posted 12-08- 09:17 AM               

Short:
CFSII
Verrrrry nice runs very smooth, great
'out-of-the-boxe' game!
Additional airplanes (done by user) are crap
(well most of them..not all), also the
missions (suddenly ends).

B17II
Also very nice (if u got the hardware)
But ...well I don't know, perhaps I expected
too much. In other words after playing only
for one hour I got a little bit tired from
it (just the first feelings,,,this could
be changing in the future). The graphics are
not that 'masterpiece' that I've expected
....mhhhhm don't know.
Good-News: As seen on the bombs-away.net
our good ol' meatwater is already on the job!

As I wrote, these are just my feelings, after
just a couple of ours playing around with
these two sim's. So, who knows ....

My Hardware:
Intel Pentium III 933 MHz 256MB-RAM
TNT2, 32 MB
30GB HD
10$ Joystick (I know I should change this)
....mhhhm as you can see not too bad, and
those games realy need it (especial. B17II)!

...more details (toughts) will follow..I hope

ps: sdoe still rocks!
gt

posted 12-08- 09:28 AM               

what I'm NOT gona buy:
- Janes WWII
- CFS
- BOB
- Airfix Planes (mhhm not shure about the title)

looking for:
- Sturmovik...what else!

gt

posted 12-08- 11:20 AM               

CFS2 has fantastic graphics, but the FM is a bit twitchy. However I have installed Meatwater's modified FM files that include a stall buffet sound which helps immensely. The campaign is poor (particularly the US Navy one) but there is a modified campaign out which overturns many of the ridiculous mission objectives. I have installed this and will give it a try next week.

Other nice mods are surfacing for CFS2 which add to the immersion (particularly the roll bug fix which has made a noticeable improvement).

Overall both are creditable efforts but it is still too early to pass final judgement until the sims have both had a chance to mature and the patches / mods to surface. Let's face it SDOE out of the box was not exactly a the best sim in the world.

IL-2 is the next sim I will buy I may look into BoB but only for the strategic element, I'm not going to fly a sim using graphics based on an old DOS engine and looking like it - well actually Flying Corps Gold had better graphics

EAW is off my drive now, enjoyed it while I played it, but once SDOE user-made FMs came out it was difficult to go back to its table based FM. I have EECH, played it a lot when it first came out and I will again in the future. Red Baron 3D is also on the HD but the cockpits are looking very dated now and it's probably not going to survive the next system purge. LB2 is also off the HD but I still regard this as the most immerse sim in recent years.

posted 12-08- 11:26 AM               

It rocks... I would even go so far as to say CFS II is the best fighter sim out there right now. In any case, it's light years better than CFS 1, which was garbage. That's not to say there aren't major problems, though... the campaign, for instance, is so unrealistic as to be unplayable. The AI is pretty bad too... dogfighting Bettys with god-like gunnery skills... fighters that constantly perform perfect edge-of-the-envelope maneuvers. The damage model feels a little canned too. Can't win 'em all I guess.

B-17 II:

Still debating whether I should buy it or not. Right now, I'm really leaning toward not buying it.

So far, here are the strikes against it...

1. The instruments in the principle plane are not incorporated into the virtual cockpit. They are a separate view that you have to switch to when you want to check your gauges. What were they thinking?

2. The B-17 interiors are fuzzy, stylized 2D backdrops.

3. Fighter FMs are questionable.

4. Terrain looks cartoony.

5. Clouds look flat.

6. No multiplayer.

7. No mission editor.

GT,

posted 12-08- 11:38 AM               

Got EAW....good fun as a game, and still has a lot going for it. Not really a 'SIM' in the true sense of the word, since the FM's don't feel like I think they should.

Got Red Baron II.....never really inspired me

Got Flying Corps Gold.....great fun, even with dated graphics

Got Mig Alley.....could have been good if they had cured it's endless lemming like desire to self destruct

Got some other WW2 sim...SDOE....or somesuch...don't know if you've heard of it

What I won't be buying!

BOB...tried the demo and...well see my post in Off Topic.

B17II....jury is still out on whether it's any good...CTD's, only a few bombers bomb, fighters are an after-thought..and the P38 hasn't got a gunsight...besides, I don't have the hardware to run it properly. Even with the upgrade I'm about to make, I'll still be struggling. Not going to spend money on a game I can't play.

What I WILL be buying....

IL2..no question. Like the look, like the idea, like the features, and the commitment seems to be there to support further planes etc. so it should have an ongoing appeal.

What I will be watching for....

Stormbird...could be good

posted 12-08- 11:46 AM               

EAW
Quite cool, but I agree. It's not a true 'sim.'

WWII Fighters
Good GFX, FM's suck!

Flying Corps
Fun as hell!

Other cool games:

I just bought Colin McRae 2 today, and it rocks!
SysRq on the box say PIII-500MHz, but I run it on my PII-350. I need to upgrade my ram a bit, though. At 1024x768, at the most cluttered stages, it chugs a bit.

SAR 2

posted 12-08- 11:59 AM               

???

????

Thats the only thing that i really dislike about the game now that i got the prop blur removed.

TS

posted 12-08- 12:52 PM               

Remember those polygonal clouds that worked like an frozen all-wheel breaking system on the frame rate? Well, with the new system, I turned it all on... It's wild! Looks very, very nice.

Even if the planes don't fly as well as they could, it is an eye feast!

I decided to play through some of the campaigns again. There's still tons of fun there.

If you too decide to try Janes again...

GET THE SPRING TERRAIN! It's incredible and really breaths life into the scenery.

BTW, if you're like me, you're thinking that you'd be hard-pressed to ever find a game that lasts as long on your drive as SDOE has. It's got to be one of the best investments I've ever made...

posted 12-08- 01:02 PM               

What were they thinking...??

posted 12-08- 03:36 PM               

nibbio has the roll bug fix at his site...along with splashes for when the flak hits near the water....dust clouds for when it hits close to the ground, longer wakes and smoke trails for the ships....he is the mod God over there at present

------------------

Brought to you by the campaign for a better Dauntless!

posted 12-08- 03:38 PM               

nibbio has the roll bug fix at his site...along with splashes for when the flak hits near the water....dust clouds for when it hits close to the ground, longer wakes and smoke trails for the ships....he is the mod God over there at present

------------------

Brought to you by the campaign for a better Dauntless!

posted 12-08- 07:52 PM            

I love CFS-2,with nibbio's mods,the game is great now,you can actually take some hits and not lose your roll rate,I usually get shot down shortly thereafter due to over-exuberance at making through that first encounter!

I still like and play mig-alley,great dogfighting to be found there.

I'm sure I'm in a minority here,but I play enemy engaged-commanche vs. hokum alot.This game came out of the box with no bugs that I found,the campaign is simply fantastic,give it a try if you haven't!

Mudshark =FC=

posted 12-09- 02:18 AM               

I bought WWII fighters at Costco (in the US) last week for $8.99 At that price I can afford to try it.

Speaking of picking up flight sims cheap-

Microcenter here in Denver has CFS2 for $25 through Dec 17th with a $10 rebate if you have CFS . For $15 I'm willing to try any flight sim. (I got the original CFS when CompUSA made an advertising error for $5 )

EAW may not be a true sim, but it does create the best "you are there" atmosphere of any of the games. Bought it on sale for $14.99

Then there's that Fighter Squadron game. You may have heard of it . The only sim I paid full price for (and would again)