Combat Flight Simulator 2

When it was a gentleman's duel…

Combat Flight Simulator made quite a splash at Gamestock 2000, and with good reason - it's one of the most gorgeous combat flight games we've seen yet. CFS2 uses the Flight Simulator 2000 engine, but takes the visuals to even higher levels that were seen in that game. The working model they showed us was the F4U Corsair, made famous for its bent wing style and its appearance in the television show Black Sheep Squadron. The F4Us in the Pacific were often painted blue - the ones shown to us at Gamestock were blue as well, but what was really impressive is that they had very noticeable and believable weathering on the metal panels, along with exposed rivets. Carbon streaks mark the openings where the machine guns were mounted. All in all, the planes in CFS2 will look like the genuine article that actually saw combat duty - not a restored museum piece tooling around a computer screen.

The landscape

F4U Corsairs

War in the Pacific

CFS2 will chronicle the air war over the Pacific this time around, so instead of taking the air against the Messerschmitt in Spitfires and Mustangs, you'll be flying against the vaunted Japanese air force in P-38s, Hellcats, Corsairs, and more. A Japanese campaign will be included in CFS2, with the cockpit of the flyable Zero modeled precisely down to the Japanese characters marking the gauges and radio calls made in Japanese.

More corsairs

Can't get enough

Spying - 60 years later

Need more detail? The developers have pored over declassified documents from the Department of Defense, including memos from real pilots who flew the planes. The idea is not to model the planes as the manufacturers said they SHOULD perform, but as the planes actually DID perform in the field. Want more? How about actual world maps based on digital elevation model data from the US Geological Survey? How about seeing actual bullet damage on the bandits you shoot up?

Hellcat

Underside of the Hellcat

With over 120 missions to fly, players are not likely to get bored with the game very quickly. Your performance in the missions will greatly affect how the campaign plays out. Beware of losing too many wingmen - the later missions could prove to be much more difficult with rookies replacing them.

Haze	More fog/haze
Just the cockpit of a P38	Mission screen
Title screen	Sunset
Wildcat cockpit	Squadron of Wildcats = fodder for Zeros
Zeros	More Zeros

Expected Release: Q4 2000