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E3 in Review
B17 - THE QUEEN TAKES TO THE AIR
By Jim "Twitch" Tittle
When shoppers descend on retailers this fall, a new WWII simulator will be hopefully sitting on the shelves - B-17 "The Mighty Eighth". This highly anticipated title from Hasbro and Wayward Design has been in development for over a year and is promising to deliver the most realistic and detailed World War II combat flight simulator ever made.
Graphic artist, Ken Hall, has done a superb job of rendering beautiful models of the B-17, Me 262, Me 163,Bf 109, FW 190, P-51, and P-47. Ken demonstrated the dynamic damage modeling by manning the left waist gun and firing at his B-17 wingman. Beautiful muzzle flashes came from the virtual .50 caliber and the empties shell could be heard rattling on the floor. Assorted sized pieces flew from the shocked B-17 as he hosed it.
Fig. 1. B-17 - Notice the bullet damageZooming in produced visible scars, bullet holes and oil leakage. If a fire was started in an engine the soot marked the wing. Inside wounded and dead crewmen slumped at their stations. No blood splatters. Apologies to all vampires. All sounds are healthy at this point and there should be no need for user-made sound packs.
Being a left-handed mouse user will come in handy to move the myriad of controls while your right hand is on the stick or wheel. Every virtual switch, lever and pertinent control will react to mouse inputs in the cockpit or bomber interior, as did the real ones in 1944! Fighters seem to have torque done well and you will have to set trim controls to compensate for it and various flight attitudes as well. You can mouse around for a God's- eye view of the cockpit and even see the seat you are virtually sitting on.
Fig. 2. The realistically modelled B-17 CockpitThe real leap in modeling technology is the B-17 crewmen. They go about their duties automatically or by your command in a riveting panorama that entertains to the max. You can command them to do about everything possible. A mate can aid the wounded or pull a stricken comrade back and man his station. No meager three or four commands that leaves a void of "I wish they could do that." You'll be noting surprises of things they can do for months as you immerse into the sim.
Fig. 3. B-17's in the FlackYour tour of B-17 duty spans the historical twenty-five missions. The missions themselves are historically accurate too. Fighter pilots fly their twenty-five escorting or attacking the B-17s. The code will not be open for easy hacking if you just MUST paint Gabreski's P-47 or whatever. The goal for multi player is for over thirty online crewmen to man bomber stations, escort and intercept. This title could have been released earlier but who wants bug? We want near perfection and the Wayward design team is striving for it.
