Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger

Wing Commander III is one of the few games that effectively mixes full motion video and real gameplay. The computer drawn sets don't look that great but are far better than the computer animation of the previous games. Over all the live action portions of the game are pretty great for $4-8 million. The gameplay itself is also far better than the previous games and since the HUD is uncluttered I consider it slightly better than WC IV in that regard (the HUD in IV has a huge gunsight). Even though I played it with the graphics turned down on my old 486 I consider it one of my favorite games.

I got Wing Commander III from my dad for my birthday. I had never even heard of it, but I saw that Mark Hamill was in it and that got me interested. The cool graphics, the live-action cut scenes, and the entire fun of space simulation soon had me hooked. Afterwards I have purchased Wing Commander IV and Wing Commander Prophecy and hope to get Wing Commander: Secret Ops soon. Overall, this game is very fun and addictive.

Four words to start this off: I love this game! I had been waiting a looooong time for the video game industry to create a mostly-live-action interactive video game of good quality and high-calibre acting, directing, and production design. Kudos must go out to director Chris Roberts and his talented team of actors, set production crew, and video game production crew. They did something that had never been done before. They not only created a fully realized, highly entertaining live-action video game. The also did it with a style, flair, and acting performances normally seen only in top-notch Hollywood films. Mark Hamill (of "Star Wars" fame) doesn't simply step into the lead role of Colonel Christopher "Maverick" Blair. He allows it to completely envelope him. It was also great fun to see renowned British actors John Rhys-Davies (of "Indiana Jones" and "The Lord Of The Rings" fame) and Malcolm McDowell (of "A Clockwork Orange", "Time After Time" and "Star Trek: Generations" fame) both hamming it up in their respective roles as General James "Paladin" Taggart and Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn. It was also cool to see Thomas F. Wilson (who played Biff Tannen in the "Back To The Future" trilogy) playing one of the good guys for a change, even though his character, Lt. Todd "Maniac" Marshall, and Col. Blair are rivals, and only sometimes friends with each other. This game is great fun, and highly recommended!!!

This game is a fine example of how one is supposed to use the new media. The story really grabs you tight and the only thing you want is more.

Mankind is fighting a losing war for survival in a galactic war against the evil catlike race Kilrathi. The game begins at the carrier "Tiger's Claw" and evolves quickly to an engrossing story about humanity's finest hour.

I surely can recommend this game!

At the time this game came out, it was pretty cutting-edge. It combined a filmed storyline with a space simulator. It was leaps above Wing Commander 1 and 2, old VGA games. Plus it was one of the first games to take advantage of the real life video technology offered by the CD-ROM's arrival. Now-a-days it wouldn't seem so great, but back then it was phenomenal, especially for die-hard Wing Commander (WC) fans. WC 4 and Prophecy both use the basic game play setup developed in WC 3, largely due to its success. Another popular feature is the ability to choose different paths through the game, along with different difficulty levels. All around a great game.