I felt the need to express how much Blazing Angels sucks, so here's my rant. Anyone even considering it should take note of what I say here, but I'm not saying this happens to everyone, just me.

As you might have read in my last post, I wasn't very impressed of the demo and the only reason I have the full version is because I won it from Xfire. So, my expectations of the full version weren't very high either, they were actually quite low, but it turned out much worse than I expected.

Here's the basic timeline of how it unfolded...
1. I installed the game, no problems yet.
2. After quickly going through the configuration, I tried starting the game only to be met with a protection system library installation which required a reboot, so I restarted my PC.
3. After restarting, I started the game and tried to do the first training mission in the campaign. For some reason, right after the takeoff sequence, the camera was stuck on the ground showing people running around while the audio was coming from me up in the plane, making it completely unplayable. I could hear myself shooting and the instructor guy talking and giving me instructions, but that's it.
4. I decided I had to look for a patch and found that 1.02 was the latest version. I downloaded 1.02 and tried installing only to be told I needed to install the 1.01 patch first, so I did. After getting both patches installed, I tried starting the game and was met with another protection system update requiring another reboot. That's when I gave up for a few days because I hate rebooting a lot and didn't reboot until today.
5. After rebooting again, I tried starting the game and it told me to activate the game by entering in the serial number. First I tried the key on the sticker inside the box, that didn't work. Then I tried the code below it that said "Do not Enter this number to install game", obviously that didn't work. Then I tried the UPC number, that didn't work. I took out the manual to see if there were more codes in it or by chance better instructions for what they wanted me to enter and found another key (different from the first key in the box) and entered that in, but that didn't work. I tried the product number found on the back of the box, and you can guess the result. When I clicked OK after a failed activation to do it over the phone, it got an "Unhandled exception in the Protection System" twice and crashed. I also tried doing the manual (phone) activation when it initially asked if I wanted to to it automatically over the internet or by phone, but that gave the error too.
I went to the official forums for solutions only to find lots of people with the same or similar problems and no solutions.
6. When I tried uninstalling the game, both from Add/Remove Programs and from the CD uninstall option in the autorun, it started the installer for the 1.02 patch (claiming to be a 1.00 to 1.02 patch), which I decided to follow through with for the heck of it, and it required disks 1, 3, and 4 to be inserted and a bunch of files copied from them FOR A PATCH!
The only way to uninstall this game is to manually delete the files and registry entries.

This makes me furious at how horribly made this game is, especially because of the protection system crap. The protection system makes all the other horrible bugs look mild.
I think this is the first full version game I've ever owned that turned out to be unplayable.

Does anyone want to buy Blazing Angels for dirt cheap even though it probably won't work? I doubt it but my offer is out there.