Rating: 
Summary: If just a few things were better...
Review: I've been waiting for this game for what seems like years and I can't help but register some disappointment now that I finally have a copy. The concept is outstandingly original and fascinating, if superficially reminiscent of the old DOS game Air Power. The in-game graphics are great and the flight physics are a pleasant mix of sim-like and arcade. The box-art, in-game movies, voice acting, zeppelins, background story, and outlandish aircraft designs are juicy. The (skimpy) manual is also a hoot. Just about everything is great. If only the game worked like it should! On my machine (400mhz PII with a Diamond Monster II) the color and graphics gradually degrade until after about 30-40 minutes the screen becomes little more than a collection of bright green and yellow rectangles. The game is then completely unplayable without rebooting. There's clearly a problem with the graphics drivers but I've got the latest DX 7 Voodoo 2 reference drivers and the problem still occurs. Also, the in-game menus are grindingly slow, which seems really bizarre, given the fact that they do not seem to be particularly complex or graphics-heavy. This makes any attempt at designing my own aircraft and modifying mission loadouts an agonizing exercise. Twiddling one's thumbs for 5 minutes waiting for a pull-down menu to materialize is not my idea of fun. In some respects the game seems to play as if it was too hastily brought to market and not subjected to adequate beta testing. Maybe Microsoft will issue a patch that fixes the graphics incompatibilies and menu speed. I hope so, because there is no way I can currently justify giving this title the excellent score it would otherwise appear to deserve.
Rating: 
Summary: Who wants to be an air pirate?
Review: Flight sims? Fun? Action oriented? Campy? Wait a minute, you said "fun"!?Talk about being on target, Zipper Interactive has really nailed the fun quotient with Crimson Skies. Forget your preconceptions about flight sims being boring and tedious, overwhelming you with controls, air intake valves and flap setting. There's no fussing with landing gears here... just guns, rockets, and babes! Think of your images of old radio shows and dramas, a crackling radio, an over-the-top heroic voice that's borderline comical as he proclaims the villain a "dastardly fellow". Add in the energy of a 21st century action game, filled with heroic dogfighting and incredible barrel rolls (no need for the laws of physics here when it might compromise fun), huge explosions, rippling landscapes, and incredible planes... and you've got a fantastic game. The graphics here really are incredible, after I finish I'm going through all the missions in a bomber just so I can get up close to the ground and fly very slowly, to savor every bit of detail, just superb coloring and lush landscapes. The cutscenes are tastefully done with a feel for old news reels you'd see at the movie theaters in the '30s and '40s, artfully building the plot as it goes. Gameplay is smooth and easy to quickly pickup. Controls are at a minimum, and though I have a new joystick coming in today, it's perfectly fine to even use the keyboard to fly. Maneuvering is very smooth and the keys are well laid out. So far (I'm about half way through) the missions are pretty easy, which was apparently intentional as Zipper wanted to make sure everyone completed the game. Despite the ease, the missions are still a lot of fun with plenty of action. There's also a multiplayer option, and a skirmish mode, so you can design your own missions. My only complaint is the menu interface... it's DARNED clunky and the hard drive chugs away for up to thirty seconds, just when trying to view a minor option on the plane construction screen. I don't know what the problem is here, but Zipper really could have done a better job on this, it detracts from what could otherwise be a very nice feature. Instead, building your own air wing turns into a tedious and mind numbing process. You can't even save your designs for quick reference in the future, just start from scratch. But the slow menu interface is my only real complaint. This is a fantastic game, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys action games... It's kind of an aerial FPS. ;-) (I'm running on a Pent III 800 Coppermine with 128M Ram at 100Mhz, Viper V770 32M and a SoundBlaster Live! Value.)
Rating: 
Summary: Fun, Fun, Fun!
Review: The only thing better then the graphics, are the incredibly creative missions and amazing voice acting. Even if you don't like blowing up zepplins, pick this one up!
Rating:
Summary: Wow!!!
Review: The graphics are incredible and the action is superb. Dogfighting in the clouds or over Manhattan at night is awesome This is a quantum leap in flight sims.
Rating:
Summary: If the Beta version is any indication.....
Review: Playing the Beta version of Crimson Skies from Microsoft has been an adventure. While the game is still not quite finished, it is already a blast, as long as you don't mind the lack of physics when flying. The graphics, sound, and characters/images are amazing, and the music is right on. Will the real version of the game be better? Absolutely, and I can't wait!
Rating:
Summary: Crimson Skies is the most original story since Freespace
Review: In a post-WWI world where the flu epidemic has not stopped, abolition has been enforced with deadly precision and old wounds from the Civil war re-opened, in swoops this fantastic title. Based on the board game of the same name by Fasa, Crimson Skies places the player in a world where the United States has broken into factions such as the Nation of Hollywood with it's high flying squadron the Hollywood Knights or the country of Dixie, formerly the southern United States. The highway system has never been implemented and the railroads are beseiged by bandits and state militias so commerce, travel and privateers take to the only place left, the skies. Air Pirates, flashy aces, bounty hunters and government fliers, all of this, along with a distinct 1930's setting with it's big band swing music and jazzy rythym combine to form a truly unique world. Players take the part of Air Pirate Nathan Zachery as he barnstorms and dogfights across the skies. From raiding a rivals fortress like zeppelin to stealing the infamous Spruce Goose from a Hollywood backlot as well as saving a comely damsel in distress from the top of a speeding train, Crimson Skies brings a player fast action and easy controls. Filled with arcade type action and a user friendly interface, Crimson Skies concentrates more on dogfighting action than on learning the intricacies needed for more advanced flight simulators. Make no mistake, while not as complex as Microsoft Flight, Crimson Skies delivers with easy controls that get you right into the action instead of setting for hours reading the manual. Crimson Skies is very likely to become Game of the Year for many players and innumerable magazines have already declared it a Must Have, and they are more than accurate.
Rating:
Summary: Who wants to be an air pirate?
Review: Flight sims? Fun? Action oriented? Campy? Wait a minute, you said "fun"!? Talk about being on target, Zipper Interactive has really nailed the fun quotient with Crimson Skies. Forget your preconceptions about flight sims being boring and tedious, overwhelming you with controls, air intake valves and flap setting. There's no fussing with landing gears here... just guns, rockets, and babes! Think of your images of old radio shows and dramas, a crackling radio, an over-the-top heroic voice that's borderline comical as he proclaims the villain a "dastardly fellow". Add in the energy of a 21st century action game, filled with heroic dogfighting and incredible barrel rolls (no need for the laws of physics here when it might compromise fun), huge explosions, rippling landscapes, and incredible planes... and you've got a fantastic game. The graphics here really are incredible, after I finish I'm going through all the missions in a bomber just so I can get up close to the ground and fly very slowly, to savor every bit of detail, just superb coloring and lush landscapes. The cutscenes are tastefully done with a feel for old news reels you'd see at the movie theaters in the '30s and '40s, artfully building the plot as it goes. Gameplay is smooth and easy to quickly pickup. Controls are at a minimum, and though I have a new joystick coming in today, it's perfectly fine to even use the keyboard to fly. Maneuvering is very smooth and the keys are well laid out. So far (I'm about half way through) the missions are pretty easy, which was apparently intentional as Zipper wanted to make sure everyone completed the game. Despite the ease, the missions are still a lot of fun with plenty of action. There's also a multiplayer option, and a skirmish mode, so you can design your own missions. My only complaint is the menu interface... it's DARNED clunky and the hard drive chugs away for up to thirty seconds, just when trying to view a minor option on the plane construction screen. I don't know what the problem is here, but Zipper really could have done a better job on this, it detracts from what could otherwise be a very nice feature. Instead, building your own air wing turns into a tedious and mind numbing process. You can't even save your designs for quick reference in the future, just start from scratch. But the slow menu interface is my only real complaint. This is a fantastic game, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys action games... It's kind of an aerial FPS. ;-) (I'm running on a Pent III 800 Coppermine with 128M Ram at 100Mhz, Viper V770 32M and a SoundBlaster Live! Value.)
Rating:
Summary: SHORT AND SWEET!
Review: This game is for anyone who enjoys flight sims, action games doing mission for money and engrossing story lines. The graphics in this game are some of the best I've seen. Don't let the title or box art fool you, this is an action, flight sim game. You play as an air pirate in an alternate reality North America in the year 1937. The skies are the roads of the world filled with cargo zeppelins, militia fighters and of course pirates. You follow the storyline missions and sometimes are reward with money to buy new planes. I have only three complaints about this game. Once you gain a new aircraft or buy a new aircraft, the only thing you change on it is the armaments. The damage done to zeppelins is unrealistic. The only way you can destroy one is to fire rockets into three cannon hatches. In real life they would simply ignite in a balll of flame once hit with a few machine-gun rounds. Finally the game is too short. I beat it in a day. The storyline could have been longer. I think the developers spent more detail on graphics than the mission themselves. Anyway this is a very good game. The second should be better and hopefully longer. Worth the low price!
Rating:
Summary: A cool game
Review: This is a quickie review, since I have a hard time writting the whole thing in paragraphs. The good:
Outstanding graphics, everything is detailed very well
Great premise
Outstanding atmosphere, complete with great music
Outstanding voice acting, some of the best I've ever heard. All of your npc companions come to life through the voice acting (You actually come to care for them, a rarity in games)
Intense dogfights, its not umcommon for fights to involve upwards of 10-15 planes
Really easy controls, its incredibly easy, even with the keyboard
Nice flying phisycs, finially, no more of those stupid uber-realistic microsoft simulators. There are some physics, but they are not overpowering.
The mid air zepplin battles. Its really fun to fly between 2 to 3 zepplins doing battles in mid air, and shooting the bad ones down.
The Manhattan levels. They dont look like that misleading picture on the back of the box (Its really a hollywood set), but that dosent stop them from being incredibly big and fun to fly around.
The final level. Awsome
The bad:
Loading times can be a bit long
Some really frustrating levels
Bad system of dying in a level. If you get shot down or killed, you have to start the level over. This is really frustraing on Manhattan, where if you want to complete the stunts, you have to play for a LONG time to get to them all, and its maddining to get shot down. Why not a system where you get a few lives per level, aka Star Wars Rouge Squadron
No bots in multiplayer battles
And the ugly:
Some really hard stunts
No indicators on how to find the stunts, so you have to hunt them down. (Good luck in Manhattan)
No level creator! (I'm talking about a full fledged campaign maker, like on Janes WW2 fighters)
Instant action has some flaws, only a few scenarios to fly, (Stunt flight, shoot down planes, take on a ace (Who you cant customize, so you cant take on the Black cat in Manhattan), and disable the zepplin)
Who came up with the brilliant idea of the concept that you can only disable a zepplin instead of destroying it?
The Zepplin in instant action. How come it can turn on a dime, has plane seeking missiles, and can go up at a 45* angle? Summary: It has some big flaws, but this game is an absolote must buy, even if you arnt a flight fan
Rating:
Summary: excellent game if you have the power
Review: I installed this game on my old system, 475 Mhz AMD, 128M RAM, 3dfx voodoo 3000 graphics. It took forever and a day to make a/c changes or load new games. Installed on my new system. Gateway 700X. 2.2G/P4, 1G RAM, 80G hard drive, 128MB nvidea geforce 4600Ti graphics card, Creative Audigy sound card. I have all options set to max and/or highest level possible. This game now loads and runs lightning fast. When finishing one flight and starting another the new scenery loads in seconds. The scenery detail looks just like the pics on the box cover. Now I find this game a blast.
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