Interestingly after EA bought Oriigns they continued the wing commander line in side games like Privateer 2 which had live action stuff starring CHristopher walken, John Hurt, Mathilda May(the alien naked chick from Life force), Brian Blessed and Amanda Pays) never played it but read good reviews of it at the time. As said earlier too busy doing career stuff in the 90s was more into SSI and NES RPG stuff.
@@boobah5643 It does take place in the Wing Commander universe. (Gemini sector) Unless you mean it doesn't use a military setting for it's gameplay and story mechanics. :)
Scalzi is indeed a low bar. My family bought me Wing Commander while I was away for the Gulf War, and I had the manual in a map case which walked away on the return. When I was finally able to install the game, it required the manual to play. Sigh.
@@feralhistorian they did so love irritating the audience, hoping to thereby fight piracy. I am reminded of contemporary websites which deliberately make it worse, hoping you will pay a subscription to make it less painful.
I remember that sort of copy protection; I just don't recall it in _Wing Commander._ Or any other Origin game, with the arguable exception of the _Ultima_ spell lists. On the other hand, I do recall the installer for _WC3_ (when the game was new) telling me my CD-ROM must be broken, because a 4x drive was clearly far faster than was possible.
I would love to see a revival of the Wing Commander franchise, even it it's only modernizing the old games it terms of graphics and such. Hands down one of the best game series ever made, the Final Fantasy of their genre.
the end of the war storylines reminds of Gundam Z, you had the one year war in the first Gundam series , then the Earth Military became the bad guys as they became fascist militaristic in order to become strong enough to prevent a future war with the spacers. in that one the hero sides with the spacers and his former enemies in the first series the remnants of the Zeon empire.
Is that Malcom McDowell and Mark Hamill at 00:57 and further? --- YES!! You've just confirmed it a few seconds after I typed the question. My cats like the cats, but would fight to the death to protect me (or at least one would; the other isn't too bright). "There's not much room for subtlety or gradations in morality. Either we win or we die." 02:55 Mark Hamill thinking, this ain't no Chewbacca. Then Mark gets blasted by its bad breath. :-p I've seen this game for sale at the mall, in passing. Or one of them; the title anyway. "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." Wow is that ever true. More so than I'd known. Hello, butterfly (10:15). McDowell is just as good in this role as Peter Cushing was as Tarkin. Tolwyn became the villain? "Characters can die because of the choices you made." I'll stick to watching butterflies.
Yah played Wing commander on my IBM PC 640K from the same company which made the now forgotten Ultima RPG series which I played a lot in the 80s. and early 90s, which was a massive hit at the time. Played until WIng Commander 2 then life intervened and things got busy for me. but excellent storylines as I can recall at the time, the movie , watched it once, in 2000 as a VHS rental, underwhelmed by it at the time may have to watch it again.
The USA original _Wing Commander Academy_ was far more _Wing Commander_ than the movie which turned Bluehair into some sort of weird, magic Chosen One. Although it's a little weird to have it set before the first game while clearly using _The Heart of the Tiger_ and _The Price of Freedom_ as the basis for the character designs.
@@boobah5643 I haven't seen that movie since it was new, but I do recall it being more a reimagining of the story than a chapter in it. One of these days I'll rewatch it.
@feralhistorian Oh, it's very much a reimagining; the problem is that the setting is pretty unremarkable. The most noteworthy thing in it is the tailless, furry-eared Kzinti that they're fighting. Which leads to the point that the human drama is the point of the story; it's mundane people in extraordinary circumstances. Instead, the movie invented the Pilgrims, a group of people looked down on by most. In exchange for prejudice, they get extra points in vaguely defined space magic that the protagonist cashes in to save the day during the film's climax. The movie doesn't feel like the same world, much less the same story. It doesn't help at all that the film's visual designs have nothing in common with the source material.
Wing Commander is one of my favortie franchises, but I never thought about how important IV was to video game storytelling. Too poor to have a PC, I played III and IV on my Playstation but it wasn't too different. Except the console version didn't have a cockpit overlay thus killing immersion! >:(
yah I do remembrer this is Epic storytelling one of the earliest epic multi part PC games with a engaging storyiline, not surprised that Origins published it. Origins had Epic storylines too with the Ultima series. As for epic engaging game storylines, also loved the Japanese NES console RPG games in the 90s, like Lufia fortress of doom, those blew me away.
Wait, you mean to tell me Metal Gear Solid 1998 PS1 didn't pioneer mature cinematic storytelling in video games!? Neat. Wish they'd remaster the Wing Commander games along with: Syndicate, the Strike series, and Theme Hospital. Oh, EA owns them all. Crap. They did do a good remaster for Command and Conquer 1 and Red Alert 1 recently. So, ya never know.
@Feral Historian, "Whether it ever gets done." Sounds like Star Citizen. Backers are still waiting on that one. In the time since that kickstarter happened, No Man's Sky crashed and burned at release only to later redeem itself. You never know with fan projects. Plus the dreaded Cease and desist order can fall on them. That just happened to a fan Jurassic Park game where would've gotten to shoot dinos with Muldoon's shotgun. Given how popular a lot of indie games have gotten, a spiritual successor might be the way to go. EA cannot be trusted. Heck, at least one Wing Commander did get ported to PS1. Maybe that one could be remastered. A small, but growing number of classics are being made available to play on PS4/PS5.
@@Gruntvc Played _The Price of Freedom_ on PlayStation (whichever generation it was on.) Buggy; used an alternate control scheme, and was no longer able to choose my responses over the radio. And the default response to whether or not you wanted to abandon the corrupt Confederacy was 'no,' which eventually gets you a cutscene death.
Wow, the only WC entry I played was Privateer, more like Elite in being a game focused on an independent captain's quest for wealth and glory. Sounds like I should swing around and give the main entries a try.
it isn't out yet, but Wing commander's spiritual successor 'Squadron 42' is supposed to be following the same kind of branching narrative like the wing commander games. its been in development for close to 11 years now, and has a massive star studded cast. Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson, Mark Strong, among many many others. its still a little bit out, but they say its getting close to release. I for one cant wait to play it. here is the latest trailer for it. ua-cam.com/video/IDtjzLzs7V8/v-deo.html
I could not understand the 'vets cast adrift' at the end of the Man/Kat war; a sizeable chunk of the human race was killed off and many planets/colonies/holdings were turned into rubble (irradiated and otherwise); I would have said Great Britain or the Soviet Union would have been a better model: "austerity and hard work to rebuild, coupled with politics";
I enjoyed Wing Commander III but never got WC IV. I thought that Freelancer was excellent, perhaps despite rather than because of Dread Pirate Roberts. He replayed his inability to complete anything with his Star Citizen Alpha. I loved Mass Effect 1 and 2. Replaying them several times. Although loved, I hated Mass Effect 3 so much I never returned to 1 and 2.
And in a dreadful way Tolwynn was right when the Nephilim arrive. And Fraggles should be wiped out. Sorry, as Tolwynn said: "Even if that means...he...discarding certain elements" ;P
I don't think that Malcolm McDowell has ever delivered a half-assed performance in his career. That speech almost made me cheer for a moment.
He can be over the top sometimes, but never half-assed.
This is the single greatest wing commander medium form analysis I've seen featuring a man in front of a boulder.
Gotta give them credit. They had a great cast in WC3 & 4.
Well at least now I’ve learned Luke Skywalker, Biff Tannen and Johnny Ringo were in a movie…er, game…together.
Rico.
Unrelated, John Henry Eden quotes Wing Commander "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance" bit in fallout 3.
They're both quoting Thomas Jefferson.
Yep, Jefferson.
Interestingly after EA bought Oriigns they continued the wing commander line in side games like Privateer 2 which had live action stuff starring CHristopher walken, John Hurt, Mathilda May(the alien naked chick from Life force), Brian Blessed and Amanda Pays) never played it but read good reviews of it at the time. As said earlier too busy doing career stuff in the 90s was more into SSI and NES RPG stuff.
_Privateer 2_ isn't a _Wing Commander_ game. It uses gameplay from the series, but unlike _Privateer,_ it has its own, unique setting.
@@boobah5643
It does take place in the Wing Commander universe. (Gemini sector)
Unless you mean it doesn't use a military setting for it's gameplay and story mechanics. :)
@@peterjanssen5901 He was talking about Privateer 2! Not the the original!
@@boobah5643 Well it IS set in the Terran Confederation, but like 1000 years AFTER the Kilrathi & Nephilim wars!
Scalzi is indeed a low bar. My family bought me Wing Commander while I was away for the Gulf War, and I had the manual in a map case which walked away on the return. When I was finally able to install the game, it required the manual to play. Sigh.
I'd forgotten about having to search the manual to start the game. Like a DOS-Era Origin Launcher, making every game start-up an irritation.
@@feralhistorian they did so love irritating the audience, hoping to thereby fight piracy. I am reminded of contemporary websites which deliberately make it worse, hoping you will pay a subscription to make it less painful.
I remember that sort of copy protection; I just don't recall it in _Wing Commander._ Or any other Origin game, with the arguable exception of the _Ultima_ spell lists.
On the other hand, I do recall the installer for _WC3_ (when the game was new) telling me my CD-ROM must be broken, because a 4x drive was clearly far faster than was possible.
I would love to see a revival of the Wing Commander franchise, even it it's only modernizing the old games it terms of graphics and such. Hands down one of the best game series ever made, the Final Fantasy of their genre.
the end of the war storylines reminds of Gundam Z, you had the one year war in the first Gundam series , then the Earth Military became the bad guys as they became fascist militaristic in order to become strong enough to prevent a future war with the spacers. in that one the hero sides with the spacers and his former enemies in the first series the remnants of the Zeon empire.
I’m glad someone else brought up Gundam and Zeta Gundam as a comparison. I agree.
Excellent.
Also, I appreciate the longer video.
"the Predator hunting Fraggles" - I lost it! Not even a mention of the movie though? (not that it was good or anything)
The movie is probably worth its own short commentary. Eventually.
Is that Malcom McDowell and Mark Hamill at 00:57 and further? --- YES!! You've just confirmed it a few seconds after I typed the question. My cats like the cats, but would fight to the death to protect me (or at least one would; the other isn't too bright). "There's not much room for subtlety or gradations in morality. Either we win or we die." 02:55 Mark Hamill thinking, this ain't no Chewbacca. Then Mark gets blasted by its bad breath. :-p I've seen this game for sale at the mall, in passing. Or one of them; the title anyway. "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." Wow is that ever true. More so than I'd known. Hello, butterfly (10:15). McDowell is just as good in this role as Peter Cushing was as Tarkin. Tolwyn became the villain? "Characters can die because of the choices you made." I'll stick to watching butterflies.
"In my bones, I wish to kill you!" 02:59. Should go on to say "Because you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup." (I had to come back for this)
Yah played Wing commander on my IBM PC 640K from the same company which made the now forgotten Ultima RPG series which I played a lot in the 80s. and early 90s, which was a massive hit at the time. Played until WIng Commander 2 then life intervened and things got busy for me. but excellent storylines as I can recall at the time, the movie , watched it once, in 2000 as a VHS rental, underwhelmed by it at the time may have to watch it again.
The movie, while mostly lackluster, has some interesting elements. I'm sure it'll be covered here eventually.
The USA original _Wing Commander Academy_ was far more _Wing Commander_ than the movie which turned Bluehair into some sort of weird, magic Chosen One. Although it's a little weird to have it set before the first game while clearly using _The Heart of the Tiger_ and _The Price of Freedom_ as the basis for the character designs.
@@boobah5643 I haven't seen that movie since it was new, but I do recall it being more a reimagining of the story than a chapter in it. One of these days I'll rewatch it.
@feralhistorian Oh, it's very much a reimagining; the problem is that the setting is pretty unremarkable. The most noteworthy thing in it is the tailless, furry-eared Kzinti that they're fighting.
Which leads to the point that the human drama is the point of the story; it's mundane people in extraordinary circumstances. Instead, the movie invented the Pilgrims, a group of people looked down on by most. In exchange for prejudice, they get extra points in vaguely defined space magic that the protagonist cashes in to save the day during the film's climax.
The movie doesn't feel like the same world, much less the same story. It doesn't help at all that the film's visual designs have nothing in common with the source material.
Wing Commander is one of my favortie franchises, but I never thought about how important IV was to video game storytelling. Too poor to have a PC, I played III and IV on my Playstation but it wasn't too different. Except the console version didn't have a cockpit overlay thus killing immersion! >:(
yah I do remembrer this is Epic storytelling one of the earliest epic multi part PC games with a engaging storyiline, not surprised that Origins published it. Origins had Epic storylines too with the Ultima series. As for epic engaging game storylines, also loved the Japanese NES console RPG games in the 90s, like Lufia fortress of doom, those blew me away.
Wait, you mean to tell me Metal Gear Solid 1998 PS1 didn't pioneer mature cinematic storytelling in video games!? Neat.
Wish they'd remaster the Wing Commander games along with: Syndicate, the Strike series, and Theme Hospital. Oh, EA owns them all. Crap. They did do a good remaster for Command and Conquer 1 and Red Alert 1 recently. So, ya never know.
There is a modding project to remaster Wing Commander IV that looks promising. Whether it ever gets done is an open question, but I'd give a run.
@Feral Historian, "Whether it ever gets done." Sounds like Star Citizen. Backers are still waiting on that one. In the time since that kickstarter happened, No Man's Sky crashed and burned at release only to later redeem itself.
You never know with fan projects. Plus the dreaded Cease and desist order can fall on them. That just happened to a fan Jurassic Park game where would've gotten to shoot dinos with Muldoon's shotgun.
Given how popular a lot of indie games have gotten, a spiritual successor might be the way to go. EA cannot be trusted.
Heck, at least one Wing Commander did get ported to PS1. Maybe that one could be remastered. A small, but growing number of classics are being made available to play on PS4/PS5.
@@Gruntvc Played _The Price of Freedom_ on PlayStation (whichever generation it was on.) Buggy; used an alternate control scheme, and was no longer able to choose my responses over the radio. And the default response to whether or not you wanted to abandon the corrupt Confederacy was 'no,' which eventually gets you a cutscene death.
Wow, the only WC entry I played was Privateer, more like Elite in being a game focused on an independent captain's quest for wealth and glory. Sounds like I should swing around and give the main entries a try.
And somehow I've never played any of the Privateer games.
I'm curious to know what your thoughts are on the Wing Commander movie!
Great video, Wing Commander could use more love.
it isn't out yet, but Wing commander's spiritual successor 'Squadron 42' is supposed to be following the same kind of branching narrative like the wing commander games. its been in development for close to 11 years now, and has a massive star studded cast. Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson, Mark Strong, among many many others. its still a little bit out, but they say its getting close to release. I for one cant wait to play it. here is the latest trailer for it. ua-cam.com/video/IDtjzLzs7V8/v-deo.html
I could not understand the 'vets cast adrift' at the end of the Man/Kat war; a sizeable chunk of the human race was killed off and many planets/colonies/holdings were turned into rubble (irradiated and otherwise); I would have said Great Britain or the Soviet Union would have been a better model: "austerity and hard work to rebuild, coupled with politics";
GREAT analysis! Tolwyn was indeed a 100% Space Nazi! Horrorshow droog!
I enjoyed Wing Commander III but never got WC IV. I thought that Freelancer was excellent, perhaps despite rather than because of Dread Pirate Roberts. He replayed his inability to complete anything with his Star Citizen Alpha. I loved Mass Effect 1 and 2. Replaying them several times. Although loved, I hated Mass Effect 3 so much I never returned to 1 and 2.
And in a dreadful way Tolwynn was right when the Nephilim arrive.
And Fraggles should be wiped out. Sorry, as Tolwynn said: "Even if that means...he...discarding certain elements"
;P
hahaha wizards thank you very much for honoring the request.
Sir, please. I bow. Never stop, you, you cognitive berserker.
Do you edit these yourself?
Yes.
Lore of Wing Commander and the Maturation of a Medium momentum 100
Nice
Ear-grating midi soundtrack? Disliked, unsubscribed, reported, uninstalled UA-cam. Good day, sir!