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Flight model

The flight model, after playing IL-2 Sturmovik (which I purchased specifically to use as a benchmark for CFS3), is laughable. It takes full realism to match IL-2’s easy mode. Aircraft do behave differently from each other, and by the standards of other flight sims, even realistically. That is unless you have flown a plane in IL-2, after which CFS3 feels like an arcade shooter. Not being a pilot, I can’t speak from experience, but IL-2 does things that CFS3 does not. Torque, angle of attack stalls, flat spins, spins resulting from uneven wing loading – these are all things that CFS3 fails to do or does far less often than IL-2 (I can take IL-2’s P-39 Air Cobra from takeoff to flat spin in 30 seconds. I’ve tried and failed to spin many times in CFS3.). Granted, while providing far less realism, it does provide enough that it had me fooled until I played IL-2. The average gamer will simply not notice; indeed, he might become prefer CFS3’s light, but believable flight model to IL-2’s hardcore simulation.

T3h w1n!

Nasty weather

My favorite fighter

CFS3 probably sacrifices some realism for player stats. As the player’s character advances in the campaign, he gains ranks and skill points. Skill points buy improved ability in vision, g-resistance and health. Now, despite having dumped over a dozen points into g-resistance, I feel my pilot is at risk when going on the kiddie coaster, never mind doing Stuka-style dive-bombing runs in a P-47. For a game that is so obviously aimed at the average gamer, rather than the average sim pilot, making the player’s avatar so sensitive to g-forces is a waste. Particularly when g-effects stay on even in outside views, a feature that would be welcome among the hardcore simmer community.

The others
Despite featuring a brilliant graphics engine, CFS3 offers no opportunity to take advantage of it. The brilliant skies and impressive ground, coupled with gorgeous models are completely, utterly and totally too much to handle for all but elite systems. Even the lowest detail levels can cause problems on some lower-end systems, so we have no idea what marketing crackpot put up the minimum system requirements. It’s really too bad, since flying through bad weather is an amazing experience – and that’s when the game is hardest on a system.

An unimpeded view

Targets below

I can't pull out!

Sound effects are quite impressive, particularly engines. The guns could use a little more oomph, but that’s not a major gripe. The interface is clunky, ill-conceived and very unresponsive. The game clearly has memory management problems if a machine with 512MB of RAM tortures its hard disk for 20 seconds to load a menu after a mission.