| Rating
Guide |
Vought F4U Corsair
The Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero
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| Publisher:
Microsoft |
Description:
An updated version of Combat Flight Simulator set in the World War II Pacific Theater |
Download Size:
N/A |
Format:
Executable Auto Install File |
Simulator Type:
U.S. and Japanese Pacific campaigns |
| Reviewed by: Robert Whitwell, AVSIM Staff Reviewer |
Possible
Commercial Rating Score: 1 to 5 stars with
5 stars being exceptional |
Preface
By Maury Pratt, AVSIM Managing Editor - Reviews
Though there are many excellent combat simulation products in the market, including this product's predecessor, "Combat Flight Simulator" set in World War II's European theater, I believe this product offers something far more than another "flight combat" simulator (this time placed in the Pacific theater of the same era). Unlike most of our readers, I was a boy at that time living in California near the Lockheed factory where the B-17 "Flying Fortress" was manufactured under license with Boeing—and Lockheed's own P-38 "Lightning." Of course many aircraft types were being built in southern California at the time, and I made scale models of nearly all of them. The appeal to me of this particular product is not only that it recreates the heroic feats of those who fought in the pacific—on both sides—but I think it makes it possible for those born much later to get a sense of history in a way not possible in any other medium. Yes, it's fun to fly these warbirds, and the missions are very, very realistic. Yes, the re-creation of these long-gone aircraft is highly authentic. But its fun is much more, I believe, than learning to fly them well enough to score hits and survive not only enemy combat, but to find your carrier and get it on the deck in one piece as well—master this sim, and you'll understand much of a time and place that set the stage for the world as we know it today.
You'll find brief histories for each of the Campaigns together with maps of those battles. There's other goodies available at MS' CFS 2 website, such as interviews with legendary pilots Bud Anderson, Joe Foss and Saburo Sakai providing vivid accounts of their experiences. I also recommend two worthwhile tutorials on fighter tactics, American fighter tactics and Japanese Fighter Tactics.
I asked Managing Editor Bill Dailey to write the introduction to this review to give you a flavor for not only the groundbreaking aspects of Microsoft's new Combat Flight Simulator 2, but also to share his perspective as to why we believe this product is a precursor of things to come in their Flight Simulator series. Following Bill's remarks is Robert Whitwell's product description and his assessment.
CFS 2 - Déjà vu and a Future View
By Bill Dailey, AVSIM Managing Editor
When I first brought up CFS 2 on my screen I was struck by the very powerful sense of having seen this sim before—someplace a long time ago. Then—as my F6F Hellcat turned toward the carrier it hit me—I had seen this very same view before. It was in 1994—and I was struggling to get Microprose's groundbreaking graphics in "1942: The Pacific Air War" to run on my measly little 386 processor (with 8 MB RAM!!!). At that time I was awed by the detail on the aircraft and the realism of the sky and sea with the carrier steaming in the background. I was also frustrated as heck by the slide show frame rates—a frustration shared by many simmers at the time if you followed the forum messages of the day. "1942" was a sim ahead of its time with graphics and depth beyond the capability most of the hardware of 1994. But it gave us a glimpse of the future and of the potential of flight sims to recreate the reality of past events in astonishing detail. If only we had the hardware!
Flash forward to 2000: Hardware is pretty much not a problem anymore. The graphics and processor power available to us today—even on what might be termed mid level machines—is at a level unimagined in 1994 and within striking distance of letting us realize the full potential of simming to create an immersive and "real" experience that we could only see the dim outlines of back in the early 90's. Beyond its many great features as a World War II combat sim, the real significance of CFS 2 may just be that it's the first example of the new breed of immersion and "reality" that will become the sim standard in the near future. A 'standard' is something that other similar things are judged against.
So what standards does CFS 2 set? Well, first off—it runs out of the box without any show stopper bugs that I'm aware of. Sure there are some glitches as there are with any new software release, but I'd be hard pressed to think of a major combat sim (or any sim) release of recent times that was as bug free as this one. Chalk one up for the return of Quality Assurance before product release! Bravo Microsoft!
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Reader Survey
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Next—taken as a whole—I submit to you that the graphics are simply the very best going today (be sure you have "Detailed Textures" checked in your Settings to get the full impact). Take a close look at the aircraft—the detail of these rugged and well-used war birds is breathtaking. The environment and scenery is likewise first rate. I've personally flown over the South Pacific in real Navy airplanes and the water shades and hues and island topography you see in CFS 2 are what it looks like looking out the window. Look at the damage effects. The flak bursts are the best of any combat sim currently on the market as far as what real flak looks like. Having it burst in front of me rolling in to a ship target brought back the same uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach that I had watching real flak over Laos in the 1960s. Watch the water splashes of your tracers hitting around a ship target. Now go look at some old gun camera film of a similar run on "Wings" or a "Victory at Sea" video. The CFS 2 depiction is dead on.
Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat. Fly the one to learn basic flying and combat skills.
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Mitsubishi A6M5 Zero. This version was introduced later in the war.
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I could go on but the point is "Immersion." That's what I think the graphics in CFS 2 do to an extent better than about any other sim on the street right now. And immersion is what makes a sim because for a sim to work you have to feel its real—and reality is visual to a large extent.
So I'd say CFS 2 is the visual standard that we will see in the future—for planes, for scenery, and for effects. And while we're talking about visual effects—an area where combat sims have long reigned supreme—is in "views." Virtual cockpits with working instruments and panning views have been standard in combat sims for lo these many years. We are beginning to see them creep into the civil side, and I hope Microsoft will take some of the stuff in CFS 2 when it comes time for the next version of MSFS—think about the usefulness of a padlock view option on the runway threshold for approaches—just to name one potential application!
So what have we got so far? A smooth running out of the box program and immersive graphics.
Next on my list of CFS 2 standards would be 3rd party adaptability by design—meaning the intended capability of non Microsoft folks to be able to modify and add on. Within days of release all of the CFS 2 AI aircraft were easily modified and became player flyable. It's only a matter of time before 3rd party panels for all of them will be commonplace—as well as whole new 3rd party designed aircraft, and scenery, and who knows what else. This is the secret to success for a great sim—one that stays on your hard drive and doesn't get stale. I'd say nobody can touch Microsoft in this area (yet anyway) and that makes CFS 2 great! Yes other combat sims have modified and add on aircraft and scenery available—but not especially easily done and pretty much not by design. (Note to other developers: get a clue!) And how about being able to import FS2000 planes and scenery? I guess "versatility' would be a one-word summary of what I'm trying to say here.
Finally—a key feature is the mission builder. This lets you customize the combat sim experience to whatever level of detail and circumstance you want. Intuitively easy to use (but the written documentation could use a little work), it has depth and—here's that word again—versatility enough to satisfy the most creative simming imaginations. CFS 2 simmers can create an infinite variety of missions and circumstances and trade them with others.
I have only touched here on a few of the key features of CFS 2—there are many others we could discuss (flight models, multiplayer, wingmen commands and tactical communications), but the ones I've called out are those which establish principles and building blocks to guide the future. Smooth operation, immersive graphics, adaptability, and a tool to customize your experience. Broad concepts brought down to earth in this release of CFS 2 at a level rarely seen before in a sim release that sets standards against which to go forward. At one and the same time a guide to and look at the future.
So is everything perfect in CFS 2? No it's not—ship and aircraft damage models need work I think (I was able to sink ships with a single strafing run and a hit anywhere on your airplane seems to unduly affect aircraft roll capabilities), wingman AI seems fuzzy at best, and parts of the documentation are the all too common mishmash of stuff without much "here's how you do it" substance – but – taken as whole – CFS 2 is a breakthrough release. The total package blows away anything else as of today.
Which brings me to a final thought—a prediction actually: I predict CFS 2 or some version of it will be one of the titles available for Microsoft's XBox game console to be released next year (Remember—you heard it here first!) And that my friends will be the beginning of the next sim revolution.
If "1942: Pacific Air War" to CFS 2 is today's leap of technology think about this: From "Pong" on the Atari to CFS 2 on the XBox—what a concept!
Microsoft's Combat Flight Simulator 2
By Robert Whitwell, AVSIM Staff Reviewer
The first impression when flying any of the 7 aircraft offered in this sim was WOW! This sim is great. The opening "movie" is a series of "cartoon panels" depicting a pilot from the United States Navy and his counterpart from the Imperial Japanese Navy. The short film is done in the style of a 1940's comic book. This theme is continued throughout the entire sim, including the instruction manual.
Test
System |
Pentium II 330 Mhz
Windows98
64 MB RAM
Banshee 3d Video card
24x CD ROM
32 bit sound card
Presario 1525 Monitor
Logitech "Wingman" Extreme Joystick
Flying Time:
28 Hours over 10 days
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Close-up view of the Corsair
Lockheed P-38F Lightning. This one takes real skill to fly but will out-dive anything.
Corsair landing at Wake Island
Here's how it looks from the cockpit
Wave-off! in the F6F approaching the Enterprise. The training flights take you through progressively more difficult situations.
This guy did it right!
The "Quick Combat Options" screen.
"Single Mission" setup screen
A Zero scores against a P-38
Wildcat trailing smoke
This Corsair's in real trouble – an example of CFS 2's battle damage
... And the unfortunate consequences
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Before you start
Reading the manual is a must. It goes into detail of the keyboard commands and gives the various characteristics of each aircraft. There is also a lot of historical data in this manual that I felt was predominantly for trivia buffs and unimportant. The elimination of this material would have made the instructional manual a lot shorter. Next you are offered a "Settings" screen. Here you get to select items such as realism, sound effects and display qualities. I would recommend setting the display quality to its highest especially if you have a top notch video card. Of course the higher the quality the graphics, the more it's going to have an effect on your refresh speed. The realism options allow you to choose from an easy 40% realism to a hard 100% realism. You can also customize your selection to whatever realism setting you would like.
One nice feature is the auto-rudder selection. It's not difficult to ground loop one of these machines during take off or landing, so having the ability of an auto rudder is one less thing to worry about.
Training
The sim offers various training scenarios that are essential to get a feel for the flying characteristics of a World War II fighter. These training missions are accompanied by your flight instructor giving you directions over the radio, complete with that tin can static voice of early radios. Since most of us are used to flying high tech jet aircraft in other sims, this sim takes us back to the "seat of the pants" style of aviating.
These training missions are designed to teach the rookie aviator the basics of flight, such as taking off and landing, as well as the basics of dogfighting. Knowing how to execute an Immelman or a split-S could mean the difference between life and death when up against a worthy adversary. For ease of understanding, each maneuver is displayed and described in its own screen for the novice aviator.
While it may be assumed that a seasoned sim aviator could jump into the cockpit of his trusty steed and go vertical into the wild blue, these aircraft can be slow, sluggish and harder to handle. There's no radar to lock on and no missiles to toast the enemy from many miles away. It's all about getting into an advantageous position and squeezing the trigger. We won't even start to talk about distinguishing friend from foe. However, this is accomplished during the mission through color coded aircraft on an independent type of heads-up display window.
Once you have mastered the basics of getting airborne and maneuvering around the sky, it's time to bring your airplane back home. Home can sometimes be a carrier—and landing these aircraft on a flattop is no easy matter. Fortunately, there is an LSO who pops up in a separate window to guide you down. There are no verbal communications here, it's the old fashioned flag in each hand to guide you in. The reference manual describes the various LSO signals and their meanings.
Getting into the thick of things
Upon completing your flight training, you are now offered four choices; free flight, quick combat, single missions or campaign.
In these scenario offerings you can decide which country you wish to fly for as well as which aircraft you wish to pilot. The American aircraft available are the F4U Corsair, the F6F-3 Hellcat, the F4F-4 Wildcat and the P-38 Lightning. On the Japanese side you can choose between the Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero or A6M5 Zero "Zeke" as well as the Kawanishi N1K2J "George." There's also a collection of 11 "computer generated" planes—you can't fly these, but they show up in the campaigns:
- Bell P–39D Airacobra
- Douglas TBD-1 Devastator Torpedo Bomber
- Grumman TBF–1 Avenger Torpedo Bomber
- Douglas SBD-2 Dauntless Dive-Bomber
- North American B–25D/PBJ Mitchell Medium Bomber
- Douglas C–47 Skytrain (USAAF) / R4D (USN) Transport
- Consolidated PB4Y/B–24D Liberator Heavy Bomber
- Nakajima Ki-43-IIb Hayabusa (Peregrine Falcon) "Oscar"
- Mitsubishi G4M2 "Betty” Medium Bomber
- Aichi D3A1 "Val" Dive-Bomber
- Nakajima B5N2 "Kate” Torpedo Bomber
Free Flight
Once you've selected your nationality it's on to the aircraft page FOR a list of corresponding aircraft. Here you get an excellent rotating 3-D look at your ride along with an historic description and aircraft stats. You also select the weapons load for your aircraft along with the fuel and ammunition loads. A "Plane Tour" button is available if you are inclined to learn more about the aircraft you have selected.
Next you choose your starting location from a list of 51 airfields. Time of day from dawn through to night as well as weather ranging from clear to thunderstorms and wind velocity are also options on this page.
Once you have set all of the parameters, it's on to the actual flight and your first experience in the cockpit for real.
Quick Combat
As before, you set up your aircraft in accordance with the nationality you choose. The aviator also is offered the ability to set up his flight with the the number of wingmen he desires. You also have the choice of enemy types, number per wave and their skill level. You can also choose the mission type: dogfight, escort or bomber intercept. Each mission comes with a description.
Single Missions
These missions are based on actual missions during the air war in the Pacific. There are 10 missions available, each with a description of the mission and the requirements to complete the mission. Again the player chooses nationality and aircraft type, along with the settings screen.
Campaigns
This is an ongoing scenario type adventure. Here your skills as an aviator are scored. After selecting your campaign and its difficulty you will read an overview of the campaign. You can add pilots from a crew selection list as well as selecting the time period during the war in the Pacific as your campaign start point.
There is also a "Pilot's Details" page which shows your rank, number of missions flown, number of kills, ground targets destroyed as well as your loses. If you have been awarded any medals, they are shown on this page. During your campaign, you start out as an Ensign and you work your way up through the ranks to Commander (or its Japanese equivalent).
Multi-player
You have the ability to play on-line through various hosted pages such as the "Zone". Or you can host your own game or join in on one with your friends.
Overall
Each aircraft has its own distinct handling characteristics, whether it be maximum speed, stall speed, ceiling capability or turn rate. The sim has an abundance of realistic features of the aircraft include sliding canopies, folding wings, moving tail hooks and retractable landing gear. These features are great to watch from a chase plane; they add a lot of realism to the sim. Also of note are the details of each individual cockpit layout, the realistic looking weathered and battle scarred paint, smoke stains around the gun ports, right down to the number of rivets along the fuselage. When taking damage during a dogfight, bullet holes, leaking fluid and structural damage like a burning engine are plainly visible. The smoke effects add an element of realism, especially after strafing an enemy and watching him thunder in with a blazing trail behind him.
Details to the aircraft are not the only eye candy in this sim. The naval vessels are well depicted. The American Yorktown class carrier is very distinguishable from the Japanese Hiryu class carrier. You may also come across battleships, cruisers, destroyers and submarines during your flights over the ocean. The coastal terrain and varying water depths along the seashore add an amazing amount of realism to this sim. Flying low level over the pacific islands will reveal highly detailed roads, rivers, coastlines, airfields and buildings. During battle engagements, explosions and splashes are extremely well rendered as bullets and bombs make contact with enemy units and the water.
The higher the realism settings, the more accurate the characteristics of each aircraft, from flight performance and damage effects to the number of hits it takes to bring an aircraft down. Fuel and ammunition management will also come into play with the higher settings.
The opposite is true at the easier settings; an arcade-like game can be played with these lower settings. Starting at this level is an excellent way of getting a feel for the sim overall.
Another nice feature is that you have the ability to import aircraft from the original Combat Flight Sim as well as being able to use the same keyboard commands from the previous version.
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There's additional information at the Microsoft CFS 2 website. Also available is the book Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2: WW II Pacific Theater: Sybex Official Strategies & Secrets where you'll find mission walkthroughs for both the American and Japanese campaigns, combat maneuvers for both single and campaign missions, and tips for developing 3D awareness.
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