Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2: Pacific Theater

by Microsoft

Product Features

• You'll be amazed at the exquisite detail of the aircraft, cockpits and scenery
• Fly in the most amazing flying machines of the era, from the Corsair and Hellcat to the Mitsubishi Zero
• Jungle hillsides and majestic coral reefs are yours to explore as you face off agianst the enemy over Papua New Guinea, The Marianas Trench and Midway Island
• Complete your mission goals and battle in campaigns based on 10 actual historical events during the war
• Enhanced 3D objects and high-resolution terrain combine with incredible weather effects and sound, to bring you the ultimate in WWII realism!

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00004WFVZ
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: October 14, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (146 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,454 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Combat Flight Simulator 2 is a dream come true for historic flight sim fans. Excellent graphics, great sound effects, and adjustable realism settings make CFS2 a thrilling and accessible sortie into the unfriendly skies of the South Pacific during World War II.

After choosing to fly for the Japanese or American forces, you can pick from a selection of seven ultrarealistic aircraft. Experienced flight sim fans will drool over the plane models, accurate down to the number of rivets. Newbies will appreciate the excellent flight and landing tutorials.

There are over 100 missions to fly, many based on historic missions from the war. This unusual level of realism and attention to detail comes from the game developers' personal love of flight: many members of the CFS2 team are pilots. Their extensive research included interviews with Japanese and U.S. aces from the real war in the Pacific. The missions themselves are lengthy and often complex, and are just as accurate as the planes; players take part in history, but cannot change the outcomes of battles.

Because the action takes place in the South Pacific don't expect to see a wide variety of ground scenery. Not that you'll miss it: the water, small islands, planes, aircraft carriers, and battleships are always very sharp and detailed. However, if you expect to play with the graphics at their best settings, be aware that you'll need a blazing fast machine with a fast video card. On lesser computers, the graphics in Combat Flight Simulator 2 start to degrade from stunning to merely ordinary.

The between-mission story arc is told through 1940s-style comic book panels. The artwork does a good job of moving the story along while giving the feeling that your character and his fellow flyboys are aware they're never far from instant death. That the game also allows you to fly the full Japanese side of the campaign gives the player an interesting glimpse at the Japanese perspective of the war.

While the game does include such famous planes as the U.S. Corsair, Wildcat, P38F Lightning, and Japanese Zero, its mere total of seven craft left us wanting more. We were impressed with the vastly different handling of each plane, but the lack of variety is disappointing.

But this is a relatively small shortcoming in an otherwise deep and involving game. If you have a powerful enough PC, Combat Flight Simulator 2 is a delight, and is sure to please both war historians and flight sim enthusiasts.--Mark Brooks

Pros:

• Easy to get into, but can be adjusted to become very difficult and realistic
• On highest-quality graphics settings, the game is simply gorgeous
• Plenty of missions and great tutorials
• Full Japanese campaign adds depth and historical balance

Cons:

• Only seven flyable aircraft
• Steep system requirements

Product Description

In Combat Flight Simulator 2, you'll expereince an era of history that defines the future -- you'll become a combat pilot during the Second World War!

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

145 of 154 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is one of the better simulations, December 17, 2000

By 

Joseph H Pierre "Joe Pierre" (Salem, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2: Pacific Theater (CD-ROM)

I had trouble getting this one to run, but finally was successful. I am running an AMD/K6-2 (350) CPU, with 64 Mb of RAM, and a Diamond Monster 3D II accelerator, with a Flightstick Pro and rudder pedals. According to the package, I meet all of the requirements. My operating system is Microsoft's Windows ME.

I loaded CFS2 twice, but when I tried to play it could not get past loading the scenery, when my screen went black. The machine locked up! Finally after trying the new drivers for the Diamond Monster, which I found on their European site, I got it to run properly.

You would think, though, that Microsoft, with all of their expertise, could design a game that would run without so many hassles.

The game is good. Graphics are superb, sound is good, and the scenery is excellent. The game runs smoothly, when you finally get it to run. I found some fault, of course.

First, I dislike the annoying cones that point you at the nearby enemy. They are certainly not realistic. Also, the enemy planes flit about in a most unrealistic fashion, and make them unrealistically hard to track. Even closing at a combined speed of 600 miles an hour, another aircraft should be more easily followed. However, Microsoft is no guiltier than many other simulation designers in such matters.

Modeling of the aircrafts' flight characteristics is not bad, but not entirely realistic, either. I took an F6F "Hellcat" up to 10,000 feet above Kwajalein atoll, an airstrip from which I have flown, and put her into a spin. This is an aircraft that was relatively easy to fly (I soloed in 1946 in the real thing.) Although I kicked reverse rudder and neutralized the controls properly, she would not recover from the spin and go into a dive. The F6F was not notorious for having bad spin characteristics.

Also, dropping your landing gear at a couple hundred miles an hour should not result in "gear damage." Pilots often did it in combat, to get a sudden reduction in speed.

Another problem is the slow reaction of the machine guns to the gun button. And after the button is released, they inexplicably keep on firing for a couple or three seconds.

The copy writers who wrote the Pilot's Manual fell into the same trap as everyone else in comparing the F6F with the F4U "Corsair." They claimed that the F6F is "far from the fastest U.S. fighter" but that it was in the "top rank of American fighters in the Pacific theater, along with the Vought Corsair." They claim a top speed for the Hellcat of 327 knots (376 mph) at 17,300 feet, while the Corsair is credited with a top speed of 363 knots (417 mph) at 19,900 feet, making the Corsair seem much faster. One gets tired of hearing such unfair comparisons.

I've got news for them: an article in Flight Journal last year by Corky Meyer (a Grumman test pilot) described a side by side test of the Corsair and Hellcat, flat out at the same altitude (they had the same R2800, 2,000 horsepower Pratt & Whitney engine, but different dash numbers) had them performing at the same speed over the ground, but the Corsair was indicating a higher speed due to the different placement of the pitot tube.

Because of its wing design, the Corsair had a quicker roll characteristic than the Hellcat. It was also more unstable and difficult to fly, and taxiing and landing visibility was hampered by the long engine nacelle. They called it the "Ensign Eliminator." Otherwise, they were very evenly matched in their performance characteristics.

The copy writers call the Corsair "big, tough, and fast," which it was of course, but the F6F pilots shot down over 70 percent of all air-to-air kills in the Pacific war. It is a vastly under rated airplane, by the desk jockeys.

Here are some figures: The Hellcat is credited with 5,156 air victories during WWII, and 306 Hellcat pilots shot down 5 or more enemy planes (the definition of an "ace.") Corsairs shot down 2,140 enemy, and made only 93 aces, although they enbtered service in the Pacific first. The famed Mustang was credited with only 296 kills, and made only 5 aces. The little F4F "Wildcat," with 1,006 kills made 58 aces, and was bad-mouthed as being obsolete at the war's beginning. Looking only at results, one wonders at the critics remarks.

But, this is a fine game. The graphics are right up there with Jane's WWII Fighters, and it will be a source of much pleasure for a lot of people.

Joseph Pierre, USN (Ret)

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Will run on Windows XP, July 4, 2005

By 

K.Brown - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2: Pacific Theater (CD-ROM)

Just because it states that the platform for the game is 95,98,ME
does not mean it won't run on XP!! I have a windows XP home edition
and it runs fine!!

49 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very slightly disapointing (very slightly), November 27, 2000

By 

Joann Simon - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2: Pacific Theater (CD-ROM)

This is a game for a air combat simulator nut. It has everything. It does however show some signs of having been put out before the final fine-tuning was complete. The feeling of historical atmosphere is not as good as in Combat Flight Simulator 1 (the war in Europe). So many good photographs of action in the Pacific are available, some in color, that the choice of comic book pictures to fill in the background and move the story of the campaigns forward is unnecesary and disapointing. Information such as take off, landing and stall speeds is missing (or hard to find). The airplane graphics are absolutely excellent. Scenery is a little boring--unending blue tropical sky and blue tropical water. Carrier landings are great fun and damnably difficult--very tough for a beginner. It is not true that you need a super fast super computer, though if you don't have one you do need a top of the line graphics accelorator card with built in RAM. My setup when used to run Combat Flight Simulator 1 (war in Europe) shows scenery that is very photographic, presumeable derived from digitaly edited photos. This games' scenery seems to be entirely painted--though very well painted. I do get some very minor hesitation and miss the totaly glass-smooth action I got with the war in europe version. Without my very good graphics accelerator it would be unplayable. Weather and cloud effects are totaly awesome--dogfighting at dawn in a thunderstorm is a blast. Basicaly--a good game for simulator enthusiasts. But, as is typical in the movie business, much that made part one unique was omitted from part two. That which replaced it is very cool, but lacks class. If you have never flown a simulator before--get Combat Flight Simulator One. If you never believed yourself capable of getting interested in computer game (thought it was for teen-agers)--get Combat Flight Simulator One. If your are inerested in history--get Part One. This game is very good--but it is a game Combat Flight Simulator One is an experience (and doesn't take up so darn much room on the hard disk)