Customer Reviews

Red Baron 3-D

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you're like me then you've probably been suckered into buying simulators that are "realistic" and "like the real thing" only to find that they are slow, unplayable, and just plain boring. If so, try this, it's nothing like them. It's both fun and exciting, playable and at times fast. A lot of research went into the making of this game. Where others try to achieve total realism of flight (lets face it, you're sitting in front of a computer, it will never happen!) this game depends on the player being surrounded by the other experiences, like hoping to get back over your lines while your wing men are dead and your crate is losing oil. In short, the game achieves the right balance of realism and arcade fun to keep you playing. PS: I would have given it five stars but for two reasons: 1. For some reason the makers designed the planes to shoot rockets (! ) which is just too arcade like for me. 2. If you are in campaign mode and need to quit, you'll have to either end the game and hope you don't get penalized or just hit abort and have to restart that mission later.

Fantastic! But let me give you a warning first. I received this as a Christmas gift two years ago when I had a P133 with 48m of RAM and 4X CD-ROM. According to the system requirements on the box, I satisfied the MINIMUM requirements. Upon loading the game, I experienced extremely lengthy load times for missions, jerkiness, and jitter during combat (an enemy would be in my sights one second and then up above me the next second). Missions with over 4 planes in the air brought my machine to a near stand still and the time compression feature was useless as it would take sometimes ten to fifteen minutes to reach a waypoint or target, even with time compress set to 16X. These experiences occurred with the graphics settings set to their minimum. I even tried it on a P166 with little improvement. Frankly it was not very fun and I was relegated to the "Fly Now" missions only. Later I took advantage of the Red Baron 3D upgrade and rebate offer hoping for some operational improvement, but there was none. After several weeks I shelved the game and forgot about it thinking that I would soon upgrade my computer.

Well that time came two days ago. I upgraded to a P600 with 128M RAM and a 40X CD-ROM. I pulled Red-Baron 3D off the shelf, loaded it up, and the improvement is AMAZING!. At the highest graphics setting I have difficulty finding any flaws in performance. The frame rate is smooth, time compression is tremendously improved, the planes handle well, and the graphics are pretty sharp even without the 3DFX chip required for the 3D enhanced graphics (I'm running a 16m RIVA TNT, which is not supported for this game.)

The campaigns are very immersive although sometimes the AI seems to get a little stupid. I was able to shoot down Manfred Von Richthoven on my first mission! He was very passive, making no attempts to get away or to turn and attack me. Flying against him in the "Single Mission" scenarios he is very aggressive and difficult to pull into a turning duel. I would expect that same level of difficulty when meeting him in a campaign mission.

One of the things I love is the little touches included in the missions. During one combat I shot down an enemy plane and watched it hit the ground. As I circled the downed planes neighboring air field, an ambulance came out of one of the hangars and I was able to watch it go to the site where the plane crashed. Incredible! Little things like this really pull you into this game.

As it is, it is one of the most engrossing flight sims I have played and I don't see any chance of sleep for the next several nights. I recommend the game but only if you have at least a P300 with 64m RAM and a high speed CD-ROM. When game manufacturers determine minimum requiremnts I would like to think that this is a minimum requirement by which the game can still be enjoyed. So purchase wisely.

The first time I saw this game, way back in the early 90's, it looked interesting. What became of that was many years, even including last year, of playing it non-stop until I bought the 3D version.

The realism is powerful, and the improved 3D graphics make this one game that will no doubt live forever in the PC gaming hall of fame. What makes this game different from all other flight sims is the campaign mode. In the last decade and even now, nothing has even come close to the feeling of building your pilot up in rank, status, and medals. When your pilot dies, you feel awful, especially after days and even weeks, of intense combat and intrigue, (Sometimes other famous pilots, like the Red Baron, will write you a letter and challenge you to a duel!). The campaign doesn't drag on either, because the war ends as it did in real life in 1918, so you can retire your score to the hall of fame board and start over trying to beat your last pilot.

Who needs multiplayer? This game rocks, and I have never met a person who hasn't thought thought this game to soar beyond other flight sims. The only others to come close are the good old Lucas games, Battle of Britan and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe.

Buy this now, before it fades away and is pushed aside by evil marketing people who care more about graphics and sound than FUN! Fun is what games are about, and Red Baron 3D is one of the last great games of the early days that will always be there to go back to when flying games become ridiculous and boring, much they have already become.

This was my first flight sim game that I rally enjoyed to play for hours at a time. It is much more fun than than MS flight sim 98 because I could fly NOW and have fun doing it instead of getting bogged down in so many details that I either got bored or frustrated. The graphics are okay but the game is so much fun that I forget about the graphics and have fun instead. One thing that I like a lot that I miss in other flight sims is that I can change the views (or perspectives) in ways that I cannot change in others. Such as... I can view like a chase plane and have the horizon change with the plane OR have the horizon stay flat and only have the plane change OR have the horizon change a second after the plane changes OR have your own plane fly past you and this gives a very vivid feel to flying that I love. I wish MS WW II combat simulator had that feature! I can also view my plane from the enemies perspective and that comes in very handy. I also like the fact that you have to be a real flyer in order to survive because you need to keep in mind the limitations of these old crates...dive and pull the stick up too fast and your wing breaks off!!!!just like the real ones. Keeping these limitations in mind makes you a much more precision flyer. There is also a distinct feeling of differing performance between planes. You have to play with your settings to get the best graphics. I just set mine until I can follow clearly the path of my bullets when I fire. In later models (WW II) flight sims and later, you can do almost any maneuver and the plane stays together without coming apart, you are only limited by how many G's your body can take before you pass out. I have a semi old computer (400 mghz motherboard, 64M ram, voodoo 3000 graphics card) and it works great, good sound and interesting flight assignments. It is a great first flight sim and very forgiving. I also like biplanes a lot so I am biased. I have had the game over a year plus and still have not discovered all of its capabilities. I play with this more than my James WWII fighters and MS WWII combat flight sim. Priced right and a blast to play with. I have yet to fly on the web with others but I will soon. Improved terrain and graphics detail would make this game the hottest of hot among any flight sim. Buy it! I has been the most entertainment I have ever had for twenty bucks!

Fantastic! But let me give you a warning first. I received this as a Christmas gift two years ago when I had a P133 with 48m of RAM and 4X CD-ROM. According to the system requirements on the box, I satisfied the MINIMUM requirements. Upon loading the game, I experienced extremely lengthy load times for missions, jerkiness, and jitter during combat (an enemy would be in my sights one second and then up above me the next second). Missions with over 4 planes in the air brought my machine to a near stand still and the time compression feature was useless as it would take sometimes ten to fifteen minutes to reach a waypoint or target, even with time compress set to 16X. These experiences occurred with the graphics settings set to their minimum. I even tried it on a P166 with little improvement. Frankly it was not very fun and I was relegated to the "Fly Now" missions only. Later I took advantage of the Red Baron 3D upgrade and rebate offer hoping for some operational improvement, but there was none. After several weeks I shelved the game and forgot about it thinking that I would soon upgrade my computer.

Well that time came two days ago. I upgraded to a P600 with 128M RAM and a 40X CD-ROM. I pulled Red-Baron 3D off the shelf, loaded it up, and the improvement is AMAZING!. At the highest graphics setting I have difficulty finding any flaws in performance. The frame rate is smooth, time compression is tremendously improved, the planes handle well, and the graphics are pretty sharp even without the 3DFX chip required for the 3D enhanced graphics (I'm running a 16m RIVA TNT, which is not supported for this game.)

The campaigns are very immersive although sometimes the AI seems to get a little stupid. I was able to shoot down Manfred Von Richthoven on my first mission! He was very passive, making no attempts to get away or to turn and attack me. Flying against him in the "Single Mission" scenarios he is very aggressive and difficult to pull into a turning duel. I would expect that same level of difficulty when meeting him in a campaign mission.

One of the things I love is the little touches included in the missions. During one combat I shot down an enemy plane and watched it hit the ground. As I circled the downed planes neighboring air field, an ambulance came out of one of the hangars and I was able to watch it go to the site where the plane crashed. Incredible! Little things like this really pull you into this game.

As it is, it is one of the most engrossing flight sims I have played and I don't see any chance of sleep for the next several nights. I recommend the game but only if you have at least a P300 with 64m RAM and a high speed CD-ROM. When game manufacturers determine minimum requiremnts I would like to think that this is a minimum requirement by which the game can still be enjoyed. So purchase wisely.

Yes it is true! despite being released way back in, what was it, 1998? Red Baron 3D remains among the top of tier of combat flight sims.

If you are looking for this classic sim the bad news is that all original published copies are sold out. The good news is that used copies are not hard to find. Shop around and try to get the actual Red Baron 3D game and not the upgradeable Red Baron 2. Also, try and find a copy that includes the Red Baron 3D manual. This manual is chock full of everything you need to know about every aspect of the sim. There is also a large historical section devoted to the pilots and aircraft of the period covered in the sim and lots of period photos. It resembles a paperback novel more than manuals found with PC games these days.

Other good news is that although the game/sim is old it has been lovingly modded and kept up to date by a large community of artists and programmers. The game in its current state of modification hardly resembles the game as it was originally shipped.

The Campaign in RB3D remains to this day the standard to which all others are held. Really, there is nothing else in the world of 3D flight sims that can compare to it. It is the key reason why so many have been flying and modding this sim over the years. Very little about the campaign is scripted. Once you take off from your aerodrome how events unfold from then on depends largely on the decisions you make while in the air. While flying a mission there is a real sense of a war going on all around you. Looking off into the distance dogfights and ground fire that have nothing to do with your mission can be seen unfolding. I have seen planes little more than specks in the distance spinning out of control towards the earth, shot down out of the sky trailing smoke.

The game was programed to run with the now extinct Voodoo video cards and Glide API. There is a program called dgvoodoo that can be downloaded and installed that allows modern ATI and Nvidia cards to run the game in Glide, otherwise the game runs in Direct Draw and doesn't look nearly as sweet.

Anyway, I wanted to write up this review because the sim is still in use and message boards with enthusiastic modders and simmers from all over the world are currently active and they are a great place to get started and ask Qs about anything having to do with Red Baron 3D or any of its many mods and patches.

Here is a good place to start if you are ready to take the plunge! [...]

A huge five stars: Still my favorite game after five years and three upgrades, Red Baron 3D continues to be addictive in 2004. Unfortunately, the company that made the game is defunct, but there is a huge online community keeping the game alive with lots of awesome upgrades and options. I hope some rich guy, or perhaps a savvy game company resurrects this awesome game someday. I'm a huge fan of combat flight simulators, so I routinely buy all the new games. Nothing comes close to Red Baron for the sheer joy of dog fighting, the thrill of the hunt, and the fear of flaming death. The campaigns are virtually unlimited in their variety. The missions vary from routine to absolutely terrifying, requiring you to `bug out' or die plummeting in a flaming wreck. Even at the height of your skill, the lifespan of your pilots can be very short, or perhaps you will survive the war captured in a POW camp, maimed in a hospital, or victorious with a chest full of medals. A player has to be cunning and skilled to play this game and survive, but with some training, a bit of practice and some luck, you can become a canvas falcon and rule the skies as the Ace of Aces!

I've owned RB3D for several years and have been playing it on-line for some time. Previous reviewers have discussed campaign play, so I won't discuss it here. To play on-line, you will need to download an official Sierra patch that allows internet game play. The name of the patch is RB3D1078.exe. You can download the patch at various websites that are devoted specifically to individuals who play RB3D...

RB3D can be played on-line in a variety of ways. My favorite is to enter a game server that has team target play. This type of server allows you to go on bombing missions to destroy server selected targets. I have personally seen game servers with as many as 43 players playing together. A typical session will have players dogfighting over the front in France. Other players will be in a different area in France on a bombing mission, or patroling an area looking for the bombers and thier escorts. The game keeps track of the location of the players and in addition, as you take damage, the performance of your aircraft deteriorates according to the location and severity of the damage, adding realism to the game.

There are virtual on-line squadrons made up of players from all over the world. There are organized events and tournements in which these virtual squadrons can participate.

The computer that is needed should be at least a PentiumII or equivilant, with a CPU speed of 300Mhz, and 64Mb of ram. RB3D was designed to be played over the internet with a connect speed of at least 28800 bps. I have been able to stay in game servers with speeds as low as 26400bps. I have discovered that a stable connection to the game server is more important than connect speed.

I will admit that this is the only on-line flight simulator that I own, but I love it. One word of warning, it can be very addictive.
Commanding officer, Jagdgeschwader4 Jasta79b

Now after 2 year since RB 3D been released, there are still a many hundreds that play the game. Lots of online squadrons are still active and involving themselves in planning and creating online wars with allied squads Vs German and their allied squads. Many users have created new add-ons without the help from Sierra, all season terrain that look realistic, buildings, objects, new aircraft and much more. There are many web sites to what the users done for this great game! I've played Red Baron 2 when it came up for sale. Then when Sierra/Dynamix upgraded to RB 2 to Red Baron 3D, I've keep on playing it, joined a squad and kept on playing online war with 32-64 other pilots. When you get into a dogfight with other real persons, it's an adrenaline rush and that by its self. You have to play it to find out...

Watch out with this one. If you have a newer graphics card like a Geforce2 then you will not be able to get the 3D graphics. This game does not support 3d acceleration with newer cards. I was really upset when I learned I would have to buy an older Voodoo card just to get better graphics on this game. A great game other than that, but if you want the highest graphics, make sure you also have an Voodoo compatible video card.