Rating: 
Summary: Real Sim action ( not Arcade )
Review: Ok... the min system req are a bit much. And the program is a bit large. And out of the box the planes have limited Air-to-Surface attacks (guns and cannons). But this game is the best WWII-era flight sim around. The realism of flight( when set to max realism) is spot on. The AI of the enemies is definately not a turkey shoot and real Air Combat techniques have to be used to get the upper hand. The instructions are a bit lack-luster ( but who reads those anyway !! ) I also have found that there are CFS2 sites with updated planes, mission, etc that let used torpedo, bombs etc... BUY THIS!!
Rating: 
Summary: A good game, but the Allies are weak.
Review: I have enjoyed playing this game. It is fairly realistic and the graphics are great. I would recommend this game for anyone. The only disappointment I have had is the Allied planes are at a serious disadvantage against the more maneuverable Japanese fighters.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but very frustrating....
Review: CFS2 is a good simulation with great graphics, and I agree with the comments of others that this simulation needs high-end computing and graphics power.My main complaint is that it's very hard to come out the victor in a dogfight. It seems like no matter what I do, ninety percent of the time, a Japanese fighter will get on my tail and proceed to shoot me down. And this is with the enemy skill level set at novice. Another major complaint is that it's very easy to stall the aircraft and enter a fatal spin. There doesn't seem to be any spin recovery allowed; once you're in the spin, you're finished. I find myself playing CFS European Theater more often, just because it's more fun NOT getting shot down all the time.
Rating: 
Summary: I want to drop torpedos...
Review: ...so I guess I'll have to wait for... CFS3? maybe. Seems strange though because torpedo planes played such a big part on both sides during the air war in the Pacific. It's a pity then that a flight simulator set in that theatre of war would not have modelled even one WWII torpedo bomber. Ah well, I am just a little disappointed with unmet expectations, but so what. The game never promised to be anything more than a flight sim depicting the main Japanese and American fighter planes. And that it is, and it does that very well indeed. Microsoft's previous entry was CFS which depicted the European air war. Gamers had plenty of complaints and it is obvious that Microsoft listened and learned. One of the biggest critiques of the first game was it's graphics. The graphics here are gorgeous. The exterior of the planes are sufficiently weathered and oil stains and gunpowder streaks will appear. Look for nice little details such as moving canopies, folding wings and wheels that turn. The damage modelling is excellent. Bullet holes appear when shot and skin peels off exposing undersurfaces. Parts fall off according to the degree of damage and look for these visual clues. Black streaming smoke from the enemy means he's a goner for sure but grey spurts means he's still in the game. Same for you. Oily smoke smearing your screen, bail out! The fact that you can do so is a relief, and is a feature that was previously missing. Terrain, such as there is - blue sky, blue sea - is still lovingly rendered. Different types of weather and times of day are also detailed. The flight modelling is adjustable from easy or novice to hard and very realistic. Try flying with some degree of realism and the planes will react according to their strengths and weaknesses. Close in on a Zero from his six in your Wildcat, lining him up, and then watch in amazement as he suddenly zooms into a power climb that you can never match, and then look on in horror as you see the tight circle he pulls to close in on your rear. Flying the Wildcat your strength is your weight. Push the nose down and dive into that enemy bomber formation, ripping through it with your guns. Just keep going though because in a dogfight your dead. There are multiple mission types, a semi dynamic campaign, battleships, carriers and other plane choices, most significantly 'Whistling Death' - The Corsair. All of this goes together to provide a satisfying flight for most sim fans - for a while. And therein lies the rub. Only for a little while before you start to get a sense of what could have been and notice small things missing. Why didn't they give the wingmen more commands? What's the objective of this mission? and back to my original beef - Why aren't there more planes to fly? I want to drop torpedos!
Rating:
Summary: not too bad
Review: I,ve played this for a while--ordered it before it came out--but am now bored with it. My two buddies who come over to take turns in the cockpit feel the same way. So does my six year old grandson. The aircraft carrier landings are great fun, otherwise --don't bother. I am back to playing Combat Flight Simulator One. I have had it a lot longer and have yet to become bored. Also it takes up a lot less room on the hard drive. If microsoft could make a few minor improvements to this classic and re-issue it I would be absolutely delighted!
Rating:
Summary: An Oustanding Game, Overall.
Review: Well, repeating what I just said would be redundent, so let's see what else I can say about this game. While as everyone says the system requirements are pretty steep, but I haven't had any real problems resulting directly from them. The graphics are this side of being just insane, the explosion and smoke effects are bad ace. The biggest problem is the way the story is told. The comic panels are just recycled and puked back out in a slightly different order.But the game play and all is great. The controls took me a while to get used to but other than that it ran fine. Sorry for the badly arranged review, but I think doing an outline is just a little much for a review. But back to the visuals the level of detail is great, being able to see the rivets in the plane is just... cool. The flight model was a little hard to get used to, but since I am not a hard-core sim player most others can get into it pretty easy as well. Buday budee budeep that's all folks.
Rating:
Summary: Co-op missions in CFS II?
Review: Actually, this is not a review of MS CFS2 program. I'm using this forum to solicit feedback from those who already own and play this game. In Combat Flight Simulator I, the multiplayer game allows only head-to-head competition. I wonder if this version, II, lets you team-up with other pilots and fly the game's missions together (agaist mission's targets instead of killing each other). Some games such as, "Comanche" helicopter of NovaLogic give you options of head-to-head fighting or a team (co-op) flying against mission tagets. I found it very exciting to fly in a squadron with my buddy pilots. We can cover each other from enemy threats, and we can divide the targets between each other. It's a real team spirit! And if your voice card is full-duplex and the processor is powerful enough, then you can load and use a voice-over-IP program (e.g. Roger Wilco) to talk (with headphones and microphone) to your squadron members while fighting againt the enemies. I hope that Microsoft has added or will add such a co-op option to its games. Please respond to my email, billpbs@aol.com Thank you, Bill
Rating:
Summary: Works good on my old system
Review: I've read the horror stories here about if your system isn't a supercomputer, forget trying to run this software. All I can say is get a reputable computer and you won't have any problems. I have an old Compaq Presario 5020 model that has a Celeron running at 300 MHz and 64 megs of RAM ... an old ATI Rage Pro 3D accelerator for graphics with the most current drivers. Not an impressive system at all. I loaded the software, followed directions and found I needed to switch from 256 color to 16 bit. I made the changes, restarted loading and **WOW** it works! If all you can do is throw stones, go play near a glass factory. If you want some fun flying, I encourage you to get a copy of this game. I've tried a few of the missions, but the funnest thing is to go to quick combat and FLY! You'll get smoked a few times to be sure, but nothing is more satisfying than cutting the wing of a B-24 Liberator off and watch it go down in flames. Or load out with air to air rockets and bash some "Betty"s. Graphics are great, sounds are thrilling and playablity is a winner. I Can't wait to get home and play it now, I talked myself happy!!
Rating:
Summary: CFS2 Comments after two weeks
Review: Owning FS2000 Professional, Crimson Skies and the Combat Flight Simulator for several months, my son and I were looking forward to CFS2. On my AMD K63/450 with 128M RAM and Viper32 Ultra video card, the product installed without a lot of trouble. We recommend a COLD BOOT following installation. Video works smoothly at 800x600x32bpp. What we liked: The 7 available aircraft were very detailed and challenging to fly. The flight models for each aircraft were unique and reasonable accurate. The missions are also challenging. What we did not like. The biggie (that I have also heard from others) is these blasted cartoons. While someone did a beautiful job with this cartoon artwork. I would have been much more satisfied with actual pictures and war memories, gun camera footage, aircraft carrier operations, etc. Crimson Skies use of cartoons is ok. It helps guide you through the game's story line. But the use of cartoons in CFS2, in our opinion, cheapens the quality and the simulation. Using cartoons to depict the epic WWII battles of the Pacific was a bad choice for Microsoft. On single missions, when you complete the mission, you get booted back to the main mission dialog...you're not allowed to land. Wow, that was a big gotcha. While I am sure the developers worked their butts off on the seven aircraft they did provide (very well done,) being limited to only seven aircraft is a significant shortcoming. Lack of ability to perform air-launched torpedo missions. The other day during an air-ground sortie, I bombed a target and got a message "you killed an explosion effect." HUH?!?!? In summary, good simulation, lots of fun, stable. Marketing intelligence aside, if I were designing this product, I would do everything possible to honor our WWII veterans by including as much historical footage, pictures and veterans stories as possible. Lose the cartoons...they really cheapen an otherwise great simulation.
Rating:
Summary: Good air to air, but air to ground is lacking
Review: I had been playing CFS-1 (Europe) for several months before I bought this game. I run a PIII-866mhx with 256MB RAM and a GE Force card with 64MB of video ram. No problems with hardware. The gameplay I've found to be more challenging than CFS-1 (the enemy planes seem smaller and much harder to hit). The cockpit renderings are fantastic, and the air-to-air combat scenery is great also. My beef with the game is twofold: air-to ground action, a big component in the Pacific campaign, is really weak (lousy ground graphics), and from an historical perspective the game misses some critical campaign pieces (most notably Iwo Jima & Okinawa). Overall a lot of fun, especially carrier landings.
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