I wouldn’t have known about Windows 98 compatibility mode. We’re not all actually good with computers.
For future reference, you can set that on a per-shortcut basis in the compatibility section. There’s a choice in there to “disable visual themes”. Check that and you can keep whatever theme you usually use – it will just be disabled while running that particular application.
This game has the best force feedback of any PC game I have ever played. I still break it out every now and then for that alone - it just adds so much to the experience.
I agree the force feedback was very good, but I thought the best PC games for force feedback were Mechwarrior 3 and Independence War. Mech3 because, obviously, I loved feeling every footstep as I walked along, it added a lot, and they got the tension and feedback just right. Independence War because they did this awesome “dead joystick” effect, where if your ship had all its thrusters offline (which happened a lot when you were in trouble), the ship was just drifting in space at whatever vector it happened to have at the time, and the joystick just went dead, where it had no tension whatsover. So there I was moving the joystick, getting feedback and suddenly, BLAH! It died. No tension. If you let it go, the stick fell to a corner, instead of springing back to the middle. It was a brilliant effect, and you really felt like you were floating dead through space.
On Crimson Skies: I loved the story, loved the flight model, loved the stunt nature of the game. I disagree with Jason Cross that the difficulty was all over the place. I found it pretty uniformly challenging, but not too challenging. Most missions I had to repeat about 4 or 5 times before I got it right. And some missions I had to repeat about 10 times. I don’t remember any really ball-breaking missions. And the story stayed consistently entertaining I thought.
Hmmm. Maybe I should pick up the X-box sequel though. I’d heard that they’d gone with a much more arcade-y physics model, which is why I never went for it.
I’ll have to try Independence War then - it was one that I missed out on back in the day. I always looked at Mech 3 as being just behind Crimson Skies in force feedback.
I gave my suggestion and moved on. I don’t work for FASA or Microsoft, I have no checklist. Sorry it didn’t work for you, but it often does help with older games. FWIW, I had no problems running Crimson Skies on XP. You might try searching at Vogons.
I really loved CS and rented me Blazing Angels, yesterday. I did not like the whole steering and the Joe guy was just a tad too nerving. Uninstalled last night.
The controls for Blazing Angels weren’t much better on the 360. It was really easy to hit the ground a lot when you were using the enemy lock, which the designers clearly expected you to use almost all the time. Between that and the unclear mission objectives, I sent it back after about 7 missions.
Eurogamer has a retrospective of the original Crimson Skies. It covers the reasons why it’s still my favorite atmosphere flying game of all time.
And it might be the push I need to finally play the sequel on the Xbox on day. Man Nathan Zachary and his crew were great. The article makes a great point that the zeppelins made the skies much more interesting than what you find in more realistic flight sims based on history.
Folks who say they loved Crimson Skies forgot the wearying Hollywood stunt level, though. Screw up any of the ADD-addled stunts, and you got to do them all over again. I was cursing that fucking Hollywood sign in my dreams.
It is true, I do remember redoing the Hollywood levels. A lot. They required a lot of low-flying stunts. I thought it was a nice change of pace from the rest of the game. I guess the difference is that even though I was frustrated in those levels, I was still having fun because I found the low-altitude flying and stunts to be a blast.
Yeah, it was a fun sort of hell. I thought the sign was a little too tough, personally, but on the other hand it forced me to learn how to handle my plane exceptionally well.
I loved the PC version, and was most of the way playing through the Xbox version when my dog chewed the disc up. What a little jerk.
Definitely feel the love for the force feedback on the PC version, though - what a blast that was!
I loved the game, but could never beat the hollywood level. :(
I didn’t have too much of a problem with the Hollywood level but at least they gave you the option to skip any level after failing.
I don’t remember that… maybe that was added in a patch? Or maybe I was just stubborn
I’m pretty sure it was there since the beginning. I remember failing repeatedly to that Hollywood stunt level and stubbornly choosing never to skip it when given the chance. It sure felt rewarding when I finally pulled it off successfully. On subsequent playthroughs, I almost all skipped that level, though.
I thought the “follow the plane through the canyons” level in the Xbox version was more painful, largely because you had to use a thumbstick as opposed to an actual joystick. Plus, you couldn’t skip it.
You left out the best part, which the article saves right for the end…
Hot Damn, and Tally Ho!
Yeah, I left that part out because I have a Radeon. Why must I always be taunted by Nvidia?
That is one cruel taunt. ;-(