Platform: Windows 98, Windows 95, Windows NT
Condition: New
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Product Information
Fly 8 historically accurate planes Explore realistic landscapes Import aircraft, missions, and scenery Choose to fly campaigns, missions, quick combat, or free flight New innovations in artificial intelligence, damage models, and flight models
Product Description
Playing Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator is the closest you can get to being a World War II fighter pilot. Experience the same level of realism as the award-winning Microsoft Flight Simulator, with the rush and excitement of World War II air combat over Europe. Enlist with the Royal Air Force, the Luftwaffe, or the US Army Air Force, and choose from eight modelled aircraft, each with its own realistic flight models and accurately detailed cockpits. Then experience the real flight performance of each aircraft as well as the effects damage has on specific aircraft systems on each plane.
Review
Microsoft's Combat Flight Simulator: WWII Europe Series does exactly what is says on the box--it lets you fly Second World War aircraft in combat missions. You can elect to fly quick combat missions or take part in a variety of campaigns flying for the British, Germans and Americans. You can choose how realistic you want the flight characteristics of the aircraft to be. Crank it up full and too tight a turn will see you spinning to destruction... unless your spin recovery technique is polished. Crank it all the way down and you can concentrate on finding the enemy rather than flying the plane. The individual aircraft are equally well modelled--the Spitfire is light and elegant to fly, the Thunderbolt fast but brutally heavy and so on. A further delight of this flight sim is the detailed modelling of the cockpits--those instruments that you see are photo representations of the real thing.
The only area that lets this game down is the visual modelling of the terrain outside and of the aircraft themselves. Such criticism is inevitably comparative--the rendering is perfectly pleasing to the eye but not as good as, say, Combat Flight Simulator 2: WWII Pacific Theater. In that more recent version of the game (not yet available in a European version), the aircraft are much better represented, as is the damage they can incur. But that doesn't stop this being an excellent fun game to play and, once you're good enough, you can fight against other human pilots across the Web. Highly recommended for pilots who want to have fun. --Mark Whitehorn
