Recent reviews by Blinxis

Sony

I wouldn't usually review a game that's early access, but this one was too awesome to pass up.

Easy on Hardware - Usually a game of this scale and detail would absolutely annihilate my computer. The minimum specifications state that I should have a GTX 970 (currently running a 770, with every other minimum system requirement matching or barely exceeding). I can safely assume that the difference is minor, and has very little impact on the games performance. This is not to say that a 760 would perform just as well, but I figured that my system could set the system requirement at a lower bar. I played again today for the first time in 2 weeks to stress test the rig, and I found it to have a very smooth framerate. When I initially purchased the game a few months ago, the game was very jumpy on some modules. However, as of today I can easily tell that the developers have been working extremely hard to optimize the game even further.

Realism - This is important for me. The very first thing I did after I installed the game was to pick up an M4 and go through the paces of loading it up, charging it, and eventually firing it. However, I was not expecting to actually have to use a safety switch in a VR game. That's when I knew that attention to detail was the games primary focus. Granted I DID buy H3 blind, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. I set the gun down and picked up a grenade. Like the biased approach that I had, I just threw the damn thing. Nothing. Turned out the pin actually had to be pulled. Well I'm an idiot. To me it was like opening a 10K piece set of legos, and being told "Go forth and prosper."

Replayability - H3 is a sandbox game mixed in with various levels of weaponry and processed meat. Sure you can use all the weapons, and throw all the explosives currently available, but then your creative juices will start flowing and trickshots and speed runs will eventually ensue. After spending 20+ hours in the game between multiple accounts, I always seem to find something new to do and test out.

Dev Updates - The amount of updates that get pumped into H3 are astronomical. Yes I am writing this review when it's still early access, and I know it could potentially slow down as the months progress. It's not necessarily the amount of updates that makes this an important category for the review. It's the developers focus on what should be updated for the game. For example, I've seen many cases where other game developers will push multiple updates through the week that have new additions for the game, but completely neglect the known bugs or other playability issues. This is not the case for H3. It's a nice steady mix of additions and fixes that allow the players to continually explore new things, while re-playing existing content with fresh fixes. Not only does the developer update the game, he (Anton) also loves to push video updates on youtube to show the H3 community what's new, what's been updated, and what's on his mind for the future of the game.

Player Support - What I've found out recently is the amount of support that the team gives towards the games community. I've seen and experienced a lot of interaction between the dev team and the community. Which is absolutely fantastic. After chatting with a member of the team regarding a suggestion, I was informed that the team highly encourages community feedback. That's what early access is all about. Becoming involved with the game, and providing feedback to the team to make the game as successful as possible.
(Thanks Luke for your time!)

Difficulty - One thing that threw me off was how diverse the weapons are. I love to shoot, and have shot A LOT of weapons over the past few years, but I found quite a few weapons in game that took me a bit of time to learn how to operate. For players or future players that haven't fired a weapon before, don't fret. The game isn't a "stump the dummy" kind of game. It's more of a learning opportunity than anything else. In a many cases, once you learn a type of weapon, you've actually learned the mechanics of a few others.

(TL;DR) Final verdict - Overall, purchasing Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades was well worth it. I couldn't really think of a con or complaint for the review. Sure others will have differing opinions with the game, but the overall attention to detail stood out for me, and really highlighted the potential for a successful future full release.

DCS world offers quite a few modules that really add variety to the game. The engine and flying dynamics are a sight to experience just by themselves. I didn't really know what I was jumping into when I bought this game. I've played Microsoft Flight Simulator x, X-Plane 10, Wings of Prey, and IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 for a few years now. But all of a sudden had an "itch" for a modern military flight simulator with an up-to-date game engine. If you're in the same boat, or unsure if whether or not you want this game, then please keep reading.

Pros:
Flight dynamics- Easily one of the coolest features in this game. Every aircraft has a different "feel" to it. It's still a bit of a shock to fly one particular aircraft for so long, and then swap to another. DCS offers view modifiers when flying this aircraft. The player can experience positive and negative G forces (in the game of course), while straining their body to turn in on a MIG for an air kill. But be careful, straining the aircraft too hard can cause aircraft issues from instrument failures, to having it's wings/rotors completely ripped off in a realistic fashion. I can't tell you how many times I've been "downed" for blacking out pulling hard G's.

Engine- What first caught me off guard starting this game was the engine limitations. At first I thought the map size covered a very small section of Georgia, then after learning how to pull up the map...I was in shock. It covers roughly 80% of Georgia, spots in Turkey and Armenia, and approximately 150NM into Russia...and yes, this is all one map! Not only is the map pretty large, but the graphics themselves are stunning. Not the "best graphics I've ever seen", but it's probably one of the best that you'll get for a combat flight sim.

AI- The complexity that goes into how the AI handle ground vehicles and aircraft are simply amazing. And you're not stuck on a single difficulty setting, You can tune EACH INDIVIDUAL aircraft/vehicle,infantry, or whatever to suit your abilities! The AI will react to whatever you do near or at them accordingly. You spin up your GAU and lob a few rounds near a tank, they'll get the hell out of there. You see enemy AIs flying over a friendly SAM, the SAM will prioritize air threats and act based off of threat level. They see a wingman go down, they'll probably buzz out for the day. Just one of the many things you'll encounter against AI.

Custom missions- I was so excited to see that I had the option to create my own missions/campaigns. The ability to make the combat environment more dynamic by the minute really adds immersion to the game. I can't say that I've found an online game so far that was playing a default mission from the game. I can't say that I wasn't excited to have the option to watch a bomber drop 16 Stand-off munitions against a single SAM unit.

Attention to detail- Usually when it comes to flight sims, there's one thing that lacks from anyones expectations, and that's the detailing. I'm defining attention to detail as a graphical representation of minor details within the engine. Details within the cockpit are phenomenal! The glass on the Instrument panels reflect the surroundings, the sun beaming into the cockpit reveal microscopic scratches on the outside of the cockpit as well as the metal panels surrounding the pilot. The heavy breathing of the pilot when making difficult maneuvers. The list goes on!

Active developers/community- The devs update this game to FIX known issues within the games, before they consider adding anything new, and this is a big thing for me. I'm tired of seeing other devs pushing updates that focus on new features without fixing the previous features of the game. So far updates have been rolling in between 1 and 2 month intervals, which honestly is a good pace for this game. Aside from the devs themselves, we have the community. The user downloads page on DCS's website is full of downloadable content, whether it's a new skin, texture mod, or a whole new
campaign for the players to enjoy. There's also tons of multiplayer servers up-kept and ran by the community as I write this. A polite and professional group of individuals to say the least.


Cons:
Complex- I would honestly not recommend this game to someone who has NEVER played a flight simulator before, UNLESS you want to experience a challenge of reading tons of pages of information on how to fly the aircraft. However, there are ways around this, such as having automatic start-ups, and basic controls for flight. If you just want to learn how to do maneuvers in an aircraft, then you can always revert to the mission editor and create your own mission to start in the air...without air or ground threats if you prefer that. This game would also be impossible for newer players if they don't have a joystick of some sort. Playing using only your keyboard and mouse, or a standard gamepad controller will not do you any good.

New Aircraft- I'm not saying new aircraft themselves are a bad thing, it's just how they release it. For some reason whenever a new aircraft goes beta for DCS, they start by selling it on their website, and not steam. Before they had the option to redeem keys bought on their site to steam, but has been removed since then. This puts the DCS community at a slight disadvantage, because now there's less DCS enthusiasts testing a new feature for it's main release. Which in turn, may hold the slight potential of having bugs slip through the cracks for release. But that's just my opinion.

Terrain- Yes the world is huge, and has endless flying space, but my main snipe is that the hills/mountains are too "sharp". They don't even have a gradual incline/decline to them. It's hardly noticeable from a higher altitude, but CAS aircraft/Helis would be able to notice it quite easily.

Final verdict:
All in all, DCS: World's pros easily outweigh the cons when it comes down to playability. I have no doubt in my mind that flight simulator enthusiasts who crave a modern day flight simulator will get to experience a game that will fulfill that satisfaction of Air superiority.

I remember picking this game up back when I was a kid, and thinking that this is the best flight simulator to date. I logged a couple hundred hours with the hard copy of the game way back when. Then I just stopped playing for whatever reason. Later on I noticed that it was for sale on steam. Time to give it another shot I guess. Might as well burn a few more hours into it. Then when I loaded up the game I noticed a whole bunch of extensions tacked onto it. Some that I never even heard of. So I started up a quick dogfight with my usual Spitfire, and Tally-HO! Even to this day I feel as though this game is still in it's prime for an old WW2 Flight sim. Not only does this game give you endless hours of missions, dogfights, bomb runs, and flight support. Now you can extend your gameplay by creating your own missions in the full mission builder! And with endless aircraft to choose from, you're pretty much in it for the long-run. I cannot simply find enough time to try everything out in IL-2. It's just that good!