Wings of War review

[solypsist]

some sites:
http://www.gamerswanted.com/platform/pc/6419/
http://www.metacritic.com/games/plat...pc/wingsofwar/



if you liked Crimson Skies, then you'll like this game. It's an arcade-style World War 1 flight game (joystick) with a campaign, internet multiplayer, and "instant action" dogfight option.


I'd been lookin for a good, fun joystick game for a while, but didn't like fiddling with all the technical stuff (like clean landings) so this game looked good. I got an offer to beta for this game ,and took it up because...well why not?

I wasn't expecting much: how teeth-grinding can flying a single-engine biplane be? You use binculars to see, drop bombs manually (look down and let go!) and the primitive machine gun takes forever to down an enemy.

The campaign includes several items: dogfights, bombing runs, barnstorming, etc. Also thrown in are (to me, unrealistic) plane rockets, in an effort to compete with previously more flashy flight games. While it cuts down on mahcine gunning one enemy for five minutes, and looks good, I dislike this particular indulgence.

It doesn't take long to get drawn in, the fun British voices (no radios, but hey, you can hear banter!), period music, and the, "Aaarrggh!" of downed enemies makes for a good time.
Yeah, you have to take off and land, but it's easy.

Good points: good action, enough variety in mission objectives, good camera controls, uncomplicated keyboard commands, 3D game engine has good ambient effects (lens flare, smoke).
Bad points: borders on historical plane and fantasy: afaik, biplanes couldn't carry 40 bombs and release their payload at one every second, but the machine gun can overheat, and your engine is finicky, like I imagine a real biplane would be. Nice views of historical battles/battlefields with ground action to compliment the sky action(the Somme was impressive.)

ships Aug 16

[Forward Observer]

Do you have a cockpit view option, or is it a 3rd person view like the recent Secret Weapons over Normandy?

[solypsist]

there are 5 camera views.

standard open screen (crosshairs only) view
cockpit view
rear of plane view
fly-by view right
fly-by view-left

[Forward Observer]

Thanks, Soly

The WW I flight sim fans over at SimHQ are in a buzz about it. Even though it is aimed at an arcade audience, they all feel that there might have potential
with modding as a realistic sim.

I think it just got released in the UK, so those are the only flight fans that have had a chance to play with it. The WW I flght sim fan group are desperate for anything new at this point

Flight sims are such a niche market in the first place, and as such have sort of become a dying segment of PC gaming. In the second place, even with what there is out there, WW I has be sadly neglected. There has been nothing new depicting wood, wire, and canvas aircraft since Red Baron 3D or Flying Corps Gold--both over 5 years old.

There was a realistic WW I flight sim in the works called Knights over Europe, but development recently stopped when the publisher withdrew financial support to the developer.

Even though it may only stay as the arcade game you descibed, it still sounds like fun, and I am sure I get it when hits the US. I too loved Crmson Skies---in fact I just recently played through the CS campaign again. There was a Crimson Skies 2, but it was only for the X-box. I may have to break down a buy a console some day, but I can't see doing it just for one game.

Now if someone would just make an up to date state of the art WW II tank sim, I would be really happy.

Cheers

[solypsist]

it has settings for arcade mode (my preference) or with a more involved piloting control (which makes things 10x harder - forget about barnstorming with this option on)

[Degtyarev14.5]

Forward Observer,

Forgotten Hope

Enjoy!

A.

[Nelson]

I am a big Crimson Skies fan so I will check this out. I enjoy the Sturmovik style hard core sims but CS and the old Larry Holland games are fun too. Sometimes it's great to forget the whole lift plus thrust must exceed weight plus drag thing and just zoom and shoot!

Knights Over Europe stopped! That is terrible news. Now we will be without a good WWI sim for an even longer time.