Rating: 
Summary: Do you sweat at 30,000 ft?
Review: You bet you do! You sweat buckets if it's 1944 and you're in a B-17G Flying Fortress over Germany on a bombing run to your target. 'Bomb doors open, steady, steady...bombs away'. Two things come to mind. (1) This doesn't sound like a typical flight simulator, and (2) flying straight and steady at 30,000 feet doesn't sound like a lot of fun. Right on the first but dead wrong on the second. This game is different from all other WWII flight sims to date, which have largely focused on man on man fighter combat. This is a multiple position role playing game whose primary platform is the B-17G (the only disappointment is that there is no multiplayer capability). There are 10 playable positions in the 'fort' including pilots, navigator, bombardier, turret gunners, waist gunners and tail gunner. The role playing element is so much fun and immersive, you may very well find that this is the only 'flight sim' where you spend the least time flying. Let's step back into this immersive game world for a minute to see how we arrived over our target in Berlin. You've finished the 'pre op' reconnaissance briefing and you're on the way out to the tarmac to your 'fort'. There she is in all her glory, your 'Patsy Sue'. Those refitters sure did a nice job repainting the nose art and fixing the damage from the last mission. She's gotten you this far - the 13th mission. Halfway there. This mission's a beast though, - Berlin! You say to yourself 'Can I get the guys through the remaining 12 missions before we ship back home. Pray God, let there be no Me 262's this time'. This little immersive scenario is courtesy of the game allowing you to take the role of pilot of your plane or squadron leader in charge of 12 planes or group commander. As group CO you pick the targets, plan the missions, select bomb loads and assign crews. You can also name crews. There is an operations room where pre flight recon and post op damage assessment film can be studied. Your B-17 is beautifully depicted. You can name her as you wish and change the nose art. Let's get ready to take her up on the first of 25 historically based missions where we will come across other flyable planes. Three 'little friends' - Mustang, Thunderbolt and Lightning and three German fighters - Me 109, FW 190 and the deadly Me 262. Engines on. Throttles up. Let's roll. Release brakes, adjust trim, take off speed, we're up. 'Navigator set course for Initial Point.' Weather outside is cloudy, It's expected to clear up over the target. Coastline coming up now, 'Where is that down there? - the Elbe river? Good job navigator, we're right on schedule' Each of the playable positions in this game is incredibly detailed, none moreso than the flight deck. If the prospect of going through a 30 step engine start up procedure seems daunting to you, then simply jump to another player position and let the computer pilot take off. Each crew member has his strenghts. Lose a good navigator or bombardier and you'll see the effects in degraded mission success. Replacements are never as good. The roar of the engines is impressive, and so are the other sound effects. Hopefully the ones you'll hear the most are those of healthy thrumming engines and your 50 cal guns barking out, not the sounds of exploding flak and the screams of your hit crewmen. The weather and terrain effects are also fantastic. Naturally there are various gameplay keys that provide a myriad of external views of your plane and the formation you're in and there is a timeskip key that rushes you towards the action. We're approaching the target now, and beginning our bomb run. Out of the blue and shouted over my headphones, tail gunner says 'Bandits!, Six o'clock high, coming in now! Looks like 109's'. I'm firing now, remember - lead them, fire just ahead, let them fly into the stream... I'm missing!, God what a time to realise I should have put in more practise. From the waist position I see a black puff with an evil orange eye, burst under the port wing of the 'fort' flying next to us. 'There goes another 17' over the intercom as it slowly sinks out of formation, smoke spewing from two engines. Shrapnel has punched holes in our wing, metal frame is showing. More serious is the injury to the turret gunner. 'Navigator get back there and see what you can do'. The bombardier calls out ' 'Bomb doors open'...time seems to stand still, finally...'Bombs away', the shudder and sudden lift confirm it. 'Head for home.' Starboard outer engine now sputtering, any flames? No, smoking slightly though. No need to feather engine. How long to go? how many injured? how bad? Did I mention this game was immersive!!!? We were lucky on this mission. No major damage and only one injury. We also failed. Our bombs came down nowhere near the target. One of the more arcane skills you can learn in this game is using the Norden bomb sight, adjusting for wind drift and making all the necessary adjustments to ensure an accurate drop. After unloading, pop down to the target view and wait for the thunderous explosion that signals the arrival of your bombs. Now that we're safely at base the question is: Do you sweat when playing a PC Game? You bet you do if it's this game. The system the game was tested on was a P3 with 128 ram and Diamond Viper2. There were a couple graphical glitches - seams in the terrain being the only one that broke the immersive spell.
Rating:
Summary: B17 - A PURIST's GAME
Review: Like so many others, I have eagerly awaited the arrival of B17 and I haven't been dissapointed. However, you need a really top line computer (Pentium III) with plenty of grunt (i.e. fast, lots and lots of RAM and a good 3D video card) to get the most out of the game because the graphics are demanding and simply spectacular! The game looks so beautiful, I sometimes just let it run in the background while I do something else around the house and then interact with the mission over a few hours as it progresses. Or you can simply jump right to the action. It's great. However, the game is hard to master if you don't use the AI, because it is as close to actually 'being there' as you'll get. The game AI is very good and will more than compensate for the short comings of inexperienced players. If you are a 'purist' flight sim player, as I am, then you have to be prepared to spend a lot of time learning how to fly the B17. This ain't no fighter! It's a big, complex, four engine bomber with a crew of ten men which needs to be managed WELL. Having said this, the Boeing B17 is a very stable and forgiving aircraft that can take a lot of damage. Just don't try pulling high g turns in it! Throw into this mix that the Germans are trying very hard to shoot you down at the same time and you start to get some idea what the men flying these bombers went through. And that is the entire point of the game, to put YOU in a B17 bomber over Europe during WW2. In this, it succeeds at every level. From a game design point of view, B17 is winner. But be prepared to put in some serious 'stick time', to get the most enjoyment out of B17. This is a big, dynamic game for the serious war gamer and it is far more than just another flight sim. Bravo!
Rating: 
Summary: A great game
Review: A truley great game. If you like very realistic and historical games get this one. Just like real life on bomb runs you might have to attempt to hit the target multiple times. You can control all 10 crew postions and even control your escorts and the german interceptors. The flak is unbeliveible. (And deadly) Ive waited for a good game like this to come 9out and my wishes have come true. But now if they come out with one like this except where your a soldier in the ardennes.
Rating:
Summary: Warning! This game not for whimps...or whimpy machines
Review: I bought a new Dell Dimension 4100 (866MHz P3, 256M mem, 32M ATI graphics) mainly just for this game, and disappointed I was not. Are the missions hard? Yes. I fought my way through waves of beautifully rendered FW-190's and BF-109's (having shot down at least 4 myself) only to see my worst fears realized when almost at the initial point...flak blew my right wing off. Mission over. There are some frustrating situations, like making it to the target, but it is so overcast that you can't even see it -but you can change your settings to improve weather conditions. There are some tedious tasks, like correcting your navigator -but you can change your settings to give you perfect navigation. The only problem I've had is that I have never been able to see the "pilot helper" cone that is supposed to guide you in taxiing and landing. Other than that this game is (excuse the expression) "the bomb". The visuals are amazing (I've got everything cranked to "full detail" and still have a smooth 20-something frame rate). The realism is hair raising. I don't know how anyone could complain about this game, unless they don't have a machine with the horses to handle it. The long periods of travel can be greatly reduced by the time skip function. I did find some of the pre-determined routes to be suicidal. No problem, I just took over the whole bombing campaign and decided what the waypoints, altitudes, targets, and even ordinance was going to be. I even named all of the crew members in every one of the 20 (?) or so aircraft that I controlled after friends and previous co-workers (I'm not sure I'd recommend doing that...they die too quickly anyway). Don't get this game unless you're willing to try different options and find aspects that are fun to you, and then focus on that. This game is a breakthrough and should be heralded as such.
Rating: 
Summary: Too much machine needed for too little game
Review: I waited 6 months for this game. Rushed home and started the long road of upgrades. DO YOUR SELF A FAVOUR .. DON'T BUY THIS GAME. Yes I had the min requirements ATI 128 16mb video card. 128 mb of ram and a celeron II 600. It ran < 15 frames per second @ 800x 600 x 32 (16 bit color is way too ugly) Upgraded to 256 mb of ram NO change in frame rate. Install new Maxtor Diamond ultra 100 harddrive with fresh install of win 98se NO change in frame rate. Swap ISA sound blaster 16 for SB live to help the CPU No rate change but sounds great Overclocked cpu to 750 hz Only 2 fps rate increase. Overclocked the video card to over 107 hz (from 90) about 4 fps frame rate increase Moral of story you need at least 32 mb video card to get over 20 fps playablity. These upgrade are beyond the average computer user and I'm not going to speed another $300 on a video card for this mediocre game.
Rating:
Summary: An opportunity wasted
Review: The very premise of this game is one that I have been anxiously awaiting for years. This execution of the concept, however, is simply terrible. Microprose has not yet learned that simple eye candy is not enough to sustain an interesting, challenging gaming experience. Playability is clumsy at best and interrupts any sense of excitement, challenge, or suspense. My version was also laden with bugs and I found it to be highly unstable, despite my 900mhz processor, ample memory, and video card. Anyone who has experienced the highly realistic flight dynamics of the MS Flight Sim family, Fly!, or any of the Jane's programs will find the characteristics of this B-17 overly simplified, unrewarding, and childlike. Buy MS Combat Flight Sim 2 and download one of the many fine handpainted B-17 add-ons available as freeware out there. Better still, if you can't shake the urge to the fly a B-17, put down your computer and pick up some Steven Ambrose -- the images he paints are 1,000 times better than Microprose. Calling this game B-17 is an insult to a noble aircraft.
Rating:
Summary: Great graphics, lousy playability
Review: I was quite excited to buy this after I read the reviews. After I rushed home, installed it and tried out the difficut training missions it still looked pretty good. Then when I actually began a campaign I discovered the fatal flaw of this game - it is boring. You have two choices, you can micromanage the bomber (too complex for anything but gunnery) or you can sit back and watch as the computer plays for you - although you will have to wait long periods of time for anything to happen even if you 'time skip'. My final verdict is that this was a great idea, but poorly executed. The designers were so excited to try to recreate the experience of crewing a B-17 that they forgot to make the game enjoyable. Also, the realism they try to present through the complexity of anything but shooting the guns is mocked by an extremely unrealistic flight model. My next hope is Europa Universalis...
Rating:
Summary: Best Flight Sim EVER!
Review: I ordered this game off amazon.com and got it 4 days later. I got a 750Mhz 128MbRAM (I got another 128MbRAM on the way from Bestbuy.com) and it runs great. There is some build up when you are outside the plane lookning at it and fly around with the camera. This might go away with my extra 128RAM not sure. The game starts off and you Pic nose art, Crew, and then watch the brefing and your flyn'. I hit 'Enter' and it makes it skip 10 minutes in time. (I like sims just not waiting hours in flight) It will tell me when there is a fight or flak or problems so I dont miss anything. The flak is amazing and it sounds so real inside the bomber. Damage is so real its scarey and if you get air sick you'll barf at how real the ground is. A Must Have if you like World War II or flying games...
Rating:
Summary: the mighty 8th needs a mighty machine : (
Review: Ive been waiting on this game over a year since its recent release the message boards have been lighting up with warnings about how much machine you will need to run this game .theyre saying a min of 256k ram and a big video card people with the big machines are saying this game is the very best with the exception of a few small bugs that should be patched soon .people with the small machines are crying about how slow the game runs and that the screen will lock up.let me know if its worth the upgrade to buy this game , until then ill be building rollercoasters .
Rating:
Summary: Great Flight Sim
Review: I just received my B-17 ll Flight Sim and have to say that I love it. I have spent hours already planning and flying missions. The only adjustment I had to make to my computer was download the lastest video drivers and it was up and running. If your a flight sim nut, you will have to add this one to your collection.
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