I know, we said it would be The Thing! And it will be! Next time! We felt that it would be best to give people more time to acquire the game to play along, given that it isn’t an easy title to find at this point. In the meantime, we have Crimson Skies for the original Xbox, which came out of nowhere to grab our interest as a selection for Game Club.
The official description:
Crimson Skies®: High Road to Revenge™ combines thrilling aerial combat with the swashbuckling style of a Hollywood action-adventure movie. Set in an alternate 1930s world of gunship diplomacy and sinister intrigue, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge lets you pilot powerful aircraft against nefarious air pirates and behemoth war zeppelins.
And a trailer:
Why we chose it: Look at the trailer! Crimson Skies is a sleeper hit from the time when Xbox Live was just starting, and is frequently cited as under-appreciated gem. It’s also extremely easy to get a hold of, as you can find it on Xbox Live as an Xbox Original for 1200 points. You can also find it used for less, if you’re tenacious. For the first episode, play through Sea Haven, the first act, by Monday afternoon, and leave your comments and stories here. Sorry for the slightly late notice, but hopefully the easy availability helps somewhat. So get downloading. We’ll see you Monday.
awesome selection it’s on my pile of shame just staring at me. This finally gives me a reason to play it.
YEAH!! great game, and i already have it. This game has such comfortable flying and great level design, cant wait to get started!!! Woot! Look at all my flashy exclamation points!
So this isn’t the same as the CS PC game?
how long will this gameclub be because it looks like i am going to have to sit this one out
Shit yeah.
Having played through the game when it initially hit store shelves, it will be awesome to re-live the experience through other people’s eyes…cannot wait for the Podcasts.
Mandatory viewing for Game Club volume 8: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
I liked that movie. I suddenly feel like watching it again.
YES! This has been on my list for a while. I just traded a stop at Starbucks with my mom in exchange for a ride to a Gamestop that actually has it in stock. No ordering online for me this time!
Oh yeah! My copy of Crimson Skies is one of my most cherished trophies from the original xbox days. My roommates and I used to have 8-player system link dogfights all the time. I remember getting it as a bundle in with my original xbox live subscription instead of MechAssault.
I got Tetris Worlds with my starter kit, I obviously should have waited longer.
Wow, this came out of nowhere. I am just about to finish Half Life 2 Episode 2 tonight, so I didn’t even know what the next gameclub game would be. I’ll have to sit this one out, but that doesn’t make this podcast any less entertaining.
I also just finished Half-Life 2: Episode 2 today (listening to the final Game Club podcast right now), and it was actually my first time playing through the series (easily one of the best gaming experiences I’ve ever had). I’ll likewise be sitting this next one out (don’t own an Xbox), but I’m so amped up from Half-Life 2 (and about to start Portal) that it’s totally fine by me. To everyone else, enjoy!
I’m in the same boat. Well, I had played HL2 just a couple months before this gameclub, but it was my first time through. To be honest, it’s hard for me to see why people fawn over the story so much, but at the same time, after finishing Episode 2, I can’t wait for Episode 3, so maybe it hooked me right at the end.
I’m kind of glad that I’m skipping Crimson Skies, only because Dragon Age comes out next week and I see myself getting lost in that game for at least a month.
Its not the thing….. But damn this is a close second for “games I want to be in gameclub but never will be”!
Good Heli-Penis.
Awesome game, I already have this so will get cracking on Friday.
The PC Crimson Skies is the underappreciated gem. The Xbox Crimson Skies is the r-word.org stepbrother of it.
Sweet! Random story about Crimson Skies:
I picked up 8 copies of this game from EB when they had a deal where you’d get a free movie ticket (worth $11) with each used game purchase (averaged $3 each). At the time, I didn’t own an Xbox, so I gave away the copies I could. Later my soon-to-be wife won a 360 at a conference, but 2 years later I still haven’t played this other then to test that backwards compatibility worked.
So thanks! Now I have an excuse to bring this disk back out, and a bunch of friends to point to RFM.
I agree, the original PC Crimson Skies was awsome. I remember being pretty disappointed with the Xbox version.
I remember playing both of them. Extensively. I do not know why.
Dang. Dont have either xboxes so i suppose ill try and find the original for PC while you guys play this one. Seems people like it better anyway.
But cool. Game Club about any game, one that i’ve played or havent is always entertaining.
So is it available on PC or are we left out this time ? PS I still have my PC boxed copy of The Thing for PC, so set to go next round
This is the Xbox game. The PC version is different, less “arcadey” is what I believe I’ve heard.
Double true.
I didn’t know that Crimson Skies started as a board game.
Did anyone play it?
How about the Heroclix game or the novels?
The Crimson Skies franchise, when transitioning from the PC to the Xbox, went through a lot of the same changes as MechWarrior did when moving onto the Xbox as MechAssault. This doesn’t mean that either MechAssault or Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge are bad games, but they really disappointed the big fans of the original games on the PC.
Also, fans of the Crimson Skies franchise might note that the same company that is making the MechWarrior reboot (despite legal troubles), Smith and Tinker, also licensed the rights to the Crimson Skies and Shadowrun franchises (all of which are old FASA IPs) from Microsoft at the same time. Hopefully, a new Crimson Skies game will happen in the future, and I personally hope they build more off of the PC title than the Xbox one.
I tried the PC Crimson Skies back in the day, but that was an era in which my computer was a steaming heap of Hewlett Packard.
Eventually, I tried the Xbox game, loved it, and bought an Xbox to continue playing it. The 30′s serial-alternate-reality setting was enough to fondle my heart strings (aka “penis”).
Excellent choice for the Game Club.
PS: Is it just me, or does the new Tekken character Bob appear to be a fat, blond Anthony Gallegos?
YEAH…. I got my Classic Xbox just a Year ago for a very good price…. Crimson Skies came right with it, and i must say “I love it!” Looking forward to listen to the podcasts.
Either iTunes is really that slow or you forgot put it on iTunes?!?!
it’s not an actual episode, just an announcement about the game for gameclub
Ah, forgive my ignorance.
I had a demo of this game on an OXM disk back in the day, played the heck out of it, but never actually bought it. So I am looking forward to correcting that mistake.
I downloaded it as an xbox original from live, so fingers crossed their are no problems. My first impression on firing it up was mostly “DAMN! I haven’t played a flight game in a *really* long time!”
That pretty much sums up my experience with the game. Once people stopped playing the demo online I shelved it and just never got around to playing the full version.
Great choice, gang. This is one of those games I played briefly at a friends house, found stellar, but never played (I never owned an OG Xbox).
I’ll be renting this to play along amidst midterms and Halloween festivities.
Spooky zeppelin penis.
Oh good choice, I’ve always wanted to play this.
CS was a fun game, but if memory serves me right, it wasn’t very long. Will this Game Club only be 2 or 3 episodes?
The PC version was more of a real sim. You could modify your planes and weapon loadouts, even change their paint. The Xbox version of Crimson Skies is much more of an arcade game. They’re only really related by the universe but they were both amazingly fun games.
I remember in the original having a dogfight over Hollywood and then having to rescue someone off of a moving train using a rope ladder!
YAY! Another game for the Xbox! And another game that I don’t have to buy or skip the podcast totally due to lack of interest (Heavenly Sword). Thanks guys. Oh, and I have The Thing for PC and 2 copies for Xbox. If anyone needs an Xbox copy for the show (complete in NM) lemme know.
It’s been a long time coming but I think it’s time me and game club officially part.
First it was Nick and Phil leaving, then it was Arthur and Anthony’s lack of interest and negligence to the community (the point of the original backlog), and now it’s games that aren’t all that interesting that are picked by you guys exclusively.
Instead of bitching, I guess I should give something a bit more constructive. That would be: make the community a part of the show again. I thought things were a lot more exciting when user comments mattered and led to discussion. Although, Arthur and Anthony’s egos seem to big to care at this point. Have fun. Matt and Ryan are still awesome, but who the hell cares about an arcade flight sim (It’s good–I played it but there isn’t anything worth discussing about it, especially after the fact).
Awwwwww. It’s a break-up letter:-( I’m pretty sure Dr Phil says you need to give back jewlery, but you can keep any clothes and small kitchen appliances.
Sorry to see you go, though I am a little insulted that you think we don’t include comments because of ego. The truth of the matter is that comments were included in previous shows because we had time to do it — at 1upfm it was part of getting paid, and previously we were all unemployed — and now we’re finding it hard enough to find time to just record two shows a week amidst day jobs and conflicting schedules.
That being said, I’d love to start using more user comments, so I’ll try and put a little more effort into doing so.
Ok, I’m flying back to my golden castle on my dragon, and leaving the slums of our comments where my ego might be tainted.
That’s a pretty dickhead thing to say. These guys spend hours of their personal time each week to deliver a free and entertaining podcast. If you don’t like the games picked for game club guess what? IT’S OPTIONAL.
What I wanna know is who gave you the impression anybody cared why you left. I mean just stfu and go away quietly. Nobody said you have to like it, but pointless attention-whoring posts are about as useful as a poopy flavored lollipop.
God I love that game.
you have a good job and that is a good post for us and thanks for sharing with us
I picked this up at CEX on the way home for FIFTY CENTS! Hot damn as Tyler would say.
WOW! NICE!
This was a fun game, it came bundled in with my original xbox when I bought it back in the day. I believe it got stolen (along with the rest of my game library) when my house got broken into but it may have been one of the titles I re-bought with insurance money. If so I’ll be playing it again, if not I’ll have to pass. I just bought like 4 new games this month and I’m tapped out financially (but in new game nirvana).
I’m pretty close to the stopping point and so far, I’m mostly loving Crimson Skies.
The somewhat campy/pulp presentation is a nice departure from more serious, heavy games (I’ve been playing Chronicles of Riddick recently). The flight control is somewhat more arcade than sim, which is great because when I’m engaging the enemies, I’m not dying or getting frustrated because I have to fight with more complex controls. It feels incredibly intuitive. The flying and dogfighting taps into some nostalgia of playing Star Fox 64 for hours on end.
That being said, I’m not a big fan of the A.A. gun sections. They’re ok, and help mix up the gameplay (if only slightly), but I wouldn’t say they’re fun and certainly not as fun as the flying. Also, another minor gripe: switching between a plane and an A.A. gun for me meant pausing the game and switching the invert setting (I fly with invert on, play FPSes with invert off by default). I know not every one does this, but it’s a little annoying to not have two separate settings for stick inversion.
The voice acting so far has been hit-or-miss. I could do without some of Nathan’s one-liners when he shoot down enemies (“You’re all wet!”).
This is starting to read like a gripe list, but those are all minor points. My overall experience so far has been good, escapist fun.
Wow, that was not meant to be a reply.
I too am kind of tired of the AA sections. mainly cause i also need to pause the game and invert look. trying to adjust is just frustrating…
My favorite mission so far is shooting the cajun fuel tanks, because of it requiring you to fly in and out around the topography.
Also, I think I’ve been spoiled because I could of used something more of a tutorial.
And I might be the only one, but every time I’m getting shot at and I’m rolling out of it, I can’t help but giggle “Do a barrel roll!” to myself :-p
I did the same thing. At least you wingpeople can handle themselves better than Slippy.
Aw, hell yeah! Finally a reason to go back and finish Crimson Skies!
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Is it just me or does Tyler add nothing but “ya ya ya ya ya” or a good 15 minutes of silence. Kick his ass out!
On the last game club whoever was the guy was who kept talking about the art book made me stop listening about half way through the 2nd podcast. He interrupted everyone including some of Tyler’s ya ya ya ya ya’s!
I played through to the part where you blow up the indoor base with the steel door. is that the end of the sea heaven section? or past it?
this game reminds me of rouge squadron which I remember playing hours of on my old PC. I found like a dozen copies at my local gamecrazy for 5.99 each guess nobody’s playing online.
No PC versions means I will not be playing.
This was about the only game I truly loved on Xbox. I loved the original PC game as well, but this game had some really fun multiplayer to send it sky high! Get it?
I had wished they made a next-gen hi-def sequel, but I guess that isn’t going to happen.
So, are we are playing through A Dark Night (right before A mine in the Desert) and stop? Thanks guys.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure the stopping point is when you first arrive in Arixo (the desert).
thanks!
I’m really digging this game’s art, music and overall tone. It’s like a mix of Sky Captain and Indiana Jones, and it’s rad. His constant use of punchy one-liners is so perfectly lame, too.
One thing I can’t stand, though, is how the plane is built friggin’ backwards. It looks like you’re flying in reverse the entire time and it makes me uncomfortable when I’m flying around… I feel like something is always wrong. It’s a cool design, don’t get me wrong, but I feel weird zipping around in this ass-backward plane.
Everything in Crimson Skies has little original ideas like that. It gives it a lot of character. I also loved the art deco cities, especially because they have a bit of Blade Runner-esque neon all over the place… Anoher cool blend of ideas I can get behind.
Haha, I felt the same way. Every time I look at it too closely I feel like I’m flying backwards.
PS: AA Guns can blow me.
Great pick once again guys. I got a 360 last month and managed to find this game for a fiver. I didn’t have high expectations going into this game but the controls are soo slick and i forgot how fun dog fighting is. It reminded me of my x-wing alliance days.
My only gripe is that you have to collect tokens along with money to upgrade your planes. I thought that was kind of stupid as I seem to have more money than I actually need but few tokens. The tokens should have been an extra collectable or something and not a key component in the upgrade system.
It figures that I finally finish the game segment on time for once and the episode ends up being 2 days late.
No option for PC? Out.
YES, Crimson Skies: HRtR is one of my favorite games of all time and actually still have. I’ve been meaning to replay it before Dark Void comes out and this is just the impetus I needed!
My friends and I used to play this and Halo religiously every Friday throughout my senior year of high school
Ima brag like a duche… I raped so hard at this game, I would get around 40 or so kills and less the 10 deaths per round, most people didnt think that if your about to die your best chance might be to run pick up a health pack roll and deploy an ultra on your enemies right as they are afterburning towards you. Worked like a charm. Xbox needs a game like this with in game rewards that allow you to modify your ship.
Finally I have finished my exams for this semester of Uni and am relatively up to date with the new games. I now have to catch up to your latest Game Club.
Love this feature, keep it up!