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Not what I expected, but still good!
This game wasn't quite what I was expecting, but now that I have figured it out I am really enjoying it!
The basic idea of the game is centered around horse racing. You have three options: You can be a stable manager, a jockey, or a better. If you choose stable manager, you actually can do all three!
I've found the jockey option to be quite maddening. It drove me absolutely crazy. I rode horses in about a hundred races and finished dead last, or second to last every single time. I tried every strategy I could come up with and could not even ONCE win a race with any horse I tried. And that was on easy level! I think this portion of the game needs serious work - it's way too difficult.
The betting portion is just "ok." You can bet on horses when you're playing the stable manager version as well, so I don't see the fun in playing where you JUST bet. Especially since sometimes it seems completely random which horse wins a race (maybe like real life .. heh!).
The stable manager version is where it gets fun. While it has some serious downfalls, now that I've figured it out I've been having a fantastic time. When you're a stable manager you get to hire staff, build up your stable (buy and improve your buildings), buy and train horses, board other people's horses for cash. You can also go to auctions and buy horses as well as breed and race your own horses.
I'll talk about the cons first.
STAFF: Basically you have no control over your staff. You can hire them, give them raises, and that's about it. You also can choose which Lad works with which horse. I was hoping for more control over staff, and for the staff you have to make a bigger difference.
INCOME: At the start of the game, it is VERY difficult to balance your income and expenditures. I "lost" the game at least 3 times because I ran out of money. The only ways to make money are 1) race 2) sell a horse and 3) boarding. Once you get in to the game and get some international level horses, racing brings in a LOT of cash. In the beginning though, you only will get $2000-$10000 per race if you WIN (which is hard) and you have to subtract from that the fee to enter the race and the jockey fee. Selling a horse is an option, but in the beginning you may have one or two horses... so selling isn't really an option. The last way to get income is boarding, which hardly covers your expenses. For the first hour I played I basically just clicked "next week" dozens of times trying to make enough money from my boarders to afford a new horse (since I had sold mine to pay off my negative bank balance and have an extra stall to board). I think that there are some serious issues with money making in the beginning, and once you get nice horses it becomes too easy to make money.
NO TUTORIAL: This game isn't easy to figure out. The manual is horrible, there is no tutorial and when you hover over a button, there is no indication of what it does. I had to learn by trial and error.
PRACTICALLY NO GRAPHICS: The only time there are any graphics is during a horse race. Even then, it's kind of boring. Every horse looks exactly the same (different colors, same exact body/movement).
HORSES DIE YOUNG: My horses tend to die at age 14-15. In real life, it's normal for horses to live well past 20! I currently own a horse that is 23 and still going strong!
Ok, so those are all the bad things. There are plenty of good things too - else I wouldn't have given this game four stars!
Once you get lucky enough to have an upper level (national/international) race horse, money comes easily and you can afford to buy more horses and rely less on boarding for income. An average purse in an international race is $500,000-$1,000,000!
I've been having a LOT of fun breeding my horses, training and racing them. It's become quite addicting! The training part of the game is fun. You get to pick which activity you want your horse to do each week, and you have to pick well to optimize your horse so that he is in top form and healthy for the race, yet still has the speed and stamina to do well.
People who like games that are heavy in graphics will probably not enjoy this game. This game is mostly text! I occasionally watch my horses race, but normally I skip the race and go right to the results. For those who enjoy text games, and also those who enjoy horse racing and strategy games, this game is a lot of fun! You just have to get past the awkward trial and error learning stage and then the game becomes addicting and incredibly fun!
Better than the others but still missing something
This game allows you to manage a stable, jockey the horses and bet or do any one of these things. Even on the easiest level, it is very difficult to make money at the beginning, though it becomes very easy once you have some good horses. There is sort of a critical mass situation, which is a problem in many other "economic" games (you have to have money to make money but then it becomes almost too easy). I have to admit to having to resort to some "creative" reloads after certain races or if the horse suddenly becomes ill right before the race you have been training so long for (which they often do, despite all your health management).
It's nice to be able to control the breeding and training and management of the horses as that seems to get left out of most horse racing sims. You can actually see your horses improving as a result of your training priorities. This is much more intricate than other games of its type, but there are still some limitations.
1. The jockey program is very hard to figure out, even on "easy" mode. I had more luck racing halfway well with the standardbreds than the throroughbreds, perhaps because they are slower paced...My ability to estimate how well my horse is doing , my reaction times and my ability to keep an eye on the screen while adjusting the buttons for speed and steering etc. are not as good as the computer's, obviously. I just can't seem to figure the best time to consistently hit the accelerator coming out of the gate (the computer always gets it right) and so nearly always break last, regardless of the horse's stats.
2. You are forced to rise to the level of your incompetence, in that you do not (as you would in ral life) have the option of staying at a level where you are doing well but not outclassing everyone. Once your horse has a certain amount of money, they MUST move up in class, even if they are outclassed at that level. You can never move down in class. Also, some of the race options are bizarre. There don't seem to be any races for two year olds (makes it hard to move your horse up to G1 class by the first week in May for the kentucky derby). And you can "accidentally" enter your flat racer in a steeplechase. And there are mounted trotting races (ow). Very odd. Not bad, but not super realistic.
3. These other things are minor issues, though. The main issue is that there is not a real goal in the game besides making money and becoming famous. There are tons of races of different lengths and on different surfaces. So you finally get to a point in the game where you have several good horses and you are famous and making tons of money and have upgraded your farm to the highest level in everything, and you are at that "what now?" stage. If they ever come out with a new version of this, having some kind of championship (perhaps invitational for different lengths, surfaces, genders, ages etc.) akin to the breeder's cup races and maybe a 3 year old "triple crown" for each nation and perhaps "horse of the year" awards and "halls of fame" would be a nice addition. Maybe an international championship too. I mostly follow U.S. racing, and very few of even the best horses from the U.S. go overseas to race (maybe because our purses are richest), but if international is going to be part of the game, maybe some world "breeder's" cup that is in a different place every year or something would be nice. Maybe they also should consider having races that correspond more closely to real races in terms of their rules for entry, at least at the G1 level. It seems odd that I can enter a 5 year old male horse in the "brader's cup filly". It's also a bit strange that horses continue to race after they have foals. Maybe it's different in Europe, but in the U.S. horses are always retired once they become breeders. Choosing whether to risk the health of a possible good breeder by keeping it on the track for another year versus retiring a proven winner (who may turn out to be a dud, or even sterile, at stud) is part of the game in real life.
I don't go im for online games, because of all the conneting, politics and coordinating that's needed with other players don't appeal to me, so maybe there's more to it if you play it on line against other humans?
Still, it's much better than other PC horse racing sims I've seen that mostly focus on just the betting and racing aspects of the sports and not the actual stable management, breeding and training. The graphics and simulations of what happens during the races are quite good and being able to upgrade your stable facilities and hire different staff is a nice touch.
A Horse Racing Management Simulator - Where Can This Go?
Be warned: this is not your typical "tycoon" or management game, nor is it for people who only have a passing interest in horse racing. It is very dry and in depth, but you can learn a lot of things if you are willing to give it a lot of time and effort. Did I mention most of the game takes place in a planner screen?
Horse racing manager started out by surprising me - there were 3 modes of play. Betting, Racing and Stable. In Stable mode you are put in charge of managing every little nuance of the stable. In this mode you also get opportunities to bet at any races that come up as well as having the racing option. Whenever your horse is entered in a race, you have the choice of watching, going straight to the results, or racing the horse yourself. Of course the jockey you choose to sit on the horse, specifically their temperament (harsh, gentle, strict etc) has a lot to say. This is the only part of the game that has actual moving graphics. The learning curve for racing is fairly high, learning how to balance endurance and speed and positioning, as well as picking one of three things your jockey should focus on: Wind protection, whipping, and regaining energy to whip. Not to mention the days and weeks of training to help your horse have a greater chance to win. But just like real life, sometimes lady luck throws you for a spiral. A victory is never assured.
To greater or lesser extents you can manage the training, breeding, gambling, racing and management parts of the game, but only through management methods. You pick out tasks and make decisions from your planner book. You never actually get to see your horse being fed or trained nor your employees performing any of their tasks. It's all done through numbers and directions. You can buy about 6 buildings on the building map, and 3 levels of each type. A pretty boring and basic map with little points of colour and shapes where different buildings are. The various buildings increase different things such as training time, horse nutrition, fame etc. Some buildings become available only after you've built others. What you can build is also dependent on what country and stable you purchased at the beginning (difficulty level, weather conditions, types of racing etc is determined by which site you choose),
There is an amazing amount of detail that has gone into the information and numbers part of the game. This can actually get confusing and makes the learning curve even higher. The tutorial is basically one of the read and click variety which doesn't help out the difficulty. It is quite a simulator, but I am left with the feeling that it could have been more FUN somehow. The game is rather like looking at a horseracing magazine with the long lists of numbers and breeding etc, and the learning curve is high. Graphics are practically non-existent and the sound is mediocre. It is by no means a bad game, but be prepared for some seriously heavy management and lots of time to learn the game. A great idea, very dry implementation, but I hope to see more to come in this sub genre of simulators.
Finale's Allegro gets top billing!
I had been using Finale Notepad to begin the development of an orchestration piece. I used the trial version of Allegro, and I found it to be EVERYTHING that I wanted. I then looked for the best overall deal I could find, and it was on Amazon. I am extremely pleased with my purchase and with the Allegro 2007 product. I highly recommend it if you want to develop your own musical scores. I would give it a Standing Ovation !!!
Stuart Gustafson
Doesn't Transpose Midi/Tiff Files too Well
I'm doing the 30 day free trial too, anyway, I'm studying vocals (singing different types of songs) and I wanted to be able to edit the music (change notes around, lengthen them, and then hear them played--and this program does that).
But when I started opening a midi file to take a look at, listen to and edit for my own singing, it doesn't do that too well. Notes are missing and when it plays it squeeks some notes out.
So, I tried it with a Tiff File, same thing.
I then tried starting a new, blank sheet music and copying and filling in the notes, but for some reason the selection, copy keys don't seem to work. Maybe it's me, maybe you'll have better luck with it, maybe I'll try it again, but for now I'm trying out Notation ComposerNotation Composer by Notation Software, so hopefully that works out better.
Finale Allegro 2007b NOT Windows Vista compatible
I recently purchased Finale Allegro 2007 and then updated to 2007b, which is *essential* if you are running Windows Vista. The company claims it is "fully compatible" with Vista, but even with the update, this software runs poorly on Vista (Vista Business version on my laptop). Finale is slow, it is difficult to control note placement even when you zoom in, and 16th and 32nd notes appear bunched together on the screen making them hard to read afterward (I don't know if it prints this way or not, as I haven't been able to finish even one lead sheet yet!) Also, there is no access to either the user manual or the tutorials from within the program--or, at this writing, from outside the program. So, everything I've learned so far about how to use this program has been through tedious trial and error. I am communicating with the company now to find out if there is a workaround for the manual/tutorial problem, but Finale is so much slower than Sibelius on Vista anyway that I'm going to have to abandon it anyway just to get some work done. :(
Absolutely wonderful software
I upgraded to this product from Finale Songwriter 2005, which I did not use for two years because it had no provision for adjusting within the software the volume of playback to my instrument (a Yamaha Clavinova piano) or the volume of a MIDI recording. Finale product support claimed that there was no need for such a feature since all I had to do was adjust the volume on my MIDI instrument . However, I like to use music editors to play either one part of a duet, or to play the same score in order to help me learn a piece. That is, I want both the editor and myself to play the same instrument at the same time. Unfortunately, the 2005 version of Songwriter played so strongly that I had to turn the piano volume all the way down, in which case I could not hear myself playing. The person I spoke to at Finale product support at that time claimed that none of their products, even their high-end versions costing hundreds of dollars, supported what I wanted. How foolish I thought. So for the last two years I used another editor, called Play Music by Notation Technologies. However, Play Music lacks many of the nice entry features of Finale editors. Also, it tends to crash occasionally. Still, I put up with those shortcomings for the simple reason that Play Music met my requirements for playback.
Just recently I was made to realize that Finale Print Music 2008 supported exactly want I want to do. They do it by including what they call a mixer in the software. The mixer allows for adjustment of the volume of the playback. I am so happy that they did this since in every other way I prefer a Finale editor over Play Music.
I am running the Finale Print Music 2008 software on a Windows XP (Home Edition) and I have not experienced any operational problems. I am very happy with this software.
Works great
As a high school band teacher, this is just the product I have been looking for to write easy and quick numbers for my pep band. So simple to set up and print. I love being able to do everything in the concert key, and then it does all the instrument transpositions. I only wish it had a few more options for paper sizing, but what I haven't been able to figure out, I can do with "shrink" function on my copier.
Good, but some things could be improved
I bought this to digitize alot of songs for my students. It is a good product, but there are certain things that could be improved. For simple note entry everything works great. It is only in the more complex songs or when you use chord symbols that the process becomes time consuming.
Get ready for some intense moments!!!!!!
This is everything in an RTS you would expect except one thing... THE UNEXPECTED!
There are no patterns to learn... this sim is not for the brain dead. You have to have your mind and eyes up and running throughout the scenarios. This is everything that the "Fighters-for-life" series isn't. Fantastic AI, great animations and intuitive charaters. This is more like a true Firefighting training simulator than a game. Graphics are very good, and well laid out.
You can set the behavoirs of the firefighters, including guard area against approaching fires, set them for "Heroic," meaning that when you need a hero, you can have one at the click of a mouse. And as important, you can call in extra units if you need them. Something the first game all but forgot.
You can't go wrong on this one. For those of us who love RTS fire/rescue sims, it's the best of the best.
TFC
excellent
I am a volunteer firefighter for my community and when i ran the tutorial for this game i was amazed. I was amazed at the fact that the makers of this game were intuitive enough to include real fire behavior such as flashovers, backdrafts, radiant heat exposure, the different classes of fire, and so on. I was amazed mainly because any other firefighting sim I've played has left these elements out. In other firefighting sims the AI was also...well dumb as a box of rocks. In this game they are actually quite intelligent, relatively speaking. Rather than putting out the spot of fire you told them to and then standing there once they're done...they actually continue to put out the surrounding fire, and when you tell the firefighters to rescue a civilian they will automatically bring them to the nearest ambulance rather than stand there with the person on their shoulder until they are dead. Overall great game, lots of fun, and lots of thinking and stategizing involved. Much better than expected from a firefighting sim.
Looks pretty good
I have not played it yet but it looks awesome. I have this other game called emergency fire responce and it looks similar to it but much better. The lights flash on the trucks and more detailed. It Looks if so you get to use the hose alot more.
This is what a Firefighter/rescue Sim Should be...
Everything about this sim is right. Scenarios are frightening realistic, tactics and stratagy count and most important, the AI is relatively smart! Unlike the Emergency series, where the civilians and emergency workers alike are as dumb as boards.... Emergency2 and 3 may look "prettier," but the developers have done virtually NO work on improving the AI. Here, your rescue personnel are actually rather smart.... but still they need direction.
Before you start your missions, PLAN WELL. It's also important to use what you learn..... This sim REALLY puts your knowlege of the science of firefighting to the test. If you pay attention and remember the basics, you will not only do well, you'll have fun..
TFC
firefighter command:raging inferno
I love this game. I too am a firefighter and the complexity of this game is great. To be able to direct your crews to the different areas helps you hone your management skills. If anyone has been a firefighter officer you can understand how frustrating it is when guys run everywhere. You really have to keep up with personel or you will have 3 guys doing the work and 10 standing around. So this game keeps you on your toes. The graphics are similar to a SIMS type game. The fire could have been a bit more realistic but overall good. I loved the mixing of urban and wildland senarios. I wish they would release the next version in the U.S. It is called Fire Department 3 by Monte Cristo. COME ON UBISOFT!
major disappointment .. again
this company just can't nail the great firefighting game i would love to play. emergency fire response had a lot of great things that were hampered by really bad things. this game is even worse. there's a ton of things to cover, but i will try. i am amazed that emergency fire response was actually made AFTER this game, because in some ways it devolves from this game. what on EARTH is going on with this company?????
first off, the AI is a huge issue with these two games. the AI in firefighter command is SO MUCH BETTER than emergency fire response. in ERF, your firefighters are total morons, standing around looking at fire instead of fighting it, unless you tell them to spray a little portion. can you say "micro management"?! this extends to the pumper vehicle as well. in ERF, the pumper will not spray ANY spot unless you tell it to. FFC vastly improves both these things. you tell your guys to spray a spot? bam! they're on it. and they continue to spray around it, just like real firefighters. want your pumper to spray that roof? it does it, and then sprays all the rest of the roof, too. BEAUTIFUL. how this company can go from good AI to terrible AI in a year is unbelievable.
vehicles - much much better in FFC. instead of the somewhat clumsy "drag this vehicle around the screen and move it in reverse all the time" system of ERF, you simply click your vehicle, click where you want it to go - bam, it automatically drives there. also, you don't need to assign a driver to the vehicle, they all have built-in invisible drivers. less hassle, good. however, they screw up the pumpers in FFC!!! your pumper should ideally be connected to a fire hydrant as it supplies it with constant water supply. this is indicated by a dotted blue line. ok, that's all good.. the problem is, the computer tries to connect it to a hydrant at all times. let's say you want your pumper to spray a roof far away from the fire hydrant. your pumper will attempt to stay connected to the stupid hydrant instead of just driving over there to spray it. in a way, i understand what the game designers were trying to accomplish here, but it's annoying to fight this feature. the player should have the control over whether to connect to a hydrant or not.
the downfall of ERF was its moronic AI. the downfall of FFC is too much to do with too little time. the graphics are beautiful and i appreciate the scenery, but the maps are too big with too much going on in too many places too fast. now, i like a challenge, but this is supposed to be a fun game. instead of dealing with a reasonable amount of action, you might have 3 or 4 different objectives spread on different sides of the big map. trying to dispatch pumpers, fire ladders and especially individual firemen to deal with these different things is frustrating. a huge problem is that civilians simply die too fast. in ERF, you have plenty to do but you know that you will have time to get through the fire and to your civilian in time to save him. in FFC, it's almost as if they die instantly. it feels like you have 20 minutes of work to do, while their life span is 5 minutes. so frustrating!!!! i tried playing a map on easy setting to deal with this, and the stupid civilian still died - which brings me to another problem. it's too hard to find civilians. the map notates their location with an icon, but it's difficult finding out which exact building and floor they're on. in ERF, you know exactly where your civilians are because they're highlighted well. yes, that is much less realistic, but this is a video game, it's not supposed to be all about realism. if i wanted realism, i could go become a real firefighter! it's not fun trying to find where these civilians are and having them drop like flies. it would be easier to deal with if you had ONE crew, but no... they give you 2 or even 3!!! it's just too much. even with one crew, it's too much. let's say i'm trying to break windows with one man, and in my spare time locate a civilian, put out the fire around him, tell my pumper to go put out a big fire, all before the 10 seconds this civilian takes to die.. jesus, how many brains does this game think i have? ERF also has too much going on at times, but you can play the scenarios on easy setting until you're a master, and then play the regular setting for more of a challenge where you have a clue of what you're going to do. here, it doesn't seem you can..
complexity - i feel like FFC fails in this categority. ERF contains the most fun complex scenarios.. for example, let's say you're not paying attention and your tanker catches on fire. you try to put it out but fail. this means you can't refill your water anymore and you fail the map. but the maps are so fun, you replay it again to try to do better. in FFC, the complexity goes the other way. i played the first map multiple times, and each time i ended up with 3 objectives (rescue 2 civilians) in different map points. ok, but the last time i played, i decided to put out the initial fire out as quickly as possible. i did a wonderful job so the fire didn't spread. a good thing? you'd think, except this had the effect of - the other scenarios not happening at all because the fire didn't spread!! this means i got 1/3, maybe even 1/5 of the play time because I DID A GOOD JOB. punishing people for doing well? huh? ERF had pre-determined scenarios which were much better.
reinforcements - they were better in ERF simply because it gives you more time to rescue civilians, and the more men you have and the more objectives you have, the more time you need.
overall - ERF is more fun, just the AI is very frustrating. FFC has some improvements, but many drawbacks. it's hard to recommend either game, but if i had to choose, i'd play ERF because it's simply more fun. also, if you don't rescue every civilian in ERF, it's not the end of the world. the game takes into account your difficulty setting, the scenario and the different objectievs and determines an average score of how well you did. in FFC, it's like you lose one civilian so you're a total failure. the FFC scenarios are more realistic, but this is a game, not a training tool. if this company could push together the good of both games and take out the bad, they'd have one amazing firefighter game... in fact, if they even just took the AI and vehicles of FFC and stuck it into ERF, it would be a wonderful game.
other: the save feature in this game is really stupid. it takes way too long to save, and then it doesn't tell you when it's done. so you end up pressing escape multiple times to see if it's done yet. huh??? are you serious?? how can they screw up such a simple thing, especially when they did it well just a year before?! also the system requirements are too high. while the graphics are nice, it doesn't justify the amount of time it takes to load the map, especially in a game like this where i find myself re-playing the scenarios multiple times.
From the Manufacturer
With FirePower for Microsoft Combat Simulator 3, you experience air combat like never before in over 50 missions. We have added twelve new aircraft that were designed with the help of over thirty real warbird pilots.
You will also experience revolutionary, explosive, special effects like never before. Witness towering explosive blasts, aircraft being torn in half, and smoke drifting thousands of feet above the battlefields.
Using authentic military test data and combat footage was the design team's primary focus. Under the hood, you will find every aircraft, building, and vehicle reacting precisely as they did when you unleash all of the newly designed weapons. Specific targets will require specific weapons, just like the real thing.
You will also get to fly the famous B-17 Flying Fortress, man all of the gunner positions, and even attack those bomber formations from the cockpit of some of Germany's most ingenious, flying machines.
Shrapnel will fly, tanks will blow, and guns will shred their targets to pieces. In fact FirePower is so real, you may find all you ever do is attack anything that has the misfortune of crossing your sights.
Not as great as they are saying?
I know, they (pc gamer, gamespot, etc...) are talking this sim to be something great and in all respects it is but when you compare it with the other great WWII combat sims (IL2)for intance, it does not even come close. The authenic nature of this game is unbeatable in gun sounds and bomb effects but that is about it. If you like to blow stuff up this is the add-on for you considering the original game was a horrible combat flight sim lacking and unfinnished in so many areas it was not funny!
The great thing is you can use the atom bomb in the superfortress which I have yet to find on the CD but really you get four times more of a sim with IL2 with it's expansion packs and user-made levels and you get 10 times more planes to fly and the effects and graphics are even better in some cases as this title. Sure you don't have the bomb cam but if you look at the ground after unloading a 1000 lb bomb from a German JU bomber you will see the aftermath, maybe not as great but acceptible to say the least. Plus there is really a lack of dog fight them that makes IL2 what it is.
In all, I wish they would not try to lift up Microsoft so much because obviously they could not contend with a foriegn developer as the Russian's have them beat this time with IL2 and the expansion packs Ace, Pacific Fighters. B
ut there is hope for WWII flight sim's made in America, wait until Rowan's Battle of Britain II comes out hopefully this April 2005. What I've seen, this sim might just give both of these sims a run for their money. We'll see.
Buy it now
If you bought CFS3 you must have this add on. Makes a world of difference when you add it to CFS3.
Shoot 'em up at its finest!
Why is this so expensive?
I am really looking to pick up this add on, I had played it at a buddies house nd he had bought it NEW for $30. Why is it so expensive here, shouln't it be the opposite?