I have bought wing commander 3 cause i have a fond memory of itbut i was wondering do i need to play 1+2 first? Or is 3 a stand alone.

Relatively standalone. But I would still recommend playing through at least WC2 first, as there are plot connections between the games.

Thanks is that game playeble? I have a joystick i hope its useble.

Both WC1 & 2 are still quite playable, although the sprite based graphics sometimes makes it hard to judge a ships exact location (this is more of a problem in WC1, where I ended up crashing into larger ships several times, when flying close to them, as I could not judge their exact location).
And if you have issues getting your joystick to work properly, then you can easily play them with your mouse & keyboard. They were both designed with that in mind.

When I first played WC3 back in the day, I hadn't played WC1/2. I was able to figure out the plot connections on my or with wikipedia. Now that all are on GOG, I'll play through 1/2.

I was mostly new to Wing Commander before getting WC3 on gog. I played WC3 first, then bought WC1&2. I had no trouble knowing what was going on in the plot of WC3. The manual has lots of backstory, and as the previous poster mentioned, there's lots of background on wikis.

Also, a large part of the plot of 1&2 is actually missing unless you can find and install the expansion packs not yet included on gog.

So the expansion were the finishing touch on the story?

Yes. If you play WC2 after finishing WC1, there are several characters and referenced events that would make no sense to you. The same thing happens at the beginning of WC3. It's like if you played Starcraft 2 without ever finishing Brood War.

The 2nd one is more playable, the first gave me a bit choppy experience, i dont know why i tried several configurations, but anyway still playable. But the second worked so fine, perfect gameplay also considering is so old game.

The only one i really disliked it because was sending me to desktop and even hanging up my PC was Privateer, and i give it up with it. But i loved to replay WC1 and 2.

Maaan I played 1 & 2 so many times, never got to third. Now I installed the 3rd for the first time i'm so thrilled to see all this characters in a fmv incarnation and how the story unfolds... I'm so excited becouse of such an old game as if it was a brand new shiny thing fresh from the store shelf!

It's funny to see how different the experience is depending on what order you do things. It's like you choose whether to see a movie in a cinema, at home, with friends or alone... It's the first time, and it happens only once in your life, so you never get to see all the other ways you could experience the thing the first time. I'll never know how is it to experience WC saga backwards, you'll never know how it is to see it in the correct, or almost correct order (in my case 2->1->1sm->2so->3). Now I see Mark Hamill on screen but i have the pixelated Blair from the first two in my mind, and Maniac and Angel, they look so different, maniac especially lol. And compare the voice acting from the second with the third hah!

Sorry, got philosophical.

I'm surprised how good they made the kilrathi look. They made an interesting voice sound for them too.

Yeah! me too, i didnt play WC3 when it was out (my pc was crappy that time) and im alreayd playing it now for first time, i´m near the end, it takes me PAIN to configure properly the joystick, but now works superfine and i´m enjoying the game very much.

Lol already forgot this post, I had bought 1 and 2 and came to the conclusion that I already had played wc 1 before but then it was on the snes and suddenly remembered I made a lot of hours with that game and I liked it that the story continued even if your wingman dies that the story still continues.