Chris Roberts Returns To PC Space Simulators

Usually, when people happen across the name "Mark Hamill," their immediate thought is of Luke Skywalker. Yet for myself, and those in a particularly niche corner of geekdom, the knee-jerk reaction is "Oh yeah, you mean the guy who played Col. Blair," after which one is immediately whisked away to memories of those halcyon days of PC gaming - back then the Voodoo 2 ruled the roost, and joysticks had a practical function.

Yet time is cruel, and the Good Ship PC finds herself adrift: largely abandoned by her crew, her hull cracked and split, and her tattered sails fluttering, with dismal impotence, against the winds of the console era.

Maritime metaphors (and exaggerations about the state of PC gaming) aside, all is not lost, as space sims are planning on making a long-overdue return. Said return takes the form of Star Citizen, an upcoming title from Cloud Imperium Games: a company headed by none other than the creator of the Wing Commander series, Chris Roberts. Rather than hop on the console train, or the lucrative mobile market, the developers give the impression that Star Citizen will be a PC affair, quoting the old phrase, "rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated" in a video on the "Roberts Space Industries" website.

In the interest of garnering funding, Cloud Imperium has devised a Kickstarter-esque strategy of tiered rewards for donations. You can find more info at this link, but for the most part, it's your standard array of art books, OST, access to the beta, and of course, a copy of the game for donations of $30 and higher. There is no word on a potential release date, but Destructoid states that the game "is a full year into production," and that despite the promise of in-game credits for donations, "this is neither a free-to-play title or subscription-based."

As one might suspect, yours truly is a bit of a Wing Commander nerd. Having found itself in my "Super Awesome Best Video Games Ever Digital Fun Club," this marriage of sci-fi and cats - two of the things that keep me tethered to the mortal realm - consumed a vulgar amount of my childhood. No, I did not manage to save the Tiger's Claw. Yes, that failure haunted me. Indeed, I went to the Wing Commander movie (like a sucker), resulting in a personal fatwa against Freddie Prinze Jr. that continues to this day. Chris Roberts, creator of the series and murderer of Col. Devereaux you *sshole ended the series back in the late nineties (Wing Commander Arena doesn't count), much to the dismay of myself and many others - not simply for the end of the series, but for what seemed to be the twilight of the PC-centric space simulator. So for those who also yearn for the embrace of Dame Nostalgia, check out the above trailer for Star Citizen!