| Falcon 4.0 LAN Report II
by Dan "Crash" Crenshaw and Jeff "Rhino" Babineau |
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The Rebirth of Falcon 4.0 Test System:
It is time to take a good look at Falcon 4.0 again. We at the Deltahawks spent months (years?) on this project and contrary to what was recently posted, the beta testers we worked with were VERY surprised that Falcon was going to be released last Christmas. There were a lot of things we still did not see accomplished or completed, but as MPS broke for the finish line we stopped getting any more updates. When we heard they went "gold" we all crossed our fingers and said, "I hope they fixed the crashes," "I hope they fixed BVR," "I hope they fixed…"(insert long list here.) To further frustrate our local group, multiplayer was about as broken as it could get. We all knew the main crux of our input was multiplayer and we saw some GREAT versions of multiplayer but as the release date approached, multiplayer took a back seat to fixing "Class A" crashes. But we had glimpsed the grail, and we knew what we saw. We knew that Falcon even in its EARLY beta phase was the best flight sim we had ever seen. RHINO had just received a release version of another beta project he was on that NEVER crashed and even then we knew that Falcon 4 beta was still a better game. We KNEW that it was unsurpassed in its combinations of options, gameplay, realism and detail. Secure in our convictions, we had NO problem touting this fact to every newsgroup, Internet mag or whoever would listen. Even after constant personal attacks about our motives and having to defend ourselves every step of the way from newsgroup "annoyers par excellance," we felt it was vital that we let you all know that this game was the best thing we had ever seen. We felt that it would be foolish to call yourself a modern flight sim fan if you did not own this game. This approach didn't endear us to everyone, and some were suspicious of us. Everyone had heard far too many times how this sim is gonna do this and that sim will do that, and many were skeptical. How could any sim be all that we claimed for F4? But we had no ulterior motive; we were fans of the genre, maybe the biggest fans out there. We don't work for any game company. We have no sponsorships. We would gain or lose nothing if the game sold 1 copy or 10,000,000 copies. |
Rhino's HUB. F4: MAYDAY! As F4 hit the shelves we saw over 700 posts a day about Falcon 4.0. Everyone was excited that they finally owned the elusive Falcon 4.0. Then, inevitably, the weaknesses were exposed. Many parts of the game were broken, and for many players crashes were frequent. Worse, the multiplayer campaign was almost completely gone. Sadly, many of you that tried to see the forest through the trees, gave up. We LAN players read all the magazine reviews and watched the awards multiply, and RHINO joked that Falcon was deservedly the "Simulation of the Year", but perhaps it should be rated at 50%. Where was the BVR AI, the ATC, wingmen AI, the TWS, missile launch warnings, MULTIPLAYER, etc. etc. ... OK. That was a mere four months ago. But today, on April the 19th, 1999, fellow flight sim pilots, Falcon 4.0 has arrived. There are still some tweaks and some fixes to deal with, but ladies and gentlemen, we have a game! April 17th, 1999 LAN Meet On this weekend the 209th VFS Delta Hawks met for their monthly LAN meet. We had the latest and greatest network code to test in FALCON 4.0. My last report revived the excitement of some members whose attendance had waned. We have also had some potential new members prowling the fringes, and they pounced after the earlier review. On Friday night we usually have five or six pilots setting up and starting off the weekend, with the balance showing up Saturday morning. This meet we had sixteen on Friday night. This number was stable through Saturday and we still had ten or eleven on Sunday morning. As people kept showing up, RHINO and I starting wondering just how many we would be able to get into a campaign together. We were soon to realize that we didn't have a lot to worry about. Go to Page Two
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