posted 10-13- 03:24 PM               

I am really looking forward to the mission editor (are you surprised?)...I know that some have already made up a Pearl Harbor...and although they do Midway default in the game- I won't be happy until I have made my own versions of them...and I see a Marianas Turkey Shoot soon too...from everything I have heard and read- Microsoft (as much as we hate them!) got it right! Pray that wifey gives in

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posted 10-13- 05:28 PM               

I HAVE THE BEST FREAKING WIFE IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!!!!

I just finished installing it and am about to play for a few minutes before I have to go to a birthday party...so tomorrow I will give an unexperienced review WOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!

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posted 10-13- 06:31 PM               

Great...... Now I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place..... Buy a (supposedly) cool WWII sim and lower my morals, Or keep my morals, but drool over the screens Jeeves is sure to flood my E-Mail box with

posted 10-13- 08:58 PM               

Played the beta, sorry not interested.

posted 10-13- 09:32 PM               

Too bad no one realizes how good the mission based format is for online play.

TS

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Patch It!

posted 10-13- 09:59 PM               

Yep insane eh, freaking microcrap goofs.

posted 10-13- 10:29 PM               

I don't know yet if they move, but they do sink...I have barely touched the surface on this one guys. I just like starting up and listening to that engine roar...and the puffs of smoke on startup...awesome!

Jerry...

I haven't tried it yet-- but you are supposedly able to ditch...there are instructions on how to do it in the manual..which is 300 pages by the way...very nice...and if you like the occasional comic book (like I do)-- you'll like the manual. A very intersting intro movie too-- all comic book story boards!!

Spanky...

You of all people should know the beta is not the finished product...you probably heard the non-Meatwater sounds too.

Look guys...until I play around more...go to the forum section of combatsim and go to CFS2...many screenshots and many different impressions...bye!

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posted 10-13- 10:49 PM               

Actually If I know anything its that companies release betas and call them the full version.

It happens all the time I play a beta and then the real thing and there is barly a differnce.

And about meatwater, He did the sounds for Panzer elite and alot of people were disapointed with them. I would have to hear them myself.

posted 10-13- 11:10 PM               

Let's put it this way-- I have only flown the Wildcat so far...I love the engine sounds, the .50 caliber sounds, and the flak is great!! Diving down on a carrier, the flak thumps and clouds shoot out shrapnel...pretty cool.

Also-- I did go to bail...a message says-- opening canopy...so you wait until that does it's thing...and sit back to watch only to see--"Hit O to open parachute"...I jumped outta my chair trying to hit the button in time

Gotta go play now...

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Brought to you by the campaign for a better Dauntless!

posted 10-14- 01:02 AM               

I wouldnt recommend anything less than a 400 mhz if you want to get something good out of this game. Im running it on a P3 500 with 160Mb of SDRAM and a V3 AGP card in 800x600. I have yet to experience any jerkyness, but an occasional slowdown does occur in the heat of combat. I also would recommend that you do not turn on the mip-map option in the graphics settings part of the game. On my V3, it smooths the terrain out way too much. There is also a big difference in what the game looks like at different resolutions.

The installation was real smooth. (Comes on 2 CDs) And I have yet to encounter any Illegal Operations or crashes to the desktop. Ive ben playing it since 9:00 P.M. The manual is large and very well thought out, although it didnt come with a refrence card for every command there is. On the back of the manual however there is a quick refrence to key commands, but not everyone. And in the index section there are more... but still not every one. The manual is over 300 pages long! The intro video was entertaining and the enterface is 1940's comic bookish. It gives the game a good feel.

Graphics are sweet! The terrain is a wee bit smeared at low low altitudes, but at medium and high altitudes, it looks real! The planes.... AWESOME! Moving wings, arrestor hooks, rolling wheels, moving crowl flaps, control surfaces, and smoke on startup. (Even after you turn your planes engine off and then back on agian) The gear 3d models are the best Ive seen! The damn gear covers are even 3d! There are some jerks however when you raise and lower them (On some planes) but a real planes hydrolic systems werent smooth anyways so I can EASILY live with that. Now the cockpits... The 2d cockpits are well drawn, but I like the 3d ones better. They are not as good as WWII Fighters ones, but they are good enough. The joysticks and the throttle dont move however. The ground units look sweet as well and its fun as hell to strafe boats! They actually sink! Oh and the flak! Well done indeed. Boats travel thru water and the propellers on the carrier cause the water to actually splash! I havent looked to see if other boats do this as well, but it sure looks awesome on the carrier!

The plane damage is awesome!!! It actually looks like your shooting a REAL plane! Puffs of white smoke here, a small explosion there, small pieces falling off there, wing folding over there to to the lack of structual integrity. Even individual bullet holes are modeled and they look like bullet holes. A few well placed shots form the enemy can really cause your plane to become sluggish in flight. Then agian, a few shots that arent well placed wont have too much affect on your FM. The smoke rendering is excellent in this sim. Oh and the lighting system! If you turn your cockpit lamp on, you can see it on from the outside of your plane! I havent tried to ditch a plane yet, but the manual says it can be done! Oh and when you bail out, the canopy opens up first!

The wheather system is ok. They could of done alot better job on the rain effects, (Like in Flight Unlimited 2... that had good rain effects!) but I like the thunder and lightning. Dusk, dawn and night time look very good aswell.

The sounds are much much better! The gun sounds sound real and the engines roar! Good job meatwater! The AI is much better too. I have yet to see them smash into the ground and they are challanging if you so desire it. (You can change the AI skill level) At the rookie level, the AI arent dumb... (They dont collide into the ground) they are just easy to kill. The flight models are very good aswell! Spins and stalls are modeled and I believe gear drag is too. The planes dont feel as sluggish as they used to in CFS1. But keep in mind that every games planes feel more sluggish after playing SDOEs sensative planes for many many months.

A Know Bug: (For me at least) Now while ingame, if you hit ALT and go to the setting section and you change the sound settings, you graphic settings get set to minimum... thus you have to redo them. This I believe is a interface bug.

Well... off to more flying!

posted 10-14- 01:46 AM            

I am VERY PLEASED!!! It was quite a sensation
to be sitting behind a F4F Wildcat in a Zero
A6m2 and watch the F4F burst into flame!! I
thought it was VERY close to gun camera footage that we all have seen!

I was amazed to see flame pouring out
of the F4F's engine, Great!

It was also fantastic to sit behind a Zero
in a Hellcat and shoot it to bits!!

I'm about 90% pleased. Some of the radio
chatter in the game is garbled. Plus since
I ONLY have a Voodoo 3000, I ONLY get 256
texture's and not 512!

Now IF ONLY CFS 1 had the same graphics!!!

IMHO....I would say buy it.

posted 10-14- 05:18 PM               

But I kinda like it already...even with out a Spit! This may stay on my HD a while as a fun offline sim...but I haven't really put it to test yet, we'll see. Would agree though that if one is a WWII and prop sim fan, this is worth a good long look.

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nealg=FC=

posted 10-14- 07:23 PM               

I want pearl harbour...

TS

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Patch It!

posted 10-14- 09:19 PM               

I have a radeon card, PIII800 so should not have any graphic probs!

The good side is the best flack ever! Boom, black smoke, flack particles hit your plane and the sound will freak you out. Makes me really want to avoid flack!

Planes are very well done but nothing that could not be done here in SDOE.

Ships are way cool and explode very nicely and then sink. Even a submarine comes up once in awhile.

Sounds make this game! When you fly through a group of enemy planes they sound like they are really passing you, and thats with my old cheap card and no rear speakers. Guns sound powerful and crisp. Explosions loud and deep. Engines very real and refined. I went out and bought a Sound Blaster Live Ex Gamer card just for this game and will install it soon.

If I can ever get this game working I will love it!

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Hawk
http://rcwarbirds.com/

posted 10-14- 10:05 PM               

Hawk, How much ram do you have? Sounds like you might need more.

Defrag your hard drive. And set your virtual ram to 150-250 megs instead of letting windows manageing it. It might be thrashing because its resizing during the game (dumb ass MS programers)

Well sounds like the sounds are good. I think I'll reinstall the beta and take another look at it. I can't see it replacing SDOE for me though. Just a fun flight or 2 everyonce in a while. I can't see my spending money on a sim that i'm not going to spend alot of time with.

Finally people are seeing the power of sounds. In some ways they are way more imersive then graphics. MUCH more important then some people give them credit for.

posted 10-14- 10:06 PM               

Oh yeah the mission editor does sound cool.

The editor in IL-2 sounds great too. you can go right into the 3d world and place the units like that instead of on a map.

posted 10-14- 10:55 PM               

TS

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Patch It!

posted 10-14- 10:56 PM               

Unless you have the beta version Gold and on, you may not have the true sounds. I think in the early beta, they used the CFS sounds...

OK-- ArgonV has nailed it pretty much...but I'll add 2 cents...

I have tried ditching and maybe I'm not doing it right (I think I am a little fast)- but I always explode on impact. So-- we will see about this...

On my system (PII 400...64 SDRAM, 16 MB Voodoo II...well there is some slow down...but I think once I get some more RAM I may see that end...hope I get some cash for my birthday. Other than that...man I love this game. Don't get me wrong...SDOE will never leave my hard drive...but MS has done the Pacific justice tenfold. There is even a LSO to tell you how to land on a carrier...BTW-- I haven't done it successfully yet

Gotta go check out the mission editor...I have been too busy playing it

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posted 10-14- 11:00 PM               

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Patch It!

www.airsims.com

posted 10-14- 11:28 PM               

But I will get it as soon as it comes out!

The wife is cringing, hehe

posted 10-15- 12:29 AM               

If you get the Devastator, Dauntless, and Avenger flying...and with torps...could you send them along? Thanks!!

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Brought to you by the campaign for a better Dauntless!