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The Best Combat Flight Sims of 2000
by Len "Viking1" HjalmarsonArticle Date: January 15th, 2001
- Aces High
- B-17 Flying Fortress: The Mighty 8th!
- Battle of Britain
- Enemy Engaged: Comanche vs. Hokum
- Jane’s F/A-18
What a year! It’s safe to say that the year 2000 was a benchmark year in flight simulations. With 3D accelerators coming of age and the arrival of the AMD Athlon as a true PIII class processor, gamers have never had it so good!
At the same time, the silver lining sheltered the grey clouds. The Jane’s brand came to an end with the release of F/A-18, and in the fall of 2000 the Maryland offices closed. Microprose produced an instant storm with the release of Gunship, a title that made no one happy. Not long afterward MPS quietly closed their doors.
Meanwhile, Empire UK purchased Rowan Software for a song, ending the legacy of one of the great simulation production houses (Rowan will now produce PS2 titles). Wayward Design, producers of B17, were also purchased and have gone the way of Rowan.
Ah well, no point in moaning over spent ordnance. Let’s talk about the excellent titles released last year.
This year saw six simulation titles hit the shelves in the US, and a seventh, Battle of Britain, in the UK. A completely new online simulation, Aces High, was also released in January.
Of the eight titles, there are five simulation classics: Aces High, F/A-18, EECH, B17 and Battle of Britain. Each of these simulations score high for realism, gameplay, and raw beauty.
Some will wonder that I haven’t included Microsoft’s Combat Flight Simulator II: Pacific Theatre in my top picks. I admit this was a difficult decision. But while CFS II is a solid title and does well in every area, it doesn’t really break any new ground. Let’s look at the titles that do.
Aces High
Version: v1.05
Category: WWII Air, Land & Sea Massively Multiplayer
Developer: Hi-Tech Creations
Release Date: Released
Required Spec: Windows 9.x, DirectX 7.0a recommended, D3D compatible video card, 8 MB memory minimum, PII 233 or Pentium MMX or better, Sound card and speakers.
Files: Too many to list. For demo and other files, click the "Downloads" link at the Aces High website.
There were two releases in January of 2000: Jane’s FA-18 and HiTechCreations Aces High. The former is the best simulation yet seen of the F/A-18 Hornet, and the latter is an online-only WWII simulation that has continued to grow over the course of the year.
Aces High (AH) is the product of a small company centered around former Interactive Magic Online (IMOL) personalities Dale "HiTech" Addink and Doug "Pyro" Balmos. These two simulation fans left Warbirds in November of 1998 and struck out on their own.
Downloading the current version (1.05) results in an installed size of about 30MB. Offline play is free, so you can learn the ropes, and 8 player head-to-head is also offered in the free download. A two week free trial is offered for online play.
There are currently 31 fighters and bombers available in Aces High., including the A6M5b, A6M6, B-17G, B-26B, Bf-109F-4, Bf-109G-2, Bf-109G-6, Bf-109G-10, C-47A, C.202, C.205, F4U-1C, F4U-1D, F-6F, Fw-190A-5, Fw-190A-8, La-5FN, N1K2-J, P-38L, P-47D-30, P-51D Mustang, Seafire II, Spitfire V, Spitfire IX, TBM, Typhoon and the Yak 9U. The release of 1.04 added the Ju 88A-4 and the Lancaster Mk III (14x 1000 lb bombs!) as well as the 3.7cm Flakpanzer IV and the M-16. The recent release of 1.05 added the Seafire II, F-6F, TBM, and carriers, cruisers and destroyer escorts. In 1.05 the player can also man the ship based guns.
The Lancaster Mk III with 1640hp Packard-Merlin engines and 2x.50in tail guns. The Avro Lancaster was produced by British and Canadian factories and cruised at just over 300 mph. More than 7,000 were produced. It was later modified to carry the 8,000 or 12,000 pound (Tallboy) bombs, and special versions carried the 22,000 pound “Grand Slam.”
AH has allowed multiple crew on a single bomber since the spring. No, you can’t bring your whole family along, but even adding another player as a roving gunner is great fun. AH models 8 player positions in detail on the Fort, including the Norden bombsight. Here are some images from those various positions.
The flight model in AH is probably the best out there, and rivals Combat Flight Simulator II. Torque, drag, fuel burn rates, stalls and spins, compressibility . . . it’s all there. Trying to get a rotary powered F4U off the ground can be a challenge. The one concession to reality is the addition of an auto trim feature, but the player can still set trim manually if preferred.
Systems are modeled in reasonable detail. You can drop about four settings of flap in the B-17, and you can switch to six different fuel tanks. The Fort climbs as slowly as you would expect, and taking off on some runways is a challenge if you hope to clear the hills.
Graphics over all are what you would expect for a sim designed in 1999. Clouds and aircraft are fantastic. The cockpits aren’t quite as impressive, but they are adequate. Individual control surfaces are visible on all the aircraft and they move as you would expect.
The tracers in AH are excellent, and ballistics are easy to track, thanks to the smoke trail from the bullets. You’ll also see hit flashes on your victim, so you can adjust your aim. If you like you can record your encounters for later viewing with the gun camera.
Naturally, you can select weapon load-out for most of the aircraft in Aces High. There are 6 different calibers available in a variety of different guns, including the .303cal, 7.9mm, 12.7mm, .50cal, 20mm, and 30mm. Each of these has its own performance and ammo load. As in Fighter Ace II, the user can set the convergence of most guns.
Damage modeling is excellent, using a three-dimensional damage model that has up to 64 different components individually tracked. This allows for various parts or systems to take damage, or in some cases be completely shot from an aircraft. In the last few flights I observed wing tips missing, entire wings or tails shot off, as well as half of a horizontal stabilizer ripped off. Fuel tanks can be holed, and leaking fuel will be seen as a wispy white trail.
AH also provides for strategic gameplay with a Command interface that allows a group to organize a detailed mission structure based on an overall strategy. Various radio channels allow you to coordinate your efforts and send messages to as narrow or wide an audience as you require. Roger Wilco support is built in. There are three teams to fly for: the Knights, Bishops, and Rooks.
In AH each country has a headquarters and a city, in addition to a number of airfields. The strategic objective is to take out an enemy country by capturing the airfields. When the enemy is down to a single field, the map will reset. The addition of moving naval units to this mix has really expanded the strategic gameplay.
Particular targets have varying strategic importance. Bombing the enemy HQ will destroy their radar, but taking out an HQ requires a whopping big bomb strike, in the neighborhood of five B-17's. Bombing cities impacts repair time of factories, and bombing factories in the city impacts down time of field structures. Taking out field structures affects the availability of fuel, troops, radar, ordnance, planes and vehicles. The final key is the C-47. After the defenses are eliminated, dropping 10 troops from a C-47 over the base captures the field.
Next up for Aces High is the active perk system. HiTechCreations is breaking their stats and rankings into different categories such as bomber, attack, fighter, and vehicle. Each of these categories will be ranked individually and there will be an overall ranking that combines the individual rankings.
The perk system is a scoring system that awards players the ability to use certain high-end equipment such, as a Me-262. It's the perfect mechanism to steer the balance of the game. Using the perk system, the game can offer incentives to players to fly less popular planes, thereby creating a more diverse and balanced environment. Players will bank perk points until they reach the value of the plane they want to fly. Those points are retained until they lose the aircraft, so survival is critical. Perk point totals will be calculated separately for fighters, bombers, and vehicles.
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