PC gamers, get ready to welcome the return of a truly classic space game. Wing Commander 3 has been re-released on Good Old Games is available right now for $5.99 USD. The game 1.6GB and supports all operating systems. The game was originally developed by Origin Systems and was released in 1994.
Wing Commander 3: Heart of the Tiger is the second sequel in Chris Roberts’ Wing Commander science fiction space combat simulation franchise of computer games, produced by Origin Systems. Wing Commander 3 made the move from the sprite-based graphics used in previous titles to software-driven texture-mapped polygonal 3D, and used FMV for cut scenes.
The game featured an entirely new line of ships and fighters, abandoning the technology of Wing Commander and Wing Commander 2. Terran craft were redesigned from “airplanes in space”, while Kilrathi craft were totally redesigned into asymmetrical ships with prongs, barbs and fang-like surfaces. The new, blockier forms were made necessary by the then-primitive state of polygon graphics, as Wing Commander 3 was released a few years before the first true 3D video cards and all 3D effects had to be calculated by the CPU.
The game made the transition from animated cut-scenes to full motion video, one of the first computer games to do so; it was frequently marketed as the world’s first interactive movie. It pioneered the use of CGI backgrounds and greenscreen work; all sets were added digitally during post-production, nearly a decade before George Lucas would use the same tactic in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. A large number of branching (“interactive”) conversations allow the player to choose what response his character will give; the choice may affect the other person’s attitude towards your character, or even the morale of the entire crew.
To act in these live action sequences, director Chris Roberts hired a formidable amount of talent, most notably Mark Hamill for the player character; the game’s budget was the then unheard-of sum of USD $4 million, making it the most expensive game produced at the time. As such movie content consumes a large amount of data storage, the game was packaged on four CD-ROMs instead of floppy disks, another emerging technology at that point.
In short, it’s a masterpiece so make sure to get it!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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