Best WW2 Air combat simulation ever made

User Rating: 8.9 | Pacific Fighters PC
By Oche | Review Date:
When Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2 came out i was relieved to see that i didn't needed to play the old "Aces of the pacific". Flight model and combat was ok. In Pacific Fighters which uses the IL2 engine, the flight model, damage, combat feels very real. In order to grasp the game's essence you need to see it as a Simulator or else you are gonna be highly dissapointed. Besides being far superior to CFS2 in comparison and having all the playable aircraft of CFS2, PF adds not only the option of choosing dynamic campaigns for the Allied countries of US, Britain, Australian, New Zealand and Netherlands and Axis Side: Japan, but also the chance of letting Bomber enthusiasts embark themselves in a Bomber Pilot campaign for aircraft such as the US SBD-3 Dauntless Dive Bomber and B-25 Mitchell and the japanese G4M betty and D3VAL Dive Bomber, just like IL-2 Aces Expansion pack adds the famous German level bomber Heinkel 111 to the Axis side. Lot of attention to detail has been put on cockpits, instruments, damage, carrier landings and Artificial intelligence.

PROS:

- Lots of aircraft to fly and test.
- Very Good dynamic campaigns: Strike, escort, Close support, intercept, patrol, rescue, etc.
- Armament is very good.
- Customizable difficulty settings.
- Overall simulation is superb.
- Cockpit detail is very good.
- Fighter and Bomber campaign for both Allied and Axis sides.
- Mission editor included.
- Patches which address many issues both fixing and improving the game.
- Both Land and Carrier borne aircraft campaigns.
- You can save and inflight movie of your flight and replay it later.
- B-25 Mitchell and G4M Betty fully playable and depicted along with Pilot, gunner and bombardier positions with standard operational working Bombsight controls from bombardier position. If any minimal gripes that i have about the game are these:

- Not enough historical single missions for the wide variety of playable aircraft.
- Not enough maps for Quick Missions.
- Key Pacific Operations war theaters are missing.
- Not any other medium or heavy bomber playable such as the B-26, B-24 and B-29's. (Would this be too much to ask??)
- No TBF-Avengers and Kate level bombers playable.
- Only one campaign for the B-25 and P-40, etc.

Since no other simulations have ever included medium bombers such as the B-25s, G-4M bettys and Heinkell 111 in my opinion there is enough reason to support both Pacific Fighters and the IL2 series for introducing new aircraft to combat flight simulator games. If it wasn't for these games we would sit and wait a long time to ever see a worthy WW2 Combat Flight Simulator. One thing's for sure this one stays on top of my selection of Flight Sims for a long time.

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