FNG with an opinion.

[Dr. Laplace]

Hello all:

I have been a long time lurker here and finally decided do post something as I have downloaded and played the game.

First of all I'll begin by saying that I am a pilot (well, used to be). I have logged over 300 hurs in the venerable PC-7 Pilatus and I have participated in many simulated dogfights. Also like many of you, I've been a PC gamer before Bruce Atwick's Flight Simulator was "Microsoft Flight Simulator".

Now, on to business:

The game is plain awesome. Period. You really cannot expect much more from a console with a game pad. The flight models are EXACTLY as I remember them from IL-2 for the PC. I was frustrated at first because my P-51 would not handle well a loaded reversal and the spitfire kept stalling under high G turns. But then I remembered that I've spent maybe way too much time in modern jet combat games (like Lock On) and got used to the furballs of jet era dogfights. I had to remind myself of "the good ol' days" when it actually took more than a sidewinder shot to kill a guy in front of you. I played always in simulator mode, in case you wonder.

My first real challenge was during the second mission in the demo: the tank busting mission in the P-51. After passing the artillery and smelling some flak powder I was getting close to decimate the targets and then suddenly I saw a flight of four FW-190 "Doras" in finger four formation diving on me and my wingies. "Big deal" I thought; I turned the WEP on for a moment and unloaded to accelerate to what I thought would be corner velocity and then immediately began a climbing right turn to end up in their six. Big surprise, though, the bandits were WAY too far when I reached about 50º of the turn. "What happened?, my turn is not good enough". (This would be a good time to complain about the lack of redouts and blackouts, but I'll do that later). I unload again and begin to put my snot locker on their six. Then all hell broke loose: The bandits broke the formation and one of them was gunning one of my pals, another had climbed above me and two more had dissapeared from my sights (the were below, tree level). I slammed the WEP on and gave chase to the guy shooting my buddy. I had a pretty good shot at him at about 35º deflection and didn't take much to rip him apart.

I leveled out to chase the guy above and as soon as I got to around 500 KPH I pulled back hard and then I felt stupid: I turned the P-51 into a flying golf cart and began a stall and a spin that ended with me crashing into the tree line below. "Crap".

I started out again on a perch with around 3000 ft to spare on this other guy. I dove down at around 50% throttle and quickly gunned him. Then I started looking for the other two guys when their tracers found me first. Now It was not a big loud noise like "oh my, their are grilling me here" but enough for me to realize that they were on my four o'clock and closing in fast to my six. I leveled and unloaded, turned the WEP on and started an immelman. Then I stalled again and barely made it out of the spin.
I paused the game. I went nuts cursing the game and thinking how Over-G fighters has better handling when I came to the realization that that was EXACTLY my problem: I am fighting in WWII planes, not the latest F22 Raptor. I remembered all my readings about WWII dogfights, also I remembered those shows on the History channel ("Dogfights", duh!) and how I am always thinking "did he really have that much time to do this or that?". In this game there is no loud buzz from an incoming SAM. No threat warning system... just your eyes... Jeez... with that in mind I relaxed my gameplay a little. Then is when I started to have REAL fun.

I un-paused and continued on to the bogeys. I passed them head-on and then began a sharp turn to the left while this one guy climbed above and the other turned opposite to me. I quickly rolled level and put some distance and altitude between us. When I got to about 2 KM of them I turned back into them. They either lost me or didn't want to fight. I closed in to one of them and he reacted very violently: he climbed only like the Dora can, and began leaving me stuck in lag. I followed him though, and as we came down to around 2000 ft and level I gunned him down. Then I started looking for his friend. We passed each other head-on again and I decided to go up in the vertical this time. To my surprise this guy did too. I struggled to keep a tally and quickly came to the top a little behind the bandit and then we came down again. We did this about two times... ther I was, rolling scissors with an FW190. He "saw" me close to his six (well, the AI did, I guess) and made a violent barrel roll to the left that had me struggling to catch up. Amazingly; a high yo-yo made me stay on his deep six. I say amazingly because it is taught in modern air combat that if you see a guy doing a yo-yo it's usually a sign that the guy does not know what he is doing. It "Lock On" it should be in one of those "10 ways to tell you are a noob in..." videos on youtube: "you know you are a noob in Lock On if you perform a yo-yo during a turning fight". In WWII planes it worked like magic.

Now, I got really close to this guy. I mean "Luftwaffe shooting down a B17 guncam footage" close. I squeezed the trigger and all sorts of beautiful things evolved in front of me: pretty shiny and glowy dots began filling this guy's plane. Airfoils disintegrating and falling behind, oil splattering my canopy... I honestly thought that I was going to see a body part turning into mashed potatoes. Just beautiful.
Of course, this ended with me getting gunned down on my next run on the tanks by what I think it was an ME-109 Gustav.

I've read many complaints, and I agree with most. It was a big turn off to turn my to check six and find a big black wall on a P51D mustang (being that it had a bubble cannopy). The button layout was not very good too: try looking to keep a tally while playing around to coordinate stick, rudder and throttle... Now, I adjusted the sensitivity to low on the controller, but every time I died I had to do it again on the next plane I jumped to.

I did not like the fact that there is little feedback to the "pilot". Usually a blackout will tell me that my turn is hard enough. A little more feedback on the stalls would work too.

However, the game is really, very VERY good. I cannot really complain about it because I think that if it was any more realistic, 50 years from now a nice young woman would come knocking on my door and saying "I am the granddaughter of the FW190 pilot you shot down an that tank run on the bulge 50 years ago".


I can't wait for the full version to come out. And I cannot wait to meet some of you, gentlemen, up there.

Best,

Dr. Laplace.

[Jasta 6]

After reading that, i think i want the demo twice as much now! Great review! Damn xbox people...

[H Lecter]

A very enjoyable read - welcome to the forums! I've never flown a plane in real life (but I will achieve that goal and get at least one of those ultra light planes or a gyrocopter) and so I am always happy to hear from people with experience that the game I love so much is very much like the real deal

There should be an audible indication before you start to stall. Anton stated that in another post and according to him the absence of the same is a glitch that will be fixed.

[Steiner]

What the FNG said! Good read Dr. Laplace.
I started off using a game pad to get the hang of things.
Then I hooked up my Ace Edge HOTAS and was totally blown away.
I'm a pilot too, learned to fly in one of these:

[Wehrwulf]

Is that a Bonanza V-tail? *Jealous* Oooooohhhhhh.

I forgot: very nice review Doctor.

[Steiner]

Yepper. '66 Beechcraft Bonanza V35B. It was my Dads' plane, he taught me how to fly it when I was just a youngster.

[Rittmeister86]

Excellent review.

[the_somme]

nice review

hello all!

i have also been lurking for some time and i recently got into gaming again after almost a ten year hiatus. i think the last game i played was microsofts combat flight sim.

anyway, i also found the controls really frustrating at first, especially the p51. its slowly getting more rewarding though and i am almost certain i will get a flight stick for this one!

[Dr. Laplace]

thanks for the props, guys!

I never flew a Bonanza... I did fly "in" a Bonanza though.

I've been reading the threads here and now come to the conclusion that I need either a Hori or an Ace Edge....

[mondo]

Originally Posted by the_somme

anyway, i also found the controls really frustrating at first, especially the p51.

Full fuel tank? If your taking as much fuel as she will carry it will cause the CoG to shift too far to the rear until the rear fuel tank empties. Same problem affected the Spitfire VIII. She is a twitchy plane also, if its the NT block the tail fillet won'tbe modelled adding to the twitch.