Looking at popularity of War Thunder's arcade mode, this game would have been so good in this day with it's heart of gold. Crimson Skies is a perfect example on how to showcase a fictional setting. And then disappear in obscurity. It deserved to be big like World of Warcraft.
@@DigitalFulcrum Early builds of this game had Fortune Hunters planes in Red Skull Legion markings, but the final version lacks the Red Skull Legion squadron despite a Fairchild F611 Brigand in RSL marking appearing as the face of the game's box-art.
@@seagulTajin Early builds of this game had Fortune Hunters planes in Red Skull Legion markings, but the final version lacks the Red Skull Legion squadron despite a Fairchild F611 Brigand in RSL marking appearing as the face of the game's box-art.
@@MrEdders123 Early builds of this game had Fortune Hunters planes in Red Skull Legion markings, but the final version lacks the Red Skull Legion squadron despite a Fairchild F611 Brigand in RSL marking appearing as the face of the game's box-art.
What a blast from the past - thanks for covering this in such detail. I had no idea about the table top game despite having spent tons of hours playing this game as a kid.
@@azorean88 Early builds of this game had Fortune Hunters planes in Red Skull Legion markings, but the final version lacks the Red Skull Legion squadron despite a Fairchild F611 Brigand in RSL marking appearing as the face of the game's box-art.
Love this analysis! The 1930s (ish) pulp genre has been the subject for a lot of my film-history research recently, so it's always great to see my favorite channels covering media in this vein too! Also, it's ALWAYS great to hear people mentioning The Rocketeer!🙌👊 Thank you for the hard work that you obviously put into this!
Rocketeer is great, I forgot to recommend it at the end. Could've been a fantastic franchise if it weren't for the box office. Nice to see the comics brought back. I legitimately thought Rocketeer was actually written in the 50s or something until this video 🤭
@@MrEdders123 I absolutely agree! It's a great premise to build a world around! You might be surprised at how common that belief actually is...the comics did a great job of emulating that era and style. I really hope Crimson Skies AND The Rocketeer get revivals!
@@disneymagicfanatic Early builds of this game had Fortune Hunters planes in Red Skull Legion markings, but the final version lacks the Red Skull Legion squadron despite a Fairchild F611 Brigand in RSL marking appearing as the face of the game's box-art.
Outstanding review, as always. I'm always amazed at the detail you go into with these retrospectives. Once your Torment review comes out, I can die a happy man!
Holy hell, I literally _just_ finished reading an old review of this game! Also, hell yeah, a new retrospective! And on something I'm directly interested in, too! As far as I know, I believe you pronounced Weisman just fine, by the way.
Thanks for shedding a light on this beloved gem. I'm a little late to the party, but I gotta say, that Crimson Skies is still my favorite story driven flight-sim/arcade-game out there. There has never been a game like it and it's just such a shame. They got everything right down to the detail: the plane-design (which is of course fictional, but inspired by real plane designs of the era, which makes it feel authentic), the plane editor, the perfectly romantic "swashbucklers of the skies"-story, the map design, the stunts including the auto-screenshots, the overall 1930s ambience and immersion of the game, I could go on and on - in short: I love this game. It's just a masterpiece of a better time. Crimson Skies not only deserves a remake but also a sequel, which both should be based on the original game (not HRtR) and further expand on its vibe, features and storylines with modern day technology - and without any stupid modern day business-policy-bs like micro transactions etc.
@@MrEdders123 I know man, that's why I'm asking for it to stop! :D Teenagers should be able to fall in love with these games and to afford them with their hard earned (pocket-)money! I had such a blast playing Crimson Skies as a teen (and admittedly, thanks to you, till 3am in the morning today :D). I've also been playing the original IL2 back in the day and just recently wanted to check out the newer Battle of Stalingrad, but it's just ridiculously overpriced. As you said, they charge a steep price for almost every vehicle, which is just a shame. "Wings over Flanders Fields: Between Heaven and Hell 2" is pretty much the only full flight-sim package game I could find nowadays. It's a WWI themed game and the attention to detail is insane - unfortunately it runs on the ancient engine of CFS 3. So yeah: time for a Crimson Skies full comeback!
This was awesome, thank you for covering this. As one of those people working on a spiritual successor to Crimson Skies, it was great to see this game covered in such depth, and with such charm and humor.
Holy shit, it's awesome to find that one of my fave TH-camrs is also well versed in pre/post WWI histories. I've been an avid student this particular era myself for a couple of years now, so hearing the nuances of the Russian civil war casually referenced in my sleepytime listen is wild! You made my 3am!
@@MrEdders123 According to a game design document of the PC game and the trailer of the game, the 1999 pre-alpha and E3 2000 alpha build of the game would have more elements borrowed from the original 1998 board game than what was shown in the somewhat unpolished state of the final build: Fortune Hunters planes had Red Skull Legion (that later appeared in High Road Revenge as an actual pirate gang and one of the rival pirate gangs Fortune Hunters encountered) markings as placeholders (Fortune Hunters markings were created before July 2000 pre-beta build). Blake Aviation Security and Hughes Aviation planes have Boeing Aviation markings as placeholders (Blake Aviation Security markings were created before July 2000 pre-beta build). Studio Security planes had Nation of Hollywood markings as placeholders (Studio Security markings were created before July 2000 pre-beta build). Hollywood Knights Firebrand had some different color schemes and was much closer to the board game, and at one point there were going to have more different Hollywood Knights planes (such as Bloodhawk) as well as more different Black Swan planes (such as Kestrels and the scrapped Ravens). Pandora (Fortune Hunters' zeppelin) was originally named "Klondike". The voices are completely different and were placeholders. Firing guns and missiles were originally going to be multiple and automatic. Originally, you can command your wingmen. Originally, you can upload custom insignias to your customized planes. Originally, there are additional planes such as the Raven and Avenger, and a Grand Canyon level. Initially, the focus of the game was going to be on the Red Skull Legion and their ruthless fascist agenda. However, the developers soon realized that such a setting would not be compelling or interesting to many players, so they decided to scrap the idea and go with something a bit more nuanced and appealing, which eventually led to the creation of the Fortune Hunters faction. While the development team did use the Red Skull Legion's plane assets as a temporary placeholder in the early build, it was always their intention to eventually develop a new faction that would better suit the game's overall story and tone. The textures for planes in the early version of the game were more realistic (and much closer to their pre-rendered look seen in pre-rendered cutscenes in the final as well as the planes' photos in the board game) than those in the final. This was simply a matter of development time and resources. Realism is a desirable trait in any game or other visual media, but it's also something that requires a great deal of time and effort to achieve. So in this case, the developers had to choose between spending more time on making the textures more realistic or working on other areas of the game. They ultimately decided to focus on the latter, resulting in less detailed textures but more time available to polish and refine other aspects of the game.
@@reigd According to a game design document of the PC game and the trailer of the game, the 1999 pre-alpha and E3 2000 alpha build of the game would have more elements borrowed from the original 1998 board game than what was shown in the somewhat unpolished state of the final build: Fortune Hunters planes had Red Skull Legion (that later appeared in High Road Revenge as an actual pirate gang and one of the rival pirate gangs Fortune Hunters encountered) markings as placeholders (Fortune Hunters markings were created before July 2000 pre-beta build). Blake Aviation Security and Hughes Aviation planes have Boeing Aviation markings as placeholders (Blake Aviation Security markings were created before July 2000 pre-beta build). Studio Security planes had Nation of Hollywood markings as placeholders (Studio Security markings were created before July 2000 pre-beta build). Hollywood Knights Firebrand had some different color schemes and was much closer to the board game, and at one point there were going to have more different Hollywood Knights planes (such as Bloodhawk) as well as more different Black Swan planes (such as Kestrels and the scrapped Ravens). Pandora (Fortune Hunters' zeppelin) was originally named "Klondike". The voices are completely different and were placeholders. Firing guns and missiles were originally going to be multiple and automatic. Originally, you can command your wingmen. Originally, you can upload custom insignias to your customized planes. Originally, there are additional planes such as the Raven and Avenger, and a Grand Canyon level. Initially, the focus of the game was going to be on the Red Skull Legion and their ruthless fascist agenda. However, the developers soon realized that such a setting would not be compelling or interesting to many players, so they decided to scrap the idea and go with something a bit more nuanced and appealing, which eventually led to the creation of the Fortune Hunters faction. While the development team did use the Red Skull Legion's plane assets as a temporary placeholder in the early build, it was always their intention to eventually develop a new faction that would better suit the game's overall story and tone. The textures for planes in the early version of the game were more realistic (and much closer to their pre-rendered look seen in pre-rendered cutscenes in the final as well as the planes' photos in the board game) than those in the final. This was simply a matter of development time and resources. Realism is a desirable trait in any game or other visual media, but it's also something that requires a great deal of time and effort to achieve. So in this case, the developers had to choose between spending more time on making the textures more realistic or working on other areas of the game. They ultimately decided to focus on the latter, resulting in less detailed textures but more time available to polish and refine other aspects of the game.
I never had an issue with the game's choice to mention Imperial Japan or Nazi Germany. Then again, I always associated this game's timeframe with that of The Rocketeer movie. Thank you for making a video on one of my favorite games from my youth!
One of my favourite things is when developers take a game engine and get it to do things it was never built for. This game and Interstate 76 both share the honour of having been jammed into a lurching walking robot simulator engine, both times resulting in excellent games that simultaneously feel like they will fall apart at any time.
Never played the XBox sequel, but I absolutely loved the original on PC. Perfectly encapsulated the pulpy action serials from yesteryear. Always hoped the series would make a comeback at some point. Great video!
@@MrEdders123 Early builds of this game had Fortune Hunters planes in Red Skull Legion markings, but the final version lacks the Red Skull Legion squadron despite a Fairchild F611 Brigand in RSL marking appearing as the face of the game's box-art.
Oh yes, there had been. I always regretted that it just came out for Consoles .after the first title I really was thrilled when the GAMESTAR quoted an official from the Computer Game Convention that there was a change for a farther PC game version. But it did not happened
Awesome video! I became interested in Crimson Skies after hearing Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and along with seeing a playthrough of the game, this was so much fun to watch! I hope it get to play the game eventually. Keep up the great work! (Also serves as great motivation to work on my own aviation pulp adventure project!)
I would think reading between the lines is what people came to them for, there is plenty of reviewers I watch where they hate games I love, but I understand that they will not like something I like so I will look for it. Example: If people on Amazon complain about a history book being too detailed and too long, like Glantz Barbarossa Derailed I know I will love it.
I was way too young to play this while it was new (and my PC probably would not be able to run it anyway..) which is a shame, because it looks incredibly fun! Never heard about this game before. Another great vid, brother. You truly are a master of obscure video game reviews! Cheers ;)
You could try High Road to Revenge on GamePass cloud or something, depending on where you live. Xbox games probably had pretty bad latency in the first place 😁
You probably already know this but if someone doesn't, HOTAS stands for "Hands on Throttle and Stick" and is a more optimal way to fly because the pilot doesn't need to take their hands off the controls to flip switches, setup the aircraft, etc. they can keep their focus on what's going on around them. Anyway it's super depressing how many games are getting lost to time, especially now with so many games have no end of life plan and requiring an internet/server connection. It sucks that in 15-20 years someone won't be able to play a game they loved with their kids, or just go back relive memories, and enjoy themselves.
A game I probably would have played, but I never got around to because I was key deep in SC/BW at that time. Alright, time to watch the video, bunch of thanks for your work.
Yay, more in-depth video game lore! I find it interesting that in the alternate history storytelling, my favourite tales are both arcade flight sims - Crimson Skies and Ace Combat. Sadly, histories of both are disappearing, with CS for the issues stated. And though AC continues strong, its almost Metal-Gear-esque geopolitical war tale is spread across four generations of Sony hardware without any re-releases (and good luck emulating the PS3 ones).
@@MrEdders123 Not yet, but I have it in my (endless) backlog. Delighted to have more of these kinds of games. I'm hopeful the success of the new Top Gun creates a resurgence in the genre and we get even more non-space-based stuff.
Thank you Mr Edders for reminding me of this sleeper hit. I remember playing this back in the day, it came out of nowhere and it was fun and original. It reminded me of Dan Dare and such art.
I just finished this game today for the first time after it proved much too difficult for me at the time of its release. Your video is fascinating and I learned much about the game I never knew, thank you. Really wish I had known you could shoot out the Egyptian archway in the Hollywood stage, that would have saved me some grief.
Great Video as always! On the topic of similar titles: The PS2 title Secret Weapons Over Normandy by Lucasarts was one of my all time favourite flight sim games. very similar in style to Crimson Skies. not sure if it ever got a PC port though....
Just recently watched castle in the sky and that movie reminded me of this game back on og Xbox days and my first interaction into dog fighting games too when I was a kid
I remember the Xbox had quite a few vehicle/air combat games - I vaguely remember playing a whole bunch on demo discs. Actions games seemed to switch to FPS after Halo though.
Interestingly enough, the whole abortive Crimson Skies franchise shares all imaginable DNA with BattleTech and its many computer renditions through creator Jordan Weisman. This shows in the similarities between Crimson Skies tabletop and the AeroSpace rules of BattleTech that describe air/spacecraft in the rules context.
Yeah, I was researching the Virtual Worlds era and they made a number of references to the aerial BattleTech rules - not directly in reference to the Corsairs prototypes, but I'm sure they were an influence at that stage.
They also share a lot of design DNA with the Renegade Legion: Interceptor TT rules, which I would argue was FASA's best attempt at a dogfighting game on the tabletop.
I had a look at my files but I can only find the one I used in the video. I definitely downloaded others but I may have deleted them...best bet is to ask in the Crimson Skies discord, some of the old fansite owners might see it.
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I love Crimson Skies so much. It's probably one of the most underrated games ever.
2:05:13 as much as it sounds wierd, but closest i can think is Ace Combat. It is nowhere close in story telling style, resorting more for a high tech high power "fantasy". But as dogfighting game with daring maneuvers that exactly the game i can think which fit the description of arcadey flight action. But more of a bombastic hollywood top-gun rather than SwingJazz.
I remember the “bounce” But I also recall what I called the “swoop” Where you’d be pulling up when heading towards something solid like a cliff or land surface and just when you thought you’d clip it the aircraft would kinda “swoop” just enough to allow you to avoid it entirely, only by a hair but you’d avoiding clipping anything solid The bounce was literally a bounce though
Love this game! I thankfully had a second hand control stick from playing Mechwarrior that my dad lent me, It was super smooth to play and get used to. The Xbox game was also super fun, any time friends were over we'd play 4 player deathmatch. The only thing I didn't care for was that it had way less planes and you couldn't customize them the same way, which was a major let down. Also 1:08:32 , the Blackhats are my favourite bits in this game, I'm glad you got that in there XD If I had to suggest adjacent games, the Rogue Squadron series is fantastic, including Battle for Naboo.
You should cover Divine Divinty... or the F-uped Development of Legacy of Kain ... and later its sequel Soul Reaver , that was a dev hell game... or Vampire Masquerade Blood Lines, and how Valve sabotaged the game, to not be the first product on the Source engine , since they wanted HL2 to be the first on it ... or Troikas another endeavour Arcanum ...
Soul Reaver is already quite well-covered but I am considering doing a video on the original BO one day. Bloodlines, from how I understand it, is more due to Activision's demands rather than Valve's - Valve didn't prevent them from continuing to work on the game in the meantime, but Activision essentially "froze" the game's development until release.
Il love CRIMSON SKIES - also recommandable the free novels to the games. 8:09 Similar positive vibes in the professional German Gamer Magazines like DIE GAMESTAR with 84%" GREAT STORYLINE PUT INTO A MOTIVATING ACTION-SIMULATION GAME " Fun Tact. The critics there even found a fllyer logo in the game resembling the German LUFTHANSA airline 7:09 Personaly, I would like to see an actual come back or at least a remake of the classical PC game - to me it had been fun and enjoyment.
Even though the game is not very violent in general, there is this one instant towards the end of the campaign where you actually shoot at people. Its in a mission where you attack a warehouse and there are some very tiny people with guns shooting at your plane. They are very hard to see as they are just 3 little 2D figures. But if you hit them they fall over like they actually die.
I'm sure they just "fell over" 😇 According to the 1999 design document, you were supposed to see British soldiers firing at you in that early airfield/base mission, who could be gunned down in plain sight. I'm guessing it was removed for the ratings, or possibly for fear of backlash in the UK.
These fighter planes feel as slow as the Polikarpov Po-2 a.k.a. the Kukuruznik. Interstate 76 had the same problem. The physics engine felt slooow and never conveyed the power of muscle cars.
I found that I liked the Fury plane the best for that reason, put a nice engine in it which can do a bit of nitro, and you've got a fast plane which can go even faster if needed, but it's not too flimsy, and it can carry a decent bit of armor and ordnance. There's lots of times when there's great benefit to going slow though, for instance to really thread the needle on some dangerous stunts, or to maximize the amount of time you have with your guns straight on certain targets (which can admittedly leave you wide open, if you're not careful).
The planes are actually moving quite sluggishly (although keep in mind in a lot of my footage the throttle is set very low, and some of the footage is from when the game is running too slow). Weisman said that they way they hid this was to use visual and audio cues (wind rushing past etc.) to fake the effect of moving fast. It's a technique that's still used today (horse riding in many modern games).
The setting's also pre-WW2, which likely won't be happening in this alt-timeline anyway. While aviation tech is ahead of the real world 1930s it's still not up to what you'd expect from 1940s developments under the pressure of the World War. So, kinda clunky seems okay, lore-wise. Not like most of those airframes could actually fly anyhow. :)
@@richmcgee434 I think WW2 would be an inevitability, Hitler or not, Germany was going to rearm and go to war again, and getting back at France (particularly for the Treaty Of Versailles) was a big part of that. It may be a very different WW2, on a different scale (America, no longer being the US, would probably not be a fraction of the factor), but Europe was just not going to be calm in the 1930s and 1940s, and neither was East Asia. One can only imagine what the Japanese Empire would be getting up to in that kind of timeline.
@@0neDoomedSpaceMarine It wouldn't be recognizable as WW2. Without the US as a looming background figure the Germans (Nazi or otherwise) and Japan would have little reason to ally even in name, and Japan 's situation would be a mess. They went to war with the US largely because we cut them off from vital supplies of steel and oil that they had been buying from us, but with a shattered North America divided between many small polities those masses of cheap resources wouldn't have been available in the first place. That would have slowed their own military buildup enormously, maybe even preventing their assault on Manchuria (arguably the real start of WW2) altogether. The lack of a Washington Naval Treaty would have also let everyone do as they pleased while building their fleet. Japan might ironically feel less pressure - no US to face off against means they just need to deal with British naval assets, and after drubbing the Russians at Tsushima they might feel overconfident about how easy European powers would be to beat on their own home turf. Neither France nor Britain would be able to stand without US lend-leases, and most likely Russia collapses as well, but that assumes the Western Allies remain as ill-prepared for war with Germany as they did historically despite knowing there's no US to help them - which seems unlikely. Hell, you might very well see the UK and Germany (again, whether Nazi or not) ally to dismember France and then Russia in this scenario. And if Hitler is in play, parts of the US would likely ally with Germany as well - we had plenty of sympathizers right up until Pearl Harbor saw the German-American Bund scurrying for cover. The lack of the unified powerhouse of US industry would be as impactful as the lack of a single military, maybe more so. Whatever war or wars did evolve out of this timeline, they'd likely be smaller in scope and less destructive overall, but even more widespread and chaotic than in the real world. Certainly be extensive fighting in North America, if nothing else.
Uhh nice topic. it was a good idea to subscribe a day ago. I am getting into alternative aviation scenarios and this is franchise seems to be a good inspiration. Somehow I never heard of this game. Strange. I guess I was blind since I wanted more x-wing games.
Great job, thanks, enjoyed watching it! I'm sure you can help me: I can't find information about the actor who played Nathan in the PC-version. Not the voice, but the appearance. Who is this actor?
Unfortunately (from memory) I don't think I ever found out who the specific VAs were - I think I found their names listed, but not who played which character. I even emailed a couple but got no reply. edit: I remember there was a lot of confusion as well because some sites just list the Xbox VA credits for this game
I absolutely loved the tabletop game this video game was based on. Sadly, I found the video game to be very frustrating. There was a mission, not that far in that completely stumped me. I must have flown it two or three dozen times and never come close to succeeding. So, I tracked down a "cheat" guide to figure out how to finally get past it, and the guide basically said, "you have to do really well to beat the mission." Oh. I'd never thought of that. Anyway, I never played it again. Admittedly, I was only ever a video game amateur & not the type to play a game obsessively.
I'm guessing it was one of the Hollywood missions, though the moored Zeppelin mission can also be frustrating because the Bloodhawks that spawn next to the Pandora can take it down too fast. I forgot to mention in the video that there's a fair amount of randomization to the difficulty level of some levels based on how well your wingmen or enemies perform.
It's a really good game. I got it as a freebie with a new computer as a kid (together with Midtown Madness 2), and I thought it was cool as hell. It's got exciting action, an interesting story and setting, and it really helped reinforce my fascination for old militaria in my youth.
Yep, it's a shame there are so many hoops to make it compatibe with modern OS. Could try the Xbox sequel if it's available on Gamepass or whatever the Xbox streaming thing is in your country, though that's even more arcadey.
Strangely what bothered me the most about this game was the Hollywood sign. The game's supposed to be set in the (alternative) 1930s but the sign says "Hollywood" instead of "Hollywoodland".
@@MrEdders123 Wasn't there something about the last four letters ("LAND") having been destroyed by a crashing plane or bombing or something? Could swear it was addressed somewhere, and I only played the TT game. Maybe in the Spicy Air Tales fiction?.
Man, I miss crimson skies. I only played the xbox version and never knew about the pc version so I feel a little robbed but at the same time the game was phenomenal and arguably reinforced my love for flying. If you want more flight based games heres a list of my recommendations: -Ace Combat -Project Wingman -DCS (if you have the money, time and willingness to learn) -War Thunder I wish there were more I could recommend but these are some of the tightest controlling games I've ever played.
Crimson Skies is perfect for a reboot/remake. Integrate the High Road to Revenge gameplay and hub world to it. Expand the character and story so each story arc is longer. Many people has fond memory of Crimson Skies being one of the first with Xbox live integration. So remaking the prequel that not many people had play might spark some more interest than a port. I played High Road to Revenge demo at Walmart. Never had an XBox till 360, but I managed to get the PC game in a jewel case from a bargain bin thinking it was the same as the console game. I was a little disappointed, but I still had fun.
Glad you made this movie, quite an underrated game in the last stages of microsoft pc golden era, reminds me of stuff like interstate 76, lots of soul and great gameplay. I think a way more fascinating attempt at arcade air combat than ace combat.
I remember watching my brother play this game and it was one of the first games I ever played on the Xbox that's where I learned how to play video games also I find it funny that they literally have national Bolshevik gang as a faction that would have been a really fun thing to put in the game a campaign mode we get to control one of these crazy ideologies
Yeah it would've been nice to have a more customizable/RPG-like Crimson Skies game. That was sort of what they were going for with the multiplayer (in their design doc), the idea that players would segregate into different gangs/nations from the tabletop setting.
It is so wild that people thought about Flight Sims so much. Every three words in this review is "flight sim." Jesus christ, what was up with people in the 1990s and flight sims?! anyway another outstanding video!
Target audience. They were after the 'dad money'. Computers were expensive and no affluent middle-aged man was going to admit to playing games. But learning a simulation was seen as more mature.
@@MrEdders123 I had it on PC back in the day, when I found it on PSN (PS3) many years later, it was not quite the same because the Playstation port gimps your view distance SO hard.
While I agree that in the PC game itself a lot of the crew doesn't get a lot of development, but after reading all the supplemental material, you realize a lot is going on in the background while you play the PC game. Like my favorite right now is Rogue Flyer, a side adventure taken by a Blake Aviation pilot and Betty Brooklyn, the "spunky" but new pilot from the Fortune Hunters.
@@MrEdders123 Also true, I personally didn't like the direction they went with High Road to Revenge, especially technology wise. What with giant mech worms, crazy Tesla tech, and Zeppelins that eat other zeppelins.
This and High Road to Revenge are two of my favorite games of all time. High Road especially occupied me for so very many hours over many years. I'd play it now if I still had a functional XBOX. I could play it over and over again-so fun!
"instead of doing something productive" HAHA! but i did something productive! I used your videos as background aid while painting minis!!! Seriously though this is a good video and i practically paused to tell my thoughts along the way..... Well talking to myself anyway but hey as long as i am still functional it's a win
I feel like LOD and draw distance are always sacrificed on the altar of increased visually fidelity. Some games worse than others of course, but I still remember being put off an otherwise impressive Skyrim back in the day because the draw distance was so pathetic and immersion breaking. Same with No Mans Sky. I hope some day this will be a non issue, but often seems like the first thing developers tweak when they need to increase performance at last minute before release.
I'm honestly surprised they haven't tried to reboot this game. Sure it's niche, but an open world style crimson skies game would be a perfect project for a AA studio.
Yeah arcade flight sims don't seem as big as they were in the 90s and early 00s. I remember there were always one or two on the demo discs for PC and original Xbox magazines.
@MrEdders123 ace combat does really well, we've seen a recent resurgence in the mech warrior games on Xbox. Maybe there's a crimson skies reboot or spiritual successor in the works?
yeah, the bridge was a pure nightmare to fly tru... countless deaths endangered my joystick to be smashed against the wall... the only thing that kept me from it was that i couldn't afford another one... 🤣 oh, multiplayer... pilot's life measured in seconds... in my case, at least... 😋 but i met some rly fine flyers back in the times... some of them don't even live anymore... may their skies always be clear... [*]
This one always intrigued me back when it came out but being young my budget was a bit tight, and I was a 4X/Civ/Panzer General/Starcraft type of gamer, so a 3D accelerator wasn't in the budget and I never liked flight sims, so even though it's not a sim it was close enough for me to not spend the 50 bucks or so plus whatever inevitable upgrades I'd need to my rig, which was a Pentium II. Think I'll go buy it right after I watch the video since it can probably be had for a pittance from GoG (I go to Steam if I must but I like what GoG srarted).
Ik I'm an old commentor, but regarding old games run at 3x speeds, try disabling all you're CPU's logical cores except 1-2 in the windows process manager by right clicking on the game's .exe and navigation to the affinity option
@@MrEdders123 Things like that can always vary. I remember in the Windows 7 days, there was a lot of things which may or may not work, and it'd depend on your machine and OS. For instance, getting good old Diablo to run on Windows 7 without the colors getting screwed up typically required you to just kill Windows Explorer, ergo to get rid of Windows Aero. Just making a basic .BAT file for that worked very well, but then I'd get the same problem with Quake and it would only help partially, the colors would get up messed up eventually. For Fallout Tactics, I found that to make it launch, I would need to open the Task Manager and then kill the process RunDLL32, which for whatever reason would make it possible to start that game. One thing which has generally gotten better over the years is that a lot of old games have better methods for running on new machines, tricks and workarounds seem to be better documented now, and there's sometimes patches or even ports which solve a lot of this. Not for everything though.
Bro you are missing out by not playing the Xbox game. Amazing story and the gameplay is damn good. It’s worth the cloud, trust me. As far as pc ports? I doubt it. This, digital anvil games and most of MS pc games are vaulted. The only survivors from this era is age of empires and flight simulator and they’re not developed in-house. The only reason Jordan weissman got to make shadowrun and mech warrior is due to licensing issues with those two ips. Crimson skies shouldn’t be hard to bring back since MS owns the entire rights, unlike the lore/design rights that make the former two ips difficult to bring back. Great video though. Lamplighters seems intriguing, I hope this series is brought back.
I live in China and can't use the Xbox Cloud thingy, even if I went through a VPN it would be horrible. My experience with cloud gaming has always been pretty bad other than for slower games (Tb etc.)
We are not worthy. More than two hours of classic adventure goodness.
Looking at popularity of War Thunder's arcade mode, this game would have been so good in this day with it's heart of gold. Crimson Skies is a perfect example on how to showcase a fictional setting. And then disappear in obscurity. It deserved to be big like World of Warcraft.
Did you know the setting of this is from the same creators as BattleTech / MechWarrior?
@@DigitalFulcrum Early builds of this game had Fortune Hunters planes in Red Skull Legion markings, but the final version lacks the Red Skull Legion squadron despite a Fairchild F611 Brigand in RSL marking appearing as the face of the game's box-art.
This seems like a game I would've loved as a kid.
You'd probably love it today.
try it and u WILL love it... :P
It was a great game. Very unique.
I remember playing it in multiplayer on some lan parties back then. We had a blast with it.
@@seagulTajin Early builds of this game had Fortune Hunters planes in Red Skull Legion markings, but the final version lacks the Red Skull Legion squadron despite a Fairchild F611 Brigand in RSL marking appearing as the face of the game's box-art.
Mama Mia we eating good tonight
Thank you for making the video I loved playing Crimson Skies when I was a teenager.
Me too :D
@@MrEdders123 Early builds of this game had Fortune Hunters planes in Red Skull Legion markings, but the final version lacks the Red Skull Legion squadron despite a Fairchild F611 Brigand in RSL marking appearing as the face of the game's box-art.
What a blast from the past - thanks for covering this in such detail. I had no idea about the table top game despite having spent tons of hours playing this game as a kid.
I loved this game. Freelancer and Crimson Skies were on permanent replay for me
still play Freelancer with HD mod! It's so f«in good! To bad we dont have a mod for crimson skies for HD gameplay
@@azorean88 Early builds of this game had Fortune Hunters planes in Red Skull Legion markings, but the final version lacks the Red Skull Legion squadron despite a Fairchild F611 Brigand in RSL marking appearing as the face of the game's box-art.
Love this analysis! The 1930s (ish) pulp genre has been the subject for a lot of my film-history research recently, so it's always great to see my favorite channels covering media in this vein too! Also, it's ALWAYS great to hear people mentioning The Rocketeer!🙌👊 Thank you for the hard work that you obviously put into this!
Rocketeer is great, I forgot to recommend it at the end. Could've been a fantastic franchise if it weren't for the box office. Nice to see the comics brought back. I legitimately thought Rocketeer was actually written in the 50s or something until this video 🤭
@@MrEdders123 I absolutely agree! It's a great premise to build a world around! You might be surprised at how common that belief actually is...the comics did a great job of emulating that era and style. I really hope Crimson Skies AND The Rocketeer get revivals!
@@disneymagicfanatic Early builds of this game had Fortune Hunters planes in Red Skull Legion markings, but the final version lacks the Red Skull Legion squadron despite a Fairchild F611 Brigand in RSL marking appearing as the face of the game's box-art.
Outstanding review, as always. I'm always amazed at the detail you go into with these retrospectives. Once your Torment review comes out, I can die a happy man!
Holy hell, I literally _just_ finished reading an old review of this game!
Also, hell yeah, a new retrospective! And on something I'm directly interested in, too! As far as I know, I believe you pronounced Weisman just fine, by the way.
He actually pronounces it as "Wisemann", at least in the clip I checked for reference. I prefer my way 😁
Dear Lord, this needs a reboot if anything old ever did. The lore from the boardgame/rpg by FASA was alternate pulpy era gold.
Very much agreed
Thanks for shedding a light on this beloved gem. I'm a little late to the party, but I gotta say, that Crimson Skies is still my favorite story driven flight-sim/arcade-game out there. There has never been a game like it and it's just such a shame. They got everything right down to the detail: the plane-design (which is of course fictional, but inspired by real plane designs of the era, which makes it feel authentic), the plane editor, the perfectly romantic "swashbucklers of the skies"-story, the map design, the stunts including the auto-screenshots, the overall 1930s ambience and immersion of the game, I could go on and on - in short: I love this game. It's just a masterpiece of a better time. Crimson Skies not only deserves a remake but also a sequel, which both should be based on the original game (not HRtR) and further expand on its vibe, features and storylines with modern day technology - and without any stupid modern day business-policy-bs like micro transactions etc.
Unfortunately sim-ish games are probably the most prone to microtransactions, with new ship/train/plane/tank models for dads with disposable income 😂
@@MrEdders123 I know man, that's why I'm asking for it to stop! :D
Teenagers should be able to fall in love with these games and to afford them with their hard earned (pocket-)money! I had such a blast playing Crimson Skies as a teen (and admittedly, thanks to you, till 3am in the morning today :D).
I've also been playing the original IL2 back in the day and just recently wanted to check out the newer Battle of Stalingrad, but it's just ridiculously overpriced. As you said, they charge a steep price for almost every vehicle, which is just a shame. "Wings over Flanders Fields: Between Heaven and Hell 2" is pretty much the only full flight-sim package game I could find nowadays. It's a WWI themed game and the attention to detail is insane - unfortunately it runs on the ancient engine of CFS 3.
So yeah: time for a Crimson Skies full comeback!
This was awesome, thank you for covering this. As one of those people working on a spiritual successor to Crimson Skies, it was great to see this game covered in such depth, and with such charm and humor.
Feel free to link your project, I'm sure people reading the comments will be interested :)
Holy shit, the nostalgia hits hard hearing those voice lines at the beginning...
Honestly this is one of the few games that really should be remade for modern systems imo. Felt awesome playing this back in the day!
Holy shit, it's awesome to find that one of my fave TH-camrs is also well versed in pre/post WWI histories. I've been an avid student this particular era myself for a couple of years now, so hearing the nuances of the Russian civil war casually referenced in my sleepytime listen is wild! You made my 3am!
I just read the newsreel descriptions on the National Archives tbh 😂
@@MrEdders123 good enough! I appreciated two niche interests in one place!
@@MrEdders123 According to a game design document of the PC game and the trailer of the game, the 1999 pre-alpha and E3 2000 alpha build of the game would have more elements borrowed from the original 1998 board game than what was shown in the somewhat unpolished state of the final build:
Fortune Hunters planes had Red Skull Legion (that later appeared in High Road Revenge as an actual pirate gang and one of the rival pirate gangs Fortune Hunters encountered) markings as placeholders (Fortune Hunters markings were created before July 2000 pre-beta build).
Blake Aviation Security and Hughes Aviation planes have Boeing Aviation markings as placeholders (Blake Aviation Security markings were created before July 2000 pre-beta build).
Studio Security planes had Nation of Hollywood markings as placeholders (Studio Security markings were created before July 2000 pre-beta build).
Hollywood Knights Firebrand had some different color schemes and was much closer to the board game, and at one point there were going to have more different Hollywood Knights planes (such as Bloodhawk) as well as more different Black Swan planes (such as Kestrels and the scrapped Ravens).
Pandora (Fortune Hunters' zeppelin) was originally named "Klondike".
The voices are completely different and were placeholders.
Firing guns and missiles were originally going to be multiple and automatic.
Originally, you can command your wingmen.
Originally, you can upload custom insignias to your customized planes.
Originally, there are additional planes such as the Raven and Avenger, and a Grand Canyon level.
Initially, the focus of the game was going to be on the Red Skull Legion and their ruthless fascist agenda. However, the developers soon realized that such a setting would not be compelling or interesting to many players, so they decided to scrap the idea and go with something a bit more nuanced and appealing, which eventually led to the creation of the Fortune Hunters faction. While the development team did use the Red Skull Legion's plane assets as a temporary placeholder in the early build, it was always their intention to eventually develop a new faction that would better suit the game's overall story and tone.
The textures for planes in the early version of the game were more realistic (and much closer to their pre-rendered look seen in pre-rendered cutscenes in the final as well as the planes' photos in the board game) than those in the final. This was simply a matter of development time and resources. Realism is a desirable trait in any game or other visual media, but it's also something that requires a great deal of time and effort to achieve. So in this case, the developers had to choose between spending more time on making the textures more realistic or working on other areas of the game. They ultimately decided to focus on the latter, resulting in less detailed textures but more time available to polish and refine other aspects of the game.
@@reigd According to a game design document of the PC game and the trailer of the game, the 1999 pre-alpha and E3 2000 alpha build of the game would have more elements borrowed from the original 1998 board game than what was shown in the somewhat unpolished state of the final build:
Fortune Hunters planes had Red Skull Legion (that later appeared in High Road Revenge as an actual pirate gang and one of the rival pirate gangs Fortune Hunters encountered) markings as placeholders (Fortune Hunters markings were created before July 2000 pre-beta build).
Blake Aviation Security and Hughes Aviation planes have Boeing Aviation markings as placeholders (Blake Aviation Security markings were created before July 2000 pre-beta build).
Studio Security planes had Nation of Hollywood markings as placeholders (Studio Security markings were created before July 2000 pre-beta build).
Hollywood Knights Firebrand had some different color schemes and was much closer to the board game, and at one point there were going to have more different Hollywood Knights planes (such as Bloodhawk) as well as more different Black Swan planes (such as Kestrels and the scrapped Ravens).
Pandora (Fortune Hunters' zeppelin) was originally named "Klondike".
The voices are completely different and were placeholders.
Firing guns and missiles were originally going to be multiple and automatic.
Originally, you can command your wingmen.
Originally, you can upload custom insignias to your customized planes.
Originally, there are additional planes such as the Raven and Avenger, and a Grand Canyon level.
Initially, the focus of the game was going to be on the Red Skull Legion and their ruthless fascist agenda. However, the developers soon realized that such a setting would not be compelling or interesting to many players, so they decided to scrap the idea and go with something a bit more nuanced and appealing, which eventually led to the creation of the Fortune Hunters faction. While the development team did use the Red Skull Legion's plane assets as a temporary placeholder in the early build, it was always their intention to eventually develop a new faction that would better suit the game's overall story and tone.
The textures for planes in the early version of the game were more realistic (and much closer to their pre-rendered look seen in pre-rendered cutscenes in the final as well as the planes' photos in the board game) than those in the final. This was simply a matter of development time and resources. Realism is a desirable trait in any game or other visual media, but it's also something that requires a great deal of time and effort to achieve. So in this case, the developers had to choose between spending more time on making the textures more realistic or working on other areas of the game. They ultimately decided to focus on the latter, resulting in less detailed textures but more time available to polish and refine other aspects of the game.
I never had an issue with the game's choice to mention Imperial Japan or Nazi Germany. Then again, I always associated this game's timeframe with that of The Rocketeer movie.
Thank you for making a video on one of my favorite games from my youth!
One of my favourite things is when developers take a game engine and get it to do things it was never built for. This game and Interstate 76 both share the honour of having been jammed into a lurching walking robot simulator engine, both times resulting in excellent games that simultaneously feel like they will fall apart at any time.
That motif at 1:15 is soooo close to Monster Hunter’s Proof of a Hero which is wild because this game predates MH1 by a few years
Maybe it's the same world :D
Proof of a Hero itself is basically the Original Superman movie thene
Never played the XBox sequel, but I absolutely loved the original on PC. Perfectly encapsulated the pulpy action serials from yesteryear. Always hoped the series would make a comeback at some point. Great video!
You have become my favorite youtuber in such a small amount of time
😁
@@MrEdders123 Early builds of this game had Fortune Hunters planes in Red Skull Legion markings, but the final version lacks the Red Skull Legion squadron despite a Fairchild F611 Brigand in RSL marking appearing as the face of the game's box-art.
I was just running out of 2-hour long analysis of retro game I have never heard of to help me sleep thanks
randomly searched crimson skies retrospective, and one came out one day ago. what are the odds.
I just love those cool plane designs. Very reminiscent of Prototype aircraft.
I kept forgetting there was more than one Crimson Skies game. A great video as always, can't wait for the next one!
Oh yes, there had been. I always regretted that it just came out for Consoles .after the first title I really was thrilled when the GAMESTAR quoted an official from the Computer Game Convention that there was a change for a farther PC game version. But it did not happened
Awesome video! I became interested in Crimson Skies after hearing Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and along with seeing a playthrough of the game, this was so much fun to watch! I hope it get to play the game eventually. Keep up the great work! (Also serves as great motivation to work on my own aviation pulp adventure project!)
It's difficult for me to imagine that people ever took Edge magazine seriously btw.
Edge were one of the earliest gaming magazines to take themselves too seriously.
Before 24/7 videogame coverage we took what we could get!
I would think reading between the lines is what people came to them for, there is plenty of reviewers I watch where they hate games I love, but I understand that they will not like something I like so I will look for it. Example: If people on Amazon complain about a history book being too detailed and too long, like Glantz Barbarossa Derailed I know I will love it.
@@handlesrstupid123 It's more that Edge was so smug and self-important about it. Their review of Doom is legendary for how pretentious it is.
@@0neDoomedSpaceMarine one could say they were edgy hahahaa
I was way too young to play this while it was new (and my PC probably would not be able to run it anyway..) which is a shame, because it looks incredibly fun! Never heard about this game before.
Another great vid, brother. You truly are a master of obscure video game reviews! Cheers ;)
You could try High Road to Revenge on GamePass cloud or something, depending on where you live. Xbox games probably had pretty bad latency in the first place 😁
A new MrEdders video? My Sunday evening is complete.
You probably already know this but if someone doesn't, HOTAS stands for "Hands on Throttle and Stick" and is a more optimal way to fly because the pilot doesn't need to take their hands off the controls to flip switches, setup the aircraft, etc. they can keep their focus on what's going on around them. Anyway it's super depressing how many games are getting lost to time, especially now with so many games have no end of life plan and requiring an internet/server connection. It sucks that in 15-20 years someone won't be able to play a game they loved with their kids, or just go back relive memories, and enjoy themselves.
That's what I said tho 🤔
Impressive insightful review. Thank you so much for sharing. Subscribed.
A game I probably would have played, but I never got around to because I was key deep in SC/BW at that time. Alright, time to watch the video, bunch of thanks for your work.
man I loved this game, amazing review
Arcade action flight sim as a pirate in the skies? Instant buy!
If only you could still buy it today 🥲
@@MrEdders123 There are still CD cases avaiable on Amazon and Ebay. Bought one earlier today on Amazon.
There are also very reliable downloads. @@DarkRaptor86
Really appreciate your review. Well structured and executed . Great stuff !🛩
Thanks 😀
I absolutely played the shit out of a demo of this game when I was a kid. One of my pending assignments.
Yay, more in-depth video game lore! I find it interesting that in the alternate history storytelling, my favourite tales are both arcade flight sims - Crimson Skies and Ace Combat. Sadly, histories of both are disappearing, with CS for the issues stated. And though AC continues strong, its almost Metal-Gear-esque geopolitical war tale is spread across four generations of Sony hardware without any re-releases (and good luck emulating the PS3 ones).
Yeah I read some complaints about that. Have you tried Project Wingman?
@@MrEdders123 Not yet, but I have it in my (endless) backlog. Delighted to have more of these kinds of games. I'm hopeful the success of the new Top Gun creates a resurgence in the genre and we get even more non-space-based stuff.
23 YEARS AND COUNTING.
Haha it can't have been that long...how old would that make me 😨
@@MrEdders123 That would make all of us young at heart.
Thank you Mr Edders for reminding me of this sleeper hit. I remember playing this back in the day, it came out of nowhere and it was fun and original. It reminded me of Dan Dare and such art.
I just finished this game today for the first time after it proved much too difficult for me at the time of its release. Your video is fascinating and I learned much about the game I never knew, thank you.
Really wish I had known you could shoot out the Egyptian archway in the Hollywood stage, that would have saved me some grief.
Lol that's why I showed it in the video, I'd forgotten you could do that 😆
I only played the demo version back in 2000, but I do remember that Crimson Skies was highly praised in the Finnish Pelit magazine (95%).
I cited Pelit last video, wouldn't want to be accused of Suomicentrism 🧔
"Killed by a pair of massive metal mammaries" I can only hope that will be on my gravestone.
god i love over hour long retrospectives
I love these cozy reviews
I still have Crimson Skies! Whooo!
I love the 1930's atmosphere, I wish more games took advantage of it. Anyway incredible job on the review, so much information!
1:00:5 what did he mean by that? Surely extra modes with the fun you've had/builds you've found are a reason to play in multiplayer.
This game represents a core memory of my childhood.
I still remember lines from the German dub.
I really miss the online Crimson Skies. So many battles, so many friends.
I think this the first game you have covered that I remember playing as a kid. I remember being very bad at it...
Probably the barnstorming parts 😁
Jesus christ the 1:48:30 ~ Sprite of the dude behind you actually unsettled me. 10/10
Great Video as always! On the topic of similar titles: The PS2 title Secret Weapons Over Normandy by Lucasarts was one of my all time favourite flight sim games. very similar in style to Crimson Skies. not sure if it ever got a PC port though....
It appears to be backwards compatible on Xbox - www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/secret-weapons-over-normandy/9p3l7zqdfjs5
Just recently watched castle in the sky and that movie reminded me of this game back on og Xbox days and my first interaction into dog fighting games too when I was a kid
I remember the Xbox had quite a few vehicle/air combat games - I vaguely remember playing a whole bunch on demo discs. Actions games seemed to switch to FPS after Halo though.
Interestingly enough, the whole abortive Crimson Skies franchise shares all imaginable DNA with BattleTech and its many computer renditions through creator Jordan Weisman. This shows in the similarities between Crimson Skies tabletop and the AeroSpace rules of BattleTech that describe air/spacecraft in the rules context.
Yeah, I was researching the Virtual Worlds era and they made a number of references to the aerial BattleTech rules - not directly in reference to the Corsairs prototypes, but I'm sure they were an influence at that stage.
They also share a lot of design DNA with the Renegade Legion: Interceptor TT rules, which I would argue was FASA's best attempt at a dogfighting game on the tabletop.
Does anyone know where I can listen to the entire "Crimson Skies Action Theater"? I only found a partial archive.
I had a look at my files but I can only find the one I used in the video. I definitely downloaded others but I may have deleted them...best bet is to ask in the Crimson Skies discord, some of the old fansite owners might see it.
I love Crimson Skies so much. It's probably one of the most underrated games ever.
I miss the crimson skies tabletop games
Awww sheit! The best flightsim!
in a world of rizz and skibidi toilet this is a light in the dark man
great video
I've seen every ep of skibidi toilet
I love your content so much
Hey that's one of my old usernames lol
2:05:13 as much as it sounds wierd, but closest i can think is Ace Combat. It is nowhere close in story telling style, resorting more for a high tech high power "fantasy". But as dogfighting game with daring maneuvers that exactly the game i can think which fit the description of arcadey flight action. But more of a bombastic hollywood top-gun rather than SwingJazz.
I remember the “bounce”
But I also recall what I called the “swoop”
Where you’d be pulling up when heading towards something solid like a cliff or land surface and just when you thought you’d clip it the aircraft would kinda “swoop” just enough to allow you to avoid it entirely, only by a hair but you’d avoiding clipping anything solid
The bounce was literally a bounce though
Love this game! I thankfully had a second hand control stick from playing Mechwarrior that my dad lent me, It was super smooth to play and get used to. The Xbox game was also super fun, any time friends were over we'd play 4 player deathmatch. The only thing I didn't care for was that it had way less planes and you couldn't customize them the same way, which was a major let down.
Also 1:08:32 , the Blackhats are my favourite bits in this game, I'm glad you got that in there XD
If I had to suggest adjacent games, the Rogue Squadron series is fantastic, including Battle for Naboo.
Shame it's tough to play these days, looks to be good fun. Admittedly it's also something I'd expect to have had a Wii revival/spin off in 2009
I loved this game so much. I can remember beating the campaign and then playing daily online on the original xbox. so much fun.
You should cover Divine Divinty... or the F-uped Development of Legacy of Kain ... and later its sequel Soul Reaver , that was a dev hell game... or Vampire Masquerade Blood Lines, and how Valve sabotaged the game, to not be the first product on the Source engine , since they wanted HL2 to be the first on it ... or Troikas another endeavour Arcanum ...
Soul Reaver is already quite well-covered but I am considering doing a video on the original BO one day. Bloodlines, from how I understand it, is more due to Activision's demands rather than Valve's - Valve didn't prevent them from continuing to work on the game in the meantime, but Activision essentially "froze" the game's development until release.
Il love CRIMSON SKIES - also recommandable the free novels to the games.
8:09 Similar positive vibes in the professional German Gamer Magazines like DIE GAMESTAR with 84%" GREAT STORYLINE PUT INTO A MOTIVATING ACTION-SIMULATION GAME "
Fun Tact. The critics there even found a fllyer logo in the game resembling the German LUFTHANSA airline 7:09 Personaly, I would like to see an actual come back or at least a remake of the classical PC game - to me it had been fun and enjoyment.
Even though the game is not very violent in general, there is this one instant towards the end of the campaign where you actually shoot at people. Its in a mission where you attack a warehouse and there are some very tiny people with guns shooting at your plane. They are very hard to see as they are just 3 little 2D figures. But if you hit them they fall over like they actually die.
I'm sure they just "fell over" 😇 According to the 1999 design document, you were supposed to see British soldiers firing at you in that early airfield/base mission, who could be gunned down in plain sight. I'm guessing it was removed for the ratings, or possibly for fear of backlash in the UK.
@@MrEdders123 I think it's also just an oversight. They are very hard to spot. Near impossible if you play at a low resolution.
These fighter planes feel as slow as the Polikarpov Po-2 a.k.a. the Kukuruznik. Interstate 76 had the same problem. The physics engine felt slooow and never conveyed the power of muscle cars.
I found that I liked the Fury plane the best for that reason, put a nice engine in it which can do a bit of nitro, and you've got a fast plane which can go even faster if needed, but it's not too flimsy, and it can carry a decent bit of armor and ordnance.
There's lots of times when there's great benefit to going slow though, for instance to really thread the needle on some dangerous stunts, or to maximize the amount of time you have with your guns straight on certain targets (which can admittedly leave you wide open, if you're not careful).
The planes are actually moving quite sluggishly (although keep in mind in a lot of my footage the throttle is set very low, and some of the footage is from when the game is running too slow). Weisman said that they way they hid this was to use visual and audio cues (wind rushing past etc.) to fake the effect of moving fast. It's a technique that's still used today (horse riding in many modern games).
The setting's also pre-WW2, which likely won't be happening in this alt-timeline anyway. While aviation tech is ahead of the real world 1930s it's still not up to what you'd expect from 1940s developments under the pressure of the World War. So, kinda clunky seems okay, lore-wise.
Not like most of those airframes could actually fly anyhow. :)
@@richmcgee434 I think WW2 would be an inevitability, Hitler or not, Germany was going to rearm and go to war again, and getting back at France (particularly for the Treaty Of Versailles) was a big part of that.
It may be a very different WW2, on a different scale (America, no longer being the US, would probably not be a fraction of the factor), but Europe was just not going to be calm in the 1930s and 1940s, and neither was East Asia. One can only imagine what the Japanese Empire would be getting up to in that kind of timeline.
@@0neDoomedSpaceMarine It wouldn't be recognizable as WW2. Without the US as a looming background figure the Germans (Nazi or otherwise) and Japan would have little reason to ally even in name, and Japan 's situation would be a mess. They went to war with the US largely because we cut them off from vital supplies of steel and oil that they had been buying from us, but with a shattered North America divided between many small polities those masses of cheap resources wouldn't have been available in the first place. That would have slowed their own military buildup enormously, maybe even preventing their assault on Manchuria (arguably the real start of WW2) altogether.
The lack of a Washington Naval Treaty would have also let everyone do as they pleased while building their fleet. Japan might ironically feel less pressure - no US to face off against means they just need to deal with British naval assets, and after drubbing the Russians at Tsushima they might feel overconfident about how easy European powers would be to beat on their own home turf. Neither France nor Britain would be able to stand without US lend-leases, and most likely Russia collapses as well, but that assumes the Western Allies remain as ill-prepared for war with Germany as they did historically despite knowing there's no US to help them - which seems unlikely.
Hell, you might very well see the UK and Germany (again, whether Nazi or not) ally to dismember France and then Russia in this scenario. And if Hitler is in play, parts of the US would likely ally with Germany as well - we had plenty of sympathizers right up until Pearl Harbor saw the German-American Bund scurrying for cover.
The lack of the unified powerhouse of US industry would be as impactful as the lack of a single military, maybe more so. Whatever war or wars did evolve out of this timeline, they'd likely be smaller in scope and less destructive overall, but even more widespread and chaotic than in the real world. Certainly be extensive fighting in North America, if nothing else.
High quality, excellent content, hope you get subscribers
Uhh nice topic. it was a good idea to subscribe a day ago. I am getting into alternative aviation scenarios and this is franchise seems to be a good inspiration. Somehow I never heard of this game. Strange. I guess I was blind since I wanted more x-wing games.
Bill Morrison, who worked on X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, was actually brought in as Design Lead on High Road to Revenge halfway through development.
Great job, thanks, enjoyed watching it! I'm sure you can help me: I can't find information about the actor who played Nathan in the PC-version. Not the voice, but the appearance. Who is this actor?
Unfortunately (from memory) I don't think I ever found out who the specific VAs were - I think I found their names listed, but not who played which character. I even emailed a couple but got no reply. edit: I remember there was a lot of confusion as well because some sites just list the Xbox VA credits for this game
I absolutely loved the tabletop game this video game was based on. Sadly, I found the video game to be very frustrating. There was a mission, not that far in that completely stumped me. I must have flown it two or three dozen times and never come close to succeeding. So, I tracked down a "cheat" guide to figure out how to finally get past it, and the guide basically said, "you have to do really well to beat the mission." Oh. I'd never thought of that. Anyway, I never played it again. Admittedly, I was only ever a video game amateur & not the type to play a game obsessively.
I'm guessing it was one of the Hollywood missions, though the moored Zeppelin mission can also be frustrating because the Bloodhawks that spawn next to the Pandora can take it down too fast. I forgot to mention in the video that there's a fair amount of randomization to the difficulty level of some levels based on how well your wingmen or enemies perform.
I only ever played the demo of the first game in the early 00s, but never got the full game. Watching this video I can say that I would have liked it.
It's a really good game. I got it as a freebie with a new computer as a kid (together with Midtown Madness 2), and I thought it was cool as hell. It's got exciting action, an interesting story and setting, and it really helped reinforce my fascination for old militaria in my youth.
I sure wish I could play this game again on Windows 10+ 64 bit
Yep, it's a shame there are so many hoops to make it compatibe with modern OS. Could try the Xbox sequel if it's available on Gamepass or whatever the Xbox streaming thing is in your country, though that's even more arcadey.
Strangely what bothered me the most about this game was the Hollywood sign.
The game's supposed to be set in the (alternative) 1930s but the sign says "Hollywood" instead of "Hollywoodland".
I think I read a quote regarding the Hollywood thing from the tabletop game, but I can't find it now...
@@MrEdders123 Wasn't there something about the last four letters ("LAND") having been destroyed by a crashing plane or bombing or something? Could swear it was addressed somewhere, and I only played the TT game. Maybe in the Spicy Air Tales fiction?.
Jokes on you, I listen to you AND do something productive at the same time!
This game fueled my imagination back then like Bullfrogs Syndicate had.
Very fond memories.
I loved Bullfrog so much, and I still miss them.
Man, I miss crimson skies. I only played the xbox version and never knew about the pc version so I feel a little robbed but at the same time the game was phenomenal and arguably reinforced my love for flying.
If you want more flight based games heres a list of my recommendations:
-Ace Combat
-Project Wingman
-DCS (if you have the money, time and willingness to learn)
-War Thunder
I wish there were more I could recommend but these are some of the tightest controlling games I've ever played.
Crimson Skies is perfect for a reboot/remake. Integrate the High Road to Revenge gameplay and hub world to it. Expand the character and story so each story arc is longer. Many people has fond memory of Crimson Skies being one of the first with Xbox live integration. So remaking the prequel that not many people had play might spark some more interest than a port.
I played High Road to Revenge demo at Walmart. Never had an XBox till 360, but I managed to get the PC game in a jewel case from a bargain bin thinking it was the same as the console game. I was a little disappointed, but I still had fun.
Glad you made this movie, quite an underrated game in the last stages of microsoft pc golden era, reminds me of stuff like interstate 76, lots of soul and great gameplay. I think a way more fascinating attempt at arcade air combat than ace combat.
Thanks! Yeah it was compared to I76 by the devs and reviewers
@@MrEdders123 You should do a vid on Interstate 76. Few games have a dedicated poem button.
I remember watching my brother play this game and it was one of the first games I ever played on the Xbox that's where I learned how to play video games also I find it funny that they literally have national Bolshevik gang as a faction that would have been a really fun thing to put in the game a campaign mode we get to control one of these crazy ideologies
Yeah it would've been nice to have a more customizable/RPG-like Crimson Skies game. That was sort of what they were going for with the multiplayer (in their design doc), the idea that players would segregate into different gangs/nations from the tabletop setting.
It is so wild that people thought about Flight Sims so much. Every three words in this review is "flight sim." Jesus christ, what was up with people in the 1990s and flight sims?!
anyway another outstanding video!
I don't about everyone else, but for me it was Freespace. Man, I loved those games back in the day.
Target audience. They were after the 'dad money'. Computers were expensive and no affluent middle-aged man was going to admit to playing games. But learning a simulation was seen as more mature.
On the subject of less complex and more accessible flight sim games, ever play G-Police? That was another cool one.
I did! Loved it but it was insanely hard. I played the second one a couple of years ago on an emulator.
@@MrEdders123 I had it on PC back in the day, when I found it on PSN (PS3) many years later, it was not quite the same because the Playstation port gimps your view distance SO hard.
While I agree that in the PC game itself a lot of the crew doesn't get a lot of development, but after reading all the supplemental material, you realize a lot is going on in the background while you play the PC game. Like my favorite right now is Rogue Flyer, a side adventure taken by a Blake Aviation pilot and Betty Brooklyn, the "spunky" but new pilot from the Fortune Hunters.
I think Betty is in High Road to Revenge, though a lot of the other crewmembers are cut.
@@MrEdders123 Also true, I personally didn't like the direction they went with High Road to Revenge, especially technology wise. What with giant mech worms, crazy Tesla tech, and Zeppelins that eat other zeppelins.
@@green11ndy Yeah, I saw that. At least it gives me something to complain about if I ever do a video :D
well met, again... this time not in discord... :D
This and High Road to Revenge are two of my favorite games of all time. High Road especially occupied me for so very many hours over many years. I'd play it now if I still had a functional XBOX. I could play it over and over again-so fun!
You can play it on Xbox Game Pass I believe (depends on internet and such). Not sure whether modern Xboxes can play retail copies...
@@MrEdders123 Cool, I'll look into that. Thanks.
"instead of doing something productive"
HAHA! but i did something productive! I used your videos as background aid while painting minis!!!
Seriously though this is a good video and i practically paused to tell my thoughts along the way..... Well talking to myself anyway but hey as long as i am still functional it's a win
Can you do front mission series and mechwarrior 2-4 ?
They're not really my area of expertise, I might cover Mechcommander one day though :)
This would make for a good movie or a TV show
I feel like LOD and draw distance are always sacrificed on the altar of increased visually fidelity. Some games worse than others of course, but I still remember being put off an otherwise impressive Skyrim back in the day because the draw distance was so pathetic and immersion breaking. Same with No Mans Sky.
I hope some day this will be a non issue, but often seems like the first thing developers tweak when they need to increase performance at last minute before release.
Maybe nanite or whatever that new Unreal Engine feature is called will solve this
I'm honestly surprised they haven't tried to reboot this game. Sure it's niche, but an open world style crimson skies game would be a perfect project for a AA studio.
Yeah arcade flight sims don't seem as big as they were in the 90s and early 00s. I remember there were always one or two on the demo discs for PC and original Xbox magazines.
@MrEdders123 ace combat does really well, we've seen a recent resurgence in the mech warrior games on Xbox. Maybe there's a crimson skies reboot or spiritual successor in the works?
Babe! New MrEdders video dropped!!
Literally just yelled that to my gf. She threw some popcorn in the microwave
Ah, I loved this game!
yeah, the bridge was a pure nightmare to fly tru...
countless deaths endangered my joystick to be smashed against the wall... the only thing that kept me from it was that i couldn't afford another one... 🤣
oh, multiplayer... pilot's life measured in seconds...
in my case, at least... 😋
but i met some rly fine flyers back in the times...
some of them don't even live anymore... may their skies always be clear... [*]
This one always intrigued me back when it came out but being young my budget was a bit tight, and I was a 4X/Civ/Panzer General/Starcraft type of gamer, so a 3D accelerator wasn't in the budget and I never liked flight sims, so even though it's not a sim it was close enough for me to not spend the 50 bucks or so plus whatever inevitable upgrades I'd need to my rig, which was a Pentium II. Think I'll go buy it right after I watch the video since it can probably be had for a pittance from GoG (I go to Steam if I must but I like what GoG srarted).
It's not on GoG, only retail copies or "abandonware" sites. 😶🌫
Ik I'm an old commentor, but regarding old games run at 3x speeds, try disabling all you're CPU's logical cores except 1-2 in the windows process manager by right clicking on the game's .exe and navigation to the affinity option
Thanks for the tip, you never know which methods will work for individual 'puters :)
@@MrEdders123 Things like that can always vary.
I remember in the Windows 7 days, there was a lot of things which may or may not work, and it'd depend on your machine and OS.
For instance, getting good old Diablo to run on Windows 7 without the colors getting screwed up typically required you to just kill Windows Explorer, ergo to get rid of Windows Aero. Just making a basic .BAT file for that worked very well, but then I'd get the same problem with Quake and it would only help partially, the colors would get up messed up eventually.
For Fallout Tactics, I found that to make it launch, I would need to open the Task Manager and then kill the process RunDLL32, which for whatever reason would make it possible to start that game.
One thing which has generally gotten better over the years is that a lot of old games have better methods for running on new machines, tricks and workarounds seem to be better documented now, and there's sometimes patches or even ports which solve a lot of this. Not for everything though.
Argentinian xtreme pc, great magazine! great memories
Bro you are missing out by not playing the Xbox game. Amazing story and the gameplay is damn good. It’s worth the cloud, trust me.
As far as pc ports? I doubt it. This, digital anvil games and most of MS pc games are vaulted. The only survivors from this era is age of empires and flight simulator and they’re not developed in-house. The only reason Jordan weissman got to make shadowrun and mech warrior is due to licensing issues with those two ips. Crimson skies shouldn’t be hard to bring back since MS owns the entire rights, unlike the lore/design rights that make the former two ips difficult to bring back.
Great video though. Lamplighters seems intriguing, I hope this series is brought back.
I live in China and can't use the Xbox Cloud thingy, even if I went through a VPN it would be horrible. My experience with cloud gaming has always been pretty bad other than for slower games (Tb etc.)
6:25 asserting dominace are you?
High Road to Revenge lacked everything that made the first game great.