Exodus, I worked with a bunch of the guys at Playnet at a previous company (ICI -Warbirds). I knew it (ww2ol) was buggy, so waited until a few months ago to hook up with it - and it still has a long way to go. Having been in the 'trenches', I can gaurantee that TK and crew really were screaming for more time, but if SF holds them to contractual milestones (meaning damn the game being finished, we want it out for Christmas), then Third Wire suffers the consequences by reputation, not SF.
Too bad, should be the other way around.
As for the game working on the company's boxes, then it's OK to ship is the problem. That's Alpha testing. To make sure most of the kinks are worked out on different boxes and configurations, there has to be a proper Beta program - at least 3 months IMHO. I still can't get through a mission without a CTD.
I'll keep the game and takes my chances, and am heading out to Chino (Planes of Fame) to get some cockpit reference for the Mig17 and 19 and crack open MAX after a bit of a hiatus ;P
MkIX