Long story short, I encountered a bug in my decade-old installation, so decided to upgrade to the current FSOpen iteration and graphics assets. And holy shit, explosions have gotten real pretty over the last ten years.
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
On top of that, the team behind Blue Planet has remade the original campaign with tweaked missions and rebalanced weapons. That was a pipe dream in 2010 when I was active in the testing community, but apparently the crazy bastards have gone and done it.
![Mr. Green :mrgreen:](./images/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif)