"With a little tweaking, this game can have great potential."
After installation, I dusted off my Sidewinder brand joystick, and went to work. At first, the game seemed almost too geared for the first time flier, and by first time, I mean a three year old. The plane didn't crash when it hit the ground, the controls were unresponsive, there were no mid air collisions, (for when you just can't seem to shoot em'), and you had an infinite amount of ammo and bombs, which, admittedly, can be good, but not when you're looking for a flashback to WWII.
So, about 10 minutes of tweaking the options menu, and you had, what feels to be a pretty good simulator, but, it can get too real, with the engine sputtering out every time you take a high G turn, prop wash throwing you out of the air, etc.
(Which can be good if that's what you're looking for.) What I guess I'm trying to say, is that there is a healthy variety of realism for fliers. Now, as far as sound goes, it's a little unbalanced. The radio seems quite soft at times, such as when the tower gives you important directions, and at other times it's the only thing you can hear, such as when you hear the endless screams of your comrades spiraling to the ground, or telling you to fire at an airplane that isn't in front of you, etc. (But once again you can adjust this in the fantastic options menu. Combat can be frustrating at times, and it seems to ID a plane as your own, or foe, you have to turn on "labels" which is basically text hovering over the plane. But I do not recommend buying this game, or any flying game for that matter, if you do not have a joystick, it makes ALL the difference people. Aside from that, the game makes up for it's lack of a story mode with the extensive training missions. You think of it, they have it: Landing with motor dead, landing with damage, aileron training, rudder, elevator, dive bombing, etc. Now, the only things I don't like about the game, besides there is no multi player, is that there is an extremely limited number of aircraft in the game, a total of 3 German aircraft, and basically 2 British, (two variations of the hurricane, and 2 variations of the hurricane), and there are no other allied aircraft, such as the P-51D, P-38, B-17, etc. Also, you can't make custom games, (such as setting the exact number of aircraft, and which kinds) although some missions can customize time of day, starting altitude, etc.
Other than a few limitations, and a few minutes of tweaking, you have a decent flier game. Still not as great as Jane's WWII fighters, but it decently has come much closer than the others.