Wing Commander: Chris Roberts' first game

I must admit that I am quite intrigued by this new game called Star Citizen Chris Roberts is developing these days. But since its not available as of now I decided to check out some of his older games. Actually I'll just revisit his first game Wing Commander.

Now since my old floppy disks are long since lost or destroyed it was very fortunate that Good old games have made this "ancient piece of history" available and for a very affordable price indeed. Also luckily enough the game actually works without any changes to the BIOS or memory allocations.

The game is of course very old fashioned by modern standards, but nonetheless it was very advanced at the time. Now that doesn't really detract from the game since that in itself is a real attraction for anyone with a slight fascination with the past or old fashioned things.

You start out as a rookie fighter pilot on the TCS Tigers Claw, a Bengal class strike carrier. Sounds rather awe-inspiring doesn't it?
The enemy are the menacing Kilrathi: a warlike, giant cat race that is bent on exterminating humanity.

The campaign is dynamic. If you fail to successfully clear a mission it goes on your log and it will affect your future missions. This is a standard many modern games fail to live up to.

The battles are quite furious and immersive. This is truly a game for someone interested in honing his fighting skills and each hard-won victory is truly rewarding. I have managed to forget my schedule playing this game more than once or twice, far too often actually. Maybe that would be a detraction for some, but probably not for old-school gamers.

All in all I must say that I am very pleased for having dug up this old gem. Maybe its time to have a look at some more ancient friends in the near future.

Gameplay: 8

Story: 7

Nostalgia Factor: 9000

A Viking lifestyle: Religion

Quite a lot of people are miserable in this day and age, depression, anxiety and general lack of real happiness are rampant.

Now this wasn't always so and there are indeed rather simple ways to turn your brain around to achieve the general feel of well-being and happiness. And since people weren't so miserable in the past why not take a good look at how our ancestors, the vikings, lived their lives. (Of course if your are Asian, African or from some other place, your ancestors may or may not be vikings. But bear with me please.)

Instead of a paternalistic all-perfect all-knowing and all-capable single god, the vikings worshiped quite a lot of deities, demi-gods, spirits and mystical creatures. They weren't really afraid of their gods and looked at their dealings with these beings as simple exchanges. Not that dissimilar from our modern free-market. You buy a hamburger for a few dollars or you buy good weather for raiding with a lamb. No commandments, no fear of enraging your all-knowing deity who will send you to a really really bad place.

In modern society its impossible to live up the impossible demands the monotheistic religions requires of you unless you wish to brave chambers of infinite torture or worse. We need the old polytheistic attitude that a free man makes his own destiny. 

Instead of commandments the Vikings had guidelines all which served to remind them of what really kept them happy and alive: Honor, family and friends. These guidelines are pretty much common sense in its entirety but are nonetheless a great reminder.

My favorite:

Cattle die, kindred die, 

Every man is mortal:

But the good name never dies 

Of one who has done well 

Starts as a sad reminder but ends with a truly refreshing fact.