User Reviews (21 - 31 of 130)

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Gooood

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 21
Date: January 04, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Combat Flight Simulator 2 is a dream come true for historic flight sim fans. Excellent graphics, great sound effects, and adjustable realism settings make CFS2 a thrilling and accessible sortie into the unfriendly skies of the South Pacific during World War II.

After choosing to fly for the Japanese or American forces, you can pick from a selection of seven ultrarealistic aircraft. Experienced flight sim fans will drool over the plane models, accurate down to the number of rivets. Newbies will appreciate the excellent flight and landing tutorials.

There are over 100 missions to fly, many based on historic missions from the war. This unusual level of realism and attention to detail comes from the game developers' personal love of flight: many members of the CFS2 team are pilots. Their extensive research included interviews with Japanese and U.S. aces from the real war in the Pacific. The missions themselves are lengthy and often complex, and are just as accurate as the planes; players take part in history, but cannot change the outcomes of battles.

Because the action takes place in the South Pacific don't expect to see a wide variety of ground scenery. Not that you'll miss it: the water, small islands, planes, aircraft carriers, and battleships are always very sharp and detailed. However, if you expect to play with the graphics at their best settings, be aware that you'll need a blazing fast machine with a fast video card. On lesser computers, the graphics in Combat Flight Simulator 2 start to degrade from stunning to merely ordinary.

CFS 2 Top Drawer

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: October 24, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I have a 400MHZ with 256 MB RAM and a Voodoo 5 Video Card and CFS 2 runs beautifully and it is without a doubt the best WWII flightsim todate. The graphics are awesome and the air combat feels just as I imagined it would. You line up on an enemy six, 400 to 500 yards behind, put the crosshairs a little above him, squeeze off a few rounds and he explodes or starts smoking and bursts into flames. Absolutely first rate. Beware the carrier landings however, as they are not easy. Buy this one and you won't have any dissapointments.

Fantastic Internet Play!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: November 13, 2000
Author: Amazon User

As some of the previous reviews have stated, the requirements are a little steep. I'm running an Athlon 850, 128 mb ram, and a Voodoo 3, I sometimes get a little chop during heavy fight sequences (10 aircraft or more). Other than that the game play is great and as far as playing online on The Gaming Zone, I think I'm addicted. Weather, time of day, and even picking your own cloud cover for quick dogfights make this game a keeper!

Works good on my old system

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: January 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I've read the horror stories here about if your system isn't a supercomputer, forget trying to run this software. All I can say is get a reputable computer and you won't have any problems. I have an old Compaq Presario 5020 model that has a Celeron running at 300 MHz and 64 megs of RAM ... an old ATI Rage Pro 3D accelerator for graphics with the most current drivers. Not an impressive system at all. I loaded the software, followed directions and found I needed to switch from 256 color to 16 bit. I made the changes, restarted loading and **WOW** it works! If all you can do is throw stones, go play near a glass factory. If you want some fun flying, I encourage you to get a copy of this game. I've tried a few of the missions, but the funnest thing is to go to quick combat and FLY! You'll get smoked a few times to be sure, but nothing is more satisfying than cutting the wing of a B-24 Liberator off and watch it go down in flames. Or load out with air to air rockets and bash some "Betty"s. Graphics are great, sounds are thrilling and playablity is a winner. I Can't wait to get home and play it now, I talked myself happy!!

Hell in the Pacific Skies -- CFS2 Soars High!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: June 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Having enjoyed Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator - World War II Europe Series, it was only natural that I would want to try out Combat Flight Simulator 2 - Pacific Theater. Combat Flight Simulator is, after all, one heck of a World War II buff's dream games, so I figured its Pacific counterpart would be as good.

I have to admit that I am not the best of pilots. I still fly at the most basic of realism levels in Combat Flight Simulator (Europe), and that is enough of a challenge. Facing off German bombers and fighters with Rookie-level artificial intelligence is tough, and I still am not skilled enough to set my realism settings (flight models, ammo loads, enemy skill levels, and sometimes invincibility levels) to 100%

Nevertheless, having completed the two Campaigns in the European theater, I recently decided to try Microsoft's Combat Flight Simulator 2: WWII Pacific Theater.

Although it is similar to its European-set predecessor, CFS2 is markedly different in many ways, both good and not-so-good.

First, the good:
Like CFS1, it immerses players into its WWII setting, using historically accurate settings and time-appropriate aircraft (you don't get Corsairs or Hellcats in early 1942, for instance). Unlike CFS1, however, the title scenes and end-of-mission screens are rendered in 1940s comic-book style art, which I find more fun than the European Theater game's more documentary-style narration. I like the "you are there" feel of a more story-oriented game premise that has comic book panel art and a narrative voice over that reminds one of either personal war logs or pilots' letters to loved ones back home.

Also as in CFS1, players can fly for either the Americans or the Japanese, although thus far I have only been playing as an American. Because I have only been flying for seven "months" (in the game, not real life), I am still only an ensign, even though I have almost 25 aerial victories and several medals and commendations in my "jacket" (service record file).

The game's basic flight control commands are nearly identical to the WWII Europe simulation, although here one has commands that affect artificial-intelligence wingmen. I have had a hard time getting the hang of this (more on the negatives later, I promise), but with trial and error I am learning.

The graphics, like in many computer advances, are improved from the older game. The scenery is a bit monotonous in some battles, but that's because the Pacific war took place over large expanses of ocean, with sometimes little or no land below to use for reference points. The ships here look better than in CFS1, and the planes themselves are beautifully rendered. I particularly like the visuals when I hit a Japanese plane: if hit just right, Zeroes and Betty bombers have a tendency to catch fire easily. Microsoft's game designers render this quite nicely, and because the Japanese fighters are particularly difficult to hit in the first place, I just feel so rewarded when flames spurt out of a Zero's cowling and the Mitsubishi product spirals down with a trail of realistic smoke.

The flight models, I assume, are as realistic as game designers can make them. I've noticed that Japanese fighters are much harder to hit than the German planes from CFS1, and that even enemy planes with "pilots" and "gunners" at Rookie level are deadlier. I humbly admit that my realism settings are all at zero per cent; I tried one mission using settings similar to the ones I have on CFS1, and got shot down fairly easy.

The negative features are things that are missing in the game rather than how hard it is to play or the graphics. Sorely missed is a hard-copy manual. CFS1 had one, and although it is somewhat intimidating to look at - many game players hate thick manuals - it is nice to know one can read up on how to fly and fight. Most of the manual of the European Theater game helps gamers understand and learn the context of the game, as well as providing the basics of flight and survival in combat without bogging down into boring technical detail. CFS2, on the other hand, comes in a smaller box and has all its instructions on Help files. That is fine for gamers who hate reading manuals or are naturally-born-flyers. But for me, a manual or even a keyboard command card would have been helpful: I still don't know, for instance, how to drop a bomb...which in a few missions has cost me valuable points. Maybe the "online manual" feature saves Microsoft a few bucks, but it's giving me fits.

The other flaw I see is that it focuses on American naval aviation rather than the multi-service aspect of the Pacific air war. True, CFS1 has a similarly small aircraft selection: only 3 different planes for each combatant air force (for a total of 9 aircraft), but I had hoped to fly a few Army Air Force fighters as well. So far I have seen only one Army plane that is player-flyable, and that's the P-38 Lightning. I would have liked to fly the P-40 (maybe in a Pearl Harbor introductory game) and the P-51D on escort duty over Japan. Still, I understand that game design often involves compromises to enable different computers with different capabilities to run this kind of software, so this gripe is not a major one that should deter you from buying this game.

Good fun for its time

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: March 05, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I bought CFS2 when it first came out, and it has given me much pleasure over the years. It remains my favorite of the CFS series, with good graphics and an enjoyable player interface. Runs well too, especially on today's computers. There are a host of free and commercial add-ons that enhance every aspect of the game. I have to say that since the advent of IL-2, it has been outclassed as a combat flight sim, but it can still offer the user a lot of enjoyment.

CFS2

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: November 08, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game is good but could be better first of all there is no pearl harbor for either sides and you need a top of the line bought yesturday computer to run it! so unless you like flying a frame rate per minute and you dont have a 800mhz computer i suggest you forgo this game.

Fighters ONLY, no Torpedo Runs for you!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: December 20, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I love the game, but as a player you are restricted to the seven fighter aircraft in the game. I was very disappointed that there were no missions where you dive bomb or torpedo the Japanese at Midway in a dedicated dive bomber or torpedo bomber, nor can you fly a Japanese torpedo plane at Pearl Harbor...things you could do in the older game Aces of the Pacific. Overall, alot of fun and great graphics with an Nvidia GeForce 256 GTS 64MB DDR video card. Just wish the game had a wider scope.

Good flight sim

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: June 29, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This is a very enjoyable game and easy to get into right away, despite what other reviewers say. True, if you jump in with fully realistic modelling of plane behavior and agressive enemies you'll have a very hard time staying alive. Being new to flight sims I took the wimpy route and used easy modes wherever i could to start out with, and I quickly became interested and started using harder settings. A flight yoke is a must, of course. Dont hope to fly with just a keyboard. Also, if heavily action-oriented games (FPSs and stuff) are your thing you may get bored with this game after a few hours. Alot of the fun is in learning to effectively fly the different planes and outfly enemies. Though the action is great, this game is really more about skill acquisition than about blowing things up. That said, it's extremely gratifying to watch your enemies burst into flames and shed pieces as your tracers tear through them.

Challenging but fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: July 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have all three Microsoft Combat Flight Simulators. This review is for Flight Sim 2: Pacific Theater.

It's challenging and a lot of fun, and I think much better than CFS 1 and somewhat easier than CSF 3.

Players have the choice of free flight, quick battles assuming the roles of either Japanese or American pilots with the choice of airplanes armed with a variety of weapons, or campaigns which stretch over a period of time.

The campaigns force you to acknowledge how tough our American airmen, as well as opposing flyers, had it when engaged in aerial combat. You get a close-up view of the strengths and weaknesses of the aircraft they had available at the time.

Get a good joystick and a fast computer for this game.

You have lots of fast-paced action and you can set the locations where the "fighting" takes place.

I prefer the view (I don't know what it's call right off) in which you're inside the plane but without the restrictions of the instrument panel and cockpit. Important info is posted on dials in the upper right corner of the screen.

Just because I can, I set my ammunition and fuel controls so I have an endless supply of both. It isn't as realistic as going with historical quantities, of course, but I'm in charge, so I do as I want.

Others may prefer an extremely realistic game and go with the historical ammo and fuel loads, and the restrictions the cockpit imposes.

To end, I urge readers to get this game and head for the sky!

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