Combat Flight Simulator 2: WWII Pacific Theater Preview
We take this year's only WWII Pacific theater flight sim out for a spin.
"Scratch one flattop. Dixon to carrier, scratch one flattop!" These were the excited words of dive-bomber squadron leader Lieutenant Commander R.E. Dixon, reporting the sinking of the Japanese carrier Shoho at the Battle of the Coral Sea, 7 May 1942.
Zeros, Corsairs, and Hellcats. Dive bombers and torpedoes. Cat-and-mouse searches across the wide Pacific Ocean. And best of all, carrier landings! On the face of it, World War II in the Pacific seems like a compelling subject for a flight simulation. So why is it that you have to go back six years to find any good ones, like 1942: The Pacific Air War by Microprose, or even two years before that, to Dynamix's legendary Aces of the Pacific? The Pacific theater has been ignored for too long. Now, Microsoft is coming to the rescue with Combat Flight Simulator 2. Whereas its predecessor dealt with the crowded skies over Europe, Combat Flight Simulator 2 has set its sights on the wide-open spaces of the Pacific.
Microsoft is taking aim at several key areas in its sequel to the best-selling combat flight sim of 1998. Most of them can be summed up in one word: detail. The aircraft models are far more detailed and realistic than in the original Combat Flight Simulator. The textures are very impressive, and they exhibit great "weathering" effects. These are probably the best WWII aircraft models in a simulation to date. This detail extends to damage effects, which are now shown for various levels of physical damage to the aircraft. Fire effects are much better as well.
The downside to great graphics, of course, is that you need a powerful system to enjoy them to their full extent. Flight Simulator 2000 is an excellent example of a game that looked great but slowed many computers to a crawl. For Combat Flight Simulator 2, Microsoft is making a determined effort to optimize the code as much as possible so that you don't need a top-of-the-line processor and graphics card to play the game. According to Microsoft, "Frame rate is one of our major concerns for Combat Flight Simulator 2 already, but the work is not finished yet. Changes to generate further improvements to both maximum frame rate and frame rate consistency are still being made - we have committed full-time development and testing resources with the sole responsibility of optimizing performance." Because of the incomplete nature of the beta, it would be premature (and not very helpful, considering what could change in the next few months) to evaluate the game's frame rate at this point, but it's nice to know Microsoft acknowledges that many gamers don't have the latest hardware and that code optimization is necessary and important. With luck, a well-optimized final release will win Combat Flight Simulator 2 a spot on many more hard drives than just those attached to last week's newest processors.
The terrain in the Pacific involves a lot of... water. Nonetheless, the terrain textures look very good, with realistic-looking water and nice jungle and beach textures. Some terrain textures load improperly at this time, so the effect should be even better once the bugs have been ironed out. The terrain engine is a modified version of the one in Flight Simulator 2000, and the integration of this into a Pacific game is a technical challenge. The way in which coastlines are drawn is particularly troublesome in terms of processing power, so a lot of work is going toward revamping the routines necessary to display the many islands that will feature prominently in the game.
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- GameSpot Score8.5great
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- ESRB: Teen
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