There's all sorts of war recreation games
but most of them are concerned with
the foot soldiers' point of view with games like
Medal of Honour
and
Conflict: Desert Storm,
but this handles the aspects of aerial fighting which played a major part of
the early wars!
You're an American pilot in World War II and as usual you're a hero, so they
have to call on you to do everything involved with the war. As the title suggests,
this is mainly to do with the war effort between the coast of Dover and
Normandy - with visits to other naval sites in france.
At first you have the one plane and as you progress successfully through the
missions your arsenal of planes increases as does your weaponry. Starting with
basic machine guns you get them upgraded with each different plane having
varying machine guns and the ability to hold bombs - oh yes! - you can bomb
targets from above!
This game is graphically wonderful - the planes are detailed brilliantly,
there is little slowdown even with many many explosions going off around you and
multiple enemies. In early levels, you have to fly around the sky shooting
down as many planes as you can (obviously enemy planes and not your own). Then
you have other missions where you have to concentrate on naval bases and bomb
enemy battleships from above. Other levels involve following fleets of tanks who
are coming to take over the world and you must bomb them from above too.
Flying is pretty simple but their attempt at realism makes the targetting
pretty awkward as obviously it takes some time for machine gun fire to reach from
one plane to another so you have to aim suitably far in front of the enemy
plane so as not to miss it.
Madness is a good word to describe this game as the enemies just seem to keep
appearing thick and fast - a brilliant recreation of a harrowing event and a
great change from the land based other games we have on the market.
As the game progresses you get to try out a number of famous planes like the
Messerschmitt. One thing I can tell you from this game is that I really don't
want to fly an aircraft made of material while people are shooting at me - but
then these guys didnt have a choice! This game does have the ability to make
you feel like your really in the war with fantastic sound effects and graphics
alike - a must for people who like plane or war games.
Once you finish the game you can apparently get a tie-fighter to fly about in
(good old Lucas Arts) but I didn't get that far yet - keep me posted if you
get one!
GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ENJOYMENT
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
At first you have the one plane and as you progress successfully through the
missions your arsenal of planes increases as does your weaponry. Starting with
basic machine guns you get them upgraded with each different plane having
varying machine guns and the ability to hold bombs - oh yes! - you can bomb
targets from above!
Madness is a good word to describe this game as the enemies just seem to keep
appearing thick and fast - a brilliant recreation of a harrowing event and a
great change from the land based other games we have on the market.
