Rating: 
Summary: game needs stick
Review: I am a newbie to sims, but this game is horribly difficult to learn using a keyboard. The instruction booklet primarly refers to using a joystick in explaining things. Maybe that is Microsoft's way of telling you that it is near impossible to fly a WW II era plane with 40 different keyboard commands. Even if I thought I could memorize all the commands, the game does a poor job in training a rookie like me. Other games take you through the learning curve step by step, for instance prompting you to try a gentle turn and then correcting any mistakes you make as you repeat as often as neccessary. This game tells you to "study and learn everything, and then fly!"If you have a joystick and perhaps some experience with flight sims, this might be worth renting to see if it is for you. But as a game, it feels too much like work at the easiest setting using keyboard commands. It is just no fun.
Rating:
Summary: TAKE NOTE BEFORE BUYING
Review: I bought the sim and it just wouldn't work. I have a good spec PC 2.5mhz P4 with Radeon 7500 card, 512 meg RAM etc and it didn't want to know. After messing about on Microsoft's knowldege base and going around in circles I decided enough was enough. I'm not prepared to risk updating my graphics drivers when this is the only sim of many that I have that doesn't work. (See also a customer review in Feb 2004 listing problems with graphic cards.) MICROSOFT, GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER! Luckily I bought from a source where I could return my sim for a refund, which I've done. CFS 2 will have to do!
Rating: 
Summary: enjoyable
Review: I dont profess to be a wwII pilot or a flightsim geek, but i found the game to be enjoyable. The graphics are good, but dont expect to get good results with less than windows xp or outdated graphics card. Also, get a joystick. Action is realistic, realism of the planes is good, and you have to practice to acquire skill to get good at this thing. I think its superior to Sturmovic.
Rating: 
Summary: I disagree with most of the reviews!!!!
Review: I have to admit the game is hard. Most people are writeing stuff that isnt really true. The game has great grafics. The planes dont look like snap together models done by a four year old, compared to otherflight sims its a great game. Most of the reviewers that hate it probably are not good at it so they hate it. There are Gforces I like the game. If your good at flight sims you might like this game. Dont be fooled by the other reviews. Its a great game. Its worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: This is sad
Review: I just got this game and it has been a real let down. It takes too much toime to load and the planes don't respond to the keyboard's commands. The game would be better if the panes would respond to the controls. Maybe when i try it with a joystick it will be better.
Rating:
Summary: READ BEFORE YOU BUY !!!!
Review: I loved CFS1 and CFS2, still play them in fact, but this was very dissapointing. FIRST OFF, The graphics play very herky jerky as if my pc was low on memory BUT IM RUNNING 502 MB of ram and the latest vid software and it was still jerky/skippy/paus-ey/ crappy. The sims take too long to load with a Pent.4 no less!!! and the airplane spot view is about the worst I've seen since the old A-10 attack hog game from Sierra. I hope this is not the last atttempt at a great flying game, but they need to improve. Grade wise this game gets a c-.
Maybe microsoft should try for a WW1 simulation ala RED BARON but this time without all the bugs that require 500 patches that dont work anyway!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Some Good Features but Not Really a Simulator
Review: I think CFS3 has some truly innovative ideas but I think that it was lacking in other areas. I've had no software or hardware related problems with this game and personally I do not believe that those problems are a basis for a poor review. Those problems can be corrected with a little time and effort and people have to expect that with software capabilities outstripping hardware for the last 15 years, the trend is likely to continue. Flight sims tend to be the games that push the development of hardware due to the fast paced action and constantly improving eye-candy involved in the games. I liked the fact that CFS3 rates your pilot and the capabilities of your pilot (eyesight, g-tolerance etc) are improved with performance. This gives the sim an RPG type feel to it and you feel as though you are accomplishing something with your pilot. This feature also gives you an edge against others. With most sims, your rank and 100 air to air kills means little and your are never rewarded for you prowess in terms of a tangeable asset. This changes in CFS3 with the upgradeable abilities. As a pilot, I know that the more experience you have flying formation and aerobatics, the better your judgement becomes and the higher your ability to withstand g's. As this is the first sim I've seen with this feature, I think it's appropriate to highlight and encourage this as a step forward in flight sim creation. The ability to fly Gotha 229s against P-80s is also a great addition unseen since Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe (Lucasarts). Also I enjoyed flying the Vampire jet as it is often forgotten in history and there was an ex-Rhodesian Airforce Vampire being given a life-enhancement at West Sale Airport in Victoria, Australia where I used to clean aeroplanes and learn to fly after school during my teen years. I've always thought they are a beautiful jet. As far as a flight sim goes I think IL2:FB is better than CFS3 as the aircraft perform more realistically and I love flying nap of the earth down Russian river valleys and ramming my bombs down the throats of unassuming Nazis. I also love the fact that in IL2:FB if you choose to it is possible to trim your control surfaces and manipulate propellor pitch and other engine controls in order to optimise your aircraft's performance. The only thing I found myself doing in CFS3 was open my cockpit canopy to let me bail-out quicker (One shot from an enemy and everything was broken, hydraulics, elevators, the lot). With CFS3 the terrain just isn't as visually splendid as IL2:FB. I also got the sneaking suspicion that the campaign wasn't quite as affectable as suggested. During one mission I destroyed the assigned supply depot and then proceded to cut a swathe out of the German front line 20 miles across. After returning to base and looking at the map, the corridor I'd created hadn't been taken advantage of and it seemed as though only the assigned target had been rewarded to the campaign. Maybe if I'd continued on this track I'd have made a difference but as a sim it just can't hold my attention long enough and I move back to IL2. Overall I think CFS3 is worth having and I will always turn to it on hung-over Sunday mornings but don't buy it expecting an amazing sim. I just hope that CFS3's good features are copied by UBI-Soft in order to create an excellent Korean War 1950's era jet sim.
Rating:
Summary: More realism than fun
Review: I was happy with CFS but wanted better graphics. GFS3 has the graphics if you have the iron to run it. I like to fly and blow things up or shoot at other planes. To me the game is too realistic and even on the easiest settings, it isn't as much fun as the original or European Air War. I guess I will have to wait for CFS for Wimps. To me if you are serious about sims and want a realistic experience, this is probably the one.
Rating: 
Summary: Fix the .exe file!
Review: I went around in circles for a few days trying to get this program to work, with no success. Then I went to http://gf.wiretarget.com/ and downloaded the fixed .exe file for this program. It now works as poorly (or as well) as Microsoft planned. They put so much security on the cd to make sure you can't copy it, the darn thing won't even work under optimum conditions. Luckily, the people at Wiretarget are able to come up with fixes for quite a number of games.
This program now works, but I'm not sure it's worth the money. Very poor views when you're flying these aircraft.
Rating:
Summary: CFS 3 Best sim ever?
Review: I'm a big sim fan I have all the combat flight sims so far and a few of the flight sims (combatfs 1,2 fs2000,2002) from what i have seen and read about this game its every cobat fligt simulators dream. 34 flyable aircraft bombers fighters torpedeo bombers and jet fighters! it has 3D sencery and alot of special features. Tail Gunner 2 if you have combatfs 1 you'll know what im talking about. Tail gunner 2 was a programe for cfs1 which let you use the rear,waist,tailand frontal guns on a bomber but it stopped you from using rockets. so what steveiy did (the guy who made tg2) was ask microsft to include tailgunner in the latest version of combat fs and there is a virtual gunner cockpit for it. Take it from me it looks stunning.Forget of the panel as we know it today because evrything is a virtual cockpit. No more 2D panels. You heard me mention fighter jets thats right they've been so knid to include fighter jets they are: Me262 A, Gloster Meteor, P-80 and the De Halivand Vampire they also included a little thing called role playing which i think is fun. You create a pilot give him a name a background and how he got into the aviation industry. He can be killed. Thats about all i can tell you for im running out of sapce and i could go on forever.But if you enjoyed 1and2 you will love 3. buy it!!!!
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