This means that pilots will have to adapt their flying to their aircraft and that of the enemy. Aircraft are accurately modelled and have very noticeably individual flight models you will not be able to out-turn a Zero or Oscar, and you will not be able to outrun a Corsair. Flight models are good, enhanced by several post-release fixes. None of the flyable aircraft carry torpedoes, and bombing without bombsights is at best a nod in the direction of ground attack. All the single missions in the game involve shooting down other aircraft, and so do most of the campaign missions. Although some of these aircraft are equipped with rockets and bombs, the clear emphasis of the game is on fighter combat. The game contains seven different flyable fighters - the F4F Wildcat, F6F Hellcat, F4U Corsair and P-38 Lightning for the Americans, and the A6M2 and A6M5 Zeros and the N1K2 George for the Japanese. For the price of a good dinner for two you get over a hundred hours of intense enjoyment in a box, with the promise of many more to come thanks to the attentions of the hordes of modellers, designers and mission builders that support the Microsoft flight simulators as a hobby (see CFS2 Online for some examples). In a brilliant but flawed sequel to their original Combat Flight Simulator, Microsoft have given us a good sim that, like "Falcon 4", has the capacity to become a great one. Now Microsoft have shown us what we were missing. The Pacific Theatre even gained a jinx - it was supposedly commercial death. We have abandoned our old warbirds and conducted low-level strikes on Iraqi airfields during Desert Storm and strafed Egyptian Migs in the Six Day War. In the intervening years we have had numerous visits to European skies, escorting B-17s across a hostile Germany, or pounding tanks in the Ardennes.
It has been a long time since "Pacific Air War" allowed us to chase Zeros and torpedo carriers.
#Microsoft combat flight simulator 2 manual for free#
These are often available for sale in stores or for free online, developed by third-party companies and ambitious gamers. Like most flight sims from the company, Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 2 is ready to accept expansion packages and add-on missions with minimal difficulty. Microsoft invested considerable effort to make the planes look, sound, and behave as much like the real thing as possible. Players have several mission options and many planes from which to choose, including the American P-38F Lightning, F4F-4 Wildcat, F6F-3 Hellcat, and F4U-1A Corsair or the Japanese A6M2 Zero, A6M5 Zero, and NiK2 George. Several extensive interviews were conducted with both Japanese and American pilots in an effort to provide the game with an honest cultural context and a realistic feel. The planes, locations, and missions are all based on actual battles and events. Like the earlier Microsoft Combat Flight Sim WWII Europe Series, extensive effort was devoted to making all aspects of this game as realistic and historically accurate as possible. The second WWII flight simulation in the series, Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 2: WWII Pacific Theater focuses on the action between Japanese and U.S.