Janes ww2 fighters downloads

No 2D panels here: strictly virtual cockpits all the way, with an adjustable point of view if you so desire. As one would expect, all this visual splendor comes at a price, determined only by how far your hardware can take you. Short of having the latest, greatest system, expect to turn down a lot of detail settings, especially the 3D clouds. Explosions, concussion rings, smoke plumes, and life-like fire make for an incredible spectacle that will awe you into watching the plane you just shot down instead of tracking another bad guy.

Combined with a stirring musical score and the sound of your pilot's heart pumping louder with each g you pull, WW2F is an effective "cinematic" experience. If only this sim had a movie recorder. Yet, no matter how much I drool when flying this sim, the gameplay isn't all it could be. Ultimately it feels a bit hollow. Flight sims in general have long included this element, so its omission in this game is curiously strange, if not borderline lethal. Evidently, it's possible to take a survey sim too far, as World War II Fighters eventually proves maybe Jane's choice of titles was the big hint.

The campaign takes place during the Ardennes offensive, more commonly called the "Battle of the Bulge. However, the campaign -- if you can call it that -- goes overboard by switching you back and forth amongst the various planes in an attempt to give a wide variety of mission types. Although the missions are indeed interesting, the game suffers by being far too cinematic rather than sim-like, more cookie-cutter than role-player. You're not a pilot with a personality, you're just a body flying a plane.

If something happens to you, no big deal, as long you took that bridge out before you bought it and even if you didn't, there's an option to revive yourself. This makes your pilot's death irrelevant.

As a result, the "you are there" feeling so prominent from the pageantry drawn to the video screen becomes temporary at best, leaving one without a sense of continuity.

Still, this campaign is infinitely better than Combat Flight Simulator's, but a bit too similar in that they both reinforce the completion of a mission's objective rather than the notion of you bringing your pilot back home alive.

Even with the plane and squadron hopping, WW2F could have exceeded European Air War's dynamic campaign -- as scripted missions can sometimes do -- but there's nothing personal at stake here, so who cares?

For those who could care less about campaign play and are looking for just a plain, old fashioned, honest-to-goodness dogfight, World War II Fighters has its strong and weak points.

The AI is the strong part: Friendlies are competent, and the enemy make good use of the planes they fly, as opposed to a generic implementation, where maneuvers are the same regardless of aircraft flown. This ultimately means that if you fly smart, it's a bit easier to shoot down planes in WW2F.

Jane's latest patch addresses joystick calibration routines that might not be responsive enough some were experiencing Me's out-turning Spitfires prior to the patch, and that's just not right , but even with the patch, energy bleed doesn't feel strong enough and the spins are hardly an ensuing threat.

There's nothing wrong with this at an arcade level, but on the hardest of settings, WW2 dogfighting should be about mastering your plane first before trying to put bullets or bombs on a target. WW2F's flight model is challenging at times, but not challenging enough. World War II Fighters is no exception. Cooperative multiplayer is an option, but only via individual missions. Still, co-op is a lot of fun and works fairly well over Jane's Combat. Maybe it's got something to do with the introduction of 3D accelerator card technology - suddenly you don't have to be flying at 30, feet at mph for the terrain to look acceptable.

Dedicated 30 hardware enables you to fly much lower and slower without the terrain breaking up. Presumably, as we see the hardware get even faster and cheaper, you won't be able to move for World War I flight sims. Guess we'll have to wait and see. We've already had Microsoft's and MicroProse's entrants into the World War II combat flight sim arena see Also Consider panel left , and it's fair to say that both games are aimed squarely at the serious sim market.

Both have a lot to recommend them in their own right, though to be fair the campaign mode in European Air War , along with tidier graphics, gives it the edge over Combat Flight Simulator. Formerly known as Jane's Fighter Legends, it's been developed by the same people who gave us Top Gun: Fire At Will, a modern-day combat jet sim which successfully blended gameplay that cocked it's hat to the less serious flight sim fan, with lush graphics and attention to detail.

In many ways, WWII Fighters follows the same premise, though this time around you get to fly seven different accurately modelled aircraft and take part in a branching campaign flying for either the Allies or Nazis. The emphasis, however, is firmly on dogfighting, and your skill in the cockpit - as opposed to developing a linear plot line and everything - is geared towards making this as realistic and enjoyable an experience as possible. The graphics are quite simply state-of-the-art, and take full advantage of the latest 3D Glide technology.

As you'd expect, the aircraft are modelled in exact detail, as are the 3D cockpits of the seven aircraft that you can fly. All the usual camera modes are available, and although it's not recommended that you select an external camera in the heat of battle, it's worth checking it out during quieter moments to marvel at the level of detail: when a plane is hit you can actually see bits break and fly off, followed by debris and plumes of smoke; spent cartridges drop back to earth as the aircraft swoop and dive in flight; transparent clouds and cool lighting effects really help create an atmosphere - something that's so clearly lacking in Microsoft's Combat Flight Sim.

The radio chatter, sound effects and music also go a long way to heightening the overall atmosphere. On the down side, at low level the terrain does start to get a little sad, and because of the way it's drawn it sometimes looks a little at odds with the objects and buildings that are set within it, but this has more to do with the way 3D cards work than with poor programming.

There's also a tendency for the frame rate to plummet when there are a lot of aircraft in the sky. But overall it's got to be one of the best-looking flight sims we've ever seen. And because it's scaleable, it is possible to get an acceptable frame rate on an entry-level P, although you're not really doing the game justice if you haven't got a 3D card.

As well as the branching Battle of the Bulge campaign mode, there's a training mode that takes you through the basics such as taking off and landing, through to more complicated manoeuvres and dogfight techniques.