wing-commander posts

The Wing Commander series of space-based action game were some of the most popular of the 1990s (hey, it even got a crappy movie adaptation so you know it must be good). However there hasn't been a new game in the Chris Roberts-created series since 1998 (that awful 2007 arcade shooter Wing Commander Arena on Xbox Live Arcade doesn't count).

While publisher Electronic Arts doesn't seem to be interested in making new games in the franchise, the creative director at EA's BioWare Mythic is trying to get the original 1990 Wing Commander to be released for free and without DRM. Paul Barnett is using his Twitter web site to, as he states, "shame ea legal into letting me Do it". Apparently he and other team members have already gotten the game to run on the PC emulator DOSBox and will be pitching their re-release plans to BioWare co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka later today.

[Via Blue's News]

Even though the Labor Day holiday is over everyone still seems to be recovering from PAX Prime 2010. And we have the Tokyo Game Show coming up next week which, while its mostly about console games, could yield a few game announcements as well.

• The historical RTS game Theatre of War 2: Korea from 1C Company is now titled Theatre of War 3: Korea. We don't know why.
• A new Garry's Mod update is now available via Steam.
• Speaking of which, you can check out what Garry of Garry's Mod thinks about Mafia II.
• And speaking of which you can now purchase the original Mafia from Steam for $9.99.
• You can also get the acclaimed indie game VVVVVV from Steam for both PC and Mac with a 10 percent discount to $4.49.
• Want to play older Direct Draw games like the old Wing Commander titles in Windows 7? This man has a solution.
• Could South Korea ban access to all games that don't get a rating from the government? Maybe.
• Check out this podcast recording of the PAX Prime 2010 panel The Five Wonders of PC Gaming.

If you love the classics, this tidbit of news will likely get your attention. The trademark-obsessed web site superannuation has discovered that Electronic Arts has renewed their trademarks on four of their properties. Two of them are from their former Bulldog studio (Theme Hospital and Populous). The other two are for their racing game Road Rash . . . and Wing Commander.

Personally we would love to see EA try to revive the Wing Commander series first. There are lots of sim games (including EA's own Sims series) and racing games (including EA's own Need for Speed and Burnout series) But the space combat-sim genre has been regulated to smaller developers like 3000AD and Egosoft. We would love to see a big budget space-based action game for once. We really would.

PC gaming has been around since, well, PCs have existed. However the platform always seemed to get the short end of the attention stick compared to console game titles (with a few exceptions). That all changed in the 1990s as PC gaming entered a new golden age. With developments like shareware titles, CD-Rom games, Internet-based titles, Windows 95 and more powerful PCs, quite a few titles got a ton of attention and sales.

In this new multi-part feature we look back at that glorious decade of the 1990s as we focus on just some of the games that we loved to play (and in some cases still play) from that decade. Today we look back at a few of our favorite titles from 1990 and 1991:

Click on the image to the right to continue reading We Love the 90s (for PC Games)

Actor Malcolm McDowell is no stranger to being in live-action video game movie sequences. Fans of the Wing Commander series may remember him playing the role of Admiral Tolwyn. A lot has changed since the 90's, the least of which being the huge leap to HD video technology, which is clearly demonstrated in this video. Now McDowell returns to video games in Red Alert 3 - Uprising as Rupert Thornley, president of the European Union. Uprising is a available now exclusively through digital retail. You can play to see if you agree with Mr. McDowell about how it's "the envy of all other RTS games." Or you could just read the review.

Download HD Red Alert 3 - Uprising Malcolm McDowell Wing Commander Video (47 MB)
Check out all Red Alert 3 - Uprising downloads
Read the Red Alert 3 - Uprising Review

There are lots of PC games out there that are getting revived lately. We have seen the Fallout franchise get back on track with Bethesda Softworks' Fallout 3, The C&C: Red Alert RTS series got a new lease on life with Red Alert 3. Yet there are many other classic PC game franchises that are well known that perhaps could also get a second chance for the public.

Big Download has picked 10 such games that we think would be perfect for a publisher interested in introducing these franchises to a whole new audience. Of course, a lot will depend on which development team will handle these games but with a little bit of love, these titles are all prime candidates for a new coat of paint.

Click on the image above to continue reading 10 great PC games that need a comeback