Since the latest titles from Microsoft weren't all that good, and the beta version of Crimson Skies didn't work on my computer (it made my pc crash) I wasn't all in favor of testing this game.
To my surprise, however, I did like it (and I'm in no way a flightsim lover).

Crimson skies puts you in some kind of alternate universe where the world didn't really survive the Wall Street crash of the early 1930's and where zeppelins are a common way of transportation.

You are an air pirate who has to gain money to buy new aircrafts (read : fighters) and the whole storyline is given in movie-sequences like the news that was projected in cinema's in the start of this century which really gives a good atmosphere.

The campaign is some kind of adventure (like it was done in the later Wing Commander games) where you have to fly through about 20 missions in total to reach your ultimate goal.
Through these missions you'll have to explore grounds, conquer zeppelins and dogfight against other fighter pilots.

Crimson skies plays like an adventure where instead of controlling a character, you control your airplane.

Next to the campaign there's Instant Action, where you can play several missions with instant dogfighting action, and multiplayer in which there are several possibilities like Capture the Zeppelin and regular deathmatch.

Graphically everything is pretty well-done. The grounds look realistic and the entire environment contributes well to the general atmosphere of the game with planes that look like they were made before World War 2.

Don't think you'll be playing some Red Baron type of game though because although the aircrafts look old, they still have things like targeting which is called Spycam.

The only thing that bothered me about Crimson Skies is the amount of bugs.
I don't know how many bugs there are in this game, but they sure as hell froze my pc completely several times, and that's something that should not be allowed to happen.
I guess Microsoft still hasn't learned from the Windows-bugs...