flight

So I've been flying flight sims since the days of FS version 1.0, and I was pretty psyched about this game after reading all the reviews. After playing it, however, I've come away somewhat disappointed. It's not a *bad* game, but it's not as good as it could be.

What's right:
-Beautiful graphics. This is one pretty game.
-Nice selection of planes to fly, with different and reasonably well-modeled flight characteristics.
-Excellent detail on the engine controls and damage modeling.

What's wrong:
-Repetitive, inflexible missions. Take off, accelerate time to target zone, dogfight or bomb, accelerate time home. Yawn. After about five missions I was starting to feel like I'd seen everything.
-Useless wingmen
-Limited radio commands to issue (and the wingmen never seem to listen anyway)
-Useless LSO for carrier landings (and *terrible* looking...couldn't they at least animate him or do him in 3D? He looks like a cardboard cutout!) Follow his instructions and you'll miss the deck every single time.
-No torpedoes. How do you model the Pacific war without including torpedoes?

But the reason I was most disappointed with it was that I never got the feeling of being immersed in a bigger conflict...all the missions just seemed very limited and not very interesting. It's a shame - they've got nice graphics and flight models here, but it seems like they never spent the time to flesh out the rest of the game.

CFS2 gets better the more I play it. Once I learned how to use the target padlock along with the wingman commands, my wingmen started getting kills and sinking ships for me. Play the game right and your wingmen can achieve ace status.

You can change the degree of difficulty of the campaign you want to fly. On the 'hard' setting, the flak is intense, the enemy pilots are aces, and bad things happen out of nowhere- engine failure in flight, runway collisions, malfunctioning parachutes. Try the night carrier landing!

I like the fact that there are so many online add-ons available. For instance, if you want a break from dog-fighting, you can download dive-bombers or torpedo planes and do some serious anti-ship attacks. Getting the hang of putting a torpedo into the side of an enemy ship takes practice, but it can be done.

There's great support for this game from online gamers, from planes to missions and campaigns.

Many realistic effects in the game. Sometimes your parachute doesn't open if you bail out of a plane engulfed in flames; gunfire damage affects your plane's flight characteristics, which usually means the enemy fighters get the upper hand and can finish you off; sometimes the enemy pilots bail out and you catch a glimpse of their chutes as you fly by (I've tried to shoot a few survivors but haven't caught any yet); I've even had hard landings on carriers where the landing gear broke or the prop struck the deck yet I survived.

The only disappointing effect has been the times when I bailed out within sight of friendly ships yet was captured by the enemy. I guess the lesson is... don't get shot down!

CFS2 is fantastic.

As an avid flight simmer, I was really looking forward to this game, but also with a lot of doubts. The game itself is incredible; graphics are the best I have seen from any flight simulation. The concern when I first got it was, the same thing that disappointed me with FS2000, the frame rate. I, by no means have a fast computer (PIII 600, 128 MB RAM), but I am consistently getting a pleasing 25-30 frames a second from CFS2, and that was with the detail turned on full blast and 4 planes buzzing around, I was overwhelmed. The only way I could get that good of frame rates from FS2000, was to fly at night over the ocean.

The detail put into this game is great, everything from seeing the ripples in the water as a ship is sunk, to the sounds of the ships motors as you fly by, flying through the flak, oh and of course the damage of the planes being shot.....very nice. There were a few disappointments, one being wingman commands....they are very limited, and the limited amount of planes you can fly, I would have liked to fly a B-25 and drop 3000 lbs of bombs on a tiny island, overall its a outstanding game, 1 step above CFS Europe.

Also, I bought my first FS software to fly the number one freeware aircraft simulator on the Internet - The TR-3B Flying Triangle. I flew fighters for the Air Force in late Vietnam, specifically the F-111 and am rated commercial also. The TR-3B Flight Simulator for Microsoft's Flight Sim, is based on the writings, lectures, and TV interviews of Edgar Fouche who wrote "Alien Rapture." (See amazon)

Why? This is what the genius who developed it wrote: "For the experienced flight simmer on FS2002 PRO, I have developed this complete exotic amphibian TR-3B package, which is now available as freeware for download. It includes 3 models - the purple Astra, blue Locust and white Hellas - and as an extra 4th model the TR-3X with its own speedy attacker flight dynamics. The package includes TR-3B panel & gauges, noise cancellation sounds, fsuipc and special lights effects.

This TR-3B is a heavy tactical reconnaissance aircraft equipped with a magnetic field disruptor that reduces the weight by 89 percent (it is not the same as anti-gravity, though). It has been created for Microsoft Flight Simulator. All gauges are included.

The TR-3B can float like a speedboat at Mach 1.5 over water, fly like a heavy helicopter, like a bush plane, a business jet, like a military jet and lift like a rocket. Cruise speed is approx Mach 4.7 at FL340 and above, and approx Mach 2 at sea level. Service ceiling approx 69,000 feet ASL. Super stable. FSFREEWARE, SURCLARO, FSPLANET aircraft simulator sites have reported as many as 5000 downloads in one week!

I searched and read many many web pages about his book and the author, Edgar Fouche including; startfinish(put in the dot com.)biz/wise Click on links for Fouche and Flying Triangle. You will find his full presentation, and the download links for the TR-3B. Get the Great TR-3B Top Secret aircraft simulator and X-Plane, which I highly recommend.