Wing Commander ®: Privateer ™

Privateer is/was the best of the Wing Commander games. None of the other Wing Commander games, attempted sequels (the Darkening or Freelancer), or any other attempted reimaginings even come close to capturing the magic that the original Privateer and the Righteous Fire add-on created.

I have fond memories of playing Privateer... I loved it so much I created an excel spreadsheet with the price spread of the various goods you could transport and trade between the different planets (agricultural, pleasure, etc) to maximize my profits! I wonder if I can find that file... Now, seriously, this was the best space sim I ever played, I am not a flight sim enthusiast so I actually had to buy a joystick just to play this game and it was money well spent (even though I never used it after finishing Privateer, I guess). If you never played it, you should buy it.

This is one of my all-time favorites. I tried the Elite games, kept crashing when trying to land (well, in all but Protostar - another great game GOG should get their hands on). I tried Microsoft's "Freelancer", which seems to be set in the same universe, has great graphics, but only allows you to have one mission at a time (even if there are several missions listed that go to the same place). Oh, and I've tried the freeware fan-made remakes (Gemini Gold and Privateer Remake). Oh, and I've got what I consider the best series to compete with Privateer, the X series from Egosoft. Still, I keep coming back to this game. There's just something about the original, the user interface, the gameplay, that keeps me coming back. I've never completed the main mission in the original, though I got close, and I've only played enough of Righteous Fire to see the opening video where your ship has been ransacked and now you've got a new mission: get back what was stolen and make those who stole it pay. Anyway, I could play (and have) Privateer all day, whether following the main mission or just running around and earning money. Thank you GOG.com for bringing this classic to modern systems. I always appreciate your efforts, as trying to get them to work right is always a challenge for me.

Some of my fondest gaming memories stem from the countless hours I spend playing this game. I wandered the various systems of Gemini sector, plying wares in hopes of a big payoff, and indiscriminately vaporizing pirates with my nifty green alien gun. Sure, I knew there was a story arc. I'd get around to it, eventually. This is one of those games where you didn't NEED the story to enjoy the game, BUT, playing it did offer unique and tangible rewards. I would play through the story a little bit, and then find myself sidetracked by just how much I was enjoying blowing up pirates just to tractor them in and sell them off to the slavers. Sure, doing such things was risky... but that's kind of the fun in it. The speech pack always made me chuckle, too. Some of the lines are repetitive, sure, but the variation in delivery was often a bit of a laugh. I only hope that we some day get the Righteous Fire expansion, because I really long to hear a Retro yelling "DIE BY THE VERY WEAPONS YOU ADORE!" a split second before I reduce them to a cloud of atoms. The basic gist of the game is simple: You play the part of a spaceship captain, in a backwater region of space. You have a few paltry creds to your name, and the freedom to go more or less where you want and do what you want. Do you buy upgrades for your ship, and try to cash in some bounties on the bounty board? Do you buy some cargo and hope that you can sell it off for a good price elsewhere? Or, do you embrace the life of a pirate, and outfit your steadfast little ship with a tractor beam, and harass merchant Drayman in hopes that they'll dump their cargo for you to scoop up? The choices are yours, and you're free to change your tactics, and your lot in life, whenever you wish. I should note that the story, while great, can be relatively easy to accidentally lose track of. Then again, it can be relatively easy to accidentally fall back into. If we can get Righteous Fire, then my life will be complete!

Trading, fighting, upgrading, storyline, side missions, exploring.....What's not to love.