Introduction

Developed by: Digital Anvil
Published by: Microsoft
Starlancer official page: http://www.microsoft.com/games/da/starlancer/
Conquest: Frontier Wars official page: http://www.microsoft.com/games/da/conquest/

The Living Legend

Chris Roberts - he is to the space combat fan what Sid Meier is for the turn based strategy gamer. A god basically ;) Several years ago, if you wanted to play a fighter based space combat game, Wing Commander was pretty much the only game in town. WC allowed you to step into the shoes of a hotshot space fighter pilot; you could choose among dozens of guns/missiles and go into combat against some tough enemy AI as you made your way through the engaging story lines. Wing Commander captured the imaginations of just about all computer gamers (and their speedy 386s) and spawned an entire series of games that went from spiffy VGA graphics to gratuitous full motion videos, and on to today's era of 3D acceleration. Wing Commander was one of the two franchises (along with Ultima) that put Origin on the map as one of the top game makers in the market.

Inside your quarters

Taking out an enemy

Family matters

Roberts has since left Origin and formed his own company, Digital Anvil, with his brother Erin Roberts. Keeping true to their sci-fi space roots, two of the first games to come out of Digital Anvil will be space combat titles. One, called Starlancer, is a first person, fighter based 3D game that is reminiscent of the old Wing Commander games. The other game is a 3D RTS based in outer space called Conquest: Frontier Wars. The latter is frequently compared to Homeworld, but we found it is actually quite different from Sierra/Relic's title. Let's go over Starlancer first.