H
Hellshade
Guest
I got home to a pleasant surprise today. Over Flanders Fields, Between Heaven and Hell : Phase 3 was sitting on my desk in front of my keyboard. For those of you who might still be waiting, here is a quick review of my first impressions of the CFS3 Total WWI Conversion we have all be waiting for.
The packaging is professionally done. The cover art is beautiful and the cd itself looks great. There is no manual, which for $59 I would normally complain about, however this is a total conversion of CFS3 so for the most part you can use that manual to get your settings right for the game. Besides, most of us have had P2 to play with for some time so the manual really wouldn't have served any functional purpose.
During the installation, setup options offered to save a great many different user mods which I thought was a very nice touch. The installation took over 10 minutes to complete (skins were over 8.6 GB alone!) and then I installed the v1.1 patch. It all went as smooth as could be. Not a problem in sight.
Once I started OFF, I quickly realized it was going to be worth the long wait. The introduction video footage from in-game puts you in the spirit of grand adventure right away. Coupled with the stunning musical score, it feels both epic and solemn, which is a perfect tribute to the men who flew, lived and died in these wooden crates during the Great War. By the time I was done watching the intro video (which you can skip) I was pumped to fly like never before!
The OFF main screen is both vivid and stark. The graphics look professional and everything to this point has geared me up for a very polished product. I quickly created a new german pilot and launched a Quick Combat game just to try out my wings against the Allies. It was in my Fokker DVII against a lone ace in his Sopwith Camel. The combat was amazing. The AI pilot flew with real skill, sliding, skidding, climbing, diving and using every trick he could to get his guns on target: me. I was able to get some rounds into him, but he truly was the better pilot. No cheap 1000 yards shots into me, either. He out flew me, plain and simple. I'm not the best VR pilot in the world, so it didn't suprise me that I found myself fighting for my life against him. What amazed me was in watching him fly, for the first time ever I felt like there really was a man in the other plane fighting for his life too! In a rematch of 2 vs 1 against veteran pilots, I downed one SE5a Viper only to find I lost track of his wingman for too long and he took up a kill position behind me. I followed his friend into the ground only moments later.
I haven't even scratched the surface of OFF P3, obviously. There are tons of planes to try. A campaign to attempt to live through. Try my hand at being a back seat gunner and more. But here is what I know so far:
I love this game. I have to work in the cockpit to try and stay alive and when I look out into the skies crowded with other plans, I see other men fighting with both desperation and determination to kill, before they themselves are sent earthward in a ball of flames. OBD Software has captured the look and feel of WWI combat in stunning high resolution detail and with incredible authenticity. It's probably going to be a very long time before I play any other games again.
If you can afford it, get TrackIR, a Force Feedback enabled joystick and a beefy machine to run it on. I have a 3.2 Ghz dual core cpu, 3 GB of RAM and a 1 GB GTX280 video card and everything ran beautifully on high quality settings. It even runs smoother than OFF P2 did, despite the fact that all the scenery is now high resolution! A wonderful feat, guys.
I'm off to play more OFF P3. I wish OBD all the success in the world with this product. I don't see how it couldn't be a success. The game is just fantastic.
Hellshade
The packaging is professionally done. The cover art is beautiful and the cd itself looks great. There is no manual, which for $59 I would normally complain about, however this is a total conversion of CFS3 so for the most part you can use that manual to get your settings right for the game. Besides, most of us have had P2 to play with for some time so the manual really wouldn't have served any functional purpose.
During the installation, setup options offered to save a great many different user mods which I thought was a very nice touch. The installation took over 10 minutes to complete (skins were over 8.6 GB alone!) and then I installed the v1.1 patch. It all went as smooth as could be. Not a problem in sight.
Once I started OFF, I quickly realized it was going to be worth the long wait. The introduction video footage from in-game puts you in the spirit of grand adventure right away. Coupled with the stunning musical score, it feels both epic and solemn, which is a perfect tribute to the men who flew, lived and died in these wooden crates during the Great War. By the time I was done watching the intro video (which you can skip) I was pumped to fly like never before!
The OFF main screen is both vivid and stark. The graphics look professional and everything to this point has geared me up for a very polished product. I quickly created a new german pilot and launched a Quick Combat game just to try out my wings against the Allies. It was in my Fokker DVII against a lone ace in his Sopwith Camel. The combat was amazing. The AI pilot flew with real skill, sliding, skidding, climbing, diving and using every trick he could to get his guns on target: me. I was able to get some rounds into him, but he truly was the better pilot. No cheap 1000 yards shots into me, either. He out flew me, plain and simple. I'm not the best VR pilot in the world, so it didn't suprise me that I found myself fighting for my life against him. What amazed me was in watching him fly, for the first time ever I felt like there really was a man in the other plane fighting for his life too! In a rematch of 2 vs 1 against veteran pilots, I downed one SE5a Viper only to find I lost track of his wingman for too long and he took up a kill position behind me. I followed his friend into the ground only moments later.
I haven't even scratched the surface of OFF P3, obviously. There are tons of planes to try. A campaign to attempt to live through. Try my hand at being a back seat gunner and more. But here is what I know so far:
I love this game. I have to work in the cockpit to try and stay alive and when I look out into the skies crowded with other plans, I see other men fighting with both desperation and determination to kill, before they themselves are sent earthward in a ball of flames. OBD Software has captured the look and feel of WWI combat in stunning high resolution detail and with incredible authenticity. It's probably going to be a very long time before I play any other games again.
If you can afford it, get TrackIR, a Force Feedback enabled joystick and a beefy machine to run it on. I have a 3.2 Ghz dual core cpu, 3 GB of RAM and a 1 GB GTX280 video card and everything ran beautifully on high quality settings. It even runs smoother than OFF P2 did, despite the fact that all the scenery is now high resolution! A wonderful feat, guys.
I'm off to play more OFF P3. I wish OBD all the success in the world with this product. I don't see how it couldn't be a success. The game is just fantastic.
Hellshade
Killer
