Beowolff's informal review (with pics & guncam)

Beowolff · Post by **Beowolff** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 4:54 am

okay good friends,

my own VERY informal review of the heretofore thought sadsack of a sim, CFS3...

as mentioned in an earlier post, got it for free, so obviously no cashola lost or wasted no matter my thoughts of it. BUT... had i known what i know now (and besides, you can get a DEAL on it if you look around in bargin bins) i WOULD have bought it anyway.

went on my computer without a hitch. no problemo's of any kind, not even the oft mentioned stuttering on FULL settings that many of the earlier CFS3 users complained of...but then my new DELL rarely stutters even in IL2/FB/Aces/Pacific Fighters set to max.

okay, the user interface is hokey... i hate that little 3D guy on the flying field... but the game loads fine and runs fine... and get this---I CAN SEE ENEMY PLANES IN IT! yep, realistic or not (and i think it is) you can actually see your friendly or enemy planes a hundred percent BETTER in CFS3 than in IL2 and variants! no brag, just fact. none of those crappy, eye-straining dots that vanish a few hundred yards from your own aircraft... the LOD system is really FAR superior to IL2's. and i think, more realistic. i've been up in small planes (and big ones) and even almost got my own pilot certificate once... i saw plenty of planes flying around the airports and off my wing and they NEVER turned into a near invisible dot like the planes in IL2 does. and they don't do that in CFS3 either.

so nice too to close with an enemy plane to shoot it up and actually see it GROW to near realistic sizes in your gun sites.... ie fifty to a hundred yards away actually seems like fifty to a hundred yards away from the object...not thousands as in IL2.

oh, okay, the CFS3 flight and damage models do seem funked up... especially the stock ones... though the 1% guys' replacement F and D models seem much better and much more realistic. and yes, the stock CFS3 plane models are not as pretty as IL2's... though several of the aftermarket thirdparty ones are as good or even superior.

ground is to me, better looking than IL2. more hills, better hills, more roads, more houses, more airfields, fields---etc, and the mountains are really mountains in CFS3---not flat pancakes as in IL2. the auto spawn feature in missions are cool too...whereas extra flights of enemy and or friendly planes are automatically spawned about in various places while you fly about your mission. a pretty cool element of surprise, though it CAN be a drag on historical missions where you KNOW where all planes should be at any given time and place.

okay, now for the REAL fun. as Gadje mentioned in the earlier post of ours... the OVER FLANDERS FIELD mod to CFS3.... a world war I mod of the game that is FANTASTIC! yes! WW1! and this mod is entirely worth the purchase price of the entire CFS3 game! i'm not kidding!

so far, the released levels of OFF is free, though they speak of (at some point in the future) of going shareware... and it is WORTH the purchase price of the CFS3 game... stunning new ground textures, marching troops on the ground, new airfields, many, many new flyable planes of WW1 vintage (and they look damned good mind you!) etc. etc. etc. etc. too much to even tell about.

i've been downing German WW1 pilots all this afternoon (except the two hours i road my new bike) and had a ball. VERY realistic. in all phases. flight models, damage models, weapons, 3D plane models... etc...

the Korean War addon is next on my download agenda... i'll get it in a day or two.

yeah, this is way cool... surely not as authentic and single-minded in perfection as IL2 and variants... but also, no complete flop and dog either and so many EXTRAS to fool around with and play. will it replace IL2 for me? hell no! but, is it worth having ALSO? hell yeah!

more on this later.

Gadje, feel free to correct me or add to anything i've said here...

Salute!

Beowolff

:FI:RULES · Post by **:FI:RULES** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 12:33 pm

Well you are right about OFF, it´s a stunning game, a true gem.

For all you out there that remember Red Baron and RB3D, this is the long lost son....I´m having a ball with it for about 2 h/day (when the wee one takes hi´s afternoon nap) the campaign gives Oleg and the boy´s something to strive for....Multiplayer sucks big time thoo....not many options and little to do besides flying around in endless dog-fight´s(kill-see him spawn,kill-see him spawn etc.etc...

)

But as Beo put it....It´s low priced and the ad-on is free, Now go get it!

Beowolff · Post by **Beowolff** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 2:37 pm

correct-o, sir Rules...

it's worth picking up JUST for the OVER FLANDERS addon mod. especially if you can find it (CFS3) in a bargin bin for a few dollars. it does take a tad getting used to as IL2 has spoiled us (or rather if that's all your flying, you've just got used to its lovely 3D cockpits and models) but after a few flights you'll seem right at ease and be enjoying the combat rather than worrying about the not so perfect cockpits as in IL2.

and not that the OFF addon cockpits are bad either, actually they're quite good, just not perfection like as in IL2's best planes.

man, i flew the hell out of it yesterday and had a blast. my shooting (because visibility is so much better) has picked up 100 percent or better, and i nailed many a German Albatross and Fokker. got nailed a few times too. in a swirling WW1 dogfight, anything goes, in one mission, i had to refly several times because my AI wingies kept crashing into me while on the tails of enemy Albatrosses... hehehe... i would be locked onto one myself, chasing after him, darting this way and that, and putting tracers into his tail feathers every chance i got and then all of a sudden a fleeing Albatross would "shoosh!" right across in front of me---i'd think, "blighter! almost hit you!" then "ka-wham!" one of my fellow camel-jocks would plow right into me while chasing the sad sap enemy. yes---in this campaign, my squad is flying Sopwith Camels. great little airplanes, good turn (like a cat) to the right with their rotary engines.

and let me tell ya, its a real challenge to get into the air, fly the plane, attack enemy planes...take damage...and then get your craft BACK down on the field without cracking up and dying. those canvas and stick aircraft are FRAGILE! lol! especially shot up.

as FI: RULES said... go get it.

Beowolff

:FI:Sneaky_Russian · Post by **:FI:Sneaky_Russian** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 6:26 pm

If it's got SE5's I'm sold on it.

:FI:RULES · Post by **:FI:RULES** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 6:55 pm

It sure does M8....

:FI:Snoop Baron · Post by **:FI:Snoop Baron** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 12:42 am

I love WWI combat, might have to check this out

Thanks for the review Beo!

s!
Snoop

:FI:Murph · Post by **:FI:Murph** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 1:04 am

Where's the best place to find this at a bargin-basement price?

:FI:ZekeMan · Post by **:FI:ZekeMan** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 7:26 am

Ah, don't do this to my guys! You mean to tell me I gotta get CFS3 just to get the OFF mod? Cripes!

Z

Beowolff · Post by **Beowolff** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 4:03 am

my God... spent the last couple of days getting the hang of this WW1 flight stuff in OFF. it's stupendous... that's what it is!

i give it a four stars out of three. its that good.

took some tinkering to get it up and running properly, then i had to figure out how to make missions and such... and so on, so forth.

my mission tinkering resulted in a little short single/multiplayer coop, called: Dealing With Troublemakers!

me and my AI (or could be humans if played multiplayer) squad mates took off from a high, Allied airdrome in the Swiss Alps, the mission goal, take out some troublemaking Hun raiders---a crack squad of flyers in a mixture of Albatross IIIs and IIs that are attacking out mountain forces locally and generally doing bad things.

me and the boys are flying Se5s and we're tasked to end (or at least, cut back) on the funny business. we take off in a blinding snowstorm (yes, it HAS snowstorms) and climb, following our course to intercept the Hun devils. it's tricky flying in the high mountains, especially in a flurry of falling snow, and in those low-powered, jerky kites of yesterday... but we plod along for God and Country, find the enemy and attempt to smash them. thus starts a swirling dogfight amongst the high craggy mounts and flashing snow flakes, each of us, both enemy and allied, jockying for positon for the kill. incredible...very lifelike and real! (the mountains are VERY tall and scary in this game! brrrr!)

gah! i flamed a sad-sack blighter in a DII, and watched him smoke and sputter and finally cartwheel into a mountainside... then some Hun bloke in a DIIIa, the German squad leader, an ACE, puts a few through my right wing and i duck and run for cover. he overshot me in a dive and i latched onto his tail, but had emptied the better part of my Lewis and Vicker ammo loadouts into his dead squadmate and could only get a few shots into him... running seemed good about then as i was high and dry, so i dropped into a deep valley and made my way home hedgehopping trees all the way in, then dropping down onto my airfield just as the last of my fuel was used up. my engine actually choked and died as i rolled past the airdrome's Blimp shed.

loads of FUN! i'm not kidding!

more later.

Beowolff

:FI:Scott · Post by **:FI:Scott** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 5:08 am

I could be tempted to try this if you carry on Beo!.

I had a WWI sim years ago on an my Old Acorn computer and loved it (cant remember what it was called though).I think it was the first game I had on diskette and I thought that technology had reached the final limiit. My car at the time had an 8track in it and a posh mate of mine had a mobile phone the size of a laser printer. Things have moved on a bit havent they?.

Thanks for the review Beo.

Beowolff · Post by **Beowolff** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 4:24 pm

get it, Zeke... Scott... everybody! especially if you can find it on the cheap. (CFS3 that is) then immediately patch and mod it out to OFF. i don't know where or who has it in their bargin bins, but i've seen it locally at EB (in their near non-existant PC section these days) for cheap, but don't remember if it was new or used copies...not that it matters whether new or used. used would work just fine too.

and i've heard other OFF flyers say they found it around for low to very low prices, but not where they found it. its out there though...so worth the look.

to further continue my Alp mission story, i ran it again (tested in multiplayer, though only by myself as i don't personally know anyone else able to try multiplayer with me) last night. it's a bit wonky (CFS3) loading the game into multiplayer, but went without a hitch. it's GREAT fun, either single mission OR multiplayer, and the AI will fly with you on coops.

me and the lads took off into the blinding snow, flew our course high into the mountains and somehow, got seperated in the snow. yep, i lost the boys! i got a bit too far ahead of them, i suppose, and they wandered off. no doubt couldn't see me in the falling, thick stuff! anyway, i decided to continue on with the mission and hoped they could catch back up with me.

i spotted a couple of the enemy DIIs, dove on them and engaged. i nailed one and got rounds into another one, he was badly damaged and dropped out of the fight, smoking. then suddenly i got bounced from above by that damned crafty squad leader in a DIIIa! seem's he'd sacrificed his own lads to set me up for the kill....the bastard!

he got some rounds into my wing but i managed to side-slip out of his direct line of fire and we began our death dance. that Hun was GOOD. i could out turn him, but just as i'd ALMOST get him in my sights, he'd swoop straight up and my damaged Se5 would stall and stagger and i'd lose the shot. blighter!

this went on for thirty, long minutes or so...with us losing altitude all the while...a dangerous prospect there amonst all those tall, craggy peaks! a couple of times, i almost slammed into a mountainside, as did my attacker. one minute i'd be fighting to out-turn the Hun and peering through the flying snow---the next, a wall of granite was in my face! gah!

the savvy bloke finally managed to rip my wing up some more and i almost went in---barely got it under control right over some tall, hardwood trees in a deep valley, i'd had it then, controls were mushy as hell and i was low of ammo anyway. i tucked tail and ran, thought i'd got away---then damn! tracers past my cockpit! the blighter was STILL there and after me!

wanting his frigging kill no doubt!

i was hammering on the throttle, swaying this way and that (as best i could with the damage) to throw off his aim---figured i'd had it. i dropped over a small river, rounded a wooded hill---and blimey! ---there was one of my lost boys coming up the valley hell for leather to give me a hand!

now it was the ace DIIIa's turn to get caught low and slow and nearly out of ammo! my lad dove on him in a firey meet, spewing tracers and nicked the bastard, the panicked DIII tried to turn and flee and my lad (having superior speed and altitude) easily rolled in behind him and gave him a full load of red hot slugs. the DIII staggered and went into the trees in a ball of flame!

good riddance for bad rubbish, i say.

then my lad caught back up with me and tucked himself protectively onto my wing and we flew on to the airdrome. it was a shaky landing for me, all shot up and everything. but i made it okay and breathed a sigh of relief when i cut the magneto and let the engine die and finally rolled to a stop.

i had sweated out this mission, so sat there in the cockpit for a bit, listening to the sounds of the blimp and air mechanics hammer and work away, and the dogs barking all around (yes, the sounds are really there, and it really makes for a life-like experience!) finally i cut the mission and got a surprise... OFF complimented me on my mission and acknowledged my claims for kills...but told me they'd have to be confirmed and that i'd be advised soonest!

WTF? is that realistic or what? HQ having to confirm kills? now ain't that novel in the flight sim world? lol!

more later.

Beowolff

Beowolff · Post by **Beowolff** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 7:21 pm

update: about the fifth mission beyond the one mentioned above. i was notified by HQ (in the OFF interface) that one of my kills had been confirmed and approved. another two (from another mission) had been denied because of lack of witness/confirmation. gah!

is this cool or what? VERY realistic!

and makes me feel like the REAL fighter pilots must have felt! proud of the kills you DID get confirmed, yet angered/pissed over the ones "not allowed!"

i'm telling you, guys... this is the most fun i've had in a flight sim (or any other) in ages!

S!

Beowolff

Beowolff · Post by **Beowolff** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:18 am

OFF Se5:

and this is a copy of a copy of the original picture, so the in game look is twice as good.

Beo

Beowolff · Post by **Beowolff** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:24 am

here's a Tripe in trouble:

Beo

Beowolff · Post by **Beowolff** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:28 am

Fokker and victim:

Beo