This review is from the March 1996 PC Gamer. If you thought the last one was harsh, it didn’t come close to this which hasn’t a kind word to say until the final column. Hopefully I should be able to turn out something a little more positive than this in one of the other magazines:-
This review comes from the April 1995 PC Format. It’s a little harsh with a lot of criticism for lack of innovation:-
I’ll start with the worst of the bunch. This tiny preview comes from the December 1995 PC Format:-
This is the second part of an article on Origin from the February 1994 PC Zone. If you are wondering where part one is, the short answer is that I don’t have the January issue. That apparently dealt with Ultima VIII and Warbirds 1917-1918 (Warbirds later become Wings Of Glory). It’s strange that the Strike branding wasn’t used for the title really although to me a game called French Strike conjours up images of a gallic airport worker simulator.
This article concentrates on previews of Bioforge and Pacific Strike with passing mentions to Wing Commander and System Shock. According to this System Shock was called Bios Fear for a time which I have to say would have been a great (if not all that commercial) title.
After all the Underworld posts yesterday, I’ll rein myself back to an entry a day again for the moment. If you still want more Underworld, I’d strongly recommend having a look at the anniversary page over at the new home of Ultima Aiera (www.ultimacodex.com). There is an interview with Dan Schmidt (including a handful of questions from yours truly), design notes, concept art by Warren Spector and plenty more besides.
I’ve not started Wing Commander Saga yet so I’ll get back to some magazine scans today. These all come from the October 1993 PC Format. First is a review of Wing Commander Academy. It didn’t bowl the reviewer over and I can only agree in this case. It was a product that a lot of people had asked for to be fair but in my opinion it really could have done with coming out at least a year earlier if it was to find a large market:-
This lack of timeliness is especially apparent when you see a 2 page advert for Privateer in the same issue, not that my PC could actually cope with Privateer when it came out. WCA did have that in its favour but it was still a poor option compared to any of the existing Wing Commander games or mission packs if you didn’t already own the lot. I’m sure I’ve got a proof and the negatives for this Privateer advert or at least a variant on it around here but I’ll save them for another time:-
Not content with having a 2 page ad, there is also a full page for Shadow Caster:-
