Evil Avatar has dug up a trailer for Star Wolves 3: Ashes of Victory, the standalone and (apparently) completely redesigned expansion.

GameZone has a review of the standalone Star Wolves 3 expansion, Ashes of Victory.  If you recall, a major re-working was promised but it doesn't seem like much has changed.  Their score is 3/5 and here's a snip:

Combat is a mixed bag. On one hand, it can get tactical assuming you have enough skills to actually utilize when under heavy fire. Pressing the Space Bar will pause the action letting you dole out commands to your ship and your squad, and also gives you some breathing time if the action gets too hectic to follow. Though most of the time you’ll find yourself just watching your tiny ships fly around in circles, exchanging shots with enemies and seeing whose health bar is dropping the fastest.

Star Wolves 3: Ashes of Victory should have included a lot of improvements and fixes over the original, but instead remains very much the same. This is one open space that is better left unexplored, and a Civil War that is best to stay out of.

We don't see much coverage of Star Wolves so this very brief mention at Destructoid of the Ashes of Victory expansion might be worth a look for fans:

I briefly played through the new Star Wolves 3 recently and the game looks absolutely beautiful. The sense of scale is huge and players have a lot options when it comes to creating their custom ships. The combat is a mix of RPG and RTS and there's a speed-up button so the experience doesn't get extremely dull every time you're in a battle.

I liked what I saw, but the game was screaming for some kind of online multiplayer component. Yeah, Star Wolves 3 will only be a single-player game which doesn't make a whole lot of sense compared to all of its competition.

Thanks, Omega!   You can also grab some screens at Worthplaying.

1C Publishing has announced a standalone expansion to the spacefaring strategy/RPG series, Star Wolves. There's no date yet for Ashes of Victory but the PR promises a "thoroughly reworked tactical and roleplaying systems":

US, May 5, 2010 - MOSCOW, Russia - Leading Eastern and Central European publisher,1C Company and Elite Games Team, announced today the development of Star Wolves 3: Ashes of Victory, a stand-alone expansion for the third game in the Star Wolves saga. This original large-scale scenario, closely tied with the first part of the intergalactic epic, allows players to influence the ongoing events and experience multiple endings. Free roaming, free mission selection, free team forming - the world of Star Wolves waits for its heroes.

The last years of the Old Empire were soaked in corruption, piracy and the bloody conflicts which led to its demise. The so-long-awaited peace and order never returned to the Outer Worlds. The New Empire withstood heavy losses in the decisive battles of the Civil War and was forced to retreat to the Phoenix Sector. The clan feud cut the Triad Corporation into two irreconcilable camps. The attempt of an inner coup bled InoCo to near death. The entire systems fell under the control of pirates, and the allies of the former Emperor Ezar, who are trying to enforce terror and chaos in the worlds that would not obey them. The confrontation between various fractions escalates day by day, and a single spark is enough to set the Universe ablaze again.

Key features

• Improved graphics with carefully preserved esthetics of the original game
  
• Large-scale scenario which covers more than 110 stellar systems
  
• Thoroughly re-worked tactical and role-playing systems
  
• New protagonists and NPCs, plus well-known ones from the previous games
  

New factions, ships, weapons and equipment

This is actually a (short) reader review for Star Wolves 3 but we haven't seen many of them, so what the heck. The tone is middling, with the combat getting thumbs up but the difficulty a thumbs down:

Difficulty: This may actually be a good thing to some people but a warning to players who are new to this series of games: Star Wolves 3 is hard. Not hard as in it will challenge the average player hard, but hard as in Gothic 3 hard. Starting a game on normal difficulty and expecting it to be not much of a challenge is how most people would play but it soon becomes apparent that perhaps restarting them game on easy wouldn’t be a bad idea. Though even with foresight, easier difficulty and a better understanding of the game mechanics, this game still isn’t going to hold your hand.

Hooked Gamers has a review of Star Wolves 3, with a score of 5/10:

Audio is somewhat disappointing. After the initial intro video, I was expecting some handy voice over work as I traveled through the various systems and met with important NPCs. Alas, this was not the case. The conversation trees require a heap of reading. That in itself would not be an issue, but for the fact that the conversations are as interesting as a lecture about how to watch paint dry. On most occasions, the dialogue is limited to one response choice - giving the impression that the developers are pushing you in a particular direction to progress the story further. Having said that, there is not much of a story at all. You begin as the pilot of a slow hulking tug, with no idea how you've gotten to this point, and no real reason to pursue the prescribed missions other than to increase your in-game wealth.

Here's another review for Star Wolves 3, with bit-tech handing down a 3/10 and unequivocal statements like these:

Star Wolves 3 is essentially a hybrid RTS/RPG. There are four character classes to choose from, each with a suitably deep skill tree that unlocks many perks for that give class. As you make your way through space, you can pick up wings of mercenary pilots to fight by your side and squash the efforts of evil pirates who want to gun you down. You roam the vast expanses of space via portals and visit space stations and other celestial gubbins in a bid to work hard and better your lot in life. The story is dynamic and there are, apparently, several endings to the game. It all sounds very promising.

Without giving too much away in the opening of the review though, our first few hours of playing were just about the worst couple of hours spent gaming in our entire lives.

Here's a video trailer at Softpedia, just in case the review hasn't completely drained any interest.  Thanks to Omega for both.

Turns out the Star Wolves series has just been released on Steam, including Star Wolves 3.  The third is priced at $29.99, with the original only $12.99.

While the only mainstream review we've seen was pretty bad, here's a review from a long time anything-space fan:

Whole Star Wolves 3 has a few problems, its positives definitely and thankfully outweigh its negatives. I had a great time playing through this game, and will continue to do so once this review has been posted, as I’m dying to see what happens next to these characters and the universe they inhabit. I can easily recommend this game to anyone who likes space combat games, role playing games, or tactical combat games, as this game successfully melds elements of all three into one fun and cohesive whole.

A second German patch for Star Wolves 2 is available at 3D Gamers that fixes "minor localisation issues".

There is no doubt that Star Wolves 2, to those who are willing to invest some time in it and willing to explore the options and customisation with their fleet, holds massive appeal. However, to the more casual gamer, this game may be more daunting and confusing than anything else (casually sailing through the game without paying attention leads to the destruction of your mothership, trust me- I know). Thus, for those who played this games' predecessor, or are looking for an interesting new twist on the space/rpg genre, this game is more than worth looking out for. Finaly judgement however, will be passed in a future review.