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Red Baron 3D
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Red Baron 3D is a very good game. Without 3D acceleration the graphics are very good, and with it the graphics are better. The game offers a huge, detailed world to explore and do damage in. Single-player campaigns allow one to play out an invented pilot’s career starting at any point from 1916 to the end of the war in any French, British, German or American fighter squadron on the Western Front, starting with any rank from the lowest pilot to squadron leader. The game includes an impressive twenty-two flyable types of planes and sixteen other planes that only the computer can fly. A variety of buildings and vehicles inhabit the ground. In campaign play, the game tries to simulate your entire sector of the front, rather than only tracking a bubble of activity around you, allowing improvised “lone wolf” missions. For the most part these are all quite nicely done, making for a very interesting and enjoyable game. There are some limits, imperfections and lingering bugs, however. The flight models have never managed to match the simple and accurate comparisons detailed in the game’s manual, despite several revisions from patch to patch. The campaign world turns out ultimately to be more of a random-scenario-generator than a complex world where actions have later consequences. Some weird problematic events come up from time to time, and the AI makes occasional blunders and fails to challenge expert players. The multi-player mode is good when it works and can be very entertaining. Although limited to player-controlled planes in a gamey fictional setting, in September 1998 the World Opponent Air Corps has organized a multiplayer campaign game to recreate the entire war through roleplaying (see the Multiplayer section). Some multi-player bugs and problems still linger, so patience is required. Most players play free-for-all dogfights using their favourite planes against all other players at once. Weak points notwithstanding, Red Baron 3D is a very good game that will entertain even difficult-to-please players for hours before limitations are noticed.
Flying Corps Gold is also a very good game, with different strengths and weaknesses. For the player who has tired of Red Baron 3D, or for players who demand more authenticity from the start, it may be just the thing. Get a 3Dfx accelerator. With one, the appearance of the world below is extremely detailed and realistic, and frame rate is also quite good even on a 133MHz Pentium. Glitz aside, the main strength of Flying Corps Gold is in the detail and accuracy of the flight models. There are only seven flyable plane types, plus twelve flown by computer pilots, but these are modeled with great attention to detail and accuracy. The manual describes the various strengths, weaknesses, quirks and flying techniques of the planes; details which are faithfully modeled by the game. There are five different campaigns and these are quite well done, if difficult. Each campaign focuses on a different specific time and location, presenting distinct historical conditions, goals and choices. When leading a squadron, manpower allocation is nicely detailed, although it can prove very difficult (perhaps unlikely is a more accurate word) to avoid heavy casualties once amidst the chaos of serious dogfights. Weak points include problems some players have had configuring particular hardware, the quality of some of the effects, and the AI which is often a terribly good shot given a half-good position, which leads to very frequent fatalities of players and computer-controlled planes alike. Ace players may find this to be a feature, but most of us would like it to be adjustable. Multiplayer allows simple dogfights between player-controlled planes in teams or free-for-alls, much like Red Baron 3D. However what Flying Corps Gold does not do is provide a convenient meeting place on the Internet, so finding ready opponents can be difficult. Again, Flying Corps Gold is a very good game with some outstanding features, despite a few limitations and imperfections.
In the sections that follow I’ll detail how the two games compare point by point. First, a summary of the differences: Flying Corps Gold’s landscapes are based on actual World War One aerial photographs, making Red Baron 3D’s landscapes look rather artificial and blocky in comparison. Some of Red Baron 3D’s other visual effects are better than Flying Corps Gold’s, however. Sound effects compare similarly - different, but both very well done. Red Baron 3D has more types of planes from a wider time period, and allows you to fly more of them. On the other hand Flying Corps Gold’s flight models are more realistic and more accurate, and the game can handle larger dogfights before the game starts to bog down. The campaign games are good in both games, but again different. Red Baron 3D lets you try to fly an entire career from 1916 to the end of the war, and allows you to fly in practically any fighter squadron on the Western Front, transfer between squadrons, be promoted and receive medals. It also keeps some records of your successes and failures for later examination. Flying Corps Gold offers only five campaigns, however these are more detailed than Red Baron 3D’s and have specific and distinct objectives. New campaigns can also be created with the editor, although this would be a lot of work. Both games feature multiplayer support and mission editors. In short, I recommend both games although neither is perfect. By a small margin, I’d recommend Red Baron 3D over Flying Corps Gold to those without 3Dfx, less experienced fliers and those who don’t mind or notice less extreme historical accuracy. However I’d recommend Flying Corps Gold over Red Baron 3D to experienced fliers and others looking for more historically-accurate flight models. How they stack up: This table shows how I rate the games in each category. The more planes the better on the following scale: 1: Bad, 2: So-So, 3: Good, 4: Very Good, and 5: Excellent Click on each category for a detailed comparison, or read the entire analysis by clicking on the Next button at the bottom of each page.
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Two
impressive simulations of biplane dogfights in World War One appeared in 1997 and have
continued to improve through 1998 with new versions that add player suggestions and
support for popular 3D accelerator cards. 
© 1998