Crimson Skies

Rating:
Summary: ONLINE FLIGHT GAMES SHOULD BE LIKE THIS
Review: ITS NOT TO REAL OR TO FAKE IT IS JUST RIGHT A COMBO OF FUN AND SHOOTING AND ONLINE PLAY. THE SPECS ARE GOOD MY PC RUNS IT WITH NO PROBLEMS BUT I RUN A P3 1GHZ GEFORCE 2 ULTRA 64MB AND IT PLAYS AWESOME THATS ALL I GOT TO SAY

Rating:
Summary: Addictive and Great looking
Review: This game has caught my attention for a while. it is well paced and has stunning graphics if your system can run them smoothly. The only downside I've seen is that you can't choose your own mission, the game does it for you and it's always the same sequence of events.

Rating:
Summary: I LOVE this game
Review: I just got my hands on this sim and have had nothing but FUN every since I loaded it into my computer. The graphics are excellent, the sounds are superior, and the chatter is very intertaining. Althought this may not be for the serious WWll flight simmer (cause it has nothing to do with WWll) it is hours of entertainment. I have recently added 3 flight sims to my collection and I have to admit this has been my favorite.

Rating:
Summary: great game, bad patch
Review: This is a great game, but the patch doesn't solve the save-game problem like Microsoft claims. The first thing I did after i got the game was install the upgrade, but when I designed a plane in Instant Action mode and then returned to the campaign, my saved game wasn't there anymore, although the patch was specifically supposed to solve that problem, among others. So my advice is, play the campaign game to the end and THEN try instant action. I don't know about games being erased in multiplayer, but I'd use caution there too. Also, if you don't have DirectX 8, the game will give you an error message, telling you it needs it, and that involves a visit to the DirectX website and a half-hour download of yet another upgrade. But the bottom line is, the game is worth the headaches, and that's a high compliment, considering what a pain it was just to install it. I haven't been playing it very long, but hopefully I won't run into any more problems. I'm running on a Dell PIII 700 with 128 RAM and NVIDIA TNT2 32mb graphics card, if that matters.

Rating:
Summary: Help Please
Review: I love this game, but can't play it to save my life. I have a Pentium II 400 MHz with 96 MB RAM and a Voodoo 3 Video Card with 16 MB VRAM on it. Every single mission crashes NEARLY every single time I play the game. I have only been able to manually close the game once because all other times it crashed on me. I have all settings on low and still the problems. I meet or exceed all system requirements. And I have installed the latest patch. Can anyone help me? [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: High system reqs?
Review: I don't know what all the fuss over system requirements is for this game. I have a PII 300 with 128 megs of RAM, and a TNT2 Value card from Creative, and this game runs like a dream with most of the detail settings on high. As for load times, I didn't find them to be a problem at all. If you want excessive load times, try playing Fallout 2. The atmosphere of this game is amazing; this is the first game I've played in a long time that had immersive gameplay and story elements, and I kept ignoring my work to come back and play. Awesome game!

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic !
Review: This is one awesome game ! Beautiful graphics, very nice cloud and haze effects. Unlike FS98 or FS2000, you don't need to master your piloting skills. Very playable.

But, I have a PIII 800MHz, GeForce 32M card... Slow load times, once it loads, no slowing down. On another 300 MHz machine I have, it takes 5 mins to load and has a low frame rate.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not without problems
Review: First off, I don't think this game should be rated as harshly as a lot of other reviewers have done. Yes, the load times are long, but not unbearable and I (only) have a P266 with a Voodoo 3. Those who complain about the load times in this game are going to be livid waiting for 'No One Lives Forever' to load (a great game, by the way).

I've always wanted a game like this, dogfighting Indiana Jones style without having to worry about pressing this key or that, maintaining proper altitude, airspeed or whatever. Sim fanatics need not apply. This is hardly a simulation, and for me that's a good thing.

The acting is fun, actually interesting dialogue that you don't skip through. The missions are fun, shootouts in the air against zeppelins, boarding and hijacking planes in midair (sim fans try that one), flying through caves, bridges, hangars, you name it. Basically, this game's one overriding factor is simple. It's *fun* to play!

Now for the bad stuff. Yes, you *must* download the patch so your campaign info isn't erased when you go multiplayer. It's not a huge download, and besides, this is a Microsoft product, were you really expecting it to be bug free? Also, the game provides you with wingmen but like most flying games they're worthless. Mine are usually shot down in the first minute.

My biggest complaint - as you progress in the game, you'll find the missions become harder not because the enemy AI becomes smarter, but because the missions become longer and you find yourself fighting wave after wave of enemy planes. Kind of like the shooter games where you find yourself alone in a room surrounded by 100 monsters. Gets tedious. Lastly, there are minor annoyances like hiccups in the music as the mission ends, and slow menu change times, etc. Nothing unbearable, though.

To summarize, it's the most original flying-shooter I've seen since Wing Commander and it's a lot of fun. Anyone remotely interested in flying games is going to love it. Just make sure they're not looking for a simulation.

Rating:
Summary: About that load time--
Review: I'll keep this short! I found the game unplayable on a P350, 64 MEG of memory. Great graphics, unbearable load times--Network play was great (person to person, not via the zone).

I recently borrowed a p750, GeForce2 with 256 meg of memory. What a dream! The game works well, most of the loading issues go away. It's just...considering what they list as their min. requirements. I say 3 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome Flight Action, No Pilot¿s License Needed
Review: Set in a nostalgia-inducing alternate 1930's America, Crimson Skies drops all pretense of sophisticated avionics and focuses instead on plot-driven aero-combat, stunt flying, and daredevil rescue and escape missions. At the end of each mission you get a few items for your in-game scrapbook: photos, letters, magazine articles and mementos to help submerge you in the plot. Microsoft has really done wonders to Internet play: Multiplayer options for Crimson Skies are plentiful and, like Midtown Madness 2, graphic integrity doesn't suffer when you play online, even when going through the Gaming Zone.

There is one big problem with Crimson Skies, and that's the long load times that come before and after each mission. No doubt it's this initial lag that makes actual gameplay so stable, but it's a drag that if you get killed early on in a mission, you have to wait about a minute to get back in the cockpit. Also, in the plane construction mode (available for both plot-based and single mission/online modes), it seems the more time you spend tweaking your plane, the longer the menu lag gets. If only the manual-designed like an 1930's-era action magazine-featured specs on planes and weapons, the menu lag problems would have seemed less annoying.

In terms of graphics, each environment features great detail in buildings and landscapes, balancing out the fact that maps are generally area-specific. The planes themselves are fantastic and great fun, and game sounds-engines, dialog, and guns especially-are amazing. Action fans who don't want to go to flight school to fly a computer plane will find Crimson Skies to be the game to beat. Never so cheesy as to be unconvincing, the game is clever, compelling and amazingly stable-traits that help to smooth over the between-mission load times and sound glitches.