Condor flight sim

[nimbusgb]

I have purchased a copy of Condor and have been completely immersed in
it for a week. I am not generally a 'gamer'. Real life flying is more
my thing and the PC gaming environment just does not 'do it' for me.
This game is different however.

The flight model is excellent. Support for hardware is excellent.
Demands on the PC are fair but a good graphics card is a fair
requirement. The game will drive an Ipaq with SeeYou, Winpilot or other
software running so you can practice with your other 'toys'.

The terrain modelling is vector based not photo realistic but the feel
is excellent when screaming along a ridge a 50 feet. In photo realistic
scenery things look odd at low heights the 'feeling' in Condor when
scraping over a low ridge or tucking in close to the rocks is almost as
tense a real life. Out over the plains thermal flying is realistic, I
haven't managed to simulate a 5 or 6 8ths 'UK' type day. But I'm sure
the developers will ge that sorted shortly.

The interactive multiplay is good. I've been in a race or two with
midairs, chased others along ridgelines and last night, landed 3km
short on a long final glide. ( Some of you will know that thats about
where I usually start up the Turbo so the game is really true-to-life
:-) ) The weather modelling is good with wave developing in the lee of
the mountains, good ridge and thermals too. Aerotows are as challenging
as the real thing and a fully laden open class ship can be a real
handful in a cross wind takeoff.

There are one or two minor bugs - cables break too frequently but that
will be fixed in the next day or so. There is a LOT of sink around the
rim of thermals again this will be addressed in the patch expected in
the next few days.

Support is good, the developer team is involved with the discussion
forum. Updates are frequent, the user community is very active and the
user base is growing fast.

I highly reccommend Condor for simulation enthusiasts and novices
alike. The best =A334 pounds I have spent in a long while!

I have no commercial involvement with the product at all.

nimbusgb - Ian Molesworth

[Bill Gribble]

Sounds great. Is there a demo available?

nimbusgb > writes
>I have purchased a copy of Condor and have been completely immersed in
>it for a week. I am not generally a 'gamer'. Real life flying is more
>my thing and the PC gaming environment just does not 'do it' for me.
>This game is different however.
>
>The flight model is excellent. Support for hardware is excellent.
>Demands on the PC are fair but a good graphics card is a fair
>requirement. The game will drive an Ipaq with SeeYou, Winpilot or other
>software running so you can practice with your other 'toys'.
>>SNIP<<

--
Bill Gribble
http://www.scapegoatsanon.demon.co.uk
- Learn from the mistakes of others.
- You won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.

[Marian Aldenhövel]

Hi,

> Sounds great. Is there a demo available?

Unfortunately not.

http://forum.condorsoaring.com/viewtopic.php?t=11&highlight=demo

Ciao, MM
--
Marian Aldenhövel, Rosenhain 23, 53123 Bonn. +49 228 624013.
http://www.marian-aldenhoevel.de
"What did you expect to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney
Opera House perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest
sweeping majestically across the prairie!" Basil Fawlty

[Bill Gribble]

A real shame. Guess I'll try Silent Wings instead then.

Marian Aldenhövel > Writes
>Hi,
>
>> Sounds great. Is there a demo available?
>
>Unfortunately not.
>
> http://forum.condorsoaring.com/viewtopic.php?t=11&highlight=demo
>
>Ciao, MM

--
Bill Gribble
http://www.scapegoatsanon.demon.co.uk
- Learn from the mistakes of others.
- You won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.

[nimbusgb]

Bill Gribble wrote:
> A real shame. Guess I'll try Silent Wings instead then.
>
> Marian Aldenh=F6vel > Writes
> >Hi,
> >
> >> Sounds great. Is there a demo available?
> >
> >Unfortunately not.
> >
> > http://forum.condorsoaring.com/viewtopic.php?t=3D11&highlight=3Ddemo
> >
> >Ciao, MM
>
> --
> Bill Gribble
> http://www.scapegoatsanon.demon.co.uk
> - Learn from the mistakes of others.
> - You won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.

Bill and others,

I posted my feedback on Condor because there were comments about there
not being a demo available for the software. If anyone was considering
purchasing I would say that Condor is a much better bet than SW , but
thats my opinion and to each his own.

Windows doesn't come with a 'demo', neither do about 95% of the
packages in use today. I know its a bit of a pain but that's the state
of the market. Condor costs a few quid less than an Xbox or PS2 game
and very few people complain about the lack of demos of these games. My
son can happily devour console games after only a few comments from
mates in the school playground or a single TV ad.

Personally, as a paying customer, I'd like to see the Condor
development team staying focussed on reacting to the very active forum
requests and comments rather than putting out a demo so some skinflint
glider pilots can try to hack their work.

:-)

Ian

[Bill Gribble]

nimbusgb > writes
>Windows doesn't come with a 'demo', neither do about 95% of the
>packages in use today.

Sorry, but a comparison of Condor to Windows doesn't really fly ;)

As for 95% of the rest of the packages in use? Arguable, I suppose, in
such broad terms, but my gut instinct would be to disagree. An awful lot
of software products (both commercial and domestic, for that matter) are
supported by demo versions or some other method of direct evaluation
prior to purchase. If I were to go out on a limb I'd say it was more
than half.

More to the point, all the other gliding simulators, including the most
obvious direct and contemporary competitor, Silent Wings, have demo
versions available. Condor is the obvious exception. I know why they
chose to make themselves the exception in this case, but even in view of
their arguments I still maintain that it's a mistake on their part and
wish they'd reconsider.

> I know its a bit of a pain but that's the state of the market. Condor
>costs a few quid less than an Xbox or PS2 game and very few people
>complain about the lack of demos of these games. My son can happily
>devour console games after only a few comments from mates in the school
>playground or a single TV ad.

No. It's not the state of the market, and the only pain is that they'll
miss out on at least one potential sale, mine. In fact, in that their
particular niche of the market specifically makes demos available, they
are running against the state of the market.

In any case, most PC games have demos available, especially the more
obscure or specialist genres. As for Xbox, PS2 and the like, you are
comparing apples and eggs. The performance capabilities of my Xbox are
the same as your son's, or anybody else's, for that matter. Game
consoles are great levellers in that respect. Unlike PCs. I can read the
back of the game box and perhaps a review or two and have a fair idea
that I'm not going to waste my money on an Xbox game. The same can't be
said of a PC game, given the infinite variation of hardware capabilities
out there. One of my principle concerns with contemplating the purchase
of Condor would be with how it might run on my (now a little dated) rig.
The only way I can be sure is to try it. In the case of every gliding
simulator except for Condor I can try this before I spend hard cash.

Then, of course, there are all the other considerations that apply to
whether or not you actually get on with a product. For example, I
absolutely preferred the feel of SFSpc (and so purchased it) over SotS.
In the absence of a demo of each how would I have made that informed
choice?

>Personally, as a paying customer, I'd like to see the Condor
>development team staying focussed on reacting to the very active forum
>requests and comments rather than putting out a demo so some skinflint
>glider pilots can try to hack their work.

Personally, as a potential customer I have to say that in the absence of
a demo the Condor crew won't be selling me their simulator. If I'm in a
minority, good for them; they clearly made the right market decision in
not making a demo available. If I'm in a minority. Otherwise they're
loosing out on a significant share of what is, after all, a very
specialist and constrained market.

By the way, don't take this as a slight against your original post. I
did enjoy reading it and appreciated your sharing your feedback on the
sim. But I think their decision to not publish a demo is short-sighted
and
ill-advised.

Regards,


Bill

--
Bill Gribble
http://www.scapegoatsanon.demon.co.uk
- Learn from the mistakes of others.
- You won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.

[Marian Aldenhövel]

Hi,

> Windows doesn't come with a 'demo', neither do about 95% of the
> packages in use today.

I would say most of them do. Windows doesn't but that is not a fair
comparison as a) no-one buys Windows or tries to make an informed
choice as to what it's worth and b) what would you demo it on? There
_are_ time-limited preview-versions of Windows however, you could
call those demos (of future features).

Condors competition is available for evaluation. As is other soaring
related software like SeeYou and StrePla. Most PC games have demos, many
of them are even released ahead of the full product.

Of all the surviving flight simulators for PCs those from Microsoft
have long been the only ones that could not be evaluated beforehand.
Now joined by Condor.

> Condor costs a few quid less than an Xbox or PS2 game

It sure is not expensive but if it doesn't run on my machine even a
single Euro is too much. I have some custom hardware that needs to be
supported so I can enjoy a simulation and there is no way for me to
find out without a demo. The condor people told me it will work, but
how can _they_ tell?

All XBoxes are created equal, the hardware is well known, so showing
customers a video or screenshots tells them what they will be getting.
Not so for PCs. You don't even know whether the program will run at
all, and if it does what it feels like.

> Personally, as a paying customer, I'd like to see the Condor
> development team staying focussed on reacting to the very active forum
> requests and comments rather than putting out a demo so some skinflint
> glider pilots can try to hack their work.

It is going to be hacked anyway, that is a sad but nonetheless true fact.
So instead of installing a demo today and buying the program tomorrow
I will have to wait until something downloadable pops up.

I respect the decision made by the condor team, it's their baby. But I
think the decision is wrong. I further think that the reason given is
bogus. Creating a demo does not take more than a few hours at most to
be invested once. Propably the piracy issue is the real reason, but not
having a demo does not help.

Ciao, MM
--
Marian Aldenhövel, Rosenhain 23, 53123 Bonn. +49 228 624013.
http://www.marian-aldenhoevel.de
"What did you expect to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney
Opera House perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest
sweeping majestically across the prairie!" Basil Fawlty