S
Siggi
Guest
So, ever noticed how when a game is truly great it's the really pissy little things that get blown out of all proportion? It's a true phenomena. Human nature. Goes from "My game keeps CTD'ing!" to "Why don't I see individual struts being shot off?"
Or something like that, so it goes...
The problem with a game like this, a true simulation in every single sense of the word, is that when you draw somebody so deeply into it's immersive greatness any single little jar of that immersiveness rings louder than it otherwise would. Ain't that a bitch?
It's like when you're out having a meal, the waiter knocks the wine into your lap and you go "Ah well, the food's ****e anyway, let's just leave..."
But when the food is absolutely fantastic..."You MORON!!! Fetch me the bloody manager, I'm going to HAVE YOUR JOB!!!"
Why do grown men rave so about a mere game? Well, there are games and then there are games. There are the momentary distractions, the console fodder with which we occasionally spend a few fleeting moments. Then there are true works of genius, like RB2-3D. And OFF. Which draw us into a parallel world, pure escapism from our otherwise jaded and tedious real lives. These extremely rare games can do this because they've ticked ALL the boxes, not just a couple or few of them. You know those moments in games, where you think..."if only they'd done THIS...or done THAT..." And then in OFF you find they have.
There isn't a game in existence that doesn't have it's negative points. There isn't ANYthing in existence that does. But one can refine something until the good massively outweighs almost all other considerations. OFF has achieved that, in spades. Yes, it really is that good. It goes beyond being a game, it becomes an experience. A simulation experience. Sim + role-play, the magical combo. A concept that 95% of game developers fail, repeatedly, to grasp. Which is why games like IL2, despite all their technical brilliance, will never be elevated to the pantheon of the truly great. No heart, no soul.
RB2-3D was the result of a chance confluence of great minds. Rarer than rocking-horse ****. Now we see it happen again with OFF.
Anyone who thinks $50 for a game like this is too much is either a moron OR somebody who has no real interest in WW1 air combat. The former is a fool of course, the latter is entirely within his rights to think the way he does.
So to all you WW1 simmers who are out there, still umming and ahing, it's not going to get better than this until somebody COPIES it with better sound and graphics. Good luck with that...maybe give 1918 MP RoF a go then, along with your CRAY computer and a couple more years of waiting after initial release for the $x-a-pop add-on planes to bring you all the way back to 1915. Dynamic campaign? In MP? Yeah...
Right, I'm off my soapbox now and back into my sheepskin and goggles. I AM that WW1 pilot, thanks to the genius that is OFF.
Or something like that, so it goes...
The problem with a game like this, a true simulation in every single sense of the word, is that when you draw somebody so deeply into it's immersive greatness any single little jar of that immersiveness rings louder than it otherwise would. Ain't that a bitch?
It's like when you're out having a meal, the waiter knocks the wine into your lap and you go "Ah well, the food's ****e anyway, let's just leave..."
But when the food is absolutely fantastic..."You MORON!!! Fetch me the bloody manager, I'm going to HAVE YOUR JOB!!!"
Why do grown men rave so about a mere game? Well, there are games and then there are games. There are the momentary distractions, the console fodder with which we occasionally spend a few fleeting moments. Then there are true works of genius, like RB2-3D. And OFF. Which draw us into a parallel world, pure escapism from our otherwise jaded and tedious real lives. These extremely rare games can do this because they've ticked ALL the boxes, not just a couple or few of them. You know those moments in games, where you think..."if only they'd done THIS...or done THAT..." And then in OFF you find they have.
There isn't a game in existence that doesn't have it's negative points. There isn't ANYthing in existence that does. But one can refine something until the good massively outweighs almost all other considerations. OFF has achieved that, in spades. Yes, it really is that good. It goes beyond being a game, it becomes an experience. A simulation experience. Sim + role-play, the magical combo. A concept that 95% of game developers fail, repeatedly, to grasp. Which is why games like IL2, despite all their technical brilliance, will never be elevated to the pantheon of the truly great. No heart, no soul.
RB2-3D was the result of a chance confluence of great minds. Rarer than rocking-horse ****. Now we see it happen again with OFF.
Anyone who thinks $50 for a game like this is too much is either a moron OR somebody who has no real interest in WW1 air combat. The former is a fool of course, the latter is entirely within his rights to think the way he does.
So to all you WW1 simmers who are out there, still umming and ahing, it's not going to get better than this until somebody COPIES it with better sound and graphics. Good luck with that...maybe give 1918 MP RoF a go then, along with your CRAY computer and a couple more years of waiting after initial release for the $x-a-pop add-on planes to bring you all the way back to 1915. Dynamic campaign? In MP? Yeah...
Right, I'm off my soapbox now and back into my sheepskin and goggles. I AM that WW1 pilot, thanks to the genius that is OFF.
