Page 1
Combat Flight Simulator II
By Jim "Twitch" TittleWhatever misgivings you may have had about the original MS Combat Flight Simulator (CFS) you will see improved in CFS II. You may or may not like "Bill's Outfit" for this or that reason, but his boys CAN build excellent flight simulators! Tucker Hatfield is one of the main influences on this sim and his experience from our old favorites like Aces Of The Pacific and Aces Over Europe is quite evident in this Pacific based version.
Set Up
The installation of the huge program went without a hitch just as did CFS. Gone are the days of tweaking configuration and autoexec files to get enough juice just to run it. The time you used to spend can now be put toward the myriad of detailed controls set up. EVERYTHING is programmable to your desires from keyboard to joystick.
Quick Mission set up
You can spend over an hour adjusting the 250 plus control assignments and experimenting. You can choose from either the basic CFS default to begin or from the standard Flight Sim control assignment list. Force feedback is supported, naturally, as well as rudder pedals. Being a left-handed mouse user, I love the articulated controls in the cockpit since my right hand never leaves the stick. This is one sim that really does run on an older 266-300MhZ machine, albeit with some toned down ground details. On a newer machine 500MhZ with about 128MB RAM and a 32MB video card it should be flawless. 1024 X 768 gave fine resolution. Lower settings didn't degrade the graphics any more than it does in EAW.
Graphics
Graphics are beyond reproach. While much of the flying is over water and nondescript islands you will not be awed. The aqua-blue reefs are superb to behold. Most importantly are the aircraft---beautiful ones. They are as weathered from combat use as the plastic models I used to age with a paint brush. You can see paint chipped off and wear from cockpit ingress/egress. The gun ports have telltale blackening from the muzzle blasts too. Sure, you may want to custom paint your planes, but the outside Microsoft utilities exist to accomplish that. It will keep the "skinners" busy for quite awhile.
Sound
Meatwater will have to work long and hard to improve things in this area. This sim got it right! There is a plethora of sounds, some subtle, some not so subtle. All the .WAV files produce healthy virtual resonance to assist the "real" feel. The machine guns and cannon produce earthy no-nonsense "whomps" that will thrill you. Each aircraft has all its own engine sounds from the cough of start-up through the full spectrum of throttle use. Gear and flap sounds are good too. But sound is just the half of it.
F6F on Wale Island
You must experience all the sounds with a feedback chair or Aura cushion. You will feel everything from the guns to the plane rolling on the ground. Nothing is lacking here. Hmm? These .WAVs should work in European Air War too if they can be converted to .SND! The radio calls are as tinny and well modulated as those in Crimson Skies. Finally the era of accurately portrayed WWII radio speakers has arrived.
Game Play
I set all the flight and ammo parameters for maximum as I always do on a new sim since the planes fly as I am accustomed to. The Quick Combat should be the first mode for experienced flyers. People new to combat sims can lower the realism setting and do some non-combat flying to get some experience. But the Quick Combat does allow combat experience without penalty as the Campaign would. Real pilots didn't have that luxury. You can take on some bombers and get a feel for the sim.
Scratch one Oscar!
I found more problems with learning the differences in the flight model quirks than with gunnery. There is a Custom Mission Builder feature that permits you to set up and create anything you want with all the details right down to wind, weather, cloud altitudes, and even dew point. See the accompanying screen shot of a lightning bolt in windscreen of the George. There is no rain, but to illustrate that we'd see unrealistic diagonal lines and splashes on the windscreen, it would take a lot of graphics power to look right. You can build the same variety of missions as the Campaign has.| Next |
