The 1990s had a strange growing pain thanks to the advent of the CD-ROM. From 1992 to about 1997, many thought that FMV was going to become the standard of video game storytelling. It made sense. After all, what worked for film would surely work for games. Sadly, in order for it to work, games would need the budget to hire actual actors and effects teams. With a budget of 4 million dollars, Wing Commander III is one of the few FMV games to have the budget to make this concept work. And the investment paid off, as it was the first game Electronic Arts published to sell over one million copies. With the likes of John Rhys-Davies, Malcolm McDowell, and Mark Hamill as protagonist Christopher Blair, the intergalactic conflict of the Confederation and the Kilrathi Empire holds up in a way that a lot of other game stories of the time do not. It also had the special effects to be on par with the science fiction TV shows at the time. Think Babylon Five, and you've got it.

A story only gets a game so far though, and thankfully, Wing Commander III is a fun dog fighter shooter experience. If you're gonna play this, I highly recommend playing with a flight stick. It adds to the immersion of flying a real space ship and really puts you in the mindset of flying an actual futuristic weapon of war. The game also has difficulty options that are robust, meaning if you're truly stuck, you can still muddle through, making it ideal for newcomers to this kind of game. With its special effects, choice-filled story, and twitchy action combat, Wing Commander III was the Mass Effect of its era. Unlike Mass Effect 3 however, this third entry in a science fiction game series has an ending that's worth something. Read the manual, dust off that USB flight stick you might have in the closet, and give this one a go. You won't regret it. Just make sure you stay away from the crappy 3DO and Playstation ports.