Thread: Spore? or Toontown?

  1. #16
    (?<!re)tired Mario F.'s Avatar
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    And it's also an RTS. Fast and furious point and clicking....nah! Thanks.
    Unless, by any chance they covered that aspect of the game. Did they?
    Originally Posted by brewbuck:
    Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.

  2. #17
    Registered User VirtualAce's Avatar
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    one just doesn't know exactly what he needs to play it. I regreat not having became a fan earlier on.
    No worries. The computer needed to run Flight Sim X at full detail hasn't been invented yet. Everyone gets crappy frame rates compared to other games. However the game is very fun even though you never fight anything. Having flown in real life (small Cessna's, Piper Cub's, Cherokee's and Arrows) I can say that FSX is the next best thing to actually flying. The ATC is spot on except perhaps for forcing you to declare IFR before you get radar assisted approach. Usually the tower in real life will ask you if you want radar assist or just pure VFR. If the situation warrants and often it does they will bring you in on radar to accomodate for other aircraft wanting to land. This usually happens at airports with 1 active runway.

    The flight model for Flight Sim X is very very good. There are certain things it does not simulate but the armchair pilot will never notice. Spins are actually simulated fairly realistically which is nice given that even the best engineer on the planet can't tell you exactly what is happening during a spin. Most of the equations of flight fall apart during a spin which is why old FS games used to behave very erratically during spins and even moreso during inverted spins. But edge cases of flight aside...if you can take off and fly the pattern and land on FSX you can do it in real life.

    The hardest transition from FS to real for me was...looking out the window. I was so used to scanning the gauges on the game that when I got into the real thing my CFI was like.....hey man it's called VFR for a reason so look out the window.

    Overall Microsoft's flight sim (originally Bruce Artwick's and Sublogic before they lost the source code to MS) is spot-on and tons of fun to play. Their new terrain system is breathtaking and I'd give my right arm to know how they render from horizon to horizon, add in the clouds and weather, ATC, gauge updates, and flight dynamics all at interactive (sometimes) framerates.
    Last edited by VirtualAce; 06-22-2008 at 06:48 PM.

  3. #18
    (?<!re)tired Mario F.'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bubba View Post
    But edge cases of flight aside...if you can take off and fly the pattern and land on FSX you can do it in real life.
    This is what troubles me most. I there was a "game" ever created that was meant to torture me, Microsoft Flight Simulator is that game.

    I love flying... with a passion. I'm window-seat-or-nothing type of passenger. Having flown from very early on and flying on an average of 4 times an year, very often long distance, I've became a good miles collector on my favorite European company, Swiss Air, which even allowed me to once, I suspect after becoming a pain, visit the cockpit of an Airbus during a Lisbon-Zurich flight while en route to Hai Phong, Vietnam. This... before the sad events of 2001. But I have never flown my own. I don't know how to. And FS is not going to teach me from what I understand

    FS, just feels like the type of game that I would spend a lot of time in and enjoy myself. Having the chance to fly over the NZ Southern Alpes everytime I wanted, on a Sydney-Christchurch flight, or view New Deli lights and in the distance on a Singapore-Zurich nocturnal flight... or even grab a Cessna and just fly on a quiet spring day over the Grand Canyon or the rice fields of vietnam... all fabulously and faithfully rendered, as I understand from satellite imagery and topographic information...

    It pains me somewhat I didn't follow this game from the early stages. I seem to remember very early versions which gathered quiet a following and allowed for some level of freedom in that even someone who couldn't drive a car, could fly a plane. I belive that is not the case anymore, although I could spend hours just looking at clouds in a real-time 14 hour flight.
    Originally Posted by brewbuck:
    Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.

  4. #19
    Registered User hk_mp5kpdw's Avatar
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    "Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods."
    -Christopher Hitchens

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