CS C-130 Pro Pack Mini Review...

[Chris Sykes]

Ive had the Pro (full) pack for about a day now, have had a few flights here and there between work and other comitments... But heres what i think of it so far...

Download + Install...
Downloaded easy, took ages but the install was a nightmare... Had to do the offline install on this PC which is on the internet... :roll: But that worked well!

First flight...
Well i started FSX and set about a local flight and hops in Lincolnshire... Choosed the C-130k stretch version in green... All was well untill i got a dreaded BSOD! Tried again with another version, the J version, and again BSOD! Well took a trip over to the support site and its a problem with the sound.gau and creative's drivers or something... Only option is to rename the sound.gau so it doesnt crash out... Which does work...

After sorting this out i went for flight number two... This time no glitches as such. Except it seemed to me that CS hasnt fully set up each herc version with the corresponding panel but thats not hard to change using the ACE, which works a treat compaired to the FS9 version. Also downloaded three repaints for the herc... All were stated in the readme as being ACE complient but two ive had trouble with, one didnt even recognise the text files for the config and the other is missing textures... But this one ill reinstall to see if it does it again...

Impressions...
My first impressions were that from the outlook of the whole pack £70ish could be worth it... For the number of herc versions, especially with the RAF ones being spread about two packs and me wanting the Swedish herc too... (i like a nice sweed :roll: ) However after a few mins i started to notice a few silly problems that really should have been picked out during BETA testing...

1, The smoke! That loverly hercy smoke is only turned on after loading the 2d panel! HELP
2, The fuel dump! The fuel dump on the left wing doesnt work at all... It just flicks on and off instantly when toggled (Pop up 2d panel), the right hand side wing dump works a treat...
3, Annoying sound! After a low dirty pass over a landing area i cleaned up but still had the annoying sound from when you fully close the throttle, this still kept on going untill i landed and open and closed the main exit door...
4, Listing! Its lists... To the left, not sure if its a weight prob but the fuel tanks are full and no ACE payload configured...

Other than the points made so far its a really nice pack, maybe a little over expensive due to there being problems already and its going to be ages before a SP... But its still worthy of being in my FSX hangar, FPS is a nice steady 15-20 without the DX9c update and 20-25 with the new DX9c Update installed... Models are superb and are well made (only looked at the RAF ones so far) and the views are nice too, but a headon external one would have been welcome...

My opinion??? Well its deffinatly worthy of buying! However there are problems with any creative sound card which means no special sounds and also the other problems noted.

Anyways heres a few pictures i did of the 80's display texture that did work after downloading!

Entering the Loop

Somewhere over Wales...

Near Snowdonia

Closer version of above

[Quixoticish]

£70.... there is no way I can ever justify that kind of price to myself no matter how much spare change I had and no matter how much I loved the package in FS9. Either I've got to figure out a way to write off flight sim addons as business expenses (I wish) or I'll have to wait for the inevitable price drop.

[DaveB]

With you there CH ;-)

£70 is not only above and beyond.. it's.. well.. words fail me

Tks for the descriptive CS but I can't see any single addon is worth that much.. not to me anyway ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[Quixoticish]

It's so frustrating because all of the bits and bobs I want are split across the three model packs, I've no doubt Captainsim have been very cunning in their market research.

I wonder if I should have bit the bullet and picked up each pack as it was released, it wouldn't have felt so bad spending a small amount every few months then even though the total would have been a little bit more.

[Brian Franklin]

Ouch!! I know its a hefty package but £70??. Plastics firmly anchored in the pocket on this one

[Chris Sykes]

Well i got it due to two things, one it was partly paid for for my Bday and secondly i think the JF one isnt going to be updated for ages...

[Trev Clark]

Seventy quid!!! Thats TWO bowls of soup in a top London 'designer cafe'....much to expensive for any add-on in my book I am afraid. Anything over 30 is too much for me.

[Chris Sykes]

Trev i must say yes and no... Its £70 because of good(painfull) marketing but its alot ofstuff in the pack aswell... Remeber that its every Herc model and paint. And you save 10 euros than if you brought all 3 seperatly... But yes its over priced, maybe £50-60 for it would be better priced...

[TSR2]

£70.... I'd be expecting other pleasures too for that sort of cash.

The only FS addon I've spent £70 on was the full set of Horixon Gen X... and even that was a bit on the pricey side, but as all my flying (pretty much) is in the UK thats not so bad.

[Chris Sykes]

Ben a do agree there... But i would have liked the idea that they started with the FS9 versions, individual models at a set price and you buy which versions you want instead of a load that some may not want...