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Pretty sad that this is the best flight sim on the market

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 18 / 54
Date: November 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Don't believe the hype. This game is all graphics and no substance. For a company that claims to make super-realistic flight sims Maddox Games does a really poor job. This is basically an arcade flight game with super-realistic graphics. The campaign is clunky and inflexible; the damage models are so poor that it's easy for even a complete novice to shoot down enemy planes; and the FM in Pacific Fighters is poor even by Maddox standards. Not only are these things poorly-done, but Maddox doesn't allow any mods for damage, so it's not even possible for the community to fix this aspect. All-in-all, a terrible sim. The 10 year-old Aces of the Pacific, although graphically inferior, was much more fun than this lemon.

Maddox has made its name for years by over-hyping their pretty yet shoddy products. It's about time someone came along to make a real simulation. Sadly, Maddox is currently the only game in town, which just shows the sad state of the simulation genre. If only Dynamix was still around to show Maddox what a good simulation looks like.

1 star for graphics. As usual with Maddox titles, awful gameplay, poor realism, and no ability to mod the game's interior workings make this game a big disappointment.

Learn History and fly a great Sim!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: October 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Pacific fighters is a fantastic ww2 flight sim- Which is even better when running complete with Forgotten battles and ace expansion pack.
As stated before the 'patches' are in fact. add-ons which add maps and more planes. along with tweaking flight models and damage models to the planes included. I don't know of any other WW2 flight simulation that is flyable online/offline/ by yourself with computer AI- with someone and computer AI- or just with 40 or so real people flying at the same time online...that offers this many aircraft..AND air craft carriers. Taking off/landing on an AC carrier is white knuckle flying, believe me.
At this time, there is nothing that can match the graphic quality and over all fun to be had with this game- air to air combat- air to ground attacks...level bombing.. torpedo runs... its all there.
It's a good time to be a gamer.

Game Won't Initialize

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 12
Date: June 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game because of the good reviews. It appeared to install OK, but when I tried to start the game, I got an error message saying "The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000142)." I rebooted my computer twice, and reinstalled the game twice to no avail. I did a Google search on the error, and found that other people were reporting the same error in discussion groups. One person offered a solution that involved changing a video setting, and I tried that. Not only didn't it work, but I began getting Nvidia error messages unrelated to the game because of the settings I changed. I recommend avoiding Pacific Fighters until Microsoft makes a patch available.

Why don't people RTFM?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 10
Date: October 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is a first class game. It has its faults, all minor, which can be fixed with patches. Some aircraft are missing from the game due to licensing issues, Pearl harbor is present and has been from the start. Since release the game has been frequently updated with aircraft and new maps as well as a new more realistic Flight Model.

Some of the reviews here are hopelessly inaccurate. For example a reviewer criticised the inability to tip the wing of a V2 Rocket ??!! Please I ask you! You CAN tip the wing of V1 flying bomb which is historically accurate. In case you still dont get it the V2 was a rocket, flew approx Mach 5, no plane could catch it.

Although copy protection is used it is not 'Starforce' The game can be run by following a few simple instructions available on the forums.

If you are going to review a game please ensure you can run it properly by:
1. reading the readme file
2. RTFM!!
3. Visit the forums which will help you iron out any problems

a good game, but it's predecessor is better

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: August 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

i found that this game can be quite fun, but not nearly as fun as IL-2 Forgotten battles, the expansive ocean is just not as visually attention grabbing as the olling plais and hills of russia, granted, the graphics are awesome, and the pacific theater is fun and taking off of and linding on carriers are challenging and fun, this game just didn't holed my interest like forgotten battles did, and even Combat Flight simulator 2 was more fun, but not nearly as good looking, simply put, this is a great game for aviation fans with GeForce 6 (and late FX series) and ATI X(and 9700 and above) series cards, the graphics are the best on the market,however the fun factor is a bit lacking

Sorry Microsoft!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: December 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I really like this game.I'm so sorry microsoft,but Ubi Soft kicked your butt!This game is way more fun and the mission builder is easier to use.The carriers and ships are way more detailed.I really like the way where it actually looks like your hook gappled on the cable.There is also wayyyyyyyyy more aircraft to choose from.You even get to fly bombers too.Oh yeah,did I mention your wingman take off on the carrier too!On the single player missions,you could play the attack on Pearl Harbor on both sides.You even ecort B-29s on the campaign on the attack on Japan.But you don't get to escort the B-29s that carried the atomic bomb.I don't get that,they let play how world war 2 started in the Pacific put won't let you play on how the war ended.

Disappointed

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 11
Date: October 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

"I wonder if the combination of a russian developer, and a french distributor will ever make for good gameplay in a simulator focused on a singularly american theater."

Amen brother. No TBD no SB2C no B6N no D4Y no B5N (to fly) no TBF (to fly) (which dropped more bombs then any other type over Pacific) and that is supposed to be carrier warfare? P-39s in Marine Squadrons, why not F-16s???? Where are the B-26, the G3M, the Ventura, the Beaufort, the Ki-44?????? Arghhh they had a golden opportunity and they blew it.

challenging and in depth

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Although I'm not too much of a flight sim expert, but I'd say that the Pacific Fighters stand alone has exceeded my expectations in most ways.
1. Graphics: Very good, they can be trimmed down for slower computers, or spruced up to a fairly sophisticated level. I like the varied cloud densities, flak bursts, ocean swells, and I'd say the terrain is quite good for the most part. The aircraft often have different paint schemes to chose from, and show exhaust smears, paint chips, and other imperfections that add to the realism. Army Aircorps planes even have the option of nose art. Bomb explosions were a bit uniform and dissapointing, but seeing cannon shell and machine gun rounds register in different magnitudes as aircraft pieces come off was definitely impressive.

2. Sound: Fair, the carriers make a low hum as they sail along, flaps, airbrakes and wheel brake sound effects all fairly convincing. The sounds of gun fire and explosions is not spectacular, but OK. Thre are a number of different engine sounds for the wide selection of planes, but frankly, I thought the Pratt and Whitney was dissapointing. When I strap into a corsair or hellcat and sit behind that dual banked radial as it winds up, it sounds more like a whining motorcycle fourbanger than the throaty roar of the radials that I am accoustomed to hearing at airshows.

3.Aircraft selection: Very good, one can choose from several variants of the Zero, corsair, wildcat, P40, Ki 61, Ki84, etc. Actually, I've had the game for over a year and still haven't put every aircraft model through its paces. Although there are a few bombers, there are not enough for my tastes, WW2 flight sims are almost always all about fighters, and little or none about bombers and torpedo planes. I'd sure like it if I could fly the B24, B29, or the Kate and Jill. But the upgrades I've put on my game that brings it up to version 4.04 remedies this somewhat.

4. Aircraft characteristics: Good. The realism settings can make some planes quite tricky, that big corsair propeller will literally throw you for a loop if you gun it at low speeds, (Accurate to the name Ensign Eliminator), and the mid-engine mounted P39 can get into the most wicked spins. The damage is interesting and detailed, I've had various parts shot out or off of my aircraft, but sometimes they seem almost too flimsy. Would a hellcat really have its entire wing sawed off by 2 hits from a 20mm cannon? I don't know. Landings can be very dicey, especially on an aircraft carrier, at night, with battle damage. It takes an attentive person to watch the sink rate, angle of attack, etc. to not overshoot or smash the landing gear on impact. As an aside, the multi person crew aircraft can be crewed by several people online, which could make for some fun missions with a friend or two.

5. Missions: Fair, the campaigns are challenging, sometimes I fly the whole mission and miss my target, (A common combat occurance) but the training missions or single missions are scanty, one might want to check for online mods to download.

So in summary:
Positives:
1. large number of flight models
2. relatively realistic and unique aircraft handleing characteristics
3. good graffics
4. challenging and in depth enough to not master in a few weeks

Negatives:
1. Some engine sounds dissapointing (As mentioned)
2. bomb explosions fairly uniform
3. small number of stand alone missions.
4. lack of adequate training in manual and in game.

Overall I am satisfied with this game, I think it was worth the money (I bought it). In my opinion it is way better than Microsoft.

Best WW2 Pacific theater sim out there

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: October 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I've played this game in its Beta testing release, and it is everything that a WW2 flight sim enthusiast could ask for. Runs very smoothly even on my modest PC (Athlon XP2100+ w/ 768MB RAM, GeForce 4 Ti4600) - more so even that its predecessor, IL2-Forgotten Battles. Taking off and landing on a carrier is a daunting and incredibly fun experience! The difficulty settings are configurable from arcade-type settings all the way to full realism, where you'd better watch out or you'll find yourself in the drink. Graphics are very good, and with a faster system I can only imagine how beautiful it would look at max settings.

I like the fact that you can either install this game as a standalone, or over top of an existing IL2-FB installation. This makes for some very interesting possibilities - Bf109 versus Corsair! Zero versus Macchi!

The only drawback I can see is the complete lack of any torpedo planes. There are plenty of divebombers, though, and supposedly Maddox Games will address this in a patch sometime down the line.

Missions are quite boring

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: February 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Although the grafics are very good, I find that all missions form either side, allies or Japan are very boring. In that repeated attacks on Iwo and Wake eg; are repeated over and over. The "skip" feature doesn't work, making base to objective last too long. Hidden targets are a bummer. I see or feel no difference in flying the Wildcat and the Hellcat; Hellcat having 2000HP vs Wildcat's 1200 hp. Carrier landings are the best feature of the game. My playing time of this game will not be very long.

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