A great game that still stands up gameplay wise to any other flight sim out now, save Falcon.
Graphics- You shouldn't have any problem running it on max settings unless you video card is 3 or more years old. They still stack up though , in my opinion, to any simulator games out there except Flight Simulator. Especialy when you add Break points and bullet holes, fuel leaks, managable engine fires ect ect.. The detail more then makes up for the overall visuals.
Gameplay- I put the difficulty at very hard. It isn't a necisarily hard game even online (Don't get me wrong theres guys on there that can take down a whole team of 109's.) It's just the fact that once YOU DECIDE to start fiddling with the advanced plane controls such as turbocharger, prop pitch, ect.. it will take a few days just to learn how to use the advanced controls on ONE PLANE just because they are all different as they should be.
Multyplayer- Some people have trouble getting HL to run but you shouldn't. If you do go to hyperfighters.sk or sumthin(Google it) and go to the forums for help. The community for the Hyper Lobby mod is now abbandoned admin wise but the version is StAbLe and a few people know how to resolve the common isssues.
As far as the actual matches go it varies from server to server. Some maps creat an authentic WW2 experience and actualy require correct plane markings, numbers, takeoffs on runways(On other servers you will frequently see takeoffs from fields and taxi-ways 0o). You will only run into 1 or 2 servers that will actualy make you leave due to un-realness. For example one map was the island of Iwo Jima and it had both teams airfields on the island. WHile Iwo Jima is a pretty large island as far as avianonics goes they might as well have been in my front yard.
All in all this is still a great flight sim if you can manage to get onto Hyper Lobby to see all the matches. And for those who want picture perfect realism there is basicly a tournament mode that takes game input at the ends of a match to adjust battle lines ect ect so that each mission it generates has goals for each team and actualy contributes to victory over a whole map(Once one team has all the supply routes ect ect... This mode is soo real that if you get shot down in one match you can get into the persistant war map another day and stage a pilot rescue mission for you'reself with members of you're squad.
For when it came out... I'll have to give this game a 9/10... if it came out today... a 7.5/10. Please do not pass this game up if you love flight sims and realistic damage modeling. Also buy the 1946 version or you will find that you cannot play the version that has 1000 people playing.