Wing Commander™ 1+2

I don't think it's possible for me to write an unbiased review of these games. For one lonely summer working in an unfamiliar town, Wing Commander was my primary source of entertainment - and sanity. I memorized ship specs and played through the campaigns many, many times. These were the games that changed the face of PC gaming - in some ways, for the worse, with the spiraling blockbuster budgets that persist to this day. They combined the popularity (at the time) of flight simulators and mission-based gameplay with Star Wars fantasies and with interesting stories and characters. While today, these kinds of combos are the norm, but at the time, it was pretty amazing. The other trick (following Lawrence Holland's use of it in LucasArts' Their Finest Hour) was to use graphically lush bitmaps for spacecraft & other objects rather than the far more limited flat-shaded polygonal objects of most flight sims at the time. This made dogfights a little trickier, as it was harder to determine the true direction of movement of the enemy ships, but it made for some incredible screenshots and a more believable cinematic experience. Other efforts made to improve the immersive quality of the game included the visual appearance of damage inside the cockpit, and the virtual hand of your pilot on the joystick as you flew. Once you get used to the lower resolution (and dig up a joystick if you don't have one already), you'll find the games quite fun and playable today. They still hold up.

The Graphics are out of date, but this was the game i have started playing games on PC (386er, 4 MB RAM, DOS 3.5). I hope Wing Commander 3-5 will be the next by GOG.

This game represents a revolution in gaming. I remember playing it on my 386, it unified simple arcade gaming (not so simple at the end) and a plot, with a sort-of role playing. All the games like X-Wing and similar were based on WC.

Both excellent space simulators. Hard to come by games of this quality even today. Only complaint is using the Broadsword in Wing Commander 2.

You might think that a game with that poor graphics in 2013 is not worth playing. Well, what the game lacks in graphics it sure got in game play. I still thing it is the best flight games ever. With the missions, your wingmen, your gear, your promotions, star bases etc.