As Black Prophecy enters its open beta phase of development, a lot of folks were anticipating giving it a hands on look during last week's E3. MMORPG.com writer Richard Cox did exactly that and has a report to file. Check out what he discovered about Black Prophecy and then weigh in with your thoughts.

I have to say I’ve been missing some good space dog-fighting gameplay for quite a while now. I was a huge fan of the old Wing Commander and Freespace series back in the day. And there really just hasn’t been much out there that grabbed me like those did in quite a while now. While at E3 I managed to get some time with Black Prophecy though, and all that may be changing.

Read more of Richard Cox's Black Prophecy: E3 2011 Report.

I too was a fan of wing commander. Are they still able to get this game running in the U.S. this year?

Originally posted by bumfman

I too was a fan of wing commander. Are they still able to get this game running in the U.S. this year?

It's in open beta in the US right now. Go to the link listed in the article and check it out. blackprophecy.gamigo.com I think it was. :)

I am interested, and Wing Commander was my first PC love...I played it on my TANDY 

It disappoints me that these 'reviewers' are so afraid of saying anything bad about someone that is paying for advertising dollars on their site. There is absolutely no mention of any of the things that the beta players are consistantly complaining about such as the fact that you are stuck as the exact same ship your entire career. You can put new wings and guns on it but you are still the same ship forever. Once you hit the cap the game become a repetative samey mission loop. The looting system is a nightmare. The list goes on. Reporter integrity is really sliding lately and it is getting to the point that I don't even want to bother reading any of these reviews anymore as they are simply money based spin dances.

@Warzod

Yeah, the reviewer really should have done a better job thoroughly comparing Black Prophecy to all the other f2p, skill-based, space-themed flight sim MMOs out there. Oh wait...

@hanshotfirst

No no, you are correct. When one is attempting to portrait themselves as a reporter, impartial dispenser of information, they should absolutely focus solely on the possotive and completely bury any negative... oh, wait... that's not a reporter, that's a used car salesman, my bad. I do challenge his integrity. This isn't FOX News. Even if the community as a whole is asking too much of our MMOs that does not mean that vital information regarding the up AND down sides of a product should be ignored. Potential players as customers should be given all the 'car facts' as it were. That is the whole point. If Mr. Cox is in the employ of Black Prophecy and this was intended simply as an advertisement then I spoke out of turn as it was right in line with a piece created by the company to spotlight the selling features of their product. If, however, he is a reporter for a supposedly impartial gaming community then I reiterate my concerns.

Yeah, sorry, this isn't a review or preview. I'm not in the beta, I have no idea what issues beta participants may or may not be suffering. All I know, and all I based this piece on, was what I saw, played, and was told at E3.

@Warzod

Please don't say bad stuff to our godly reviewers, the need to eat too you know..

seriously though, i tried this briefly (2 weeks?) and have pretty much the same concerns as you,

nothing that they couldn't fix if they put their assets to it, maybe..

Originally posted by Warzod

... you are stuck as the exact same ship your entire career. You can put new wings and guns on it but you are still the same ship forever.

There are some games that i recall had the same 1 ship only system... Darkstar One, Nexus the Jupider Accident and another one whose name i don't seem to recall.

 

Once you hit the cap the game become a repetative samey mission loop.

Actually, and saddly, almost all MMOs that hit the cap get repetitive... it's hard to escape that design flaw (although i should point that hitting the Cap on a BETA with some of the advanced features are not enabled is kinda... meh )

 

The looting system is a nightmare.

A nightmare? Remaping the LOOT ALL key to my mouse's extra key sure was a pain... it took some 2 endless seconds... now i have to scream in terror due clicking that extra mouse button while i'm inside the 500m distance from the NPC wreck

 

The list goes on. Reporter integrity is really sliding lately and it is getting to the point that I don't even want to bother reading any of these reviews anymore as they are simply money based spin dances.

Now if u complained with the lack of content (although the intro mission cutscenes are awesome), like someone else posted previously, i'd have to agree with you... the more, the merrier... although i won't be expecting too much from an F2P Instance Lobby MMO from an "Outsider" german company.

Dude, it's a preivew of the limited build that he got to play at E3 and the game is still in beta, not a review.  Things still have time to change and bugs can still be squashed.

You can still play the beta.  As long as you realize it's still a beta, you should have the amount of fun you'd expect out of such a game.  You might get stomped by the higher level ships if they decide to romp around the beginning shared areas.

I'd hate to say it but its like AoC when it launched, once you get past the prologue its a grind.

I was hoping and praying for a FPS EVE... I was very disappointed in the closed Beta months ago when I got in and saw how much they had to simplify everything but combat.

It did however have one of the most epic introductions to any MMO I've ever played.  All downhill from there once the FPS in space buzz wore off.

It's not a bad game for F2P space sim...

the combat is pretty fun... still a little limited on things to do.. and some annoying wait times on crafting... But i think this is to open cash items to help speed things up.

Look... if you have to read preview/reviews of free too play games to decide if you want to play it... get a life... just download the free game.. give it a shot and decide for yourself.

Anyways.... all mmo's are limited at start... it doesn't matter if they are pay to play or free to play... many things are not added untill later. Hmm... can we say EVE Online and walking around stations.

Also... my little rant... if you don't like the 'frakking' game just uninstall it and play something else.

This game has the potential to be awesome, but they ruined it with a huuuge grind.  If we just had to lvl a little bit (or at least not level doing the same missions over and over again) in order to get to the large scale clan vs. clan PvP, the game would be perfect.

They need to choose their focus a little better.  They fancy themselves mainly a PvP game, but make you go through a slow repetive and pointless grind before you can do large scale PvP.  I say pointless because there actually isn't that much new equipment that becomes available as you level, just better versions of the same equipment you already have. 

If they want this to be a PvP game, they need to cut the grind in half so we can get to the good stuff faster.  With half the grind, I'd be sold on this game for sure.  As it is right now, I don't think I'll bother playing it on release.

What do you guys expect? This game has been purchased from a German I think developer company that looked for US publisher for like 2 years if not 3. And they used to say a year ago that game is ready for Open Beta. They didn't expect to add anything else into game. So now that game is purchased finally by Asian F2P company, German developer washed their hands, got their few hundred thousand and moved on with their a bit more wealthier lives. Don't expect this game to get any better. You may get some cash shop items soon like in any other F2P, but this game will never become FPS EVE Online. I will check it out though, since it has the best graphics I've seen for space SIMS. AND, btw, this game is in Open Beta sooner than "Jumpgate Evolution" and these two games were the only competitors on the space MMOs on the market. They can't beat EVE Online, but EVE is not a twitch skill based game. Its a grind in its own way...