Flight-sim roundup

Flight Journal, Dec 1999 by Ethell, David

Starting our roundup, let's look at the many WW II-era simulations that have just come out or are on the way. For a few years, there has been a dearth of WW II sims, but ever since late 1998, our wishes have been fulfilled.

Thankfully, the current and upcoming games are not carbon copies of one another, but instead give us great variety in the WW II aviation experience.

Curent sims

European Air War, MicroProse, http://www.hasbrointeractivec.com/microprose

This game has been touted as the best of the currently available propeller sims. Several patches have been released that fixed such things as aircraft collisions, enemy intelligence, multiplayer problems and more. Its paint kit allows players to paint their own exteriors, cockpits and terrain. This allows virtual squadrons to create specific graphics for the missions and theaters they fly in and to re-create the look of real-world squadrons.

Fighter Squadron: Screamin' Demons Over Europe, Parsoft,

http://www.parsoft.com

This sim debuted amid much hype about how advanced the flight and damage models were, only to be judged a flop by most critics. Though the modeling was different from most simulations', it just wasn't realistic. Parsoft fixed most of the problems, however, with its first patch.

Despite some problems, Screamin' Demons looks and plays very well if you're more interested in how it felt to be a WW II pilot and perhaps less interested in realistic details. Granted, there's a lot of debate on both sides, but with custom modifications and additions from Parsoft, SDOE will be around for some time to come.

Air Warrior, Kesmai, http://www.gamestorm.com

Air Warrior continues to thrive despite an outdated graphics engine and flight modeling. User add-ons such as the scenario aircraft converter allow players to customize aircraft and terrain graphics to match the current theater and scenario.

Kesmai plans to update Air Warrior in a big way after Air Warrior: Vietnam debuts. Kesmai has said it plans to use the new graphics engine for AW: Vietnam in Air Warrior 4, whenever it comes out. No release dates were available at press time.

WarBirds, iMagic Entertainment Network, http://www.imagicgames.com

Another veteran in the online simulation world; though not as venerable as Air Warrior, it generated lots of controversy this year. Early in the year, WarBirds' entire development staff walked out and formed a new company. Despite a rocky transition, the new development team continues to improve the simulation by adding new plane types such as the Ki.64 Tony and working on an entirely new graphics engine to appear in WarBirds 3.

WarBirds now supports almost 60 different aircraft, all flyable online against human opponents. iEN regularly sponsors major historical scenarios along with the usual community-created events.

Upcoming sims

B-17 Flying Fortress II, MicroProse/Wayward Design, http://www.hasbrointeractive.com/microprose, release date: September, 1999

At last: a simulation for all of us buff jockeys. Wayward design follows up its acclaimed Flying Fortress product of several years ago with a sim that puts us in the day-to-day grind of flying a bomber in WW II.

B-17 Flying Fortress II models the entire crew inside the bomber along with a myriad of the B-17's systems, including hydraulics, engine management, emergency systems and more. While the simulation does allow players to fly enemy and Allied fighters, the focus is certainly on the Fortress. Players command a bomber crew through a tour of duty, trying to keep the original crew alive throughout the entire tour.

Unlike Flight Combat from Looking Glass, B-17 Flying Fortress II is not completely modeled in 3D; 2D art was used for the cockpits and aircraft interior. All the flight controls, knobs and switches are 3D, though, as are the crew and its equipment.

Nations: World War II Fighter Command, Psygnosis, http://www.psygnosis.com/nations, release date: 4th quarter, 1999

Psygnosis hopes to enter the WW II simulation market in a big way with its upcoming game, Nations: World War II Fighter Command. Nations will allow you to fly for either the Germans, British, or Americans through 45 combat missions.

Along with advanced 3D effects that few current simulations have, Nations will include satellite-mapped terrain and a damage model that looks very complete, although probably not as thorough as that of Flight Combat from Looking Glass.

Desert Fighters, Dynix, http://www. dynamix.com, release date: 4th quarter, 1999

Dynamix decided to take a break from the War in Europe and focus an entire simulation on the desert war in North Africa. It released an alpha preview this past year that players can fly online, and it shows great promise of what is coming.

Pilots can choose from many aircraft, including several variants of the Hurricane, Bf 109, P-40, Macchi 201, P-51, A-36, Spitfire, Ju 87, P-38F and more. In addition to those flyable aircraft, there will be many non-flyable aircraft, including the A-20, B-25, B-24, Ju 52, Ju 88 and Blenheim. Although this will be a boxed game with offline campaigns, I imagine many players will spend their time online, mixing it up in this unique WW II experience.