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Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Alioth-based facility housing production of Achilles' new Supercruise Overcharge capable Frame Shift Drives came under attack today.
The crime was perpetrated by a small group of individuals piloting a ship loaded with high-impact explosive weaponry, seemingly with the intention of sabotaging SCO drive production.
The group piloting the ship had posed as Achilles' Aerospace engineers and had somehow gained high-level clearance to bring the vehicle deep into the facility. Achilles themselves are unsure how this could have been possible, stating to reporters that the malicious agents would have required "incredibly sophisticated technology" to forge the appropriate passes.
The group were able to bypass the facility's first checkpoint before the automated security robots identified them as a potential threat. The malicious agents apparently opened fire on the facility, preventing the robots

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We've been reporting for a while now that Wing Commander Arena's days are numbered in the Microsoft XBox Live Marketplace. The game has had an incredible 17 year run, but all Xbox 360 games that aren't forward-compatible with the Xbox One/Series systems will be delisted from the company's digital storefront on July 29, 2024. The good news is that owners will be able to continue to play online for the foreseeable future, so we've been strongly recommending people buy the game while they have the chance. If you have yet to secure your own copy, there's no time like the present. Microsoft is in the process of heavily discounting a variety of the affected games, which includes a whopping 90% reduction for Arena. It's now only $0.99! You can buy it on the web, but there have been mixed reports of the store hanging and timing out. Try a different browser or return later if you have an issue. See you

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's time for the GOG Summer Sale, and that means some nice discounts on Wing Commander! Instead of the typical blanket discount, there are a couple tiers to the markdowns this time. Most Wing Commander titles are 50% off their typical $5.99 price. Armada, Academy and Privateer 2 are curiously 66% off or just $2.03 each. Meanwhile, Strike Commander is 75% off at just $1.49!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Howard Day is branching into new territory with the introduction of a pirate fighter for his Wing Leader project. He's settled on the Talon, which makes a lot of sense. There's some wonderful variation in paint schemes and weapon loadouts to mimic some of the chaotic design seen by pirates elsewhere in Wing Commander. As much as I like the blues and greens, the purples and oranges really pop here! You can help provide feedback and see some earlier work-in-progress photos at the CIC Forums.

This weekend I spent some time making a set of Pirate fighters - based on the F-38 Talon, these are supposed to be Wingleader-styled versions.

The custom loadouts for these are:
Type A: Photon Blaster, Meson Cannon (scavenged Kilrathi weapons)
Type B: Laser, Meson Cannon
Type C: 2x Laser
Type D: Mass Driver
Type E: Meson Cannon, Neutron Cannon
Type F (Boss/Ace): 2x Laser, Mass Driver

I'd love any feedback on these.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

For a few years I've been sharing random Wing Commander deep dives on Twitter. There's nothing I love more than taking some specific question or subject that maybe no one cares about and then looking at it as thoroughly as I can… and Twitter has always fit like a glove for that because it lets me kind of project out what I'm thinking about to the world and the inevitably forget about it when I lose steam. I'm a very long winded cross-every-dot writer and just doing stream of consciousness posts that forced me to think about what I was saying was a lot of fun.

So I thought that maybe in addition to that I should start doing longer form versions right here where people actually care about the tiniest bits of Wing Commander errata… and where I'd have some more space for explanatory notes. And I can answer questions and people who actually understand what they're talking about can contribute! Plus, the

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

There has been a fair amount of chat about the deadline to buy Wing Commander Arena with many fans confused about what the game is and how to play it. Many have also encountered a bug in which their Xbox does not allow them to buy the game. We hope to help by answering these questions and others with this quick FAQ.

What is Wing Commander Arena?

Wing Commander Arena is a spinoff game set in the Wing Commander universe. It was developed for the Xbox 360 and released on Xbox Live Arcade on July 25, 2007. It was produced by Electronic Arts and developed by the now-defunct Gaia Industries studio. Xbox Live Arcade titles were small and often experimental budget games; they were released digitally for a low price point. Players should be aware that Arena is not a traditional Wing Commander game with a first person cockpit view and an interactive story. It is a top-down shooter with a heavy focus on frenzied

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Ever wonder about the callsigns in the Wing Commander TrainSim? They're selected from a bank of options when you start a new game. They include all the wingmen plus SEGALLION, DIBBER, ZORO, GRYPHON, SUTEK and POTSHOT. These are all the callsigns of members of the dev team.

Segallion gets a star system in WC1, too. Sutek was Paul Isaac’s callsign but I’m not sure who the original Segallion was. Learn about the many variants of the TrainSim here!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Did you ever want a list of the helmet numbers from the Gold Squadron pilots in Wing Commander III? If yes then I have great news for you:

COBRA - A31
FLASH - A13
FLINT - A72
HOBBES - A99
MANIAC - A27
MAVERICK - A62
VAGABOND - A41
VAQUERO - A65

Vera: Do these numbers have a meaning?

LOAF: None that I’m aware of... save perhaps that fairly limited number of repeating integers suggests the art department bought as few sets of number stickers as they could!

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Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we've got a new model to share from Adm_Maverick. The Piranha might not have the cultural gravitas of the Hornet, Ferret or Arrow, but it's a very fun little ship that gets the job done. Its integrated Stormfire cannon is a sweet bonus, and I really like that it has been modeled here on the side of the fuselage. That's a nice touch!

I just spent the last (counts)... 14 hours building a model of the F-106 Piranha in Tinkercad. I went some artist interpretation for some details, like the side mounted storm fire and the sensor array on the left side. Over all, I think it turned out well enough.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Anybody play Secret Ops when it was released episodically? Each one ended with a password based on your performance which changed the fiction on the website. All the codes were nerdy references: here TALOS IV is the planet from The Cage, ACHERON is the moon from Alien.

Episode 2 is two 2001: A Space Odyssey nods. AE-35 is the Discovery's antenna that doesn't need to be repaired and TMA-1 is the formal name for the Monolith on the moon (Tycho Magnetic Anomaly One).

Episode 3: this is the one I don't know! LAUMER is most likely SF author Keith Laumer... but I do not know CAIDEN! Anyone have an idea? [Chris: Maybe a misspelling of author Martin Caidin?]

Episode 4: LEONOV for cosmonaut Alexei Leonov (or the Soviet ship from 2010!) and KASPAROV for chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov.

Episode 5: BISSETTE and VEITCH are Stephen Bissette and Rick Veitch, horror comic creators (and frequent collaborators).

And

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

How about some vintage French mag scans? Guybrush_SF has you covered! I've also added English translations to make the reviews easier to read. I love the part where they gush about the game's rare beautiful and branching gameplay, but the text is only part of the appeal. It's also always such a fascinating time capsule to look at how an article like this would have been presented more than thirty years ago. We also have previews from each mag in our archive. Find the Gen 4 preview here and Tilt here (though for the Amiga version, so not a direct relationship).

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

As a Wing Commander fan you're probably wondering, "What's WC3's Ginger Lynn Allen up to lately?" We've got you covered, and the answer is quite a lot! On top of a steady stream of adult content, Ms. Allen has been heavily into art lately. She has an online gallery of acrylic paintings where prints run $50-150 with larger originals going for $1600+. She also has a variety of handmade jewelry for sale on the site. It's good to see that she's remained in touch with her sci-fi roots as well. Check out a little teaser prosthetic she shared from an upcoming production!

All girls feel fat some days. This painting was inspired by my ass.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Tomorrow's a big day for sci-fi fans! The second season of Star Trek Prodigy is dropping on Netflix July 1 with a huge 20-episode slate. This unprecedented release means we'll be marathoning the show on the CIC Discord all day Monday! If you were put off by the initial marketing that labeled it as a "kids show," we highly recommend you give it a second look! A better description of the show is a modern animated sequel to Star Trek Voyager. The starships and characters are gorgeous, and the storylines run the whole range from endearing to humorous to tragic and riveting. Stop on by to join the fun!

Star Trek: Prodigy follows a motley crew of young aliens who must figure out how to work together while navigating a greater galaxy, in search of a better future.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Here's a quick peek at several different versions of the Hit Squad edition of Wing Commander 1 that come from Dennis Mull's extensive collection. Hit Squad was a budget published that was responsible for a wide range of translations and rereleases for the original game. It's exactly the type of variation that both delights and drives collectors mad!

LOAF: They covered the UK, France, Germany and Italy. Gotta be at least a dozen versions for the patient collector! (I bet Dennis Mull has a bunch.)

Dennis: Yes, I have a few, but there are more out there.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's July, so that means this is the final month that Wing Commander Arena will be offered for sale by Microsoft! Although the game will remain playable for the foreseeable future, potential players will need to purchase their copy now to be able to download it to their Xbox 360 later. The game has been heavily discounted to just $0.99, so there's no reason not to pick a copy up just in case! It's also a really good idea to read LOAF's excellent Arena FAQ to get all of the details straight. To go along with this countdown, here's a couple of videos that AD recently found that show Andre BigBoss hunting achievements. The first clip shows what it takes to organize 16 players for the big "TCS Tiger's Claw" unlock. I very much admire the effort and appreciate how this sort of thing is preserved for history, since modern streaming infrastructure didn't exist back in 2007. I believe the clips are

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Evil Pixel has posted a new video to highlight the plight of Wing Commander 2 for the SNES. This is a cause near and dear to our heart as we have long campaigned to help this port see the light of day. The Super Nintendo variant of WC2 was built from the ground up to be an enhanced version of the game, and it was sadly canceled after it was completed due to the high cost of cartridge production at the time. Videos like this help publicize the hunt for a long lost copy, and we'll keep searching until it's found!

Wing Commander II was released in 1992, however a port of the game was briefly mentioned and shown in gaming magazines and never heard of again. It is said the game was finished and is in someones possession.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Aegis has continued to monitor the recently shifting Thargoid behaviour and have confirmed a clear pattern.
Expansion efforts have slowed in recent weeks, with experts theorising that this change in the Thargoids was a precursor to a change in overall strategy. Aegis researchers have now gathered enough evidence to confirm a tactical shift.
The Thargoids have adopted a more defensive stance, reinforcing their current position rather than expanding outward. They are also targeting and invading populated systems exclusively, sometimes without their normal scouting operations.
Dr. Jeong-Hui Shing of the Holloway Bioscience institute offered the following view:
"That lack of scouting is the most fascinating element of this change to me. A military man may claim it to be a desperate enemy lashing out at its opponent, but I see something deeper."
"Foregoing expansion to prioritise the defence of

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The CIC staff would like to wish everyone a safe Fourth of July and a home that's still standing in the morning. Hopefully our readers in the US enjoy the fireworks and our readers outside the US enjoy the figurative fireworks from afar.

Quote from EVERSPACE News-Bot

Hello pilots!

Feels like it's been a while since an update, yeah? The team decided to compile all the work through the months since our last info drop, available here:

EVERSPACE by ROCKFISH Games — Kickstarter

There has been a TON of progress made to the game. If you've been tracking us every day the changes might have felt a bit more subtle, though looking back now it's clear to see we've come a very long way!

Thank you all for your support.

Erik (Giraffasaur)

P.S.If you haven't heard yet, Rockfish is also developing a new title.

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This week at Bungie, we revealed Cayde’s fate.

If you want to remain spoiler-free, you should stop reading now and not look at the internet until September 4. As many of you already know, we gave you a glimpse of beloved Hunter Vanguard Cayde-6’s final moments earlier this week.

We told you that Forsaken is taking a darker tone and has a Western revenge vibe. It looks as if many of you have taken it upon yourselves to avenge Cayde. In September, you'll get your chance to hunt down the Barons, confront Uldren, and make him answer for his crimes.