🚀 go-pugleaf

Ineedmoney wrote:

>>>>Oh, Lord, here we go again. Secret Ops was a stand-alone game, and
>>>>therefore is not "pt2" of anything.
>>>
>>>But it "feels" like an addon. You cant argue with that, can you?
>>
>>Why, because it uses a modified version of the WCP engine?  WC4 was a
>>modified WC3 engine, but most people don't claim the former is an
>>add-on to the latter.
> 
> 
> Thats because WC4 is is a LOT different to WC3 in more ways than just the
> graphics, but WC Secret Ops just LOOKS like an addon to WCP instead of a
> whole new game like WC4 was to WC3, or WC3 was to WC2. The following is my
> reasoning;

WCSO is different from WCP in many ways as well. Important ways. See my 
list at the end...

> Basically, WC3 brought more to the Wing Commander Universe because of the
> movies and lot of other extras that I shouldnt have to tell you about. WC4
> was quite different to Wc3 in its HEAVY use and huge budget for the movies.
> Wc4 made you feel like you were choosing missions and your own destiny, an
> illusion of course... but still another step up from Wc3. WCProphecy decided
> to upgrade the graphics, which was a big step up. However, they didn't use
> so much video, which some people can debate as to if this hindered the game.
> Nevertheless it was obviously not just an addon for Wc4. -

Nobody is arguing that. :)

> As for Secret Ops, it didn't have ANY video, all cinematics were ingame

So? Since when does the amount of video determine whether a game is is 
standalone? And ironically, the fact that the cinematics were ingame and 
not video clips, is one significant difference that could be counted 
against WCSO being an add-on.

> rendered. It didnt have ANY prerendred CGI. I didnt have ANY character
> models and all the character interaction happened in flight, for example
> with a in-game graphical sequence showing your ship and the voices of the
> characters which you couldn't even see. There was no noticable improvment on
> the graphics, except improving and adding some additional weapons. The ONLY

Minor point...the flight engine was tweaked to allow better detail. But 
we've already determined that the graphics alone do not an add-on make.

> thing I think Secret Ops innovated was an improvement on character
> interaction in-game, which was welcomes but not enough for me to consider it
> a whole new game like Wc3, Wc4 and WcP are. All WC games, at least since Wc2
> have been very innovative, at least in the wing commander series anyway, but
> Secret Ops doesnt seem to provide anything additional that we didnt already

I vehemently disagree.

> see in Prophecy. If anything, it removed much because of their budget.

No, much was removed because WCSO was a different kind of game.

> Therefore I see Secret Ops as an Add-On to Prophecy than a totally new game
> that Prophecy was to Wing 4, for example. It was still fun to play, and it
> wasnt bad but I still see it as an addon.

By definition, an add-on requires the base engine from a parent game. 
This was not the case with WCSO. That notwithstanding...

>>As for being able to argue with it, yes someone can.  Like with all
>>subjective opinions (regardless of my opinion regarding the logic
>>behind it) though, doing so is an exercise in mental masturbation, at
>>best.
> 
> 
> Sure, its subjective. But thats (see above) my reasons for thinking what I
> do.

How about the following changes from WCP, besides the aforementioned 
tweaked graphical engine:

- episodic delivery
- story narrated via news bursts, annoucements, and character e-mails 
instead of video clips
- different and more detailed storyline (yes, a continuation of Casey's 
story, but an entirely different arc than that of WCP)
- several new ships, including your base of operations

and the primary reason why WCSO was not merely an add-on to WCP -- 
because Origin said so.

-- 

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  Kevin Scholl                http://www.ksscholl.com/
  kscholl@comcast.DELETE.net
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