Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
Blaze

Blueprint's KLAX

Recommended Posts

With missing documentation, poor night lighting, default gates showing, and the atmosphere of a military mout training site the reviewer still found nothing to dislike???I'm not going to get into the review itself but it is clear that the reviewer is using a dated system. There is no mention of frame rates or performance and even if there was it would be based on his dated machine. While I don't believe a reviewer must have a cutting edge system to give a credible review could an FSX user with a high end machine really glean anything from this? Last thing I'll say is IMO the screenshots were pretty poor perhaps using some borrowed images would be better? I couldn't help but notice the shot that's titled "Gate lead-in guides lack a stop indicator" that the service vehicle didn't stop on mark either. :Tounge: I read the review of KLAX, even though I have no intention of buying it, simply to see if Blueprint had improved their technique over the last year or two. It's pretty clear to me that they have not. In all honesty I am surprised that they have been able to stay in business at all? I have have a few of their airports I bought when add-ons for FSX were scarce, but they were substandard framerate hogs and have long since been removed.


RE Thomason Jr.

 

 

Share this post


Link to post

I am inclined to agree with the OP. The review was "sparse" (to be kind) and even though the reviewer pointed out things in his review that he didn't like, he stated that he disliked nothing about the scenery. The like/dislike panel should be a synopsis of the review so that the reader can scan the pros/cons before reading the review much like an executive summary.I own the scenery and the fact is that while the buildings are shaped and placed accurately, the lack of texturing makes the airport look and feel like a paper drawing of an airport in contrast to the photorealistic background of the area. The look and "feel" of the airport sucks the "suspension of disbelief" right out of the sim. Juxtapose Blueprint LAX vs many top FREEWARE airports and Blueprint products sit firmly in the bleak world of Perfect Flight type products. That is to say, products that would merely pass as OK freeware but is somehow substantiated as worthy of payment. Harsh? Yes. Avsim is renowned for its reviews and thousands give the Avsim reviews heavy weight, like it or not. Unfortunately, with the exception of a few reviewers who obviously take great pains to write detailed, entertaining, and substantive reviews, an increasing number of reviews are being slapped together and being put to print with no substantive editing of which to speak. Compare this review vs Benjamin van Soldt's review of Hanoi and its night and day.Having been an Avsim reviewer on and off (currently off) for many years I've honestly been pretty disappointed with the bulk of reviews as of late. Not because I agree or disagree with the reviewer (that's not my place), but because of the wanting substance that passes for a legitimate review.Come on Avsim...you have already set the industry bar for excellence in reviews...whip those guys into shape! OR have Angelique van Campen whip them into shape because she knocks the ball out of the park with each of her highly professional reviews.

Share this post


Link to post

I too was surprised at the absence of any 'dislike' in the summary of a product that seems mediocre at best. I was left wondering how bad it would need to be before something ended up in that second box.As a more general comment, I am unsure of how involved the Reviews Editor is in the whole process. He/she should be someone who ensures a consistent approach and standard, but the wide variation in the quality of reviews suggests a 'hands off' or even completely uninvolved attitude.


Petraeus

 

Share this post


Link to post
I too was surprised at the absence of any 'dislike' in the summary of a product that seems mediocre at best. I was left wondering how bad it would need to be before something ended up in that second box.As a more general comment, I am unsure of how involved the Reviews Editor is in the whole process. He/she should be someone who ensures a consistent approach and standard, but the wide variation in the quality of reviews suggests a 'hands off' or even completely uninvolved attitude.
I'm not sure what you mean by a "hands off" approach, but I'm hoping you're not suggesting that I also fly and evaluate every product that is reviewed. I wish I had the time to do so, but alas we are all volunteers and have to make a living.My biggest quest right now is getting enough dedicated, knowledgable reviewers to cover all the products that are available for review. I'd love to have a stable of reviewers who have nothing but time to dedicate to the flight sim world. I don't think that is going to happen.There are several reviews that have been returned to the reviewer as they don't even come close to a "standard". I've also had to let some reviewers go as they submit one review and I never hear from them again. I'm open to suggestions and always looking for new review staff.....who wants to help?

Share this post


Link to post
I'm not sure what you mean by a "hands off" approach, but I'm hoping you're not suggesting that I also fly and evaluate every product that is reviewed. I wish I had the time to do so, but alas we are all volunteers and have to make a living.
I am not suggesting that at all. But I'm suggesting that an editor should be doing what an editor on any publication should be doing - making sure that what gets published meets a consistent standard. Editors do not go out and get the news stories or write the articles, reporters and correspondents do that, but editors (usually) make sure that they follow certain procedures so that what gets published is consistently reliable.AVSIM has in the past had a good reputation for its reviews, particularly compared with the superficial reviews of its nearest competitor, but reputations can be fragile, one is only as good as one's last game, etc...

Petraeus

 

Share this post


Link to post
particularly compared with the superficial reviews of its nearest competitor
Yes, I would even go further and call them 'commercials'. They just advertise products you can accidentally (coughing) buy in their shop.I understand business is business but cetrainly a worthful review (not only in flight simming) is something much more than advertisement and needs to be as thorough and objective as the reviewer is able to be.Finally, as this is the 'Review Feedback' forum, so some remarks are expected to be acceptable, I'd like to quote the review's author and ask a question:'Blueprint continues to make a name for itself specializing in high quality airport sceneries and KLAX is no exception to this goal'Do you really mean that? High quality of what - 3D modelling? Texturing? Lighting? Animations? Accuracy? High quality compared to what for example? If someone follows your reception and buys that airport, should they really expect to get a high quality aerodrome in today's standards of payware scenery?Just my three euros. I don't want to add more to that as, as a former reviewer myself, I know it is easy to hurt author's feelings even if inadvertently. And that should be avoided.

Share this post


Link to post
Guest acezboy561

I just want to pop in about the comment;

Yes, I would even go further and call them 'commercials'. They just advertise products you can accidentally (coughing) buy in their shop.
As far as I am aware, AVSIM is not like that - I have not been approached once by any higher ranking AVSIM staff requesting I do so - and im sure that all other reviewers havent either. If you read the bottom of every review you get the following message:Standard Disclaimer The review above is a subjective assessment of the product by the author. There is no connection between the product producer and the reviewer, and we feel this review is unbiased and truly reflects the performance of the product in the simming environment as experienced by the reviewer. This disclaimer is posted here in order to provide you with background information on the reviewer and any presumed connections that may exist between him/her and the contributing party.Reviews take up a bunch of peoples time - and when I do get to load up the sim (time is sparse these days), its for reviews and I generally get off track. As Robert said, we are volunteers and do not get paid for any of this.

Share this post


Link to post
As far as I am aware, AVSIM is not like that
I agree it is not the case.

Share this post


Link to post

After reading the review, I actually thought of buying the product simply because it's inexpensive and would add a payware quality KLAX in an area where I already have Megascenery - an ideal combination. But looking at the screenshots on the BluePrint web site, I decided it wasn't worth the money. I have to agree with the comment above - it would be a "good" freeware offering but is most certainly not even close to contemporary payware standards even at a lower price than is usual in payware sceneries.In defense of BluePrint, I would like to make two points:1. They do offer two of their airports as freeware which is pretty decent2. When they do an upgrade, which is frequent, it is free for existing owners, even if it is a completely new version as in their recent release of KIAD V.2I'm not going to comment on the review other than to agree that the "likes/dislikes" summary comments should be consistent with the contents of the review...

Share this post


Link to post
I am inclined to agree with the OP. The review was "sparse" (to be kind) and even though the reviewer pointed out things in his review that he didn't like, he stated that he disliked nothing about the scenery. The like/dislike panel should be a synopsis of the review so that the reader can scan the pros/cons before reading the review much like an executive summary.I own the scenery and the fact is that while the buildings are shaped and placed accurately, the lack of texturing makes the airport look and feel like a paper drawing of an airport in contrast to the photorealistic background of the area. The look and "feel" of the airport sucks the "suspension of disbelief" right out of the sim. Juxtapose Blueprint LAX vs many top FREEWARE airports and Blueprint products sit firmly in the bleak world of Perfect Flight type products. That is to say, products that would merely pass as OK freeware but is somehow substantiated as worthy of payment. Harsh? Yes. Avsim is renowned for its reviews and thousands give the Avsim reviews heavy weight, like it or not. Unfortunately, with the exception of a few reviewers who obviously take great pains to write detailed, entertaining, and substantive reviews, an increasing number of reviews are being slapped together and being put to print with no substantive editing of which to speak. Compare this review vs Benjamin van Soldt's review of Hanoi and its night and day.Having been an Avsim reviewer on and off (currently off) for many years I've honestly been pretty disappointed with the bulk of reviews as of late. Not because I agree or disagree with the reviewer (that's not my place), but because of the wanting substance that passes for a legitimate review.Come on Avsim...you have already set the industry bar for excellence in reviews...whip those guys into shape! OR have Angelique van Campen whip them into shape because she knocks the ball out of the park with each of her highly professional reviews.
I own the BluePrint K:LAX scenery too, plus their KIND scenery. I won't quibble with anyone else's impression of the product except to say that I've been very happy with both of my BluePrint purchases. For approx. $15 US a pop, I wasn't expecting "photo-realistic" scenery. Comments about the textures used (or not used) in the scenery may be valid. I don't know. I've never seen LAX IRL, but I do know that being "in" that environment in the simulation is pleasing to me, and it's at least head-and-shoulders above the default Microsoft version of LAX. That's why I bought it. In the Microsoft version, LAX has in total probably no more than a couple dozen gates, if even that many, and I was constantly flying in there in various sizes of aircraft only to find I couldn't get a gate assignment after landing. BluePrint's KLAX solved that for me. It has plenty of gates. As for their KIND scenery, I live near there, and Microsoft never did anything for KIND except a very, very basic, quite generic airport. BluePrint, on the other hand, got all the gate assignments right at the old terminal, then offered a free upgrade when the new mid-field terminal opened. In the upgraded scenery, the mid-field terminal looks very much like it does when I see it on the TV news.Although I've been simming for more than a decade, these were the first two scenery purchases I've ever made, and the faults mentioned notwithstanding, I think BluePrint could have done far worse, and if I decide to purchase more scenery, I'll at least see what they have to offer.

Share this post


Link to post

I have no beef with BluePrint as I hope my post above shows but if you really want a quality KLAX at a great price, check out the FSDT web site. They are currently having a sale on all their sceneries and the older Cloud9 products are 40% off. That means you can buy their KLAX for slightly less than the BluePrint product and frankly, it is vastly superior. Though it's not to the standard of their current FSDT sceneries, it was one of the last sceneries they released as Cloud9 and it is excellent, even though it's probably 4-5 years old. Make sure you find the announcement that gives you the discount code to put in when purchasing... The sale lasts until May 19 as I recallIan

I have no beef with BluePrint as I hope my post above shows but if you really want a quality KLAX at a great price, check out the FSDT web site. They are currently having a sale on all their sceneries and the older Cloud9 products are 40% off. That means you can buy their KLAX for slightly less than the BluePrint product and frankly, it is vastly superior. Though it's not to the standard of their current FSDT sceneries, it was one of the last sceneries they released as Cloud9 and it is excellent, even though it's probably 4-5 years old. Make sure you find the announcement that gives you the discount code to put in when purchasing... The sale lasts until May 19 as I recallIan
Here is the thread if you want to go straight to the discount informationhttp://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php?topic=4298.0

Share this post


Link to post

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  
  • Tom Allensworth,
    Founder of AVSIM Online


  • Flight Simulation's Premier Resource!

    AVSIM is a free service to the flight simulation community. AVSIM is staffed completely by volunteers and all funds donated to AVSIM go directly back to supporting the community. Your donation here helps to pay our bandwidth costs, emergency funding, and other general costs that crop up from time to time. Thank you for your support!

    Click here for more information and to see all donations year to date.
×
×
  • Create New...