Chris Roberts, the creator of Wing Commander, has revealed his return to videogame development after a twelve year stint as a movie producer (including The Punisher, Lord of War, and Lucky Number Slevin), announcing a new PC-focused Space Sim titled Star Citizen at GDC Austin 2012.
The game has reportedly been funded thus far via private investment, but hopes to raise further capital via crowdfunding on Roberts'
official website, claiming that if it's able to attain a lofty target of between US$2M to $4 M that further private investment will enable them to remain independent of publishing partners --although no running tally seems to have been disclosed for that.
Let's put high-end PC gaming and Space Sims back on the map!
Star Citizen brings the visceral action of piloting interstellar craft through combat and exploration to a new generation of gamers at a level of fidelity never before seen. At its core Star Citizen is a destination, not a one-off story. It's a complete universe where any number of adventures can take place, allowing players to decide their own game experience. Pick up jobs as a smuggler, pirate, merchant, bounty hunter, or enlist as a pilot, protecting the borders from outside threats. I've always wanted to create one cohesive universe that encompasses everything that made Wing Commander and Privateer / Freelancer special. A huge sandbox with a complex and deep lore allowing players to explore or play in whatever capacity they wish.
You can watch the trailer for the game's single-player component --which confusingly has it's own title "Squadron 42"-- embedded below.
Being built on CryEngine 3, Star Citizen intends to be managed with a service model similar to Guild Wars 2, rather than subscription or free-to-play, and also hopes to implement support for the promising Oculus Rift head-mounted display tech.
The game is said to be in the early stages of development, with no stated release date yet. Several interviews with Roberts have gone live today on various publications:
Polygon,
GI International, and
Shacknews (thanks
VG247).
Posted 01:46pm 11/10/12
I notice it's also using the Wing Commander radar system. That's a good thing. 20 years on, it still remains the most intuitive radar system I've ever seen in a sim.
Unfortunately I've lost faith in Chris Roberts ability to deliver a game I'd enjoy playing anymore.
What always bugged me about Wing Commander was that while it was released in the height of IPX networking and games utilising it, it gave me no ability whatsoever to have my brother or a friend jump on the PC next to me and pilot either another ship, or one of the turrets in my own.
That's what I want to see - the ability to jump in another ships turrets while some other skilled pilot does his thing.
Posted 06:26pm 11/10/12
As I see it, his biggest competition is the most successful 'Western, non-blizzard' MMO in EVE.
I think he's going in a direction that interests me more (in the direct flight elements and 'immersion' etc etc).
Lets say, for a second, that he MEETS his idea of the universe, and the 'Sqn 42' piece comes together...
As an Australian, once that (primarily SP, and as he's put it 'co-op') part of the game is over... is the REST of the game going to be even remotely playable from this end of Earth?
Posted 06:35pm 11/10/12
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Posted 05:20pm 13/10/12
Wish Infinity engine was further along, such a blackout zone those developers.
Posted 06:23pm 13/10/12
True space is very, very big and very, very empty. Makes sense from a game's perspective to have you jumping between the interesting sectors/whatever and then flying around within those.
I absolutely loved Wing Commander, Privateeer, and even Freelancer and Starlancer, so yeah, I'm totally on board with this one. Bring this s*** on!
Posted 06:41pm 13/10/12
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Posted 12:28pm 14/10/12
Posted 08:20pm 14/10/12
If he can push the boundaries and have an EVE like MMO experience with c***pit flying - I imagine I'll be heading straight to divorce court within a week of it coming out.
Posted 12:40pm 15/10/12
I think Chris was spot on about PC gaming.
I remember when they said that PC gaming was dead when the consoles started to take over. And now they are still saying the same thing with the tablets. But here i still am with my PC, playing some kick ass games! I will never give up PC gaming.
Posted 07:07am 16/10/12
If you liked Privateer, you might be interested to give this a read:
WC5/SC6 plot development document
It basically goes in to what would have been Wing Commander 5 and 6, which expands on the Steltek and Nezari. This was written after introduction of the Nephilim.
Posted 07:27am 16/10/12
Posted 11:59am 16/10/12
Posted 12:09pm 16/10/12
But this is back in the days where games very rarely sold more than a million copies. These days it's expected as a bare minimum just to justify development costs.
SecretOps is basically the expansion in line with how WC1 and WC2 for Secret Missions and Special Ops, so not really fair to call it WC6. And, you can't even get SpecOps anymore, for some wierd screwed up IP reasons, nor do they sell Prophecy Gold.
last edited by Raven at 12:09:19 16/Oct/12