Combat Flight Simulator 3

Speedbird083 · Post by **Speedbird083** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 1:59 pm

I've heard this was a bit of a flop and a disappointment.
Is it worth Â£11.99 or is it something to avoid completely at any price?

BR7MT · Post by **BR7MT** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 2:10 pm

The issues around the game stuttering during play did not go away completely after the patch was released. However it is the third party developers that have kept it alive, producing the superb Battle of Britain add-on plus many other aircraft.

There is also a project to create the Mediterranean Theatre for the game. See:

http://www.netwings.org/cgi-bin/dcforum ... =DCConfID2

http://www.medairwar.com/

regards

Dan

Speedbird083 · Post by **Speedbird083** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 2:13 pm

Thanks for the links Dan.

So worth a little more than ten squid?

BR7MT · Post by **BR7MT** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 2:22 pm

No I'd say Â£10-15 is about right.

There is a lot of potential there, like MSTS, but M$ never gave us the best tools to unlock that potential. THe community I feel wanted FS2004 with guns and we didn't get it so the feeling now is make use of the new game engine the best we can.

Mediterranean Air War looks very promising though so I would get the game, get the Battle of Britain add-on and any other planes available that you like and wait for it to be released.

regards

Dan

Speedbird083 · Post by **Speedbird083** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 2:30 pm

I think I will. Just received some of my christmas money.

Do you know anything about this D-Day add-on?

BR7MT · Post by **BR7MT** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 2:39 pm

No, I must admit that I don't buy any 3rd part stuff for CFS3, only MSTS.

If I remember rightly it got some good feedback on netwings.

Another thing - to get the best performance out of CFS3 you will need to do bit of tweaking with the settings manager, again see netwings threads for the best results.

regards

Dan

CaldRail · Post by **CaldRail** » Sun Dec 12, 2004 1:14 pm

Its naff. Avoid. Buy IL-2 and its spin-off's instead. You won't be disappointed.

Redbaron · Post by **Redbaron** » Sun Dec 12, 2004 4:31 pm

I agree IL2 is good, but I would still recommend CFS3 (I have both). It had a few teething troubles with not starting up on my system, but various patches, official and otherwise, solved the problem. It is a good game, although it needs a fairly high spec system. Ironically, and contrary to everyone else, I've had more problems with IL2 - I still can't get the German Ju87 Stuka mission to load...

Speedbird083 · Post by **Speedbird083** » Sun Dec 12, 2004 6:24 pm

I have IL-2 and it is superb (find it difficult) but I'm not willing to pay Â£35-Â£40 for the latest Pacific release - as good as it looks.

I'll probably get CFS3. I intend on buying Just Flight's Spitfire package and that should be good fun in there.

BR7MT · Post by **BR7MT** » Sun Dec 12, 2004 6:50 pm

Pacific Fighters I get the impression was released before it was finished. There are several advanced features such as waves on the sea, detailed aircraft carriers (working deck elevators were mentioned at some stage) etc.

They have released 2 (?) patches so far for the game to correct errors.

The Il -2 titles are aimed more at realsim than CFS3 which is more old style shoot 'em up but with the ability to have good realism.

Of course it is much easier ot create content for CFS3 and Oleg Maddox does not allow the Il - 2 import tools into the public domain.

regards

Dan

CaldRail · Post by **CaldRail** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 12:29 pm

The mission editors in IL2 are superb. Errors? Well.. all computer games have the odd glitch. I had to laugh at the twin gauges mounted on the floor of the hayabusa in PF. Ever so slightly big!

As for complexity, its optional. You can switch most of it out. But then WW2 aircraft were getting complex. They started the period with biplanes not far removed from WW1. They ended with jet engines, hydraulics, pressurisation, autopilots, radar, ejector seats, guided missiles, & engine-management computers (oh yes they did, the FW190 had one). Thats how it was.

I agree that a game needs a certain 'fudge-factor'. Staring at a flat screen of limited width is in no way equal to sitting in a real cockpit with peripheral vision and sensory input through the seat of your pants. Full realism in PC doesn't work well. But IL2 really does approximate the handling of these aircraft well enough to convince an amateur pilot like me.

Fodda · Post by **Fodda** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 3:20 pm

I was always told theat CFS2 was better than CFS3 so I got CFS2 after Christmas last year for Â£9.99 and haven't looked back. The Pacific theatre was never one of great interest to me (especially without the UK and Commonwealth included) but I found plenty of free downloads from flightsim.com and avsim to enable me to fly Swordfish missions around the UK and northern Europe, a complete Messerschmitt 109 campaign that starts with flying a Dornier flying boat to North Africa to collect your Bf-109 and then using it to attack all over the desert.

There's a great Heinkel 111 campaign as well, and even better, the older (but still good looking) game engine absolutely rips along on my PC.

The only thing that would persuade me to get CFS3 is above all the level bombing option it gives (dive bombing in a Lancaster is next to impossible) and a price like the ten quid I paid for CFS2.

LOL... Although Il-2 looked absolutely gorgeous as a demo on my machine, I found the plane almost unflyable, let alone getting into combat compared to CFS... Oh yeah, and I've flown plenty of Flight Sims over the last 20-odd years, so it's the learning curve in Il-2 that got me.

Redbaron · Post by **Redbaron** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 7:42 pm

I haven't found IL2 difficult, and I have it at 100% realism - it's no harder than CFS2/3 in my opinion. IL2 slightly annoys me in that it is unreliable, I've been trying to get it to work for years, a bit like MSTS really!

BR7MT · Post by **BR7MT** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 7:50 pm

Fodda - have you downloaded any of my airfields for CFS2?

regards

Dan

Speedbird083 · Post by **Speedbird083** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 9:05 pm

Redbaron wrote:I haven't found IL2 difficult, and I have it at 100% realism

Can I ask what aircraft you fly in it? You find that narrow tracked bitch of a Bf109 easy to fly? I end up turning it into a combine harvester above 70%-80% realism.

Keeping it aloft is easy, going to combat and, on the rare occasion I haven't been vanquished, trying to land the thing is asking the impossible.
It bemuses me. I can land Airbus' and Boeings with my left (aka useless for anything but bridging a cue) hand fairly easily

.