http://www.altitude0.com/

 

Hope this doesn't hurt the rules of the Forum.... :Straight Face:

The cow character ... :LMAO:

Looks funny

LOL

 

I don't think those planes have VC so, er... er...

Haha, rocket powered C172s? Accurate cow physics!

 

Jan, youre wrong, it does have VCs... Virtual Cows.

Accurate cow physics!

 

Yes, notice the slipstream effects in the tail! Weather effects look great too!

 

it does have VCs... Virtual Cows

 

:LMAO:

Oh dear, this one's awful- they have great looking udder carriages! Boombooom. I can milk this to death...

Nice trees!

Cute. But looking at the video, I don't think MS needs to worry just yet. :LMAO:

 

Jan, youre wrong, it does have VCs... Virtual Cows.

 

:LMAO: :LMAO: :LMAO: !

Actually I almost started a similar thread, but I decided to get a look at Alaska first. Guess I will just add my 2 cents here, instead. First, I disagree: I do think Flight needs to worry.

 

One of my main disappointments with Flight has been the graphics. To somebody whose only point of comparison is with FSX and other Sims of a similar age/pedigree, Flight may look amazing, and to their credit, the latest update and the partial fix to the texture loading issue does show flight in a much better light. In fact in many places flight can look amazing. (I will post the pictures!)

 

Flights weakness for me is when it drops back into legacy FSX-style techniques. Its graphics are a strange hybrid of the modern and the very old that doesn't always work. At the same time, pure games from tiny, barely known companies (like this!) are being released with graphics that can match or surpass that of flight. They often also feature working guns, damage models, spectacular cloud effects...... In short, many things that would attract the wide casual audience that flight claims to covet.

 

Flights Unique ace in the hole seems to be its flight models, and the fact that its planes (sometimes) have detailed and working systems: bringing a depth that the others cant match. It creates a unique market for Flight to dominate, but Flight has repeatedly shot that opportunity in the foot by releasing cockpitless plane after plane that in no way display its unique advantages.

 

I don't believe Flight can win as just game. On the other hand, they seem leery of their own simulation heritage, leaving themselves as neither fish nor fowl. Its a decidedly odd performance. Flight seems to want to be two things, and is trying to accomplish that by using one part of itself to undermine the other, plowing forwards while hoping for some synergistic balance to abruptly present itself amidst the confusion.

 

As a famous Alaskan native once asked: "Hows that workin' fer' ya'?"

I don't believe Flight can win as just game. On the other hand, they seem leery of their own simulation heritage

 

(composing carefully, to skirt around barred topics of discussion)

 

I don't think Microsoft is so much "leery" of their simulation heritage as perhaps now contractually obligated to distance themselves from it, at least out in the open. They can still build and sell a flight simulator; they just can't market it as such to avoid the appearance of competing with a certain client. Note that this client is also very careful to not market it's product for entertainment purposes.

 

That smells like an agreement to me.

At the same time, pure games from tiny, barely known companies (like this!) are being released with graphics that can match or surpass that of flight. They often also feature working guns, damage models, spectacular cloud effects...... In short, many things that would attract the wide casual audience that flight claims to covet.

 

Look at the trailer at 1:18 - 1:22 and watch the extreme and horrible popup of the trees. And don't forget what you see are in fact tracks: there probably is nothing at all behind those mountains. In short: it's impossible to compare a game like this with Flight... The only thing they have in common are hoops (don't use them) and planes without VC (don't use them).

 

I do get your point, though... I also hoped they would have ditched the old way of creating scenery with landclass and so on. And I also think it can't win as a pure game, but that's no problem for me at all.

Flight doesn't have to win "just as a game". Remember the early days when flight simulators were very popular, and had plenty of competition from "just a game" programs? All Flight has to do is get back to the roots of flight simming, the kind of thing that drew in most of us here in the beginning. It has to make flying fun, and for everyone, not just a select few.

 

I think it succeeds.

 

Hook

Look at the trailer at 1:18 - 1:22 and watch the extreme and horrible popup of the trees. And don't forget what you see are in fact tracks: there probably is nothing at all behind those mountains. In short: it's impossible to compare a game like this with Flight... The only thing they have in common are hoops (don't use them) and planes without VC (don't use them).

 

I do get your point, though... I also hoped they would have ditched the old way of creating scenery with landclass and so on. And I also think it can't win as a pure game, but that's no problem for me at all.

 

This game is only a partial example and maybe not the best, but I did not want to post any videos that made it seem like I was trying to show up Flight in a bashing sort of way. (as opposed to constructive criticism, which can be a fine line) The fact is though, that finding such videos is not exceptionally hard, at least when limited to a graphics comparison alone. Not even the old saw about how much of the world they are modelling cannot save them, as modern flying games are routinely covering as much territory as flight does, now.

 

Flight cannot as it presently stands compete successfully there, and what excitement there is within the Sim must (unless they completely change their focus) be garnered from other than guns and explosions. That leaves exploration (Alaska) and systems (cockpits)

 

There is legroom to work within those parameters (missions and challenges) if they are creative and innovative, but the current dynamic is extremely cautious. In another world, third party dynamism and innovation would balance that somewhat, but at least for now, that avenue is precluded.

 

Its all in Microsoft's court, and the only real sign that they are indeed not totally coasting has been almost instantly negated by recent developments.

 

(Which I still hope is a horrible misunderstanding, or at least only a partial truth)

 

I leave it there, except to add that the Cows will be back with their own (armed) planes in the Sequel!

It was meant to be a joke, specially because of the sexy cow!!!

 

Other than that, there is no comparison ....