Customer Reviews

World War 2: Fighters

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

WW II fighters was one of a pack of four combat flight simulator that came out together in the same one-year period. It proves to be the most beautiful and playable of them all. To start, the graphics are spectacular. They use direct 3D rendering and are completely customizable, allowing many different hardware configurations to run the game well. The details, from explosions and tracer bullets to smoke trails, are stunning. The soundtrack is perhaps the best of any computer game. The music is well composed and appropriate for each situation. The combat sounds enhance the realism of the game. For example, when an enemy barely misses you with his machine guns, you'll hear the bullets sail past you. The game is also very playable and accessible to even the most casual simulator pilot. A unique camera view in the lower right hand corner is padlocked to your target and indicates its bearing. This makes up for the limitation of using a computer screen to take the place of a three dimensional world. The fact that fighters in World War II had none of the onboard radar and avionics of a modern plane means that the simulation is simplified and hence more fun than many of the simulators for modern aircraft. The missions are challenging, but do not really compose a persistent campaign. I highly recommend this game to those interested in combat flight simulators. If you don't take my word for it, just try the demo and I think you'll be sold.

This is the best WW2 air combat sim on the market.

Even it's 2 years old, it still rocks, particularly in high resolutions and color depths. I use 1280*1024 in 32-bit /GeForceDDR accelerator/, visuals are terrific. Gameplay rocks! 3rd party mission editors are available as well.

I'm finding the action most interesting in 1/2 slow motion and all help feratures /targeting boxes, labels etc./ turned off. All difficulty maxed out, as well as graphics.

I used to preffer MS Combat Flight Simulator or European Air War; since I fitted my PC with a 3D card which can handle the graphics at it's full, this game is just ultimate experience; I re-discovered it for myself this year, and play only WW2 Fighters since.

Recommend to everyone!

My system: PII400/128MB RAM, 32MB GeForceDDR 3D Prophet

This sim kicks much bum. Use the stock flight models on Veteran (3) for maximum realism attainable on this title. Only use Wicked (4) setting if your brain can't suspend disbelief without roll-spins. Don't listen to what people say about EAW or IL2's flight models. The real aircraft are for the most part inherently stable in flight and usually will not stall or spin out to the point of killing you unless they've been damaged or you do something really stupid. They will give you high AoA buffeting and that bounce effect from attempting to turn harder than the airframe wants to, but it all comes naturally out of the flight experience. Stall-type effects do not spontaneously and severely occur at once, as so many other sims do it. As such, it's much easier to regain control, just as in real life. You hear nonpilots constantly going on and on about how it's not real enough, and then you have those who've been up in the real birds complaining that none of these aircraft are that insanely unstable. This one gets it very close. If you need convincing, fly X-Plane's P-51's and then compare it to WWIIF. There are vets who sware by this product, at least to the effect that it's the best of its kind out there.

32bit color looks fab, but slows things down a bit. I have z-buffering on performance. It also seems to like 16X/4X in the graphics settings for my ATI card. I love watching the battle unfold around me on the ground. Sometimes it's a little sparse, but when you find a hot spot it's intense. I think maybe only Longbow 2 (which hardly ever works right for me) and this one are the only flight sims I've come across with downright scary land battles taking place around me. Tanks taking on tanks as they meet after coming over a hill. Amazing stuff. And what I do really seems to make a difference as to whether those units survive, or not. Tanks that have already been damaged are subsequently easier to kill, for me or another allied unit. The campaign's not dynamic, but I suspect the mission scripting is largely responsible for how well thought out the battles are. Dynamic, extended campaigns tend to feel less realistic to me. The branching system that Janes used in a lot of their titles, or even the strict linear ones, seem more convincing. There's something kind of unstructured and pointless about Total Air War's otherwise spectacular campaign system. I can't say I miss it here.

As for the problems with limited wingman commands, that was fixed with the final official patch. There's a second CD with a bunch of interviews and historical content on it. The manual doesn't need to go into much detail as far as commands and aircraft systems, but does serve as an excellent overview of flying and fighting with the planes. I should also mention that there's a sizable community of modders, including an at-cost CD you can purchase online with most of the good ones. Highly recommended. OS: Win98SE

This game just rocks! I have had it since the day it came out and i still haven't got tired of it. The campaigns in this game may be its only weak link, as they are fairly easy and there aren't very many of them. What i love most about this game is JanesCombat.net. You can play against 7 other players over the internet and have a 4 on 4 dogfight. That has given me hours of entertainment. If you love flying games, you have to get this one!

i found that this game was really difficult, i mean its so hard to hit ANYTHING, even if you lead them. I guess its realistic though, so points on that note. if you like flight games, then i reccomend this title, if you dont, then you will find that it gets slow quickly

This game can either be easy to fly, or your worst nightmare. There is no middle ground. Absolute aggression and flying your machine to the very edge is the only way to win at this game. While most current sims are dumbed down for today's generation, this one shows no mercy, especially when you go against the expert pilots.

Use the realistic flight models and no matter how good you think you are, you'll be humbled quickly. Learn your machine and practice.

TFC

I just can't say enough about this game. It gives you everythin you want from spectacular 3-d graphics to detailed planes and distruction mode's. for an example: when you hit a bomber it breaks up depending on where it hit and when you crash you get a really detailed crash with fire on the wings and body and breaking up . also theround vhiecle detail is spectacular, teh tanks are so detailed you can see the wear on them and hear their turrets swinging when you zoom on the target and Infantry'artilleryand halftracks are also include gor both sides plus the mission builder is great bec. you can place divisions next to each other and when you play you can see them fiting and destroying each other plus you get a reference on the involved armour and aircraft plus interviews with veterans who flew the plains(German and allied) and you get a discriptive look and discription on the aircraft you fly. Absoloutly Wonderfull. on thing though if you overlode the mission builder your play will become in the pause and play mode and the thing i do not like about hte game is that you only get to plsy in the battle of the bulge.

Lets get directly to my issue here. I have been upset for a few years, that my favorite game no longer works on my newer computers. I enjoyed playing and developing my skills in dogfighting until I found out that I could no longer use the W W 2 Fighter software in my PC or my laptop, Windows XP and Windows Vista respectively . Too bad Janes was reluctant to modify the game so that all versions of Windows could use it. I am really disappointed and would pay a premium price for new version of such a great game. Very realistic, and any shortcomings of the game are understandable and tolerable.
It might be helpful to know that I am 74 yrs old, an Air Force Veteran, and lost my Dad in WW 2. He was a pilot also.

This is an enjoyable game. Too bad EA never updated it as you can not get a MP game going. Actually, this is one of the best WW2 games out there that somehow EA just lost sight of and never developed it to its full potential.

It has a lot of good historical info in addition to game play.

I am not sure why more modern PC's won't play it. Works for me on my Dell XPS700

Despite not being a fan of other Jane's Fighters games, I enjoyed this entry. The premise is obvious - fly missions in Europe's war-ton skies in the famous fighters of the day. The format of the sim is similar to that of other Jane's fighters titles - you have a flight panel that's more for show than functional; you have separate pop-up windows for your instruments or to spot and range the enemy; you can click on individual targets and handy steering cues point the way to the enemy. That said, WW2F is graphically a more modern generation of sim than those like USNF or ATF. Graphics are more realistically defined, and are more immersive than those games. The planes (instantly recognizable to any mil/av buff) look so realistic, you half expect to see your reflection in their chrome finish. Atmospheric effects are clearly superior to the first CFS (which roughly coincided with this game) - including clouds, AAA fire and smoke effects from wounded aircraft. Flight is difficult even at nominal settings - aircraft here are unstable, and may fly apart if overstressed, or simply fall out of the sky if load-factor isn't watched. AI is somewhat impressive (I mean, I routinely got shot out of the sky, but I'm normally a horrible pilot), though must be compromised to an extent to fit a game where everybody in fighters will fight each other. (Case in point being Me-262 jets, which will remain in prolonged combat with prop fighters like the Mustang, even though there principal quarry was the box formations of allied bombers; their acceleration and turning capabilities made them unsuited for dogfighting.) For its great atmospheric effects, nothing seems to cover up an unconvincing attempt to model the terrain of Europe - although most of your work will be up high. The campaign mode isn't quite dynamic, but it's not as canned as the one on CFS.

In short, this is as solid WW2 sim - perfect for those intimidated by the hardcore realism (and hardware requirements) of IL-2, but left hungry by CFS.

I ran this on a Pentium 4, with XP and a 64MB GF3 card.