01
Apr
Happy Easter!
News categories list
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02
Apr
It's April 1! Since before we even opened at wcnews.com more than 25 years ago, the CIC Staff has had some strict rules about April Fool's Day: Never announce a new Wing Commander game. Don't do anything that would get people excited just to let them down. Mostly err on just being silly. We've had a few good jokes, and joked about a few things that came true. But with so much of the current discourse dominated by propaganda and conspiracy theories, we're not really in the mood to celebrate a holiday dedicated to fake news.
So anyhow, the regular news continus. There's two more days to get your discounted Wing Commander. Each game is 65-75% off. Hope you have a great day.
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19
Apr
…Great news! The campaign to make a new album of Wing Commander music achieved a critical milestone last night. It's now at $16,000 and rising. This means composer George Oldziey will be able to move forward with a live orchestra and make this exciting project a reality. There is still quite a bit of leg work yet to complete, but George has already been taking preliminary steps to scout out possibilities and make preparations. Since there's still three weeks left in the Kickstarter, we're also in excellent shape to be able to hit the stretch goal of $24,000 to add in a live choir. Let your friends know or contribute if you can!
Woo hoo!!! We made it to the target of $16,000 in 10 days! You all are AMAZING!! Thank you SO MUCH from the bottom of my heart! ALLTinker put us over the top last night (after my bedtime
What a great way to wake up today!So, you are all now guaranteed an orchestral
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22
Apr
…PhilsComputerLab has another novel video that looks at the WC series from a new angle. The focus of this episode is to emphasize the evolutionary leaps that each iteration in the series made. It's a great topic to discuss, because it's probably harder for later generations to appreciate. It's easy to look at the four year gap between WC1 and WC3 and say, "Wow," but there was a lot of technological advancement happening that drove all that. The expected conventions of game design were ever-changing as well. Check it out below, and thanks to thp for the tip!
The Wing Commander games are a great example to showcase how the PC has evolved in the short span of just 7 years from 1990 to 1997.
One correction: WC3 was 1994 (on PC), not 1995, and I definitely would not have called its reception "mixed." At the time of its release, WC3 was tied for PC Gamer's highest rated game of all time, among many other
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30
May
Tonight we have a serene Hornet flyby arranged and rendered by Mac. The fighter models themselves were originally designed by Klavs. I like this scene for today's news because the color palette seems to match the common tones of Star Trek Discovery, which will be flying off into the bluish purple sunset late tonight. Stop by the CIC Discord with us if you're planning to watch the finale too (we'll be up for the live stream)!
It's a #WingCommander kind of night.
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02
Oct
…It's been a little while since we've seen a new ship from DefianceIndustries, but that's for good reason. He's been busy on quite a bit of behind-the-scenes work for other mods, although he managed to find the time to put together this stealthy dark Arrow. It's intended to be the cloakable light fighter from WC4, which completes his Arrow trio. This one has an awesome hexagon skin on the hull and sports the potent quad gun pack we've come to love on the craft. Get a glimpse before it disappears!
The Stealth Arrow (or Cloaking Arrow if you prefer). I tried a few different purple paint schemes but honestly, it looks better without it (certainly better than the weird tribal tattoo angel wings it originally sported). I may keep tinkering but for now I think this looks good enough for the Black Lance. Paulson didn't seem to big on exotic paint schemes anyway - though Seether, I hear, was partial to
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02
Oct
…Artist Alan Gutierrez has posted another one of his fabulous Wing Commander scenes commissioned for the Wing Commander Customizable Card Game. It was mirrored and used as the art for the Magnum Launch card. It's hard to tell if this was just due to image processing, but there are possibly some very slight differences between the two scenes: the ceiling structure is more pronounced in the recent posting while the light reflections on the deck appear slightly more distinct on the card. Mr. Gutierrez notes that this scene was likely the inspiration for a similar fighter launch scene he did a few years later for Steve Jackson Games titled X Wing Fighter Scramble. You can find links to some of his other Wing Commander items below and plenty of other nifty sci-fi scenes here.
From the card game "Wing Commander" commissioned and published by Tracy Hickman & Margaret Weis, 1995
A "Luck" card, it was the
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18
Nov
…80s Baby recently posted their review of the Wing Commander movie in honor of the film's 20th birthday. Back in 1999, the author was fortunate enough to stumble on a double feature of Never Been Kissed and Wing Commander bundled together. She recounts her review as a memory of the events all those years ago. The recollections meander about as much as the reviewer did when the NBK credits rolled, but it's honestly not the worst WC Movie review I've ever read. At least there's no nerd complaining about sound in space! Check out the full article here.
Ah, memories. They can be hazy and hard to trust, but some of them — some of the lucky ones — stay trapped in your brain as crystal clear as the day the experience happened right before your eyes.
In 1999, I was living it up in one of the best cinematic years of my generation. I feel like I was at the movie theater every weekend that year, with extra
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27
Nov
…Starfleet Engineers, in conjunction with the finest minds in singularity technology of the Romulan Republic, have finally made a breakthrough in investigating the incursions from the Galaxy of Great Sales, which occasionally merges with our own to set off the anomaly known as the “Flash Sale.” This newfound research has allowed Starfleet to create not one, not two, but three major sales over the next week! For our third and final sale, it’s time to head back to tradition. From November 27th at 10am PT to December 2nd at Midnight PT, you can save 25% on every item in the Zen Store! That means ship slots, XP boosts, ships, costumes, and anything else your heart desires! Head there now, Captains! .share-footer a { margin: 20px 10px 10px 0; background: url(d7afaaa14e96d0d973f76157ae31ec5b1466398539.png) no-repeat 0 0; opacity: .5; display: inline-block; height: 60px;
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24
Jan
…”We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.” The assimilated comms array broadcasts the message on repeat, diligently following its last directive even as a tractor beam drags the debris toward an Alliance vessel. The mood there is tense, the crew well aware of the risks. Understanding Borg technology is key to understanding the Borg, the assimilated species themselves, and possibly even to freeing them. As a society grows, it must confront the dangers of its own technology. The industrial revolution brought global warming, the atomic age brought M.A.D., and today the services that connect us have splintered us into isolated tribes of alternative facts. The inconvenient truth is that we must adapt or perish. The Borg are a terrifying
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16
Feb
Remember: the love arrow always loves you. Hope you have a happy day!
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17
Feb
NightBall06 recently decided to try his hand a several new Hellcat angles. Since his design is essentially drawn 'by hand' rather than being a 3D model, this took some artistic skill rather than modeling wizardry. The result is similar to his previous concepts at first glance, but these represent his most ornate takes and elaborate angles yet.
Well - A little update in short. Had the feeling I needed a perspective bottom view.... So here it is.
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21
Mar
…Priority One: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast, sat down with Lead Designer Al Rivera this week, to talk about everything that went into the 10th Anniversary! You can hear the interview below, or follow this link to the full episode. Here's their episode description: This week on Priority One --- Santiago Cabrera discusses Holos, Frakes reflects on finding Riker, Pete Challenges Pat to Trivia, and Short Treks gets a Hard Copy. In Gaming news, we sit down with Star Trek Online Lead Designer Al “Captain Geko” Rivera and review the latest happenings in the Star Trek gaming multiverse…. Then, we look On Screen to episode 8 of Star Trek Picard - “Broken Pieces” .share-footer a { margin: 20px 10px 10px 0; background: url(d7afaaa14e96d0d973f76157ae31ec5b1466398539.png) no-repeat 0 0; opacity: .5; display: inline-block; height: 60px; width: 60px; padding: 0; border:
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12
May
…We've got an update on the exciting news that Peacock will be carrying Wing Commander Academy as a launch title. None other than DefianceIndustries happened to work on the service, but never thought to check for anything related to Wing Commander. He's been able to confirm the show will be included and answer some of our preliminary questions:
A simple X1/Flex voice remote search for "Wing Commander Academy" will bring the show up. All thirteen episodes are included with a generic series description for each. It's hard at this point to get a side-by-side quality comparison with the DVD, but it's definitely a big step up from some of the unauthorized downloadable/streaming copies available over the years. Resolution appears to still be SD and basic closed captions are also available. We can't wait to get our hands on this for ourselves - it's always wonderful to find a new way to experience Wing
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17
Dec
LOST SHIPS! While Wing Commander 3 is chock full of completed-but-unused assets, Wing Commander 4 has very few. And here they are! First up, this Black Lance carrier is pretty sleek:
Here's a Confederation carrier under construction; it's NOT the TCS Princeton (CV-48) which appears in the Speradon series so it's not clear at all where this would've been used.
And the last one I've found so far, a unique Border Worlds starbase.
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17
May
…The German Shock 2 gaming site has posted a new speculation piece about the potential for a new Wing Commander game. They base this on comments in Jeff Grubb's GamesBeats show. As the story goes, EA Motive of Star Wars Squadrons fame is working on a new game that's a comeback of a popular franchise. For many years, Wing Commander was in a distant third place behind Electronic Arts' other space sim franchises, Star Wars and Mass Effect, so prospects were slim. A lot has changed lately with Star Wars going non-exclusive and the mixed fortunes of the Mass Effect franchise. This means Wing Commander is certainly a potential contender once again, although the stars would need to align for a viable project to actually see the light of day. It's only a matter of time though, and we'll be here to bring you the news when it happens!
Google's translate features are working better than ever these days, so -
02
Sep
Eryx Channel has posted a video about the "Evolution of Wing Commander Games." It's a simple clip with edits of the games as they appeared in the franchise, but a few things caught my eye. Games like Academy, Armada, Righteous Fire, Super Wing Commander, Kilrathi Saga and Arena are included, which is always really great to see. It's kind of odd they added in WC Saga at the end, because the rundown should really just go through 2007. Fan projects like WC Saga are wonderful, but there are a bunch of awesome ones that could warrant their own complete video. Also, that's a Star Citizen/Squadron 42 screenshot in the thumbnail, which is extra weird because it's not even in the clip!
Oh, the other thing that caught my eye is this stellar comment:
I liked this series because my dad would always be on top of the newest release in the series.Those were the good 'ol days!
That's where we are now, folks.
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04
Oct
…This one isn't strictly WC-related, but longtime Wingnut and CIC visitor Vidmaster has released a free tabletop game that looks pretty neat. It's a work in progress that's ready for prospective players to print and play at home. He describes it as a "near future space exploration board game." The universe is built via a grid of tiles that you assemble, and there are plenty of detailed cards and interface pieces to get acquainted with. Everything you need to go get going is available here. Vidmaster is looking for feedback from Wing Commander fans who might be into this, so you can help follow up at the CIC Forums. It makes me wonder what possibilities are out there for fans who want to take something like this in a WC direction!
I made a super-niche board game again. It is free. This time, it is a solo-experience, that is a board game played by one person only (something I considered ridicolus
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03
Nov
…The Washington Post (or more specifically, their Launcher video game section) has run an article about video game franchises they'd want raised from the dead. Wing Commander gets top billing as their first series on the list, which is always great to see! Since this is Halloween-themed, each game also gets a small piece of zombie artwork. In WC's case, there's a disembodied hand on a joystick with a familiar reticle superimposed on top. You can check out the full article here.
Wing Commander
We all know Mark Hamill once saved the universe while waving a lightsaber in a galaxy far, far away. But did you know he also saved Earth by dropping a tectonic bomb on the war-hungry planet of Kilrah? Then he followed up those heroics by staving off a civil war through exposing the plans of a warmongering admiral played by Malcolm McDowell, whose character’s motivations preceded those of Call of Duty’s
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22
Feb
…President Zachary Hudson's proposal to remove the eight-year limit on his term of office has led to public unrest on many Federal worlds.
Supporters of Shadow President Felicia Winters have taken the lead in protesting against the Hudson Contravention, which is currently being debated in Congress.
The situation has been extensively covered by newsfeeds across the Federation:
Federal Free Press: "As always, Felicia Winters is the only grown-up in the room. She has rightfully objected to the sitting president's attempt at throwing away the rulebook. Repealing the 77th amendment would be a fundamental blow to our millennia-old democracy."
Sol Today: "What's the choice here? Retain Hudson for a few more years until things calm down, or hand power to Winters and watch the Federal government weaken and collapse under a weight the shadow president cannot possibly bear?"
The Federal Times: "Moderate
