Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger

The Good
Origin is to be commended; they knew what worked in WC's 1 and 2, and didn't change much.

Wing Commander 3 has everything those games had and more: Space battles extraordinaire. Great ships, fast, exhilarating missions, and a terrific, engrossing backstory supplemented by mid-mission cinematics. Like all other WC games, the missions are expertly designed, perfectly balanced, and bug-free, but in THIS game many of them are on a much grander scale than in the first two games. The fighters and capital ships look great and fight great. There's just no aspect of a space combat sim that isn't awesome about this game.

One nice (and, surprisingly, not-often-copied) aspect of the game is that the cinematics actually look like movies. Some reasonably famous actors (highlighted by Tom Wilson's boffo performance as Maniac) deliver some decent acting on decent sets; it's a shame this isn't tried more often. It adds to the super-immersive experience.

The Bad
I guess the CD-swapping can get irritating.

The character of Hobbes (a Kilrathi deserter) is sort of silly.

The Bottom Line
The third straight home run in the Wing Commander series, and this one's a grand slam.