OFF REVIEW

[Gous 0]

 

Over Flanders Fields: Between Heaven and Hell

 

Review by Christos Bakalis (Gous)

 

Introduction

 

I still remember the day that my Uncle and I bought Red Baron 3D back in 1999. I also remember the joystick I owned back then. It was an arcade joystick with a black base, two big red buttons and a metal stick with a red ball. I can still hear the clanking noise every time I cranked the stick left or right...The game came with a big 120-page booklet with stories from The Front, acrobatic techniques and other nostalgic stuff. Although I was only 10 years old back then, and didn't speak English that well, I read the RB3D book with great devotion, gazing at the pictures, and trying to understand the text. Then I would enter into the virtual cockpit of a Nieuport or an Se5, and fly. As you can understand now, I was going to become a WWI aviation lunatic...

 

The whole idea behind flying in WWI is a bit crazy as it is. Imagine being in 1914, just over 10 years after the Wright Brothers first powered flight. Flying was still a miracle back then. And now, imagine flying in a wooden-canvas aircraft weighing much less than a modern car, equipped with an engine that it wouldn't even compete with the ones we use today. Of course, you don't fly this thing in every day conditions, but with a 100 mph wind blowing at your face and at temperatures close to freezing point. Add to this that, you are flying this death-trap in a war, with shrapnel exploding all around you, troops under you shooting, and other loonies in death-traps that are trying to bring you down as well! That's why many people think that the bravest of all pilots were the pilots of WWI. It isn't very easy to simulate these conditions in a computer game, but Over Flanders Fields: Between Heaven and Hell has achieved this.

 

Two years ago, while surfing the web, I stumbled upon the Over Flanders Fields (OFF) Phase 2 forum. I immediately downloaded the game and was stunned. It was like playing RB3D with a modern graphics engine. The game is essentially a mod for CFS3, which unfortunately was not a very well received WWII combat simulator. The OFF team though, have done a great job to make their game 99% independent from Microsoft's game using mostly the graphic engine and some of the core processes to run OFF. When you are in the world of OFF, nothing reminds you of CFS3 anymore. There are though, some small details, which have passed from the original game to the mod, but are not that important.

 

After playing Phase 2 for months, the team announced the development of Phase 3: Between Heaven and Hell. The anticipation grew, and the preview videos made a whole community drool in front of their screens. Some wonderful preview videos indeed, that created a great atmosphere (thanks to the amazing music score by Matt Milne), which personally made me watch the videos again and again. Finally, Over Flanders Fields: Between Heaven and Hell was released in January 2009. With 50$ paid to the OFF team, I got it in my hands a week later.

 

First Impressions

 

My PC allows me to play the game with a fairly good detail level.

 

Specs:

Pentium4 - 4.0 GHz

4GB RAM

Nvidia 9600GT 512MB

Win XP SP2 32-bit O/S.

 

I also have a Freetrack build, which is a freeware, home made version of TrackIR. My slider settings of OFF are 5/3/3/5/1 and my FPS are about 20 in average. These are pretty good fps and the game is completely playable. However, please note the graphics are not maxed out.

 

The current version of OFF BHaH is 1.30c. There are two official Damage Models (DMs) available for the game. The Hardcore DM and Normal DM. If you have ever read any WWI aviation books, you will find the Hardcore DM quite unrealistic. It takes too many rounds to shoot down an aircraft. Since the main weapon of OFF is incredible immersion and realism, the Hardcore DM is off the table for me. On the other hand, the Normal DM is more realistic. Now, if you want something between these two, Fortiesboy and Herr-Prop-Wasche (from the OFF Forum on CombatAce.com) have released the Intermediate DM (thanks guys!), which is the DM, I use. I want realism and some challenge as well.

 

The installation of BHaH is very easy and has been done very professionally. Even players who have no idea about how to use computers can easily do it. Once started, the OFF Install application, will run automatically. You just have to have your original copy of CFS3 handy for verification. Once the installation is complete and OFF:BHaH loads, you will start with a great intro video. Then the impressive main menu screen will welcome you.

 

 

 

Click on the Workshops button to be directed to the game options menu. The workshop is very comprehensive and has everything you wish to alter to make the game better for you.

 

 

With a quick glance you can see some of the amazing features of OFF. At the top left you can see that the weather is historically accurate! For every day in the campaign there is a different weather, which is the same as it was back in WWI. You can change sounds (realistically sounding engines and terrifying MG rattling can be heard in the game), flight models (I strongly suggest the realistic flight model) and gun accuracy and strength. The AI Gun fire range is set to medium. At this selection, the enemy will fire at you from about 500 feet and less which is a very good distance. Also, this option affects the ground fire (flak and ground MG fire). The settings I use can be seen above. In my opinion, these are very realistic settings, but it is really your choice on what to choose. I choose immersion to the max (I am this close on using a fan blowing on my face when I fly!).

 

Enough of this! Let's go fly.

 

A Quick One

 

The strongest weapon of OFF is the high level of immersion. You really think you are up there flying these death traps while playing this game. But, to fully enjoy this feature, you must play OFF:BHaH in Campaign mode, but if you are in a hurry, fly a Quick Combat!

 

In the Quick Combat preview screen you may choose the aircraft type, the enemy aircraft type, the weather etc. etc. Let's have an early war dogfight. 5 Fokker EIIIs against 5 nimble Nieuport 11s. The Fokker was the first real fighter of the Great War. It was the first to use successfully a synchronizing gear, which allowed the pilot to shoot with a fixed position MG from behind the propeller without damaging the blades. Once introduced, it massacred the enemy, eventually panicking the RFC which nicknamed it as The Scourge. If you have read Cecil Lewis's Sagittarius Rising you will have a slight idea of what I am referring to. One day, a Fokker landed behind the Allied front line and was captured by the British. Shortly afterwards, the legendary Fokker was test flown by some British pilots and it was discovered that it wasn't that legendary after all! Most Allied fighters could out run and out turn it, as it was slow and difficult to handle. Now if you fly the Fokker in OFF, you will notice the aspects of the E.III. It is a very hard aircraft to handle as it banks and turns slowly. This is what I call historical accuracy.

 

So here we are, at 5000 feet, to a lesser extent the same type aircraft flown by Max Immelman with his 3 Spandaus and by Oswald Boelcke, who flew the stronger E.IV version. A few thousand yards in front of us are the French Nieuports, waiting to be shot down. Here is the formation of EIIIs charging at them.

 

 

Far in the morning mist, we spot the enemy Nieuport 11s in base camouflage green and dark brown, with no upper wing markings. We approach each other head-on and the flights break their formations.

 

 

 

At this point, it is important to talk about dogfight realism. In a dogfight, I never padlock or use labels. I spot the enemy aircraft only by moving my head around (Freetrack provides 5 degrees of freedom just like TrackIR) just like the pilots do. If you padlock the EA or use tactical display during dogfights you lose incredible amounts of realism. The strongest weapon of OFF is immersion and you will immediately notice that once engaged. If you fly the dogfights in an unrealistic way, then you won't enjoy the game fully. Anyway, while dodging around trying to spot prey, I heard loud gun rattling. It was the Lewis gun of an enemy Nieuport that was right at my six! A total surprise, I never spotted him.

 

 

Notice how close the AI will get to you to shoot you down eh? This is another great feature of OFF. Back then; in order to maximize your shot on your opponent, you had to get really close (150 yards maximum). It is not easy to write a code for this feature, especially if your game is based on the WWII CFS3 engine (in WWII, the aircraft were shooting each other from much greater distances!). In a blink of an eye, the French airman had emptied a whole drum from his Lewis all over me. It is not very easy to shake an adversary off your tail. Especially if you fly an EIII and he has a nimble N11 Bebe. After a few rounds all over my plane, my plane became basically uncontrollable. The engine was producing strange noises and suddenly, after a big puffing noise, the RPM dropped and the engine quit. Do I need to add that I crashed half a minute later?

 

As you can see, even in Quick Combat, this game is NOT easy. After one minute of turning around, an enemy scout got behind my tail and turned my Fokker into a comet. But don't feel so down! In this game, you need to practice a lot with your aircraft. So I generated another quick combat, a one-on-one dogfight between my E.III and a Be2c 2-seater observation plane, a historic encounter that happened very often in the early days of WWI. It wasn't that hard a fight really. The Be2c was practically a flying joke, and so it is in OFF as well. I got behind him in a jiffy and after a good burst at his engine, I observed small fire in the cockpit.

 

 

 

 

I banked left and watched the fire growing bigger. Suddenly, the Be2c was fully engulfed by the flames. The pilot lost control, and after a long spiral the enemy aircraft crashed in a loud noise. Feeling the thrill of victory, and the safety of being alone in the sky, I took my time to observe the beauty of the OFF scenery. It is really a true masterpiece. The trees look real and while looking at a river, you think that you can hear the water flowing gently between the banks. Being in a typical Flanders environment, you can see fields everywhere. In the spring, you can also see poppy fields, filled with beautiful crimson.

 

 

 

 

The clouds are also very impressive and are not FPS eaters. Later, we will see the amazingly modeled No Man's Land.

 

Moving further

 

The main trump card of OFF is its campaign. When you decide to create a campaign, you must first enlist a pilot. There are hundreds of historically accurate squadrons available. You can choose to fly for the British, the French, the Americans or the Germans as either a scout (fighter) or a 2-Seater pilot. When you choose your pilot's nationality, you will be directed to the squadron-choosing screen. Here, you will find a detailed map of the Western Front, with the squadron's location, the date, the aircraft of the squadron and the distance from the front. There are still some aircraft (especially 2-seaters) needed, and they will be added, as the developers are creating new aircraft for campaign usage as we speak. You can fly in different regions. Flanders, Verdun, Marne, or Alsace (Alsace with the amazing scenery). You can even fly in England but home defense missions are not available yet.

 

As an Se5a fan, I will choose British side, and join the famous RFC-56, beginning from the 7 of April 1917 during the campaign known as Bloody April. Once you finish enlisting the pilot, you may go to the campaign...

 

Here we are in the officer's mess of RFC-56 in Vert Galand in Flanders. You can see that you will fly alongside many famous RFC-56 pilots. Albert Ball, Arthur Rhys-Davids, and Cecil Lewis are some of the Aces in RFC-56. The rest of the squadron is consisted of randomly generated pilots. One of them is your wingman, who will fly with you at all times. A good feature that is not available yet, would be to fly with Aces in the same formation. You take off with them, but the formations you fly in are different and may split up later. Remember to write down the names and ranks of your flight members because you will need them soon! There is also the Intel Room, in which you can see reports of what is going on in the war. For instance, in April of 1917, the great battle of Arras-Niville was in full bloom. You will see information about this battle at the Intel Room. And yes, you have guessed it! If you fly at the front line of Arras, you will notice ground troop activity, and heavy bombardment. At the main squadron page, you will be able to choose a skin for your aircraft. The OFF team has done an amazing job to bring historically accurate skins to many aircraft in the game. We will discuss this further below. Let's say now that the mission assigned to you is a patrol over the enemy front line. You can cycle through the available mission routes and choose wherever your patrol area will be. If there are major ground battles, it is a good idea to patrol there, as the enemy air activity will be pretty heavy as well. In general, there are many mission types you can fly. Reconnaissance, Patrol behind enemy or friendly lines, escort 2-seaters, attack airfields, Lone Wolf Patrols and Balloon Busting missions. As soon as you hit Go to field you will see your Weather Report. The game models wind effects, cloud turbulence and of course rain and snow. You can see what's going on at the weather report screen right before you take off, but the weather may change as you fly. This is also the point that will decide if you are flying today at all based on the historic weather information provided in the OFF Manger. If the weather is bad, all operations will be grounded. If its good, you may continue on. Once you are at the airfield, you will be sitting in your cockpit at the aerodrome with your flight members and some squadron aces parked all around you. You will be taking off with legends of the air, which will appear with their original skins they used in the war. If you choose to fly with Jasta 11 for instance, you will see the Flying Circus's colors in their whole might. Fire up your engine and get airborne! Once in the air, you will form up with your flight members and start circling and climbing above the field as they did historically. Altitude first, action second! While closing in on the Front Lines you will see the flashes of explosions and depending on the battle, sometimes see Poisonous Gas. As you get closer, you will see the lunar landscape in its full detail, as well as the dark the trenches below you. The main trenches are clearly visible as are the second and third line communication trenches as well. If you get really low, you will notice entrenched troops and howitzers ready for action. But don't get too close to the enemy ground units, as they will surely fire at you with every gun they have! You can even help the friendly ground troops by strafing trenches and destroying howitzers or tanks. The most exciting dogfights in OFF take place above the trenches. You will soon know what I am talking about I am sure!

 

If you ever decide to strafe the trenches, then you must be very fast and don't make more than 2 strafing runs, otherwise the ground troops will surely get you. 2000 feet is an altitude where ground troops will try to shoot at you. Go below only if you want to attack them, and climb if you want to be safe.

 

When you are above No Man's Land, you will see this kind of landscape:

 

 

 

 

If you ever find entrenched troops when you are really low, like here:

 

 

Have your eyes peeled for enemy fire. You can see the British troops (you can tell they are British from their helmets) above. They won't fire at us as we are flying in an Se5, but the guys 200 yards ahead will! You can see the tracer ammunition whistling at the bottom of the screen.

 

Keep going forward, find the enemy trenches, the MGs, and try to shoot at them.

 

 

The real Hell on Earth is not the air at 10000 feet...but the trenches below, were shells and bullets fly everywhere around you. If you ever have suicidal tendencies, make several strafe runs trying to wipe out an entire trench line. You won't get out of there alive I guarantee that...

 

But what about the flying characteristics you ask?

 

The flight model of OFF is very finely programmed to simulate the reality. The sideslipping for instance is modeled correctly. Also, if you are in a rotary engine aircraft, the torque of the engine will affect your flying just as in real life. Also, when you take off, you need to apply right rudder just as in real life, as the propeller creates many phenomena that affect the aircraft's behavior. And since we talked about the Se5a model, maybe it is a good idea to say some things about its flight model as well. The reason that the Se5a was such a popular aircraft was because the pilots regarded it as a stable gun platform. But what is a stable gun platform really?

 

(Warning! Science content!)

 

An aircraft is in equilibrium when all of the forces that are applied on it eliminate each other, and when the moments that these forces create, eliminate each other as well. 4 Forces are applied in the aircraft: Lift ,Drag, Thrust, and Weight. The Weight is applied in the center of gravity. Lift can be received from the wings and the tail. Thrust derives from the propeller and Drag from the friction of the aircraft with the air particles.

 

When you play darts, you first throw the dart with an angle pointing above the target. Then, as the dart speeds up and travels through the air, its nose starts to point down, and eventually, it hits the target. What really happened at the dart and made it to turn its head down? The dart turns down because the lift provided by its tail, creates a moment around the axis of the center of gravity, which pushes the nose down. The same thing happens to an aircraft as well!

 

When an aircraft gets hit by a gust of air from below and the front, the nose wants to lift up, but the aircraft wants to remain to its old position. So, the tail creates a lifting force, which provides a moment that turns the nose down again. When you want to put the nose down or up, the thing that you really do, is create a moment that changes the position of the aircraft's nose.

 

Now the Se5a, is a stable aircraft, because, the center of gravity is near the nose (the engine, the fuel tanks, and all heavy parts are near the nose) and the tail is rather big (which creates more lift). The more the moment of the tail lift, the more the stable the aircraft. And as the CoG is far from the tail, the moment of the tail's lift is much stronger than if it was closer to the middle of the fuselage. In general, the stronger the tail's lift moment around the CoG axis, the more stable the aircraft.

 

But being in a stable aircraft, has its price. It is not that maneuverable. The Se5a is not good for turning fights, but better for zooming and using just its raw engine power. So the more stable, the less maneuverable, the more maneuverable, the less stable is an aircraft.

 

(End of science content).

 

Many British Airmen preferred the Se5a as it was a stable gun platform. When you were behind the enemy, even if you were a clumsy pilot, the aircraft was very forgiving and would not change its heading much, thus making shooting much easier. OFF models this perfectly. The Se5a model is just right. It is as stable as it is supposed to be, and as fast as it is supposed to be.

 

During every campaign mission you must always keep your eyes peeled for aircraft. Another amazing feature in OFF is that the aircraft are not randomly spawned, but are all programmed for a specific flight which is also as historically accurate as possible. For instance, at the 9th of April 1917, there are specific flights from all squadrons, in specific time. These missions are based on historical data. The April of 1917 was nicknamed as Bloody April and during this period, the British suffered heavy losses. This will be reflected in the game, as German supremacy in the air. Making even this virtual April, really hard for the Brits...

 

Most of the times your flight leader spots enemy aircraft, he will immediately attack. This can prove very bad though. It is much better if the AI could think about the tactics more. Think if it is good to attack an enemy formation, and think about the best way to attack. Will you stalk your opponents and surprise them? Will you charge and use raw power? Also the element of retreat, if the other side gains advantage is not so strong as It should be. Many times in WWI If during a dogfight one side gained advantage, the other side was on the retreat. In fact, many dogfights in WWI ended up with one side running away. OFF does not model that in any way. You don't see aircraft running away often. The bottom line is that the flight leader's AI must think more before entering a dogfight, figure out the best way of winning it, and guiding you and the others to victory. The good news is that the OFF team is working on these areas as well.

 

When you do involved in a dogfight, take your time and watch the skins of the EA. Sometimes you will dogfight with beautiful multi colored birds, and other times with regular painted aircraft. Every single aircraft out there belongs to a squadron and has a specific skin. Many aircraft out there may belong to either an Ace or a pilot that lived and flew in WWI, and therefore will carry his personal colors and insignia if he had one. If you stumble upon MvR, his aircraft will be painted red. The OFF team has done a great job indeed making thousands of accurate skins. And if you shoot down an enemy, make sure to see if there is somebody around (your wingman for example) because you will have to file a report afterwards. After a dogfight, you will reform with your buddies and go on. If you see someone missing, then maybe he was shot down. Another slight problem in OFF is that the events that happen to other flight members are not connected with the advance of the campaign. If you know the name of the pilot that crashed, it doesn't matter much as he won't really die in the campaign. If you want to do that, you need to alter a text file on your own (you can find instructions on the OFF Forum). It would be nice if in the future this could be done automatically by the OFF manager. Once you return to base, you must land. You will land alone and your wingmen will not follow you. That is one of the very few problems that have passed from CFS3 to OFF, but the developers are working on this subject. You can then end your mission.

 

If you have downed any enemy aircraft, then now is the fun part. You can file a patrol report, and if you chose, you can give a lengthy, and detailed story about the action during the flight. You must be very explicit because the OFF manager will understand what you are saying, and will confirm your claims only if you have made an accurate report. Plus, every time you open up your dossier, you will find the full report there, and can look back to some of the good old days...

 

Advancing the Campaign

 

As you advance the campaign, things will get tougher. As you accumulate hours with your pilot, you will start being protective and won't attack enemy aircraft and ground units so easily. The main goal is to reach 17 hours with a pilot. It is not an easy task. Every time you take off, there will be enemy aircraft around looking for a fight. If you are over enemy territory, then the danger is high, as there is flak and ground fire if you get really low. If you land behind enemy lines, then it is almost sure that you will be captured. While dogfighting, there isn't only the danger of the enemy AI (which is programmed impressively and is extremely dangerous and aggressive), but the danger of mid-air collisions with other aircraft (friendly or hostile) is always there. There are hundred ways your pilot can be lost. I have lost pilots with ridiculous ways (I once collided with the cable of an observation balloon) but some of them have died after long battles with great opponents. The key to keep a pilot alive is to consider the odds of winning each battle you are about to enter. There is almost no way of getting out of a battle alive if the enemy has a big advantage in numbers. If you have do get out of a dogfight alive once or twice which were very difficult to be won, then there will be a time were you won't. That's how Ball and Voss died. Both were very brave and real heroes, but they ran out of luck eventually.

 

I remember the most hair-raising dogfight I have ever been in. I was flying with a pilot who had 14 hours logged and I was very close breaking the 17-hours barrier with him. We flew with our SE5as on a patrol over the Front Lines of Lens. We met some Halberstadts above NML at Lens and shot them down. Afterwards, I started searching for my other flight members. I found them just half a mile behind the German frontline, 2 of my wingmen fighting with 5 Albatrosses. I turned in to attack at once. As I was approaching, I saw my wingman catch fire and crash. Despite the danger, I dove in to take revenge. We fought just above the Front Line, with both German and British troops shooting at us from below. I took many shots and my Se5 was almost done for. Then I managed to get behind an enemy Albatros for long enough, to set his aircraft ablaze and knock it off. After some more desperate turns, an Albatros popped in front of me, zooming near stalling speed. I took a quick burst and saw the enemy aircraft explode in a mighty fireball. I must have hit his gas tank. Anyway, after about 5 minutes of turning, dodging bullets and aircraft, my engine stopped so I glided towards my side of the lines. I was really low and hoped that I could land in a safe place to avoid being captured. In the meantime, I got lucky, as none of the remaining aircraft chased me. I landed safe and sound just a few yards behind my side of the lines.

 

The next mission was a patrol above Douai with that some pilot. 10 Albatrosses attacked us from south and north. Our flight was wiped-out in 5 minutes. Now imagine doing these kinds of missions over and over again, with a pilot that has many logged hours. It is really a very hard situation. It is not like playing a regular game where you will respawn if you die. If you crash in OFF then you are.... well...dead! You will lose all of the progress thus far and all of the hours you put to your pilot will fly away in a blink of an eye. Every decision you make, every move you make, determines the fate of your pilot. That's why OFF is such an amazing game. You are really scared every time you are up there flying, because if you make a mistake, there is no turning back. Each dogfight is a different situation and the outcome of the situation will determine the fate of your pilot, the pilot that you have been flying with for weeks or months.

 

Conclusion

 

The bottom line is that Over Flanders Fields: Between Heaven and Hell is a game that is truly exceptional. It is a game that every serious flight simmer must have, and every serious WWI enthusiast must play regularly. There is no other game, that puts you into the cockpit and really makes you feel that you are up there, fighting for your life. There is no other game, which gives you the feeling of being part of an air war better than OFF. There is no other game, where its developers are on the player's side every day. There is no other game I have played more, and feel that there is much more to experience in it. And you know what? It makes the game even better, knowing that the people who have made it are not pros, and do not belong to a big money-eating corporation. They are a bunch of enthusiasts from all around the globe, who have done the most impressive job in the game industry today. We owe a lot to these guys, and we ought to support them, because OFF has not finished its trip yet. There are still many aircraft to be introduced, and many features to be added. Over Flanders Fields: BHaH is a true masterpiece. Immersion, Realism, Thrill, all in one package, and all raised to the nth power. Enjoy.

 

 

 

Special thanks to the OFF team for an amazing game, thanks to the Freetrack team for their software, thanks to OvS for his help with this review, thanks to Fortiesboy and Herr Prop Wasche for their Damage model, and thanks to Dimus for h

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Great Review Gous..... on the Stunning Sim

[Rodster 1]

Fantastic review and thanks for the free science content.

[luter 0]

Hi there,

 

I read your review with great interest. I, like you, am a WWI enthusiast and am interested in realism. My father was in the Italian Air Force before WWII (so you can tell about how old I am) and flew biplanes as well as the new metal monoplanes. However, unlike you, I am new to computer games and unfamiliar with the jargon and other required ammenities. I hope to get OFF in the near future but I need to do more investigation into what I need. Right now I have a Wii (brand new) and a Mac laptop. Will OFF work on either of these?

 

I am a musician and will going on the road for a short stint, so I probably won't be able to purchase until February. Any help you can extend will be appreciated. I apologize for my ignorance and u=will understand if you don't respond.

 

regards,

joe

[themightysrc 5]

Hi Joe,

 

Phew! You've certainly decided to take something of a leap into the dark....

 

First of all, you'll need a powerful PC, with plenty of memory (RAM) and a very good graphics card to run OFF. I'm afraid it wasn't built for Macs or Wiis - more's the pity, in a way. So that is what you'll need to explore first and foremost.

 

Secondly you'll need to buy OFF itself. Before you commit, you should take the time to read the OFF forum here and ask as many questions as you want - people will gladly help. Have a look on Youtube and the OBD website (they're the people who wrote OFF) and check out some of the videos on there.

 

Whilst you're around, you would be advised to read up about some other WWI air combat games - notably Red Baron 3D, First Eagles and Rise of Flight. They might be what you're after instead of OFF, but the chances are that you'll probably end up buying all four in due course!

 

If you're still set on OFF, look at the OBD website and examine the best (not minimum) specifications for a PC to run the game. Unpeel wallet, buy suitable rig, cry a bit, live on potatoes and bread till next Xmas.

 

Whilst that wallet's open, you'll probably want a decent force feedback joystick. This enables you to experience the shudders and shakes of the aircraft - helps to avoid stalls. Also, you'd be well advised to buy TrackIR, as device that tracks your head movements and translates them into screen view: in other words, when you look left, you look left out of the cockpit; when you look up, you're looking up out of the plane, etc. Invaluable.

 

Right then. I think I've just recommended that you spend about a thousand bucks there. Hope this helps!

 

Cheers,

Si

[luter 0]

Hi Si,

 

I responded to your message a few hours ago, but apparently I don't have the hang of this site.

 

Thanks for you very informative message. I picked up a lot from what you said. I had no idea about the TrackIR or the force feedback joystick and it would seem that would really make the experience real. I'll have to think about this - - whether I have the time and talent to be able to fully appreciate the fine points of these games.

 

Thanks again, I really appreciate your insight - - I am much more versed in the possibilities and preparation needed.

 

regards,

joe

[Skyviper 1,101]

An Awesome review for an awesome game I didn't even know that existed

[Slartibartfast 153]

An Awesome review for an awesome game I didn't even know that existed

 

I will admit I never knew about it until the OFF crowd turned up here on Combatace I then read through the Forum for OFF... 3 months later I dived in and purchased the game over a year later I still havn't made it to 1917 !!! But boy have I had a whole heap of fun in learning to fly a Sopwith Strutter... and I will admit it is the only WW1 Flight sim I own... truly is a work of art and sometimes when attacking another airplane I don't want to shoot it down because it looks so good... I generally attempt to do so though...

 

Excellent Review of a Wonderful game...