Important Mark Hamill news: Wing Commander 3 now on GOG

by Alexander Sliwinski on Sep 14th 2011 1:30PM

Wing Commander 3: Heart of The Tiger is available now on GOG.com for $6. Promoted at the time as an "Origin Interactive Movie" and filmed in Hollywood (remember when that mattered?), the game is still a great example of early 3D graphics, FMV and an industry having a "movies are the future of games" identity crisis.

Beyond Mark Hamill (Star Wars) in the lead, the game also featured John Rhys-Davies (Lord of the Rings, Sliders) and Malcolm McDowell (Clockwork Orange, Heroes).

If sprites and animations are more your thing, Wing Commander 1 + 2 are also available on GOG as a bundle for $6. There's no Mark Hamill, but there's totally a main character with blue hair.

Source: GOG

Tags: EA, GOG, gog.com, good-old-games, Origin, pc, Wing-Commander-3

Reader Comments (46)

I didn't have a PC that could play these back in the day, so I had to comfort myself with the novelizations of WC3 and 4. They were absolutely wretched. Of course, once I actually got to play WC3, I enjoyed it, but man... Okay, let's be honest, I was 12 back then, and I didn't know good sci-fi from bad, but come ON.

I have no recollection of this. Weird.

@SunnyRavencourt

Return your Geek Membership card at the earliest convenience.

You forgot to add that BIFF is in it too!

@AwesomeTown

And Pierre Chang.

@AwesomeTown

And Freddy Prince Jr... Oh wait..

If you hated Biff before, you will hate him even more after this movie.

Err, game*. SEE HOW EFFECTIVE THIS GAME IS?

@whylekat

Did you not see my next reply?

I take it from your other comments you have played this game. And know it contains about two hours worth of video. And you should know why I made that typo.

They actually got the "plays like a movie" thing down.

@AwesomeTown also had Ginger Lynn.

I actually own the suit he wore in Wing Commander 2.
Thought about e-baying it.

Sadly there is.. um, hair in the sack region.
So, in essence i own some of Mark Hamil's pupic hair.

@RyogaVee
Let me say up front that I'm not much for memes, but...

WAT

@RyogaVee How much do you want for it? The hair, I mean. You can keep the suit.

My favorite Mark Hamill post-Star Wars video game role was as the villian in Full Throttle - he was just awesome in it.

Why on Earth has the sequel not been released? I remember it was been worked on - even had screen shots...

@Axcalibur

Adrian Ripburger! Don't forget he did The Joker in several games too.

@TheRedComet

Several games?

Dude...he WAS the Joker on the 1990s Batman Animated series.

Luke Skywalker = Best Joker Ever

@CaptainProtonX
You sir speak truths...Everyone talks about Jack Nichalson and Heath Ledger being the greatest Jokers of all time. And don't misunderstand my meanings they were both incredible and I LOVE both their performances. But Mark Hamill is with out a doubt in my mind the BEST Joker to ever be performed.

@Grimbear

I think it's an awkward comparison because he's only the voice after all. Don't get me wrong, if you ever see video of Hamill recording VO for the Joker he's 110% into it. But we, as the audience, never see that elaborate performance.

But overall I agree. Hamill's voice leads to the best interpretation of the Joker.

@Axcalibur
Full Throttle, huh? Sounds like a pretty good game.

May the force be with you...AND MY AXE!

I liked it better when Joystiq uses tongue-in-cheek, obscure movie references when citing an actor.
For example, "blah, blah, blah Mark Hammill (from that Jay and Silent Bob movie) blah, blah, blah."

@JonahStein I do too, but Jay and Siilent Bob? Please.

Mark Hamill (Guyver).

@JonahStein

They used Heroes for Malcom McDowell. So bogus. he's in a hundred better sci-fi flicks to reference.

Wow, I had this for the 3DO. Might have to buy this for nostalgia's sake.

Yes! Time to bust the ole' PC flight stick out!!

@whylekat

Saying that is how I start sexy time in the Jedi house.

I miss things being filmed in Hollywood. That used to mean sets, costumes, soundstages, props and filming on location. The green screen has no soul.

Uh, err, being in Hollywood doesn't mean no green screens. And even with green screens, they still need costumes, and when needing to be held, physical props.

And this game was almost ENTIRELY greenscreen. Only stuff like the desks and the uniforms weren't. Maybe some parts of the ships.

@making11s
Yeah, Hollywood just means that half the budget went into lining pockets. I admire the spirit and culture of the place, but the opening to L.A. Confidential points out how much of a facade Hollywood was back in the fifties, let alone anything since.

You gotta have blue hair.

It's a game.... Not a movie.

Yeah srry iPhone app doesn't update comments very promptly...

[SPOILER/BUG ALERT] Just remember kids, don't kill the villain after he kills your girlfriend Angel or you can't complete the game.

@Cranky Penguin

Bug alert? It has it's own dedicated audio and video. I don't think that qualifies as a "bug". It's a choice you can take.

Also, remember, you don't necessarily end up with Angel. You can choose.

Also, one of your love interests used to be Ginger Lynn, of Ginger Snaps. A porn star.

I loved this game on the 3DO. I didn't know how to jump between jump points at first, so when the computer told me my next objective was 20,000 Kilometers away, I would actually fly the entire distance. Which took about 10 minutes usually. It wasn't until later I realized you could jump between jump points instantly. I guess it shows the attention to detail in the game and the attempt at realism, if you can actually fly 20,000 Kilometers.

And THIS is how the Wing Commander movie should have been. If you take out the FMV, and put it together, it would make a 100X better movie than the one we got. The Kilrathi in the game, even tho they are obviously giant suits, are so much better than in the movie. I don't understand how the creator of the series could !@#$ the movie up so bad.

And no spoilers, but at the end of the game, DON'T go after your friend. Unless you have a saved game before.

Tom Wilson (from Back to the Future) is pretty funny in his scenes and there's also Ginger Lynn Allen. The game cast is WAY better than the movie cast.

Malcolm McDowell and John Rhys-Davies were in it too. Of course franchise dbag Maniac was back, played by actor/comedian Tom Wilson.

They really need to bring the space shooter back. I miss the wing commanders and colony wars.

I wanted him to die so bad.

I did enjoy the fact that you can save your game, go on a mission, and shoot his ass down.

@iceveiled

Don't forget the ever classic X-Wing & Tie Fighter games. Ah flight stick... How I've missed you!

Malcolm McDowell was increadible as Admiral Tolwen. Espicially in Wing Commander 4. His performance was incredible.

I actually also enjoyed Tom Wilson as Maniac. I think he was great in that role.

As others have said, the casting for the games was miles better than the movie. It's hard to imagine that the guy doing the movie was also the same person who did both Wing Commander 3 and 4.

Ah Wing Commander, It was my favorite game series back then. This is an instant buy on my case. So many memories.

@Guibs

Damn I never knew the same guy did both the games and movies. I wonder if he was shoe-horned by the studio into that terrible cast? After all it would make the most sense why we ended up with clowns like Freddy Prince & Mathew Willard. They were the in-thing of those years prior to the film's release.

I have a hard time believing the same guy who created the series did the movie. I mean, I know he did, but the movie barely resembled the games.

Space ships which looked like World War II airplanes? The whole submarine movie ripoff where they had to be quiet to avoid the depthcharges, I mean, the whatever the hell that was shooting at them? SOUND DOESN'T TRAVEL IN SPACE!

And the Kilrathi looked stupid compared to the suits in this game. If your villians look less impressive than giant suits on the scale of sports mascots, you have serious problems.

I think the whole movie thing went to his head, and he wanted to make a WWII homage film.

@Guibs

What are you talking about? There's no Wing Commander movie.

@Drakkenfyre

His name is Chris Roberts. I believe that his fixation for WWII version of the future came from a game he was doing with his brother that looked a lot like Wing Commander (but without the story or the cutscene) named StarLancer. He was big on that vision of the future so he may have decided to screw the Wing commander fan base and do this instead. Who knows.

This game was amazing

"Movies are the future of games identity crisis."

Filed under R for Rain, Heavy.

(Off-topic, I know. Back on topic: Mark Hamill is legitimately one of the greatest actors of this generation, or at least voice actors. And Wing Commander, while never as awesome as say, TIE Fighter or Descent Freespace, was still pretty dang awesome too)

Important Mark Hamill news: Wing Commander 3 now on GOG

Reader Comments (46)

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 1:36PM John Z said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 1:38PM SunnyRavencourt said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 2:02PM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 1:41PM AwesomeTown said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 1:45PM Gibbeynator said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 2:14PM whylekat said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 2:29PM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 2:29PM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 3:34PM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 5:40PM SThompson said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 1:42PM RyogaVee said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 2:03PM Sylath said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 3:44PM daltonVader91 said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 1:51PM Axcalibur said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 1:59PM TheRedComet said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 2:03PM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 2:50PM Grimbear13 said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 3:12PM whylekat said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 6:51PM AwesomeTown said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 1:54PM Marco le Polo said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 1:59PM JonahStein said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 2:16PM Epoque said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 2:25PM whylekat said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 2:00PM ItsameMatt03 said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 2:07PM whylekat said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 2:22PM Zoot Suit Jedi Grammar Hammer En said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 2:21PM making11s said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 2:31PM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 11:38PM Haggard said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 2:24PM Shadow Hog said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 3:06PM whylekat said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 4:54PM whylekat said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 2:34PM Cranky Penguin said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 2:38PM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 2:36PM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 2:43PM Starcade said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 2:56PM iceveiled said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 3:48PM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 4:58PM whylekat said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 4:35PM Guibs said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 5:01PM whylekat said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 5:36PM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 5:38PM TheOtherJames said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 11:49AM Guibs said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 4:58PM Prince David said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 9:36PM MatthewBlackwell said

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