SitRep + Battle of Britain: 303 Squadron review

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the hiatus in blog activity for the last couple of months, but we do have real lives to live. Perhaps it was not such a good idea to release all our videos in one hit during the holidays, to then be followed by a (relative) drought.

'Recent' Activity:

• Vincent has finished his Battle of Britain: 303 Squadron LP. (See review below)
• Gabbeh has not contributed anything :( ... yet.
• Seb has ended his Borderlands LP due to glitches.
• Seb has reached Ep. 9 of his Spore LP
• Seb has reached Ep. 2 of his Tau: Fire Warrior LP. (Awaiting review)
• Erin has reached Ep. 13 of his Crysis 2 LP. (See earlier post for review)
• Erin has reached Ep. 8 of his Magicka LP. (Awaiting review)
• Erin has begun a miscellaneous series of iPhone game videos (probably for schadenfreude purposes)
• The Minecraft SMP LP is probably still running, but with a completely new map due to server problems.
• Several unofficial 'Manburger' videos have been added. (Not a game)

Thank you for following this blog! Please spread the word.
~Vincent

Battle of Britain: 303 Squadron - Review

Battle of Britain: 303 Squadron is an aerial dogfighting game on Kongregate by ChannelFour. It is historically based (as far as my historical knowledge goes) on the real 303 Squadron in WWII during the Battle of Britain, with the names and events, although not exhaustive, historically accurate as well. Apart from the historicity, it is also a (relatively) good game in and of itself:

Pros:

• A good inclusion of the stalling mechanism for realism.
• A 'good' difficulty of enemies, which are difficult but open to exploitation, once you know the trick (so yes, you actually do need to brain out how to destroy a bomber with a turret, or throw a pilot off your tail).
• Very simple controls (Honestly, four keys?)
• A (relatively) good compromise for historicity and playability (historically, your wingmen didn't get owned every time, but they can't just do all the work for you).
• Very interesting cutscenes (in your own time).

Cons:

• This game is HORRIBLE if you have the slightest hint of lag or lack of control.
• NO CHECKPOINTS D:< screw a mission up and it's back to the beginning. Very annoying on the longer missions. Over 20 takes on a single mission.
• Unskippable dialogue. Annoyance factor is exacerbated when combined with the fact that you need to restart from the beginning of the mission.
• Very annoying script mechanisms (such as bombers spawning above the 50 000 ft mark, 'Leaving the mission area', AIs being chased to the 50 000 ft mark, and a potential bug in the first mission).

Overall, I'd give this game 7.5/10, with room to improve.

~Vincent