Maverick

Posted on Thu 22nd May 2008
The online video game business magazine, Next-Gen, today revealed via an interview with the general manager of Xbox Live some policy changes to the service that may end up affecting the poorly received Wing Commander Arena. Microsoft has decided that underperforming Xbox Live Arcade titles will eventually be removed from the list of downloadable games altogether, in order to free up space and make browsing easier for customers.

From the interview, Xbox Live General Manager Marc Whitten on the requirements for a game to be removed from Xbox Live Arcade:
The way it will work is that the title will need to be at least 6 months old and have a Metacritic score below 65 and a conversion rate below 6% on the service. This way titles are not just considered if they are not selling well or not getting good reviews, but actually a combination of both. We will also give a three-month notice before delisting any title. Overall I think you will find this will focus the catalogue more on larger, more immersive games and make it much easier to find the games you are looking for.

The interview also expounds on other changes coming to the Xbox experience, such as changing the DRM on XBLA games to allow for people who have had their systems replaced under warranty to play their downloaded games without connecting to Xbox Live.

Wing Commander Arena currently has a MetaCritic score of 51, well below the cut-off of 65. Depending on the games current and continuing performance, Arena could very well be a candidate for delisting. If this is the case, according to Whitten, you can expect to see an announcement of its delisting 3 months in advance.

If anything, perhaps this will push game developers to put more time and effort into their products to make them the best that they can be, ensuring that they stay on the XBLA service.

Discuss.

Sources:
Next-Gen: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: MS to Delist XBLA Titles
MetaCritic.com: Wing Commander Arena

Maverick

Posted on Tue 29th Apr 2008
Monkhouse has posted two of his recent projects on the WC Nexus boards. First up is the CF-117b Rapier featured in the Wing Commander Movie.

From Monk:
I made the mistake of buying the Confederation Handbook, a couple of months ago; and fell in love with some of the ships from the movie. They seem to look better on the book that they do in the movie. That includes the Rapier, the KF-100 Dralthi, and specially the Errant...

...Before someone points out the size of the cockpit... That's INTENTIONAL. I think the idea of a 9 meters long space-ship is just too damn ludicrous. MY "movie rapier" is 18 meters long. Period.



Second to bat is a slight re-tooling of the Demon model Monkhouse finished about a year ago, now incorporated in Privateer Remake: Parallel Universe.



From Monk:
Let there be credit where credit's due: The original mesh was donated to WCU by Brad Mick. I worked on it a bit: Removed invisible polies, welded some parts, and re-unwrapped it. My original texturing was while still working for WCU, and was done in Gimp. The new texturing is mostly a re-mix of the old, and was done using Blender node networks.

Head on over to Monk's threads in the forums for more pics and information, or to query/comment/critique/admire.

Discuss Rapier

Discuss Demon

Maverick

Posted on Tue 12th Feb 2008
I'm a few days late with this, but it just came to my attention. IGN is reporting that during the 2008 Dice Summit, current Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello made a speech regarding the future of game development, and the mistakes of EAs past.

How does this relate to Wing Commander? Well, while discussing EAs new plan of organizing the various development teams under the massive EA umbrella, Riccitiello commented on the old business model, which found legendary development studios dissolving after being absorbed by EA.

From IGN:
"At EA we've had our share of failures with the acquisitions of developers. Westwood, Bullfrog, Origin Systems -- these places no longer exist today and are no longer creative forces in the industry," he said. "There was a fundamental belief that we could be one happy family. We had a top-down approach to development. We at EA blew it. I would say I blew it."

Riccitiello hopes to learn from EAs past mistakes with the absorption of development studios by keeping some form of independence throughout the various EA subsidiaries. EAs newest acquisitions, BioWare and Pandemic for example, will retain their identity as separate studios, much like SimCity and The Sims developer Maxis.

It may be too late for Origin, but perhaps their sacrifice has helped to shape the future of EA in a positive way.

IGN's Original Article

Discuss

Maverick

Posted on Sun 10th Feb 2008
Gevatter Lars has stopped by the WC Nexus forums and brought a new Bengal strike carrier model with him. Still a work in progress, Lars plans to incorporate the various incarnations of the TCS Tiger's Claw into one.


From Lars
I have originaly started it a long time ago, dropped it, started again, dropped....

Now I have again made some progress.
The general idea is still the same. Combining elements of different referances we have on the Bengal-class.
For example the Claw Marks, the TV show, the movie and ingame graphics and cutscenes.
I will also add some of my own ideas like I have added manouvering thrusters to the ship. AA defence, some windows and other stuff might follow.
I am also trying to get scaleing more "right". For example I rescaled the fighters to a more reasonable size that is basicly confirm with the landing animation but not as hugh as the Clawmark values say they would be.


Click to view.


Click to view.


Click to view.


Click to view.

Only time will tell how well the original Wing Commander, WC movie, and WC Academy versions of the Claw will meld together, but it's looking good so far!

Discuss

Maverick

Posted on Fri 4th Jan 2008
My friends over at Parallel Universe have released the latest version of their popular Privateer Remake mod. Besides new features to the game itself, this marks the project's transition to SVN, which will allow players to constantly get the newest updates available as soon as they are released.

Dilloh, one of the team's lead designers, was kind enough to send over this little snippet for any of those who are wondering exactly what Parallel Universe is about:

Privateer: Parallel Universe is a remake of the original Privateer, an old PC game which was kept in mind by many players as the successor to Elite, but placed in the Wing Commander universe. Based on VS Privateer Remake 1.2, the game started as a mod for said game and quickly grew more and more, catching the interest of several hundred PR users in the first few weeks.

Unlike other remakes, Parallel Universe aims at giving the best gaming experience possible -- not only by sticking to the original experience, but by adding up-to-date graphics and ship models as well. New, individual adventures can be found throughout the various bars of Gemini, and your reward is more then just money... Maybe the Militia gets fond of you and they give you a Hornet fighter, or perhaps you might even do the Kilrathi a favour, and who knows, maybe they have a deprecated cloaking device in stock for their human friend?

If you liked Privateer, you will love Parallel Universe. The game is under constant development by die-hard Privateer fans, daily updates occurring at the moment. And if you've ever had thoughts about how Privateer could be even better in your opinion, don't hesitate and tell us at our forum!

You can go here for download instructions for the new SVN system they've incorporated.

As Dilloh said, if you have any comments and/or questions regarding Parallel Universe, please visit the PU forums at WC Junction, located here.

Discuss

Maverick

Posted on Fri 21st Dec 2007
Well, this is what happens when I'm left at work with nothing to do and no one to assign me tedious, menial tasks. Instead of working on the WCpedia, like I should, I decided to be MUCH more productive with my time and make this little Wing Commander pixel comic. (Hey, give me a break, I didn't have any of the files necessary to work on the WCpedia at the office.)

While trying to pass the time, I found myself watching the "Strong Bad Emails" from HomestarRunner.com. Whilst doing so, I came across the "Create Your Own Webcomic" feature. And this is what resulted. It mainly stemmed from the coincidence that the "Strong Bad Space Fighters" look vaguely reminiscent of everybody's favorite Pancake-shaped spacecraft.

Click here for the artistic genius that is my WC Pixel Comic

If you don't get the joke (and I'm suspecting that many won't), please watch this "SBemail"to be enlightened. If you do get the joke, and it still isn't funny... you're right.

And, if you'd like to create your own pixelated web comic courtesy of HomestarRunner.com, WC inspired or not, go here.



Discuss

Monkhouse

Posted on Tue 25th Sep 2007
We've built it... Now's time for you to come and give us a hand
We're trying to be thorough here: What other WC site you know that gives you detailed info on pre-war WC ships, for example? See...
Falcon, Gotha, Hawk, Hummer, Hurricane, Minotaur, Wildcat, Gladiator, Trident, Cutter, Valiant, Sheridan, Asjaka, Tugar, Targu, Butha...

But we're short on historical data and commentary for ships in general; even if it's not strictly canonical but makes sense, like I did with the Venture class... though that's there pending your critical comments.

Generally speaking, all the stuff in red are pages that haven't been edited yet. See the WC ship classes and WC characters pages for example. And above all, we need all the help we can get to put together a WC timeline. Un-burdened by the WCM contradictions, our timeline should be relatively easy to put together; but all we've done so far is tentative work on 2669 (see our WC+Privateer timeline and WC+RF (Righteous Fire) timeline). Non-strictly-canonical facts, such fan mod -related events are welcome.

Cheers!

Maverick

Posted on Mon 24th Sep 2007
After months of hard work, diligence, and browsing through game manuals, the WC Nexus WCpedia is now online and open to the public! It's no where near complete, but we will be updating daily to get it up to par.

To check it out, head on over to WCpedia - the Wing Commander Encyclopedia

We've also opened up a new section for WCpedia related comments/questions/concerns in the forums, so be sure to drop by and tell us what you think!

Discuss

Maverick

Posted on Fri 24th Aug 2007
You may not have noticed, but we've gotten the "Artwork" section of the site up, and although it's pretty short on content at the moment, we hope to soon have it filled to the brim with both official and fan artwork.

Enjoy and keep an eye out for it's ever expanding content!

Discuss

Maverick

Posted on Sun 15th Jul 2007
Welcome to Wing Commander Nexus, your one stop shop for all things Wing Commander! Well... someday. The site is up and the first hurdle is behind us.

In the coming months, we will fill this skeleton with the various pieces of muscle and fat that will make up a site worthy of your attention.

Keep a look out for:

The WC Nexus Database- All the Wing Commander information you could want, including Game synopsis, walkthroughs, ship/character data, and even community information.

The Timeline- All the events of the Wing Commander universe presented in a clear, linear fashion.

Artwork section- The place to find a plethora of Wing Commander related artwork created by both official WC artists (box art, posters, etc.), as well as the fans (desktop wallpapers, comics, model renders, etc.).

But for now, if you happen to have stumbled across us before we roll out the big guns, feel free to visit the WC Nexus forums by clicking the "Discussion" link above. There you can ask any WC or WC Nexus related questions you may have, as well as post your own artwork, fan fiction, or just shoot the breeze with those of us working on the site.

Stay tuned...

Discuss