Pacific Theater

Rating:
Summary: Good buy...
Review: After purchasing this add-on for CFS I got what I expected. Abacus is a great add-on for authenticity and will play well on the Zone. These planes are not mods but authentic styled and responding planes. The control panels were quite poorly designed and looked cheesy....

Rating:
Summary: Not THAT bad
Review: I bought this game as an add on for my Combat Flight Simulator, and was really excited because of the Pacific Theater theme.

I found that this was a giant step backwards from CFS. The graphics were really cheesy, and --check this out--the Japanese pilots were speaking German! It may have been in the readme file where they said a patch was forthcoming to correct the language problem.

The instrument panels for the aircraft were cartoonish, a real disappointment.

I immediately uninstalled this bomb from my PC, and chalked it up to experience.

But there is good news. I have read that Microsoft will be coming out with CSF2 which will be set in the Pacific Theater!

Robert Matthews

Rating:
Summary: A Stinker !
Review: I bought this game as an add on for my Combat Flight Simulator, and was really excited because of the Pacific Theater theme.

I found that this was a giant step backwards from CFS. The graphics were really cheesy, and --check this out--the Japanese pilots were speaking German! It may have been in the readme file where they said a patch was forthcoming to correct the language problem.

The instrument panels for the aircraft were cartoonish, a real disappointment.

I immediately uninstalled this bomb from my PC, and chalked it up to experience.

But there is good news. I have read that Microsoft will be coming out with CSF2 which will be set in the Pacific Theater!

Robert Matthews

Rating:
Summary: Great cheap way to expand CFS1: Hawaii & Pearl!
Review: I just bought the pkg, right now on Amazon it is a total steal! It's.. just to download a single nice F4U corsair from abacus internet...so this is good bang for the buck! It's worth it just for the Hawaii scenery, let alone for 12 new planes & new ship objects, plus missions in Pearl Harbor!! I'm ordering Battle of Midway also, to round it out & get more planes.

.., you get 6 US & 6 Japanese flyable planes, 6 missions (3 US, 3 japanese) re the attack on Pearl, and a whole bunch of "what-if" missions re further japanese attacks. The scenery is pretty detailed, but not photographic like CFS1 Europe- eg, better than FS98 level, esp. the mountains (guess that is the mesh 3D scenery.) This version is the "enhanced" version also, w/ fixed enemy planes & improved scenery, and has japanese accents for radio.

You get LOTS of ships in Pearl to blow up, the Japanese fleet incl. the carriers to blow up (or TRY to land on, good luck)... how can you lose for this price?

I only played briefly so far, but the planes look & fly well- they are partly animated (flaps, gear up/down, propellor speed- but no aileron/elevator control movement), have good exterior detail (the guns & cannons are there & match the muzzle flash). Cockpit detail seemed OK.

It's a lot of fun to have such a "target-rich" environment, eg playing Japanese and attacking Pearl, w/ all the battleships to strafe and bomb (or attack the Japanese fleet & carriers at sea). Playing over Hawaii coastline & mountains is more interesting for me than playing over generic scenery in Europe, but then, I was born in Hawaii so it's a bit nostalgic :-)

There are plenty of planes flying about in most of the missions, so it tends to be a "furball", w/ planes flying every which way, more realistic & chaotic than CFS1 Europe missions.

I wish they had included lots of US planes on the Pearl runways, to match history better, but there are already so many destroyable & flying scenery elements, more would probably slow the game too much.

On my PIII-800 & nVidia TNT2 system, it plays very smooth in fullscreen, though w/ the cockpit graphics on it gets a little choppy sometimes.

Probably is still faster than CFS2, just not as good graphics & missing the damage detail etc.

If you specifically want the better graphics & damage in CFS2, and are willing to pay much more for that, go ahead... but for someone already owning CFS1, and who wants to get Hawaii/Pearl scenery & objects...

Rating:
Summary: Fairly Good!
Review: I would have givin it a three, but the other person gave it a one. If you are tight on money, don't get it! I you have plenty, if you want it, get it. This game doesn't have too much senery. It only has Oahu. It does have a cool Japannese fleet. The carriers are very hard to destroy. The other ships are easy. There are a lot of cool planes and history. You only get six missions, but they are fun. If you want more planes and midway and the battle of coral sea, you should get "The Battle of Midway" game. There are a lot of games at www.simmarket.com.

Rating:
Summary: The ball was dropped here, not the bombs!
Review: This could have been a classic by including Pearl Harbor, Midway, Coral Sea, but instead, this starts out in mid-flight near Pearl with a wave of Japanese planes all over. no build up, no strategy, no thinking. Simply start firing and kiss your butt goodbye as you splash in to the harbor. This is a "could have been" .

Rating:
Summary: Not THAT bad
Review: This product is ok. If you're like me, and got tired of the missions that came with CFS, then this is not a bad add-on for some variety. I fly these sims with the view maximized, the cockpit graphics are not great, so just turn them off!

The scenery is ok. The enemy planes seem harder to kill, the planes are authentic looking and fly as well as CFS types. The official pacific theater is supposedly due "for the holidays", so, I didnt want to wait.

I will say, based on this, I would buy more of this companies add-ons. Just don't expect everything to be up to CFS for $29.99.

PS- My program starts as any other CFS- they don't start in mid-stream, I can take off and (try) to land, as normal!