Hello,
Having read the Flight Simulator article in Flypast and only saw one WW2 Combat Flight Simulator mentioned – IL2, I thought that it would be appropriate to enlighten the readership as to what great things have been happening to CFS3. See our website for full details, but I’ll repeat the introduction here:
Microsoft’s Combat Flight Simulator 3 was pretty good right out of the box, and has brought several years of enjoyment to WWII gaming enthusiasts. While it was fun to fly in both single-play and multi-play modes, the aircraft selection was very limited and the flight models were very basic and lacking in accuracy. Effects, terrain, and weather, while adequate, begged for improvement, and the open architecture of CFS3 made all of this possible. Simply stated, the open- architecture of CFS3 was its single best feature, and the CFS 3 community wasted no time in producing enhancements that greatly improved the overall quality of the game and player immersion. New add-ons, like Korean Skies (by Ed Wilson), PTO Solomons, and MAW (Mediterranean Air War) took the sim to new levels while the AvHistory Team and others began to produce high quality, accurate aircraft, guns, and weapons. Substantial improvements were made by Guy Greenberg (Fox) to both weather and effects. His work took CFS 3 to a whole new level of player immersion.
Fast forward to 2008, when the ETO Development Team (Groundhogs) was created to take the existing CFS3 European Theatre of Operations to the same, or even better, level of quality, based on the success of MAW and PTO. The team brought together all of the various and sundry enhancements that had been done in a piecemeal fashion, compiled them, and included them in ETO, along with a major terrain and scenery makeover.
All of the best efforts and creativity from many talented individuals over the past few years has been included and built upon with ETO. The ETO Development Team is truly standing on the shoulders of many to bring you a totally new CFS3 experience. ETO has very little in common with the original CFS3 sim, and is a huge improvement.
Microsoft offers several flight simulators that are exceptional and have many fine features, but only the Combat Flight Simulator series (CFS, CFS2, and CFS3) enable you to relive those historic battles of WWII and engage the enemy.
Have fun with ETO/PTO, relive those historical moments, and we think you will agree that, along with Korean Skies and MAW, that they offer a truly wonderful and immersive experience. Finally, the best part is that these incredible additions to CFS3 have been created and brought to you free of charge by dedicated enthusiasts simply for the love of the game.
Good Hunting, and watch your six.
There is plenty of life in this combat sim yet. Check it out.
Beau
By: Marv - 12th November 2009 at 14:15
IL2
on a slight tangent, just purchsed IL2-birds of prey for XBox 360 and it’s pretty darn good.
Excellent graphics and easy to play on the game console, however Saitek now have a XBox 360 compatible joystick which takes the game to a whole new player level along the line of PC gaming…..worth a look if you are into gaming consoles as well as PC flight sims.
By: SpockXL319 - 5th November 2009 at 16:43
i’m not sure tbh on the packaging on mine it doesnt say it allows vista but it ran it with little trouble and as vista & w7 arent supposed tobe that different basically 7’s supposed tobe vista without the problems and annoyances. the only advice i can offer is to give you the link for the clever folk who make the update and patch that i downloaded the other day. i was told by trumper -i believe it was them- that any queries or problems i had to go there and ask so without further ado
http://shockwaveproductions.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=10&sid=2b881fda2e55b7ae3127b4715eea2cd1
hope you find out
alex (spock)
By: Sky High - 5th November 2009 at 12:40
Sky High, i would heartily recommend Battle of Britain II Wings of Victory. The flight controls are good on keyboard and joystick, the effects are second to none i know of and now with the texture packs and updates on another thread in fight sim makes it head and shoulders above others. A/C are Bf110, Bf109, JU87 (Luftwaffe pilot), JU88, HE111, Do17 (Luftwaffe Gunners) with the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire representing the RAF. Campaigns are all unique each time with 4 stages of the battle as a individual campaign. I bought it last year for well under £10. btw if you cant find the updates just look through all my posts.
hope this helps =]
alex
Alex – this is going to run on Windows 7 – 64bit. I cannot find any information which will confirm that this will not be a problem. Do you know, or do you know of a source I could contact to find out?:)
By: Sky High - 5th November 2009 at 12:38
Ooh, I think it does. Many thanks.:D:D
Spock – this is going to run on Windows 7 – 64bit. I cannot find anything anywhere which will confirm that this will not be a problem. Do you know by any chance, or do you know of a source which I could contact to find out?:)
By: Sky High - 4th November 2009 at 11:24
Sky High, i would heartily recommend Battle of Britain II Wings of Victory. The flight controls are good on keyboard and joystick, the effects are second to none i know of and now with the texture packs and updates on another thread in fight sim makes it head and shoulders above others. A/C are Bf110, Bf109, JU87 (Luftwaffe pilot), JU88, HE111, Do17 (Luftwaffe Gunners) with the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire representing the RAF. Campaigns are all unique each time with 4 stages of the battle as a individual campaign. I bought it last year for well under £10. btw if you cant find the updates just look through all my posts.
hope this helps =]
alex
Ooh, I think it does. Many thanks.:D:D
By: notamuppet - 2nd November 2009 at 11:49
He is nearly 7 and has been “flying” FSX for well over a year. If the IL2 series is too demanding is there an alternative – preferably WW2?
It IS possible to turn off things like stall, spin, engine torque and fly “no cockpit Wonder Woman view” unlimited ammo, and other settings in the difficulty set up screen. 1946 is the best 🙂
By: SpockXL319 - 1st November 2009 at 23:12
Sky High, i would heartily recommend Battle of Britain II Wings of Victory. The flight controls are good on keyboard and joystick, the effects are second to none i know of and now with the texture packs and updates on another thread in fight sim makes it head and shoulders above others. A/C are Bf110, Bf109, JU87 (Luftwaffe pilot), JU88, HE111, Do17 (Luftwaffe Gunners) with the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire representing the RAF. Campaigns are all unique each time with 4 stages of the battle as a individual campaign. I bought it last year for well under £10. btw if you cant find the updates just look through all my posts.
hope this helps =]
alex
By: Moggy C - 1st November 2009 at 22:49
Original IL2 has reached the ‘bargain’ end of software prices, certainly under a tenner. Not much to be lost by buying it and seeing how he gets on.
Moggy
By: Sky High - 31st October 2009 at 13:53
It rather depends on how old your grandson is.
There is no doubt that the IL2 series ( IL2 Sturmovik, Forgotten Battles & Pacific Fighters) stands head and shoulders above all others for authenticity. But that authenticity is bought at the cost of a very steep learning curve that requires a bit of dedication to master.
Moggy
He is nearly 7 and has been “flying” FSX for well over a year. If the IL2 series is too demanding is there an alternative – preferably WW2?
By: Moggy C - 31st October 2009 at 09:55
It rather depends on how old your grandson is.
There is no doubt that the IL2 series ( IL2 Sturmovik, Forgotten Battles & Pacific Fighters) stands head and shoulders above all others for authenticity. But that authenticity is bought at the cost of a very steep learning curve that requires a bit of dedication to master.
BB I’m sure what has been done to CFS is very good and I wasn’t criticising, just that the start of that quote from the website is so blatantly not true that it might lead readers to assume the rest of the posted information was as duff as that.
Moggy
By: Sky High - 31st October 2009 at 07:54
None of the above really helps me to decide what to buy for my grandson. Can someone offer some objective advice on combat simulation to run on a PC?:)
By: BeauBrummie - 30th October 2009 at 06:50
Well sure it was disappointing, but not everyone thought as you did Moggy C. There was enough promise to make thousands perservere with flying it and a whole community has grown who spend a lot of their own time improving it. None of of your examples apply now. ETO has an Era system where you choose which period of the war you want to fly, so the global layer changes to the chosen year with the appropriate type of emplacements, airfields etc. The flight models are now some of the best for a combat flight sim and many original aircraft have been created and stock models have been corrected. There are very few Combat Flight Sims out there, this is now one of the best.
Donno21 you can pick it up at Amazon here for under a tenner
By: Nashio966 - 29th October 2009 at 20:33
moggy,
nail, hammer, head
😀
By: Moggy C - 29th October 2009 at 20:16
Microsoft’s Combat Flight Simulator 3 was pretty good right out of the box
Well there’s your credibility blown right away.
I was one of the many who eagerly awaited the launch of CFS3 and it was just about the worst disappointment in gaming history.
On Day 2 I was struggling back from France in a wooden prop Hurricane 1 with battle damge in early 1940 and I was shot down by the flak around a 1944 V1 site in the Pas de Calais.
In 1944 huge Kriegsmarine fleets patrolled the Channel.
It was buggy, jerky, had crap flight models.
Good out of the box? Dream on.
Moggy
By: donno21 - 29th October 2009 at 19:55
where can I purchase CFS?
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October 14, 2009 at 7:33 pm