"Massively multiplayer"

Flight Journal, Oct 2002 by James, Jeff

Online flight sims

* Warbirds III * Aces High

More than a decade ago, Air Warrior, a WW II combat flight sim developed by the now defunct Kesmai Corp., gave aspiring armchair pilots a glimpse of the future of computer multiplayer flight simulation. Air Warrior allowed users from around the world to log on, choose their favorite prop-driven aircraft and fly missions with (and against) hundreds of other players. Its presentation was crude by today's standards, but Air Warrior provided hours of multiplayer fun years before the phrase "massively multiplayer" entered the lexicon of the gaming industry.

Thanks to the pioneering efforts of Air Warrior, a number of "massively multiplayer" online flight sims followed in its footsteps, taking the industry to new heights. New games such as Aces High and Warbirds Ill-- along with VR1's Fighter Ace III-emerged as highly playable and popular WW II online flight sims. Let's take a closer look at the latest two versions.

Warbirds III

iEntertainment Network; PC and Mac; www.iencentral.com/warbirds; $9.95 to $24.95/mo.

Warbirds has been available for play a few years longer than Aces High, and that extra development time translates into slightly more features and a plentiful array of flyable aircraft types: 42 fighters and nine bombers, plus a host of ground vehicles.

Newcomers to the world of Warbirds are greeted with some well-done off-line training missions and help files, but the only way to truly learn to fly is to log on and take to the air. Becoming an expert Warbirds jockey may take some serious online flight time; my own subjective experience was that the flight models seem a bit more sensitive and less forgiving than Aces High's.

Once you've taken to the virtual skies, you'll find that it takes significant flight time to master your chosen aircraft. Each aircraft featured in both games has its own unique flight characteristics, so all those flight hours you logged in your P-SID may not help when you hop behind the controls of an Fw 190.

The best part of both games is the ability to join virtual squadrons to battle other players. Large-scale flying events attempt to recreate famous WW II air battles in their entirety and range from bombing raids over Nazi Germany (with bombers and their guns manned by real players) to simulations of the Battle of Midway.

Aces High

HiTech Creation; PC; www.flyaceshigh.com/fi; $14.95/mo.

HiTech Creations, formed in 1998 by emigres from the original Warbirds development team, produces only one product: Aces High. This lean and mean, focused development approach has its benefits, with Aces rivaling Warbirds in just about every respect.

The training materials and off-line training mode in Aces aren't as well developed as those in Warbirds, but I found the actual flight experience in Aces to be a bit more forgiving and easier to learn. Like