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a pilot and die-hard flightsim fanatic, I couldn't wait for Flying
Corps to hit the shelves. When it finally did I was excited to see a
product that came in a heavy box with a nice thick, color manual and
operating book inside. There were even color glossy maps to use
during the game that showed all the different territories used in
WWI. This was a nice surprise, as few companies today give the gamer
"quality" printed material as way back in the late 80's and early
1990's.
Now for the game itself. The installation and setup was brainless.
The game can be played better and smoother in DOS, so that is what I
have been playing the game on. Win95 users will see a decrease in
frame rates overall, and the CD includes the
SciTech Display Doctor Shareware
to get you running with drivers for faster DOS play. I found that
using these helped me greatly, running on an ATI Mach64 video card.
Flying Corps will demand a fast (4x CDROM drive) and I would say at
least a P133 for decent frame rates in just the 640x480 graphics
mode. Frame rates for me in DOS averaged around 6 fps in heavily
detailed sceneries and about 15 fps in most flying and combat above
clouds. On average a 10 was a good bet--not too bad, but it had me
wishing for a P166 or so.
The flying is fun. Set with full realism you'll be in for a challenge. Even for experienced flight simmers, these old, fragile WWI fabric covered machines are stubborn, unstable and underpowered. Combat in WWI is so exciting because it is really pilot against pilot with no computer aided help or electronic gizmos to make it easier. Just aim and shoot...all while battling the effects of torque, lift, drag, turbulence, slip streams, clouds and enemy fighters. It makes you wonder how these guys did it in real life! Finally when you actually get off a shot or two and hit an enemy plane, you'll be rewarded by distant ripping sounds, screams from the pilot, the rare total explosion, and wonderfully detailed parts flying off the victim! Wings, wheels, struts, props and more will become dislodged from all the planes in the game...including your own! Once in battle I had my prop, wheels and top wing shot off - and I kept on flyin'! The engine was running, but without a prop a landing will occur soon! This kind of excitment makes the game playable over and over as I have never seen two identical dogfights.
The wind and weather effects are nicely done, with clouds that you can fly through with the "foggy" look coming over you. You'll be rocked violently by enemy flak and sometimes if you're flying really fast (130 mph) thru flak turbulence, you may loose a top wing! Now, your job just got harder! The planes can easily be over-stressed and will fall apart. I have heard many a time my wings "groaning" as I pull a fast turn or hard loop. You'll know when you've gone too far! Landings are semi-realistic, but do require a fine touch and some care. Again, the weakness of the plane will allow the roughest dirt landing to turn your bi-plane into a streamline retractable model!
The enemies are tricky. The AI is good, with other aircraft randomly entering battles all around you despite what your mission may be. You may be on a scout mission, and come across a buddy in need of help - and you can jump in and alter history! The enemy pilots will react realistically depending on what you do with them. Some will run and try to get away. Others will come after you until you go down in flame. If you disable an aircraft partially (like knocking off a wing or smoking his engine) the enemy pilot will go try to find a safe place to put it down. The ground targets offer real excitement as enemy and friendly barracks offer the chance to "strafe" the buildings and tents. If you do, you will see little animated men running out of the tents for cover! Then you may even hear the little "pop" of hand-held guns as these frantic troops take pot shots at you!
The campaigns and missions are challenging, rewarding and realistic. Some are boring, some are frightening and intense. Some air battles will involve 20 planes in the sky at once. This is where the game really takes off - as planes, pieces, sounds and all come together.
The graphics are richly detailed. The planes are pure works of art. The countryside contains villages, airfields and rolling 3D actual landscapes. Even running on lower details for faster frame rates yielded wonderful quality.
The only major downfall of this product is the inability to look directly behind you. The interface on the keyboard is clumsy and not too logical. Of course, you can use a "hat" switch on a yoke or joystick to remedy this to some extent, but panning can be slow. The scenery has a problem too. As you move along, at some point new scenery must load off the CD. This has produced waits of up to a couple of minutes on my CDROM and in the middle of combat this can be totally unacceptable. However, if you have a fast CD, this will not be a problem for you. For us who don't - in the missions you can advance via the map to the next occurance of combat which magically bypasses the loading of scenery while flying. Then you'll be up in flying in a different area - it dumps you out with enemies nearby, and most likely you've been placed in a different "grid" of scenery. This trick has saved the game for me!
I have not even completed a campaign yet. There's a lot to Flying Corps, as there should be. Empire has already made a patch available, and more are expected, as well as multi-player capability too. This will be a well supported product that I imagine will only get better. As for now, it is a quality package, with a few flaws that can be overlooked. If you can do this as I did, then you'll be looking forward to your next flight and in time, some incredibly heart-pounding dogfights! To add realism to this game, wear goggles, a scarf, and mount a fan behind your monitor to blow cold air-conditioned air on you while you fly! Now, you're taking a really realistic flight-combat sim!
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