Masaq
07-08-09, 02:25
Verdict: Although the game has many flaws, it's pretty damn impressive, very fun and with a learning curve that's not to steep but pretty challenging nevertheless.
Graphics: Are beautiful. The models are gorgeous, the scenery is pretty - a thousand miles above and beyond LockOn's efforts - the visual effects are great - with the possible exception of the yellowy-orange glow that sits over your screen when you're injured.
Performance: The above obviously comes with a penalty, which is that my 2-year-old rig: Core2 Duo E6750 (2.66Ghz) coupled to 4Gb of DDR2 memory on a P35 chipset motherboard, a single 9800GTX for graphics - struggles to play it at highest settings. Of course, you can play it lower than highest and I'm sure it'd look fine. But, with a game that looks this good when it's on full settings, the push to get decent frames at high settings? Well, it's attractive...
Interface: Is horrible, to be honest. There's a pretty big lag between hitting a button and getting a response from the game. I think many of the ingame options actually exchange information with the master server - so if you go to start a new server up for example, there's a few seconds pause whilst it recalls your previous server settings. Handy, yes, but the wait is irritating. There's also never a cursor in a text entry box, which, given the slight lag between clicking and having your option selected, means I found myself waiting for the cursor... but it never arrived.
Single player: Hehe! I've not tried the career mode thingy yet, but having briefly selected it to see how it works - you can select the type of plane you want to fly in, what year it is (determining what other aircraft will be in the air) and your squadron colours (so many colours!)... but I've not tried a career mission yet.
What I have tried is the tutorials, which are hilarious. So, so hilarious. They're alternatively delivered through cutscenes - voice acted by some very wooden Russians, who sound like they've having to turn over prompt-cards between lines - demonstrations on the "chalkboard" by the instructor, some demonstration flights through giant green HUD hoops in the sky, and finally you actually flying yourself.
The cutscenes are not only wooden but filled with cliché from media depicting the WW1 era - "I am sure you be not only become my friend. But a great pilot also." says the instructor. Before you go on your first. Flight, John. They're so utterly awful that they were great, and I laughed.
The chalkboard clips on the other hand, whilst retaining the awful voiceovers, are brilliant - a little witty, charming drawings and best of all- simple and easy to understand. The basic bits are pretty dull but it looks like the more advanced stuff actually might be useful for folk who'd like to know not just how to fly with these machines but actually to fight with them.
Multiplayer: has the same problem with the clunky GUI, really - but seems to be fine performance-wise. The lack of visual aids and such to fly with is a little problematic at first - Tommy, Epoch and I had lost each other within moments of a German flight descending on us - but it should be pretty fun. The most galling thing about it at present is that it's co-op mode only, so you have to start a mission and play it through until you're all dead, no respawns. A respawn-friendly furball/arena mode is due soon apparently - but until then, it's a bit like playing ArmA in hardcore mode.
DRM: Isn't a problem, to be honest. If you're on a broadband connection and your PC is always connected to the internet - well, you don't notice the connecting-to-the-server thing. I've not experienced any problems with my connection to the master server being dropped or anything like that. Yeah, I'm sure that if I ever lose my internet connection for a few days and I really fancy some RoF, it'd be dead irritating... but hell, I could load up Lock On or something to play instead for a day or two, I'm sure.
All in all, I'd strongly recommend anyone with a decent rig that meets the minimum specs, if they're at all fond of the image of zooming through the icy air in a sheepskin jacket, eyes peering through googles searching for that dot on the horizon that marks an enemy aircraft and then going for him, guns blazing... It just seems pretty good fun :)
Graphics: Are beautiful. The models are gorgeous, the scenery is pretty - a thousand miles above and beyond LockOn's efforts - the visual effects are great - with the possible exception of the yellowy-orange glow that sits over your screen when you're injured.
Performance: The above obviously comes with a penalty, which is that my 2-year-old rig: Core2 Duo E6750 (2.66Ghz) coupled to 4Gb of DDR2 memory on a P35 chipset motherboard, a single 9800GTX for graphics - struggles to play it at highest settings. Of course, you can play it lower than highest and I'm sure it'd look fine. But, with a game that looks this good when it's on full settings, the push to get decent frames at high settings? Well, it's attractive...
Interface: Is horrible, to be honest. There's a pretty big lag between hitting a button and getting a response from the game. I think many of the ingame options actually exchange information with the master server - so if you go to start a new server up for example, there's a few seconds pause whilst it recalls your previous server settings. Handy, yes, but the wait is irritating. There's also never a cursor in a text entry box, which, given the slight lag between clicking and having your option selected, means I found myself waiting for the cursor... but it never arrived.
Single player: Hehe! I've not tried the career mode thingy yet, but having briefly selected it to see how it works - you can select the type of plane you want to fly in, what year it is (determining what other aircraft will be in the air) and your squadron colours (so many colours!)... but I've not tried a career mission yet.
What I have tried is the tutorials, which are hilarious. So, so hilarious. They're alternatively delivered through cutscenes - voice acted by some very wooden Russians, who sound like they've having to turn over prompt-cards between lines - demonstrations on the "chalkboard" by the instructor, some demonstration flights through giant green HUD hoops in the sky, and finally you actually flying yourself.
The cutscenes are not only wooden but filled with cliché from media depicting the WW1 era - "I am sure you be not only become my friend. But a great pilot also." says the instructor. Before you go on your first. Flight, John. They're so utterly awful that they were great, and I laughed.
The chalkboard clips on the other hand, whilst retaining the awful voiceovers, are brilliant - a little witty, charming drawings and best of all- simple and easy to understand. The basic bits are pretty dull but it looks like the more advanced stuff actually might be useful for folk who'd like to know not just how to fly with these machines but actually to fight with them.
Multiplayer: has the same problem with the clunky GUI, really - but seems to be fine performance-wise. The lack of visual aids and such to fly with is a little problematic at first - Tommy, Epoch and I had lost each other within moments of a German flight descending on us - but it should be pretty fun. The most galling thing about it at present is that it's co-op mode only, so you have to start a mission and play it through until you're all dead, no respawns. A respawn-friendly furball/arena mode is due soon apparently - but until then, it's a bit like playing ArmA in hardcore mode.
DRM: Isn't a problem, to be honest. If you're on a broadband connection and your PC is always connected to the internet - well, you don't notice the connecting-to-the-server thing. I've not experienced any problems with my connection to the master server being dropped or anything like that. Yeah, I'm sure that if I ever lose my internet connection for a few days and I really fancy some RoF, it'd be dead irritating... but hell, I could load up Lock On or something to play instead for a day or two, I'm sure.
All in all, I'd strongly recommend anyone with a decent rig that meets the minimum specs, if they're at all fond of the image of zooming through the icy air in a sheepskin jacket, eyes peering through googles searching for that dot on the horizon that marks an enemy aircraft and then going for him, guns blazing... It just seems pretty good fun :)