Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2

Overview

The Phenomenon…

In the history of modern media there is one topic and one topic alone that takes the cake for sheer tonnage of coverage. In the some 55 years since the end of World War II there have been hundreds of films telling every kind of tale you could imagine.

There have been films saying "War is hell, son." There have been pro-war and anti-war films, films of the gas chamber, films about the treatment of the Japanese in America, films about American POWs, not to mention a whole smorgasbord of films set during this era with the war as its backdrop.

Selecting ye olde nationality.

Wildcat on its way to victory.

Media's love affair with WWII is not just limited to film either. Modern historians write heavily about this period, study the economic surroundings and the politics that led up to the war, and debate whether or not the attack on Pearl Harbor was brilliance or the equivalent of strategic suicide. Very few events are large enough to gain mindshare in so many people, and the potential audience is too enormous to pass up.

Games are not an exception to this borderline obsession with the second great war. We see it in strategy games with Close Combat, Panzer General, and even in alternate timelines with the Red Alerts. It also seems like every other flight simulator deals with the war.

Woo hoo! I'm a killer!

Departing the Yorktown

Explained

Simply put, World War II is one of the most incredible events in the history of man. Since the industrial revolution, technology as advanced to the point where it is viable for an Alexander the Great or a Ghenghis Khan to rule the world with enhanced communication and the ability to traverse the world in a day. No one had stepped up to take a swing at the old ball though, until we were confronted with the war machines of an oppressed Germany, a proud Japan, and a subjugated Italy.

World War II has more information, background and stakeholders than any other event in history. Given the fact that we gamers like to pseudo-fight and blow stuff up, WWII provides a perfect game setting.

Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator brought us the European theater where we dueled with the Luftwaffe over a burning Germany. Now, in Combat Flight Simulator 2 (CFS2), we are permitted the opportunity to duel and dive, fence and fight with one of the greatest forces in the history of war: the WWII era Japanese.

Descending on flak

Immolated destroyer action