Commander 2 was a giant step forward with far better graphics, the same strong interaction, but they used graphical based movies to push forward one of the best story lines that I've ever seen in a video game. The combat was tougher especially against Capital ships as they were invulnerable to normal weapons and you had to use a bomber and torpedo that forced you to sit pretty still for 30 seconds while it locked on.
The combat was not quite as good as Wing Commander 1 as the AI wasn't as good and the Kilrathi were more likely to ram you then dog fight you. One of the biggest innovations was the addition of the speech pack that you had to buy separately.
Wing Commander 3 was a massive step up over 2 as the graphics were even more improved, but more importantly the story line was pushed forward through the use of FMV and starred Luke Skywalker, Biff Tannen, Malcolm McDonald, Ginger Lynn Allen and other well known actors. There was a massive twist three quarters of the way through the game, and you felt that no matter what happened you were going to lose the war.
With the end of the war with the Kilrathi, it was the end of Wing Commander right? Not true, Wing Commander IV was highly anticipated and well rewarded, one of the best and most tragic story lines in video game history to that point, the major improvement was that the FMV scenes were filmed using actual sets and it had a very movie like quality. The script writing was better and the combat was a lot better, you could no longer just turn and burn. The game also features a surprising twist, and the most tragic end to a video character that you will ever see. It also had multiple endings based on your actions in the game.
The next game was the often maligned Wing Commander Prophesy. The idea was to bring in a all new cast and it was the first time that you didn't play as Christopher Blair, but you played as the Iceman's (A character in the first game that was killed off) son. Unfortunately while the story was incredibly strong, the combat was really good and incredibly tough, the FMV segment was never completed properly and a lot of the in fight graphics were never completed. After that EA stupidly decided not to continue the series and we never really got closure on Chris Blair and the Nephilum.
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Make no mistake Wing Commander was a historic game series, it also spawned about 7 excellent novels, a whole other series of games in privateer Privateer, a animated series and one of the worst movies I've ever seen.
Its the one rare game that you really miss after its gone.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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Wing Commander 2 was the first computer game I ever bought for my 386.
Loved that game.
I really liked Wing Commander 2 because of the story line, but when I sit back and think about it, in terms of game play Wing Commander 1 was just a better game.
Wing Commander 2 got rid of the story tree that made wing commander 1 really strong. If you lost a key mission in 2, you were sent back to your space station duty and had to listen as the Concordia was destroyed. In wing commander 1 if you failed a whole other mission tree opened up and you could find yourself on a losing path. It made its so the game could be different every time you played it.
The dog fights in Wing Commander 2 were turning and burning battles, Kilrathi would either hit their after burner then turn back into you for a head to head. Or they would just circle around you endlessly trying to take advantage of their superior speed. In wing commander 1, and I'm going off of memory, the Kilrathi would do a whole wack of different things. They used different maneuvers like the Skelton Slide, the cut throat, pull immelmens, and one would lead you on a tail chase while his wing mate would drop in behind you and kill you.
For the most part your wingmen couldn't die in wing Commander 2 unless the game called for it. If they got to beat up they either ejected or screamed, I'm outta here and took off. In the first one, your wing men were very mortal and you had to work very hard to keep them alive even if you didn't want to in terms of Maniac.
Don't get me wrong, WC2 had some really cool features, the bomber feature was actually quite cool and stressful when you lined up on an enemy cruiser for a torpedo launch while it tried to close the distance and kill you with missiles or point defense systems. The ability to jump into a gunner turret was cool as well, and the story line was great and to an extent heart breaking as you watched Spirit die and your first wing man die and there was nothing you could do.
Wing Commander 2 also introduce a character that I think was a gaming icon in Admiral Tolwyn, who was later excellently portrayed by Malcolm Macdonald.
Behind the scenes and bloopers from WC 3
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
^ That's famous American porn star Ginger Lynn Allen in Wing Commander III LOL
She was the mechanic.
As far as WCI vs WCII, WCI was always the superior game to me. WCII lost a lot of the interaction and was more like today's games where you just play a bit and then get a cutscene. In WCI, your wingmen could be killed and it would have a permanent affect on the game and the character interactions. You could lose missions, etc. and it would affect the branching storyline, etc. Lose too much and the terrans lose the entire war. Lose a lot but start winning and you can make a comeback. WCII also lost the whole aspect I liked about travelling around the ship. Giving me one room was something I hated. I wanted to goto the bar, use the simulator, etc. but all I could do was save my game or go out the airlock and die.
I still need to get the other Wing Commander novels. I only have Freedom Flight.
Make no mistake Wing Commander was a historic game series, it also spawned about 7 excellent novels, a whole other series of games in privateer Privateer, a animated series and one of the worst movies I've ever seen.
Its the one rare game that you really miss after its gone.
Look at the cast list for Wing Commander Privateer 2: The Darkening:
Clive Owen
Christopher Walken
John Hurt
Jürgen Prochnow
David Warner
David McCallum
Brian Blessed
That blows the entire cast of WCIII, IV, and V away. I can't believe that game itself was not that great and we can't somehow recycle or save the FMV segments to make another game. It hurts me to see the interlacing on the video of Privateer 2 and wish there was a DVD version like WCIV without interlacing (is there?)
Well ET only plays multiplayer but in my years playing have certainly had some wow moments. Funny, unrelenting action. You never know when you're going to die
^ That's famous American porn star Ginger Lynn Allen in Wing Commander III LOL
She was the mechanic.
As far as WCI vs WCII, WCI was always the superior game to me. WCII lost a lot of the interaction and was more like today's games where you just play a bit and then get a cutscene. In WCI, your wingmen could be killed and it would have a permanent affect on the game and the character interactions. You could lose missions, etc. and it would affect the branching storyline, etc. Lose too much and the terrans lose the entire war. Lose a lot but start winning and you can make a comeback. WCII also lost the whole aspect I liked about travelling around the ship. Giving me one room was something I hated. I wanted to goto the bar, use the simulator, etc. but all I could do was save my game or go out the airlock and die.
I still need to get the other Wing Commander novels. I only have Freedom Flight.
The wing commander novels outside of the ones based on the games Wing commander 3 and 4 were amazingly well written pieces of science fiction.
Freedom Flight to me was kind of the weakest of the bunch.
Action Stations takes place about 20 years before the game, the only characters that you might know about were Ensign Tolwyn and Vance Richards. Thrakath was mentioned but he was a cub, from the Cat side the main characters were Thrakath's father and brother. It talks about the events leading up to and the opening of the war. It was amazingly well written.
Freedom Flight was ok, really focused on Hunter and Paladin and Hobbes as the main characters, it was directly related to the Special Operations add on game to Wing Commander 1.
End Run was the next book, and to me it was the second best of the bunch. It's actually two stories that leads to a all or nothing strategy by the confederation who knew at that time that they were losing the war. The main characters was Jason Bondaresky who was featured in Wing Commander 2 and Geoff Tolwyn, you began to see the signs of what he was going to become in WC IV. But if you can find that book, get it.
Fleet Action took place right after End Run. It shows that the results of that book have really hurt the Kilrathi and they decide to sue for peace, but is it sincere. Most of the main characters show up in the book except of Blair. But it was really a great book as well
False colors was the final book in the Bondaresky story line. The war is over for the Terran Confederation, but there are troubles in the Border Worlds and we see Geoff Tolwyn and his nephew Doomsday from wing commander 1 and 2 and Bonderesky becoming volunteers in the Border world as they not only try to fend off a new Cat threat, but there is also a conspiracy that is bought to fruition in Wing Commander IV. This is the ultimate Geoff Tolwyn book.
Some important things to note.
While Tolwyn is often portrayed as a uncaring cold callous man who has been shaped by 30 years of war in WC 2 3 and 4 you get a key understanding of the man in the novels above.
With the exception of Freedom Flight Blair is rarely mentioned until False Colors.
Jason Bondarevsky is the main character in most of these books, he was a bit player in WC 2 SO as he leads a mutiny against his Captain.
You get some really good insight into the Cats in the books and they become a lot less sympathetic in the books. If I had read the books before I played WC 3 I wouldn't have accepted their surrender at the end of the game, I would have killed the lot of them.
But if you can find the books, buy them.
I believe that you can download End run off of wcnews.com for free.
.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look at the cast list for Wing Commander Privateer 2: The Darkening:
Clive Owen
Christopher Walken
John Hurt
Jürgen Prochnow
David Warner
David McCallum
Brian Blessed
That blows the entire cast of WCIII, IV, and V away. I can't believe that game itself was not that great and we can't somehow recycle or save the FMV segments to make another game. It hurts me to see the interlacing on the video of Privateer 2 and wish there was a DVD version like WCIV without interlacing (is there?)
I wish Privateer 2 was a better game, but it just wasn't even with the strong cast.
I would love to see them finish the Nephilum story lines that were started in Prophecy with the rumored Blair returning as the ultimate big bad, but I doubt that it will never happen.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
The first time I played through Final Fantasy III (or VI if you roll like that), and watched Kefka destroy the world. You definitely don't expect the game to change so significantly like that! Immediately following that, the feeling of despair is super strong since Celes tries to save Cid (if you're really good you can!) and when he dies, she tries to commit suicide. Very strong stuff from a video game back then.
Beat me to the punch. About as dramatic as any movie. What a great game.
The "Would you kindly" reveal moment in Bioshock. That and the Revan thing in Kotor 1, although I kind of saw that coming. Definitely didn't in Bioshock.
