Crimson Skies Official Strategies & Secrets [With Poster]

If you like the game you really should get this book. Apart from a breakdown of all the aeroplanes and a beautiful poster of them, it shows you how to do some really excellent combat aerobatics - with illustrations and descriptions right down the the throttling e.g "use 3/4 throttle and no more or you'll risk stalling the plane" ... And tells you how to shoot at an angle to which you are travelling by sliding the plane at a 5 degree angle - which is substantially better than crashing into the slow moving zeppelin you are trying to shoot to pieces like I used to ! Now that section alone is worth the price of the book. The author, I see, is an actual experienced pilot (and perhaps fanatic!) and knows what he is talking about. It helps lift the game to a whole new level, because it will give you the technical knowledge and the base skills required to fill the boots of Nathan Zachary. I also recommend a good joystick, I use a force feedback which makes it more difficult to hold steady but hey - good! A nice touch of realism. This would make an excellent present also, anyone who likes this game would very much enjoy the book as well.

This first thing I noticed about the book was the beauty of the layout and the addition of in-character content. There's also a very nice full color poster of each of the pre-rendered planes in the back of the book. The book is comprised of 4 parts as follows: Part 1: Earn Your Wings Part 2: Air Supremacy Part 3: The Adventures of Nathan Zachary Part 4: Knight of the Skies: The Multiplayer GamePart 1: Earn Your WingsHere David first discusses the various regions of the former United States of 1937 and provides an excellent desription of each of the main pilot leagues from each region. This is well done and provides the background to understanding the history behind the Crimson Skies universe and the single player missions. Flight fundamentals are covered cursorily discussing elevators, ailerons, rudders, and throttle and introducing the instrumentation and in-flight views. This section is not packed with a great deal of useful information but I think that's appropriate considering that the main focus of CS is action and not simulation. The Basic Flight Maneuvers chapter is one of the most beneficial in my opinion, covering bank turns, half-loops, high-G turns, and docking with Zeps. These skills will be used again and again while flying through the singleplayer missions and will help out in your forays into multiplayer. David explains the execution and apllication of each maneuver which will be most helpful to beginning pilots.Part 2: Air Supremacy I found this portion of the Sybex manual to be the most useful. David introduces each of the 11 planes with a short history, a pre-rendered image, and a paragraph discussing handling and loadout options. At the end of the aircraft chapter can be found two tables, one with qualitative comparisons of each planes maneuverability, strength, and speed, and the other table displays cost and maximum payload. The tables are useful for when first starting out in CS and becoming familiar with the pros and cons of each airframe. Advanced Aircraft maneuvers are expertly covered but I found this section to lack a great deal of depth. I would have expected there to be more maneuvers listed and aerial combat tactics illustrated since air combat is the main focus of the game. There is good coverage for gun and rocket selection with a description of which fire power to use for differing situations. I found the statisitcs tables for guns and rockets to be very helpful when considering how to load out my plane when going into battle. The last chapter in this part deals with aircraft design and is well done. Considerations for airframes, engines, armor, guns, and hardpoints are discussed and there's even a sample design included using the Devastator. Well done!Part 3: The Adventures of Nathan Zachary Part 3 goes over each of the 24 single player missions with an eye towards getting the reader involved with the storyline by engaging the reader in a first person diary-esque dialogue. Each mission entry is completed with mis