Microsoft's Time Machine
Written: Nov 03 '00 (Updated Nov 03 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Stunning graphics, immersive game play, great sound, good use of force feedback.
Cons: Resource hog, cannot easily import missions from the original game.
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| ehetzler's Full Review: Combat Flight Simulator 3: Battle for Europe For W... |
I have been buying combat flight simulator games for years in a quest to find the ultimate flight simulation experience. There have been some good ones over the years, but each had flaws that left me wanting more. I was looking for the immersion factor of Microprose’s 1994 DOS game, Pacific Air War, realistic flight modeling like Microsoft’s Flight Simulator, stunning visuals, desk rattling sound effects, and force feedback.
The original Combat Flight Simulator came close. Combat Flight Simulator 2 takes the goodness of the original game, corrects the defects, and adds style. As much as people bash Microsoft for being unresponsive to Users, they evidently were listening on this one.
The World
Combat Flight Simulator 2 uses the same elevated mesh model (with some enhancements) of the world as Flight Simulator 2000. The scenery library function is identical to the one in Flight Simulator. The level of detail is stunning both on the ground and in the air. The only area with detailed scenery that ships with the game is the WWII Pacific Theater of Operations. Additional scenery is required for operations in other parts of the world.
The Planes
The game ships with seven player flyable aircraft. The Japanese side consists of two models of the Zero and a George. The American planes are an F4F, F6F, F4U, and a P38. Surprisingly there is no P40 and neither side has flyable torpedo or dive-bombers. However, CFS2 sites with player created aircraft are popping up on the Web. I have already downloaded an excellent P40 to correct this omission.
The planes are highly detailed. You can see the rivets. Unlike the original Combat Flight Simulator, you can see damage. Fly through an anti-aircraft barrage and you can feel hits with your force feedback joystick and see the holes in your wing. Switch to the spot plane view after a battle and you can see your plane riddled with bullet holes or worse. You can even see the spent shell casings drop away from under your wings when you fire your machine guns.
The aircraft scaling issue that plagued the original game has been fixed. User created aircraft can function as AI controlled planes without modification. I find my shooting has improved because I am not lured into firing too early by the visual model. It also means enemy planes are harder to see.
The flight models are even better than those in the original game. To really appreciate the differences you need a force feedback joystick. You can literally feel the torque effects as you throttle up the F4U Corsair. You can feel the difference between the heavy F4F and the light highly maneuverable Zeros.
The 2D cockpits are highly detailed even down to the Japanese planes having all markings in Japanese. Fortunately there are pop-up labels in English when you point your mouse at an instrument. You can call up a situation map from the cockpit while you are flying. This adds tremendously to the “you are there” feel of the game. You are no longer forced to just follow the waypoint indicator. If you have to return home early, you can find your way back.
The 3D cockpits are excellent. You can switch to this view and fly your plane just as well as from the 2D cockpit.
All of the default Combat Flight Simulator planes import easily. They are not as highly detailed as the new aircraft, but they look better than in the original game. Some of the new effects also work such as falling shell casings and engine smoke on startup. Flight Simulator 2000 planes also import well. Flight Simulator 98 and some early User created Combat Flight Simulator planes do not.
Missions, Campaigns, Mission Editor
There are only a handful of stand-alone missions included with the game. These are recreations of historical combats. You will enjoy these if recreating historical situations is part of the attraction of a game like this for you. If you are into pure action, you will probably find these missions boring. There is also a free flight and quick combat mode as in the original game.
Combat Flight Simulator 2 has one extended campaign that you can fly from the Japanese or American side. Unlike the original, you do not need to be 100% successful to advance to the next mission. The campaign is scripted, but unfolds differently depending on how you are doing. Early on, you stand a better chance of success flying for the Japanese. As the war progresses the balance of power shifts to the American side.
You can communicate with your wingmen. You can direct attacks, call for help, and regroup. Combine this with the situation map and you begin to feel like you are really contributing to the mission’s success or failure. American radio chatter is in English. Japanese radio chatter is in Japanese with English sub-titles. The Developer’s really responded to the criticisms of the original Combat Flight Simulator and pulled out all of the stops when it came to making Combat Flight Simulator 2 immersive.
The game comes with a fully functional object oriented mission editor. This is a stand-alone program that deserves a review of it’s own. If you ever struggled with some of the mission editors available for the original Combat Flight Simulator, you are in for a treat. You can even fly test a mission as you are creating it. If the level of User support for the original game carries over to this one I expect to see Pearl Harbor, Midway, and Doolittle campaigns shortly.
Weather
This has the same level of weather detail (minus the Real Weather download function) as Flight Simulator 2000. You can model wind, turbulence, cloud formations, heat, humidity, and rain. Using the mission editor, I created a Japanese dawn attack on Guadalcanal with rain, humidity, and 90 temperatures. I flew CAP with a squad of P40’s. Weather makes a difference and really takes a toll on planes like the P40.
System Requirements
I have been running this without problems on a 256 Meg RAM, 400 MHz Pentium II with all features except visibility set to maximum. I use a 16 Meg TNT video card and a SoundBlaster Live sound card. You must have the latest version of DirectX, Direct Media, and the latest drivers for your video and sound card. The frame rates are modest at about 15 fps, but visually the game is smooth and plays without hang-ups.
Is there anything about the game I do not like? Yes. You cannot easily import the missions, campaigns, and scenery from the original Combat Flight Simulator. In theory, this should be possible, but there are no instructions about how to do it. Simply dropping the missions into the new game does not work. These games together take up close to 1.5 Gig of space. I hope that Microsoft or one of the CFS2 User groups will address this.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
ehetzler
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Member: Ed Hetzler
Location: Hudson, MA
Reviews written: 18
Trusted by: 19 members
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