sci-fi gaming adventures
2012-Nov-24, Saturday 04:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mellowtiggerI've been downloading massive files in recent weeks. It all started when I found the fundraising campaign for a space game in development called Star Citizen. This game is significant because it's being done A) by a small team of game enthusiasts and B) without interference from any big distributor. It's being funded privately and publicly without involving the big studios! The guy heading this project is Chris Roberts, the same developer who previously created the Wing Commander series, plus the Freelancer and Privateer spin-offs. There was even a movie created from the many games, although it wasn't as well liked by audiences. I enjoyed it because I recognized the images and sound effects from my games.
So I donated (too much) money to the fundraising campaign, hoping to see nice results in 2 years. So... what to do until then? I downloaded Privateer, Wing Commander 3, and Wing Commander 4, of course. I remember the good acting done in these games by big names such as Mark Hamill, John Rhys-Davies, and Malcom McDowell. I still have my pc disks for Privateer 2 which featured acting by Clive Owens and John Hurt. That game is still my favorite of the series. I had no luck installing it on my Windows 7 pc, though. It couldn't cope with modern large hard disks and kept insisting I didn't have enough room to install the game.
Rediscovering how very bad I am at "twitch" games led me to download a similar game from a different universe. X3: Terran Conflict is much more friendly to merchants and explorers like I prefer playing. It sounds like the new Star Citizen game aspires to be as flexible as X3, so I expect to enjoy it sometime in 2014 November.
Meanwhile, tonight's bout of insomnia eventually led me to a great sci-fi movie series. It's called "Clear Skies", and it's quite well done. I really like the dry humor in it (and it has British accents to go with their humor). It's probably more meaningful to people like me who have actually played EVE Online which is the same genre as these other games I've mentioned. The first movie is 39 minutes long, and I found it funny, dramatic, and generally enjoyable. The second movie is 46 minutes long and even better produced than the first. Be sure to continue watching to the last few seconds so you see a joke continued from the first film. The third movie is taking its sweet time downloading, so I'll have to wait another 40 minutes to view it.
So I donated (too much) money to the fundraising campaign, hoping to see nice results in 2 years. So... what to do until then? I downloaded Privateer, Wing Commander 3, and Wing Commander 4, of course. I remember the good acting done in these games by big names such as Mark Hamill, John Rhys-Davies, and Malcom McDowell. I still have my pc disks for Privateer 2 which featured acting by Clive Owens and John Hurt. That game is still my favorite of the series. I had no luck installing it on my Windows 7 pc, though. It couldn't cope with modern large hard disks and kept insisting I didn't have enough room to install the game.
Rediscovering how very bad I am at "twitch" games led me to download a similar game from a different universe. X3: Terran Conflict is much more friendly to merchants and explorers like I prefer playing. It sounds like the new Star Citizen game aspires to be as flexible as X3, so I expect to enjoy it sometime in 2014 November.
Meanwhile, tonight's bout of insomnia eventually led me to a great sci-fi movie series. It's called "Clear Skies", and it's quite well done. I really like the dry humor in it (and it has British accents to go with their humor). It's probably more meaningful to people like me who have actually played EVE Online which is the same genre as these other games I've mentioned. The first movie is 39 minutes long, and I found it funny, dramatic, and generally enjoyable. The second movie is 46 minutes long and even better produced than the first. Be sure to continue watching to the last few seconds so you see a joke continued from the first film. The third movie is taking its sweet time downloading, so I'll have to wait another 40 minutes to view it.