Red Baron 3D |
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Tuesday, December 29 1998
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Red Baron 3D |
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Tuesday, December 29 1998
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Arguably the best WWI Flight Simulator available |
| Despite
the terrible failure of Red Baron II, Dynamix decided to
continue its work to make a better product, rather than
simply cutting their losses and running. It was a good
decision. This revised product just might be one of the
best WWI flight sims on the market. Red Baron 3D takes
the mess that Red Baron II made and remolds it into a
solid, well done flight simulator. Red Baron 3D is the revised sequel to the original hit, Red Baron. For its time, Red Baron was arguably the best WWI flight sim available. Last year, Dynamix released Red Baron II in the hopes that it would enjoy the same success achieved by the original, However, the second release failed miserably due to poor a graphics engine, over-simplified flight models, and enough bugs to rival that of BattleCruiser 3000AD. Though RBII was unstable and almost completely unplayable, it did have one major advancement over most all sims of its time. RBII featured a dynamic campaign, in which the player participated in a huge, brutal war. Dynamix took this step forward a bit farther in RB3D, adding 3D Accelerator support as well as completely rewriting the multiplayer code to support stable, high capacity servers. Players can now play online with up to 100 other human players via Sierra's free WON.NET internet gaming network. Players can also choose to fly several types of missions in multiplayer including melee (deathmatch), team melee (team vs team), and "Get the Baron" in which the last person to achieve a kill is awarded points. MY only complaint with multiplayer is the inability to fly cooperative missions online. It would have been fun to fly an a campaign mission with some friends. As mentioned above, RB3D now features a new graphics engine with limited support for 3D accelerators. By limited, I mean that if you don't have a 3dfx card, you are limited to only 2D DirectDraw acceleration, rather than the more popular and powerful (in comparison to DirectDraw) Direct3D API. However, DirectDraw looks the same as software rendering though it uses your graphics card to accelerate it and doesn't use any real 3D acceleration options. So, you don't really need a 3D Accelerator you just need a DirectDraw compliant video accelerator card. Overall, the new graphics engine is a great improvement over RBII.Glide runs faster and a lot smoother than all of the previous versions.
An example of the superbly detailed aircraft models |
 In a dogfight, on his six! Frame rate is greatly improved and the new graphics engine and 3D acceleration makes the action much smoother while also looking great too. When using Glide 3d acceleration, the terrain is smooth, the smoke effects well done and the explosions and fire sequences are spectacular. Special effects look wonderful, especially the transparency effects. Aircraft detail is also some of the best I've ever seen. You can watch your wings crumple and fall to the ground and you can even see the landing gear and struts break off upon impact. Sounds are very realistic and range from the creaking of your airplane as it flies to the sounds of your engine as it strains to produce power or the screaming of a pilot bailing out of an airplane. They are all very clear, of high quality, and as I said earlier, very realistic. In RB3D, you can fly twenty two different airplanes, including the Sopwith Camel, the infamous Fokker DR I, the Spaz series of fighters and many more. Also included are eighteen additional aircraft that the AI pilots fly - which mostly consist of bombers. The cockpit detail is some of the best seen in WWI flight simulators. You get to choose between the standard cockpit views and a 3D padlock view to visually track targets during dogfights. External aircraft detail is unsurpassed by any previous flight simulator of its kind. Though it is hard to judge, since most likely no one alive today has flown a WWI fighter, the flight models feel fairly realistic. The torque and G effects are modeled well as well as the wind and turbulence effects. Another neat feature is the realistic characteristic of fuel flow to the engine. If you go into a negative G dive or if you fly inverted, fuel will stop flowing into the engine which will cause the engine to sputter and die. Mission options include "Fly now", which is a quick combat style mission where you can choose your plane, your enemy's plane and the number of opponents you would like to fight against. Single missions include several different missions that you can choose from. These vary from Patrols and Balloon attacks to bomber escorts and even challenges/invitations to fly with/against WWI aces. These are some of the most fun and challenging missions in the game. Also, included is a mission editor for those of you who would like the create your own missions. |
Company: Category: Flight Simulator NOTES: Interest: 88% TOTAL : 88% Requirements:
Memory: Sound Card: |
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