Battle of Britain 2: Wings of Victory Limited Edition Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)It is a shame that none of the many thousands of people who own and are playing this game have posted here. Amazon is not and never was a a major distribution channel for this game. The handful of reviews here are simply not a fair representation of what most people who currently own and play this game feel about it.
For example MAROS who gave it a one star terrible review says he was trying to play it on an ATI9250 and GeForce 5600FX card. Those are very low end and almost ancient cards. Of course he had issues. BoB2, like most flight sims is very PC demanding and requires DX9.0C fully compliant hardware. Is it fair that he trashed the game and the PC he was using to try it is an obsolete POS? I don't think so.
I suggest people go to SimHQ, Airwafare, Shockwave Productions or even the Ubisoft General Discussion forums (Ubisoft is the distributor of IL2, a competitor of BoB2) for REAL and FAIR perspective and commentary on this game. Even on the Ubisoft boards, there is grudging respect for BoB2 now and many of the IL2 players are now converts and play both games regularly. Word of mouth is spreading and many people are discovering how good this underrated game actually is now.
SimHQ a website dedicated to ALL types of air, sea and land combat games just recently awarded BoB2 the "Best Air Combat game of 2006". I think the folks at SimHQ and many hundreds of other simmers who post at many of the well-known flight sim boards should be considered more fair and credible than someone like MAROS.
Yes, in its original out of the box release form Battle of Britain II was incredibly buggy. It got a lot of (deserved) bad press and publicity due to the bugginess and issues. Subsequent patches resolved many but not all issues. With version 2.05 most of the major bugs were fixed and there were many many enhancements and improvements over any prior versions. Even so, one somehwat big flaw remained and that was the need for the "DEP workaround". A simpe workaround setting in something in WinXP. Some users who still had crashes were either too lazy or frustrated to even bother checking the tech support forums and simply gave up.
The latest patch, version 2.06 is about to be released (days or at most a couple of weeks). It has a HUGE number of additional enancemnents including all new Flight Models and significantly improved coding that has fixed almost all AI warpy behavior. Most importantly, even the need for the DEP workaround has been fixed.

If you want to SEE the game in action, go to YouTube and/or google search "BoB2" or "Battle of Britain II In Dulce Decorum" for many community created videos incuding one I created over 7 minutes long. There is an awesome BoB2 video on googlevideo by a guy named 150GCT_MANTA as well.
I own the entire IL2 series, including 1946. A great game in its own right, especially with its multiplayer capability which BoB2 lacks. BoB2 is INCREDIBLY immersive, has a massive campaign mode, has what is widely regarded as one of the best offline AI in ANY aircombat prop sims. The battles are on a massive scale and white-knuckle at times in intensity. It is the ONLY game of any genre I have ever played where the AI are at times as good or better even than good human opponents in other games.
The game also has FULL support for Track IR in 6 Degrees of Freedom. It has amazing Force feedback effects, especially for the flight model with FFB for buffet, drag, approaching stall, impacts, touchdown on the fields, gear extending, cannon and machine gun fire and impacts, etc. The FFB effects BLOW AWAY those of CFS3 and FS9 or FSX and only Il2 comes close as far as FFB.
Its no skin off my back if people don't buy the game. I am NOT a Dev nor affiliated with the company in any way except as a very happy owner of it and a beta tester.
Like I said, go to some of the well-known combat flight sim forums for a REAL indicator of what this game is all about in its PRESENT form.
SimHQ
Airwarfare
Ubisoft
Shockwave Productions




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Battle of Britain 2: Wings of Victory lets you become supreme commander of the British or German forces. Observe enemy movements and plan accordingly -- or take off the general's hat and hop into the cockpit. Destroy the enemy when you can and get you and your comrades home alive. Whatever you choose, you'll take part in the most authentic historical re-creations of these amazing battles. Get ready to strap yourself in for the fight of your life!

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WarBirds Dogfights Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is a game in the flight-sim genre. There is a lot of gameplay here, but you need to work at it! If you are new to this flight sim series, definitely do the training offered in the beginning, and pay particular attention to how the views work. After completing the training, fly the campaign missions which lead you through 1-v-1,2-v-2,3-v-3 scenarios, on up to massive aerial battles with hundreds of aircraft in the air! On the higher levels, the AI is particularly deadly. There are also "bonus" instant-action missions which become available after you reach a certain level in the campaign, as well as lots of additional training missions, and "free flight" modes. In general, the offline portion of the game can be a lot of fun!
While the offline campaign play is great for honing your fighter-pilot skills, you must try out the online game to really get the "Warbirds Experience". The game offers a free 30-day online account (click go online, and then account setup). Online, you will find lots of players from around the world who, besides shooting you down, will also offer help and assistance.
The graphics, while not jaw-dropping, are decent and well designed for the flight-sim genre. The interface isn't as smooth as it could be, but functions well enough.


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Gameplay In WarBirds: Dogfights players can take to the air as a member ofeither the Allies or Axis powers in the historic air battles in both theEuropean and Pacific theaters of WWII. Once ready to log some time in livefire combat scenarios they choose one of three levels of pilot expertise:Rookie, Pilot, or the highly skilled Ace, as they take off in one of morethan 100 historically accurate aircraft. Gameplay environments includedin the game are historical recreations of WWII areas of England, Europe,and North Africa, including cities like London, Paris, and Berlin. Alsopresent are areas representing Pacific battle campaigns, the battle forthe Philippines, Midway and more. The game features more than 40 base combatmissions, as well as dynamic mission generation functionality which ensuresvirtually unlimited mission play options in single player mode. In eachbattle the player can score points, build rank, and acquire medals to competefor the coveted title of WGFP - Worlds' Greatest Fighter Pilot in theair battles of WWII. Key Game Features
Aerial combat simulation featuring all the great dogfighting battles of World War II.
Dynamic mission generator in single player, ensuring that no two missions are ever the same.
Over 100 realistically modeled World War II aircraft and the ability to fly for the Axis or Allies in a full campaign for victory.
Every mission is scored for kills and mission success, allowing players to win rank and medals in a quest to be the World's Greatest Fighter Pilot (WGFP).
Unlock bonus missions by racking up successful mission accomplishments,and enjoy new bonus missions downloadable every 120 days.
The single player campaign can also be used as a gateway to the world famous massively multiplayer online game WarBirds through the free month's worth of playing time included.

System Requirements

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Wings Over Europe: Cold War Gone Hot Review

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(More customer reviews)I have bought all of the major fighter jet sims over the last few years (Lock On Modern Air Combat , Flaming Cliffs , Falcon 4 Allied Force , JetFighter Iv and V , Flanker 2.5 , etc.) and have found this game more enjoyable than ANY of them.
It slants more to the arcade side than the sim side , but in my opinion , that is a good thing. I'm tired of having to read and remember tons of pages of instructions in the true sims in order to have fun flying and shooting things out of the sky.
This game has ,IMHO , nice graphics , great sound effects , nice plane models , and really fun gameplay . If you have a nice joystick to go with it , it's a blast!

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Wings Over Europe: Cold War Gone Hot is an air-combat game thatdelivers the excitement of a visceral seat-of-your-pants dogfightexperience--flying in some of the most legendary jet fighters inhistory! Flyable aircraft include the F-100 Super Sabre F-105Thunderchief F-4 Phantom II F-15 Eagle A-10 Thunderbolt II BritishHunter and the exciting vertical take-off and landing of the Harrier"jump jet."Features:Engage in blood-draining G-pulling action-packed dogfights against 13 different types of Cold War Soviet aircraft. Fly era-specific aircraft through Central Europe in three epic campaigns. From the developers of the highly successful European Air War Strike Fighters: Project 1 and Wings Over Vietnam. Randommission generator provides maximum flexibility and replayability.Campaign missions also have a different outcome each time. Openarchitecture for mod support. Download thousands of user-created skinsaircraft terrain missions campaigns and editors already availableon the Internet. Next-generation environmental effects including volumetric clouds and state-of-the-art dynamic lighting. Highly-accurate planes weapons flight models and challenging enemy AI. Win decorations awards and promotions with each successful mission. Pilot any of the 12 legendary Cold War fighters!

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Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 3: Battle for Europe Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Things are often very relative in the gaming world. If CFS3 was actually Microsoft's first shot at a combat sim, it probably would merrit much higher reviews from the simming community and myself. After all, the game does boast an interesting campaign engine, a good variety of different planes to fly, including bombers and prototypical aircraft, some nice atmospheric effects, and the ability to man different positions on the bombers. Of course, many of these pro's have already been implemented in other WW2 combat sims of years past.
Unfortunately, this is not Microsoft's first shot and those of us who have loyally followed their series of flight sims, both combat and civilian, expect a certain progression with each new release. I, myself, was extremely pleased with said progression in both FS2002 and CFS2. Both games, I felt, learned from the mistakes of their predecessors, but at the same time, remained faithful to the series. And both greatly enhanced the look and feel of flight simming while not expecting too much from the machines they ran on. This is where CFS3 fails in my eyes.
So here are my major beefs.
Graphics: Where did they dream up this graphics engine? It looks and feels more like a first-person shooter than a flight sim. Is this really CFS3 or am I playing Counterstrike on a very wacky map? Sure it has nice clouds, but this game just does not have the visual cohesiveness of FS2002 nor CFS2. The virtual cockpits just don't look as good as in CFS2. The ground objects are also out of proportion to the aircraft. Do a little low-level strafing and things just don't look right.
Performance: My biggest gripe. If this new graphics engine was supposed to provide better performance by utilizing the video card more, they blew it. I have a P4 1.9ghz, 512mb rambus, with a TI4600 128mb Geforce4 and, with NO programs running in the background, the game stutters - especially when firing the guns. UNACCEPTABLE. The game just doesn't look good enough to justify such a drop in performance.
Damage models: These were supposed to be greatly improved. If so, I don't see it. Every plane I have shot down follows the same annoying pattern: pour tons of rounds into any part you like and eventually the whole plane blows up. No pieces of wings falling off, no tails detaching, no engines blowing, just one big boom. Would someone please go back to 1998 and look at the damage models in Activision's Fighter Sqadron? They did it right.
AI: I am getting so sick of computer pilots that have the uncanny ability - even as novices - to maintain control and maneuverability of their aircraft when you have damaged them, when one little hit on your alieron from their guns renders your aircraft unflyable.
Selection of aircraft: It was very thoughtful of Microsoft to include some oddball prototypical aircraft in their selection, but why oh why, at the expense of planes like the B17, Do17, He111, Ju87, and ME110? This is Europe, right? Oh, and thanks for the lack of compatibility with CFS2 aircraft.
Yes, all my griping makes the game sound a lot worse than it actually is, but with all the used copies of CFS3 I've seen on auction sites and the number of bad reviews it's gotten from other users like myself, I think it's obvious that Microsoft has made a boo-boo or two on this one. Let's pray they don't use this graphics engine on FS2004.

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Anti-aircraft fire blankets you. Blast debris hurls toward your propeller. And you wonder why you didn't join the navy. This ain't no free-flight, cloud-gunner, glory ride. This is ground assault: the real, gritty combat that can make or break a battle, and take your life in one massive explosion. Bombs shatter enemy airfields, trains, and tank columns as you streak across the European countryside in WWII's greatest planes, dodging small-arms fire, gripping your joystick with sweaty palms and white knuckles, pumped with adrenaline-living history.
As a U.S. Army Air Force, Royal Air Force, or Luftwaffe pilot in Microsoft's Combat Flight Simulator 3 you fly in the historical framework of the tactical air war in northwest Europe starting in mid-1943, but there's a significant difference. The skill and perseverance you and your squadron or Staffel bring to each battle can alter the tactical situation and the timeline of the campaign. This open-ended and flexible campaign means you can influence events, alter history, and extend the timeline to add new technology to your arsenal. How you handle these tactical and technological advantages will determine the outcome.
In Combat Flight Simulator 3, it's 1943, and no one knows what's going to happen.
New features include:

Enhanced campaign play sends you on involved tactical missions in a campaign where success or failure can move the frontline, influence the quality of equipment available, and even change the outcome of the war
New collection of 18 aircraft featuring bombers with crews (fly medium bombers and take control of the bombardier or gunner position), stunning 3-D cockpit detail, accurate performance and damage modeling, medium bomber operations, WWII state-of-the-art aircraft (including the first jet fighters)
Custom graphics engine powers super-high detail ground-attack targets and improved scenery with enhanced 3-D modeling and texturing
Cooperative multiplayer missions and free-for-all dogfights via the Internet and LAN
Reactive world: areas of the campaign world will trigger events, spawn aircraft, generate flak, etc. in response to your presence
Role playing elements: pilots have qualities like Bombing Skill, Vision, and Health
Strategy: you make decisions that influence how the war is fought, where to put the pressure on the enemy, and what aircraft improvements are crucial to the war effort

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