#3539034 - 03/15/12 04:42 PM
Re: Review: Strike Fighters 2: North Atlantic
[Re: digger52]
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Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 1,573
Psycho
Member
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Member
Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 1,573
NY, USA
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I'm not sure I agree with the tone of the review. It focusses on the negative without expanding on the many positives of the Sim. In my mind the review is more than fair. If I add up the number of bugs and then consider that it doesn't really bring much new to the table, I think I'd come to the same conclusion as Pfunk. Prettier water and a pit that's a little more polished than the free Mirage Factory offering just don't mean much to me. At that point I have to ask myself, do I want to drop $30 for the ability to track multiple targets simulataneously and start from the carrier deck? A RIO pit some better voice acting would have gone a long way....
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#3539552 - 03/16/12 01:29 PM
Re: Review: Strike Fighters 2: North Atlantic
[Re: digger52]
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Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 110
HStar
Member
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Member
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 110
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I'm not sure I agree with the tone of the review. It focusses on the negative without expanding on the many positives of the Sim. (...) Yeah... not nearly enough about the positives. Besides, some negatives a subjective (e.g. the comparison with the other F-14 cockpit; I prefer the TW one).
Last edited by tomagabriel; 03/16/12 01:30 PM.
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#3539578 - 03/16/12 02:27 PM
Re: Review: Strike Fighters 2: North Atlantic
[Re: citizen guod]
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 2,477
HomeFries
Air Dominance Project
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Air Dominance Project
Member
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 2,477
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As a first day purchaser, I thought the review was both fair and accurate. Some bugs just shouldn't be missed, and the A-7 and Soviet fleet issues are two of those. I actually had the same "cold cat shot" happen to me in a Tomcat campaign, though I was able to exit the game and restart to fix it.
Also, the Hawkeye controller was annoying to me as well. Having a guy sound like he's right next to you is a real immersion killer when everybody else sounds like they're on a radio.
The good news is that the sim is moddable, so we should see enhancements once TK releases the new tools. I'm also hoping to see the original terrains (or at least the water) brought up to the current NA standard.
-Home Fries
"Pacifism is a shifty doctrine under which a man accepts the benefits of the social group without being willing to pay - and claims a halo for his dishonesty." - Robert A. Heinlein
The average naval aviator, despite the sometimes swaggering exterior, is very much capable of such feelings as love, affection, intimacy, and caring. These feelings just don't involve anyone else.
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#3539847 - 03/16/12 10:29 PM
Re: Review: Strike Fighters 2: North Atlantic
[Re: citizen guod]
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 13,786
PFunk
SimHQ Redneck
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SimHQ Redneck
Veteran
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 13,786
N. Central Texas
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There seems to be this prevailing wisdom that SimHQ somehow wants this title to fail miserably and that we have knives out for anything that doesn't have Eagle Dynamics on the box art. Nothing could be further from the truth. If I really, truly wanted this title to fail, I want to know why you think I spent months and months developing the Black Sea terrain available for download here. You don't spend that kind of time and effort on something you can't stand. Unless you're a divorce attorney or something. If I really were going negative about the series, why do you believe I would do something like that? Fame? Fortune? I got neither. Did I want this title to be better? Of course I did. I was not happy about this review, and took no pleasure -perverse or otherwise- in pointing out what I believed to be glaring flaws in the game that should never have happened in a finished product. A second look article is not out of the question for me. And it's not without precedent. I did an article over an update to the Third Wire series, not even a full title. http://www.simhq.com/_air13/air_473a.htmlI have also done reviews of DLC offerings from the ThirdWire series and most, no, pretty much ALL of them have been positive. Take a look at our article library. They're there. Now, I cannot speak to the issue of the Cliffs of Dover review. Mainly because I do not know why it took so long. I wasn't assigned the review, and as long as I'm not the one assigned to a review, I know very little about it's cycle through the review 'pipeline'. I only know about the ones that get assigned to ME. This is what happens in an all-volunteer operation whose contributors live all over the globe and do all our work through the magic of the Internet. We are not in the pocket of developers. We do not get checks in the mail (or, at least I don't) for good reviews. I will be perfectly happy to do a Second Look feature on the title when a patch comes out to fix the gameplay errors encountered thus far, although I'm not sure why because Cliffs of Dover hasn't gotten one yet after months of users tweaking and playing with it to get it running properly and you forget that the reviewer pulled absolutely no punches in letting us know there were serious shortcomings with the game. Falcon 4.0 was buggy as heck when it was first released. It never really got a second shot until Allied Force came out. So, when the patch comes out (and I am fully confident it will because TK has good customer service) I will take another look at it. Until that time, my comments stand.
"A little luck & a little government is necessary to get by, but only a fool places his complete trust in either one." - PJ O'Rourke www.sixmanfootball.com
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#3539854 - 03/16/12 10:40 PM
Re: Review: Strike Fighters 2: North Atlantic
[Re: PFunk]
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Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 4,737
FearlessFrog
Senior Member
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Senior Member
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 4,737
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.. I will be perfectly happy to do a Second Look feature on the title when a patch comes out to fix the gameplay errors encountered thus far, although I'm not sure why because Cliffs of Dover hasn't gotten one yet after months of users tweaking and playing with it to get it running properly and you forget that the reviewer pulled absolutely no punches in letting us know there were serious shortcomings with the game. ...
On the CloD article bit, (guod can speak authoritively about this) but we did plan an updated review but wanted to wait for the 'big patch' to come out first (seemed only fair) - unfortunately the patch keeps getting delayed. After a year after release it's definitely time for a 'second look' but the release of the patch that promises to change so much seems still unclear when exactly it'll arrive. Tom certainly didn't pull any punches with the first review, although it did get delayed longer than any of us would have liked.
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#3539864 - 03/16/12 10:55 PM
Re: Review: Strike Fighters 2: North Atlantic
[Re: citizen guod]
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 22,095
citizen guod
Lifer
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Lifer
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 22,095
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Its been mentioned multiple times about Cliffs of Dover getting delayed until it was patched.
Reality is, the person who committed to do it didn't. Life got in the way. Another staffer had to pick up the ball, and they did it as soon as they could get it produced. In the interim, a couple of (IIRC) minor patches came out. There was no plan to do it that way. It wasn't the preferred way to release the review.
We try to have out a review on the first version released, and in some cases a patch, hotfix, update -- whatever you want to call it -- may arrive before we get the review posted. We then try to include the patch because if we don't, the whining will start "why did you release the review without reflecting the patch that came out two days ago?". Depending on the magnitude and scope of the patch, it may delay the review a few days longer.
We just had a discussion in the staff forum about time it should take to do reviews. IMO, if we can get the review out with version 1, that is always preferable. If not we will get it out soon as possible. Literally.
Wisdom is knowing what's enough
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#3539945 - 03/17/12 01:44 AM
Re: Review: Strike Fighters 2: North Atlantic
[Re: ricnunes]
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 24,314
BeachAV8R
Lifer
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Lifer
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 24,314
KCLT
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Don't get me wrong but it seems that most of the SimHQ staff only cares about the DCS or 1C sims and all the rest are just "crap" and/or not worth at all. I'll respectfully disagree with that. While we definitely have and will cover DCS and 1C titles, we pretty much cover everything under the sun. Civil flight sims, civil flight sim add-ons, other combat sims, legacy sims, updated legacy sims. I can recall for a fact doing either reviews or features for JF-15, EECH updates, Apache Longbow Assault, Vietnam Med-Evac, Orbiter, FSX, X-Plane 9, Flight, Falcon, FreeFalcon, BMS, and a bunch of others I've forgotten. To say we only care about DCS or 1C sims is just plain false. And I'm only talking about the ones I've reviewed, the rest of the staff does WW2 sims, FPS, tactical shooters, drivings sims, and we even dabble in naval simulators and niche sims like SAM Simulator. Your perception simply does not match the evidence. BeachAV8R
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#3540070 - 03/17/12 07:02 AM
Re: Review: Strike Fighters 2: North Atlantic
[Re: CA_Stary]
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 577
Evil Flower
Member
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Member
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 577
Eslöv, Sverige
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moreover, in screenshot thread, I see that console title being compared to quite ugly (specially..?) SF2NA screenshot.... C'mon? What's wrong with you people? North Atlantic is the new boy to punch? How is it unfair? SF2 just looks like complete #%&*$# out of the box unless you compare it to games that came out in the late 90's. Meanwhile Gaijin's games are always optimized, run at a steady 60fps and generally look really good.
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