Posted by Tim Stone on August 9th, 2009.
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FASA Corp tentatively blowing the dust off their Crimson Skies licence? Splendid news. I can’t think of another interwar-inspired, zeppelin-crammed, fantasy flight-sim that deserves a rebirth more than Zipper’s classic. Well, apart from Rowan Software’s Air Power, obviously.
Posted by Tim Stone on May 24th, 2009.
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The nice chaps and chapettes at Moscow studio Digital Dimension Development have chosen to bow-out with a magnanimous flourish rather than a bitter “It was pirates and publishers what killed us!’ rant. BASE, their scandalously under-marketed Jumping Off High Things simulation, has been handed over to fans in a final act of goodwill. You can grab the full version here or a lite build (missing the hefty El Capitan venue) here. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Tim Stone on February 1st, 2009.
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While I wish AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! every success, I can’t let the “there’s nothing like it” claim in the feature list go unchallenged. For the last two years Russian outfit Digital Dimension Development have been quietly peddling their own flying squirrel sim. BASE doesn’t have surreal skyscrapers, smashable panes or hand signalling, but it does have aerodynamic realism, a scary sense of altitude, and a demo that lets you hurl yourself off the top of Moscow’s loftiest landmark.
Posted by Tim Stone on January 24th, 2009.
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Some staggering news from Redmond via Gamasutra. Microsoft have just euthanised the most successful sim studio of all time. ACES, the team behind the Flight Simulator and Combat Flight Simulator franchises, are effectively no more. A skeleton staff of six will be kept on to service existing ESP contracts but it’s curtains for everyone else. Blimey.
Read on for ill-informed speculation.
Posted by Tim Stone on January 18th, 2009.
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Most of the people that made high-fidelity flight sims in the Nineties are now making low-fidelity games about snowboarding, car theft, and pony care. Moscow-based Eagle Dynamics is one of very few studios that has survived and kept the faith. They’ve just released Black Shark, a helo hymn that doesn’t so much simulate the Ka-50 ground attack chopper as steal its soul. Sadly, I can’t say too much about the sim at present (because I’m scrutinising it for the lovely PC Gamer UK) but I did catch-up with project lead Matt Wagner recently and ply him with questions.
Posted by Tim Stone on December 8th, 2008.
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I spent most of Friday playing an aerial combat game that’s currently pre-beta, and chatting to some of the people behind it. It was a pleasant enough day, but a few of the things the Project Lead said caused me to shake my wizened noggin in a ‘Will they ever learn?’ manner. Now, I’m not one of those simmers that believes every flight game has to be as brutally realistic as Falcon 4.0 or DCS: Black Shark, but I do feel certain elements of aviation-based entertainment are non-negotiable. After the cut, my list of Eight Things Every Air Combat Game Should Sport. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Tim Stone on September 9th, 2007.
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If shooting albatrosses brings bad luck I’m in for a really lousy autumn.
This past week, in the gaps between work, blackberry picking, and bouncing about in the Rigs of Rods Tatra, I’ve been catching-up with a wonderful old friend – Red Baron 3D.
Thanks to Sierra’s German wing, this evergreen Great War dogfight sim, justly famed for its immersive dynamic campaign and marvellous MP, is now totally free. Well, strictly speaking it’s Red Baron II that’s free. You’ll need to apply the official superpatch to upgrade to RB3D. You’ll also want a Glide wrapper, a WinXP sound fix, and a tolerance of Deutsch (the patch doesn’t remove all traces of the Baron’s native tongue). It’s a bit of a dance, but follow the following step-by-step guide and you should be happily ambushing albatrosses inside half an hour.
