by DrRedskwirrell » Wed Nov 02, 2005 4:50 am
I've been playing CFS1 almost every day for 4 years (except for a brief sojourn into IL2).
I've tried CFS1,2,& 3, the various IL2 games and a few smaller ones.
My reply to your question would be 'what do you want from the game?'
For me, I want a nice, fast, simple, dogfight arena in a community where I can discuss attributes and tactics with others in a friendly constructive manner, and CFS on the Zone ticks all the boxes. The down side is that it's 7 years old and shows:- The graphics aren't 1/2 as good as any of the others; There's less variety; The controls aren't as accurate; The flight models are poor by todays standards (particularly when you compare all of these to IL2).
If you want something more realistic, go for any of the others. If you want a real fast buzz / rush and can put up with the poor graphics, come n join us old dinosaurs back in the Ridge (and ignore the few idiots, whom we still haven't been able to eradicate from the chat area).
You'll be able to tell who the good gamers are coz they'll be the ones who'll offer to help out with any problems you have and seem generally polite.
Bear in mind also, what will run on your system. Not sure you'll get IL2 or CFS3 running with sufficient degree of quality to warrant choosing good graphics over CFS1 anyway. The release of IL2 has hit both CFS1 and CFS2 badly but seems to have hit CFS2 particularly hard. Possibly because the folks who left CFS for CFS2 did so to try and get more realism from the genre.
Amazon have just announced Jan 1st as the release date for BoB (next IL2 game "Battles of Britain"). I predict their will be a lot of interest in this from the CFS1 crowd who are jealous of the graphics of later games. But they will not be impressed by the increased realism of controls/models, as this isn't why they've stuck with CFS1 all this time.
One last selling point: As old as CFS1 is, and despite the difficulties M$ are putting in everyone's way (ie, hiding the CFS access page from casual gamers, and ceasing production / sales), it is STILL, after 7 years, attracting new gamers to it online.
What does that tell you?
www.Skwizz.co.uk