For People thinking of buying this game

[Firecage 1]

 

1)Background: I have been flying now on around 20 missions so this is a view from a new player towards the game. I came from the old RB2 days and remember well the great times most of us had back then I have been searching for a WWI sim that has the feel and immersion of those days. I wanted to have a sim that had a bit more varied way of setting up the game and the ability so that as I learned the planes better I could add things in and out to suit my needs(I am a glutton for punishemnt and went right for the DID standard and full real settings).

 

This game has an amazing set of things you can change from Weather, realism, FM, Dates, Graphics, and many more!!

 

2) Feel: One thing I wanted was the feel of actually being in the war and the fear of things going wrong and not getting home alive. I did NOT want to feel like I just put a quarter in the game machine and flew like a God and made 20 kills a flight. I remember well having to make the call of running away from certain fights in RB to fight another day.... my motto is live chicken is better than dead hero any day.

 

If you like realism settings and limited ammo/fules this IS the game to have right now. I have tried to float back to home lands out fo fuel.. ran home with no ammo... and died trying all of these. The only God mode is the one your pilots tend to meet after death here in this sim. Keep an eye on your supplies and location.

 

3) Graphics: Things had to look real and feel right. One thing I have seen in most WWI games is a refinement of the planes to look clean and smooth edged. Actuall photos showed these planes to look crude and rough. After all we had not been in the air all that many years.Sleek is not a word that comes to mind very often when looking at old photos.

 

Well the thing is was afraid of being an old owner of CFS3 was crap graphics and play... no worries here any longer. It took 5 times longer to install BH&H than it did to install the 2 CDs of CFS3. Now THAT shows you how much they worked to change this into a sim worth buying!!! Amazing look in here!!

 

4) AI and FM: I was tired of fake looking damage and dumbass AI... excuse my lang here but AI usually is what pisses me off about flight sims most times. It either WAY over board and you can't survive at all or they are 12 years olds in a plane and don't do any real manouvers or they ram into you constantly like a bumper car track. FMs are the worse point in these WWI sims. I think alot of these planes are not around and there isn not that much great data to be had or a game to transfer it to the player.

 

Thank you , thank you, thank you... I feel like im fighting real pilots. Each DF seems to hold a different feel tot he fight and not one time have we collided with each other. AI will hunt you down and kill if you don't keep it together even on Easy enemy AI its still pretty aggressive but not over done. The planes fly very well and handle nicely. If your a camel fna you better bring a few set fo clean underware... that plane is the devils spawn.

 

6)Immersion Factor: I want to feel like im there plain and simple !

 

Did I mention lack of sleep? I found myself trying to turn the sim off and go to bed ... just one more flight... yawn... damn is that the sun ?

 

 

 

Pros: Buy the game now and get in the air. Its an amazing game and they did a great job making it for us. This game is more polished than 90% of the other games that cost twice as much! There are a few things tht could be changed and improved on and they are releasing patches constantly due to feed back and the pilots here have been WAY WAY helpful on any issues and questions. This game is all I wanted RB to grow into and is the right stepping stone on that path. You can get CFS3 for $5.99 at many places on the web and $29 for BH&H ... what a steal. DO NOT think your going to jump in a plane and rip the air up right off. This one takes time to learnand is well worth the time invested.

 

Cons: It did take a bit to get all the graphics bugs fixed at the start, I don't feel its bad code its just so many options in the PC world as far as cards, cpus settings and such that took some time to get it all working right. Also remember they have alot of CFS3 thats hard coded they had to work around and thats not an easy task. I have some graphic glitches im still seeing at time but im pretty sure they are driver related or Direct X related at this point. And Im sure If I need help its right here in these forums. Lack of sleep is a bad issue as well

 

I would get this sim to ANY friends who are looking for a ton of fun and great fights.

[Von Paulus 8]

Hear, hear

[Dej 17]

Nice review Firecage... thanks due from the OFF community I think.

 

The only thing I'd change is not to refer to the time spent on graphics configuration as 'bugs', or at least explain that it's a CFS or hardware issue. As far as I know there aren't any 'bugs' in the OFF graphics, just a need to fiddle with settings for optimal performance... and as you rightly observed, help is readily at hand on these fora.

[Firecage 1]

Nice review Firecage... thanks due from the OFF community I think.

 

The only thing I'd change is not to refer to the time spent on graphics configuration as 'bugs', or at least explain that it's a CFS or hardware issue. As far as I know there aren't any 'bugs' in the OFF graphics, just a need to fiddle with settings for optimal performance... and as you rightly observed, help is readily at hand on these fora.

 

Yes I agree, I tried to make that clear but I will state again. I do NOT feel as the *bugs* are part of OFF I feel they come from CFS3 or just the normal "settings" that need to be set with pretty much any game when you start getting things going.

 

My term bug is just what I use when getting wierd graphics from ANY driver type issue, not trying to infer that OFF has the bugs at all

 

On the contray ... OFF is in better shape right out of the box than any flight SIM I have flown in YEARS!!.

Any concerns anyone has about the game should be ignored and grab the game and snjoy the fun

[Duce Lewis 3]

I don't feel its bad code its just so many options in the PC world as far as cards, cpus settings and such that took some time to get it all working right. Also remember they have alot of CFS3 thats hard coded they had to work around and thats not an easy task.

Great review Firecage!

OFF has to be flown to be really appreciated

You detailed the experience very well

 

cfs3 Hard Code has been unraveled some too

All that great AI has been Rex Hannovers rewriting of cfs3 code

 

These guys are marvelous

There's no quit in them and we're the lucky benefitiares

 

Happy Hunting,

[rabu 9]

Great review Firecage!

OFF has to be flown to be really appreciated

You detailed the experience very well

 

cfs3 Hard Code has been unraveled some too

All that great AI has been Rex Hannovers rewriting of cfs3 code

 

These guys are marvelous

There's no quit in them and we're the lucky benefitiares

 

Happy Hunting,

 

Thanks, Firecage, well written and inspiring.

[Rickitycrate 10]

Good review. Good luck in getting people to give OFF BH&H a try. I understand wanting to share this experience with anyone who has an interest in this field.