Military Flight Simulations in the 2000’s

AboutThe fourth installment in this popular series of air combat oriented arcade style games.

AboutThe fifth installment in this popular series of air combat oriented arcade style games.

About"Aces High takes the art and science of vintage WWII air combat and sets it in an online high intensity environment where hundreds of players can battle it out with and against each other."

About"... last game in the AeroWings series, and was also considered the best: quality graphics, very detailed and animated 3D plane models, over 60 planes to fly (including Mig 29, SU27, Mirage2000, Harrier, A10, Tornado, etc.), challenging missions and new original features like the "scramble" mode - a random interception mission where a player must take off, intercept an unknown intruder plane, take pictures to identify it, then return to the base and land to finish the mission. " - Wikipedia

AboutThese themed add-ons from Just Flight always had compelling box art. I bought a spare copy just to sit on the bookshelf! The package contained 29 aircraft, scenery and missions for Microsoft Flight Sim 2002 and Microsoft Combat Flight Sim. I found it to be great value and it provided me with many hours of fun.

AboutWho as a child didn't use their plastic model aircraft to stage furious dogfights? Airfix Dogfighter recreates that simple and joyful world!

AboutARMA may be described as a military | physics | AI sandbox. It supports air, land and sea operations as infantry and in all sorts of vehicles and has a massive user base.

AboutWith no missions, dedicated bases, radio communications or working navaids the Vulcan seems very lonely in Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 2.

AboutB-17 The Mighty Eighth is a single or multiplayer simulation of the B17 Flying Fortress Bomber. You can also fly the escort fighter planes or Luftwaffe interceptors. The design, and some of the team members originate from the classic 1992 sim from Microprose "B17 Flying Fortress.

AboutAdds aircraft and missions, also adds 10 new aircraft designed by Terry Hill.

AboutFeatures an enhanced graphics engine based on the classic Battle of Britain by Rowan (2000).

AboutThe product is presented as a tribute to the BOBMF and a high standard of production is apparent throughout, from the full colour manual to the recreation of RAF Coningsby and the individual aircraft of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

AboutExpectations were high at Xmas 2000. Rowan, the makers of 'Flight of the Intruder' Operation Overlord, Navy Strike and more recently the smash hit 'MiG Alley', released a simulation of the 6 weeks that altered history, when the Royal Air Force fended off the might of the Luftwaffe.

AboutDynamic campaign add-on for IL-2 Forgotten Battles.

About"Action game that drops players into massive air, sea, and undersea battles from Pearl Harbor to Midway. Players command massive fleet attacks and take direct, real-time, control of every plane, battleship, and submarine in the battle."

About"From the Battle of Britain, through the dramatic air combat of Pearl Harbor, the fierce fighting of Midway, and on to the European continent in the battle of Berlin, players can hone their pilot skills while creating WWII history."

About"The best-selling Comanche series returns with this fast-paced action game that places you at the controls of a Comanche RAH-66 helicopter."

About"Since 1996, crazed rotor-heads have wanted more of that paranoid, heavy metal, hi-tech thrill-ride that is Longbow 2. FIVE years on and the uber simulation of helicopter combat is still as exciting as it ever was, unfortunately our desktop computers and operating systems have moved on making it difficult at best, impossible at worst, to fly our favourite sim."
Richard "Flexman" Hawley, October 15, 2001

AboutAdds aircraft designed by Terry Hill to Microsoft Combat Flight Sim, Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 2 and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000.

About"It’s the 4th of June, 1942, and Japanese bombs are raining down on Midway – and you. This lethal assault is a prelude to an invasion whose success gives the enemy control over the Pacific. You are one of the American airmen who hold the outcome of this decisive battle in their hands."

About Set in a parallel universe in 1937, the game sets up a world where the USA is divided into small nations and Air Power rules the day. Jordan Weisner has combined elements of the swashbuckling 1930's pulp fiction hero with, in his words "Air Combat with everything taken out except the fun!".

AboutDam Busters opened the bomb bay door to a new experience in Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 2, that of the bomber pilot. You need a different mindset than when flying the fighters. In the bomber accurate station keeping is everything on the final run.

AboutThis sim has the finest of pedigrees, based as it is on the best helicopter dynamic campaign engine ever built.

AboutIt was early April 2000... and two of the world's most fearsome helicopter gunships landed on home PCs worldwide. One of the best pieces of news to me was that 'Enemy Engaged: Comanche vs Hokum' is backward-compatible with Enemy Engaged - Apache vs Havoc, meaning you still have access to the campaigns and flyable helos from AvH. That of course is if you have AvH installed - if you don't, and you have a PC 300 Mhz or faster and a 3D graphics card, then run out and get it!

AboutThe AA radar allows real intercepts to be made, commonplace in combat sims but a first for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004.

AboutIn 2001 Digital Image Design (DID) released Eurofighter Typhoon, an accessible and immersive simulation of tactical jet combat. This 2001 sim focussed more on the squadron leader and pilot experience and improved the WARGEN engine of Total Air War.

About15 new missions and enhanced weather effects enhance the sim - but the real value lies in the inclusion of the original Eurofighter Typhoon and the excellent strategy guide in the package. The Eurofighter Typhoon - Operation Icebreaker CD contains the original Eurofighter Typhoon and a new scenario set immediately after the original campaign. It also adds rain, snow, lightning, Carrier Operations, Windows WP compatibility, New multiplayer games, Enhanced declutter HUD mode, Stealth radar mode. The new scenario starts after the Eurofighter Typhoon campaign and assumes that you lost Iceland to the Russians. Based on an aircraft at the North West tip of Iceland you are thrown in the deep end with frantic air combat from the first mission. I think the difficulty level is way too high to begin a campaign. After struggling through the first 4 missions, and aided by the excellent strategy guide, I decided to replay the original campaign first.

AboutJane's F/A-18 was the successor to their magnificent F-15 simulation. It modelled the US Navy's next-generation F/A-18E Super Hornet in great detail. As the F/A designation suggests, the Super Hornet is built for both Fighter (Air-to-Air) and Attack (Air-to-Ground) missions. In this sim, you operate your F/A-18 from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan in the Arctic Sea, flying missions over Russia's North Cape area. The F/A-18E SuperHornet came alive with a 200 page manual, which was necessary to study if you were to have any chance of fighting in the machine.

AboutEnhanced version of F/A-18 Korea, which was originally developed by Graphsim and released in 1998.

AboutEnhanced version of F/A-18 Korea, which was originally developed by Graphsim and released in 1998.

AboutUnder the stewardship of sim veterans Graphsim and Falcon 4.0 experts Lead Pursuit, Falcon 4.0: Allied Force keeps alive the seminal combat flight sim dynasty which originated in the late 1980's.

AboutAn attractive WW2 sim geared to online playing, with well organised arenas, training and special events.

AboutOne of the last great sims from Microprose, this reprised their 1988 and 1991 AH-64 Apache simulations and took full advantage of the relatively new technology of 3D graphics acceleration.

AboutHarrier Jump Jet 2002 adds 20 aircraft including Harriers, Skyhawks, Mirage and Pucara to Microsoft Combat and Civil flight sims. It also contains a 20 mission campaign for Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 1 and 2. The lack of 3 essential elements in the Harrier dogfight - VIFFING, IR and Radar guided missiles and appropriate countermeasures makes you wonder why bother trying to recreate this scenario? Having said that, I nonetheless had a lot of fun with this package. This exhibit serves as a good snapshot of the state of graphics in 2001 within the world of Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 2 and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002.

AboutThis much anticipated sim recreated the efforts of the Soviet Airforce on the Eastern front in World War 2 from June 22nd, 1941. It set new standards regarding high frame rates, detailed environment and a massive multiplayer capability. This soon led to a plethora of third party content hitting the market. The title refers to the Ilyushin IL-2 Sturmovik Fighter/Bomber which saw action on the Eastern Front.

About28 new missions and new skins for IL-2 based on the aircraft of legendary aces Erich Hartmann and Adolf Galland.

AboutThe sensation of speed at low level is the best yet in a flight sim. I enjoyed whizzing past excellent ground textures, individual trees, small stands of trees and whole forests of trees, vast cities (Moscow alone has 500,000 buildings in the sim), flying through clouds, fog, rain and snow, and all with a smooth frame rated with no s-s-stuttering at all on the test system. All this would be an impressive achievement for a civil flight sim, to create a world in such detail and still enjoy a sedate and fluid sensation of flight. But IL-2 is a combat sim and once you add multiple aircraft manoeuvering vigorously, tanks, trucks and ships, bombers, anti-aircraft fire you would expect the sim performance to take a severe hit. Not so. Without a doubt the most outstanding World War 2 flight sim of the 2000's.

About"Il-2 1946 includes all of the original IL-2 series content: IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles, Ace Expansion Pack, Pacific Fighters and alternate history campaigns of year 1946. What was years ago began as a one-aircraft study sim is now an astonishing anthology, with a whopping 229 flyable aircraft and over 300 aircraft total!"

About"Rebirth of Honor" (ROH) is a campaign expansion for the computer flight simulation ‘IL-2 Sturmovik Forgotten Battles’ with the ‘Ace Expansion Pack’ (FB+AEP). It runs also under ‘Forgotten Battles’ + ‘Ace Expansion Pack’ + Pacific Fighters merged install. (FB+AEP+PF) and under IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946."

About"2 campaigns: Luftwaffen- campaign “Greif" and russian campaign ‘Red Banner’. Extremely detailed ‘world’ on the maps Kurland, Moskow, Leningrad and Murmansk. 300 Missions, over 700 very high quality plane skins, over 200 pilot skins. Over 75 hours of immersion."

AboutLuftwaffe fighters over the biggest tank battle in history.

AboutWings over Jungles is a campaign pack containing four separate campaigns for the flight simulator PACIFIC FIGHTERS (PF). 1. ’Monkey’ (US3) where you take the role of a WWII US Navy Fighter pilot flying from aircraft carriers. 2: ’Angel’ (US4) in which you are flying for the US Marine Corps as a dive bomber and later as a fighter pilot. 3: ’Kyuden’ (IJ3) which lets you fly as a Japanese Navy fighter pilot from aircraft carriers. 4: 'Katana’ (IJ4) which leads you as a Japanese Navy fighter pilot to various assignments.

About" Wings over Waves (WOW) is the first of a series of campaign addons for the flight simulator PACIFIC FIGHTERS (Version 3.0+) (PF). It will also be playable under IL-2 Sturmovik Forgotten Battles + Ace Expansion Pack + Pacific Fighters merged install. (Version 2.0+) (FB+AEP+PF) and under IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946."

AboutIn October 2001 Xicat Interactive signed an agreement with Jane's Information Group to continue the military games suspended by Electronic Arts. This included the much anticipated Jane's Attack Squadron by Mad Doc Software , which had been sidelined for a year.

AboutFourth in line of one of the most popular combat flight sim dynasties, JetFighter IV returned to the San Francisco scenarios of 1988's "Jetfighter: The Adventure" and thus provided a neat summation of where graphics had evolved to by the end of the 20th century.

AboutJetFighter V was released in 2003 under the title of "Jetfighter". It is a stunning looking sim which still serves the purpose of providing an action arena for neophytes to the genre, but old hands will be frustrated by the lack of controls and options.Unfortunately the Jetfighter dynasty seems to end not with a bang but a whimper. It's as if there were two design teams - one who set out to make a fully functioning virtual cockpit and one who vetoed the implementation - the whole sim is like that. Heaps of potential but nothing much is finished.

AboutKorean Combat Pilot recreates aerial encounters during the Korean conflict 1950 - 51. There are two campaigns, I flew the North Korean Campaign in the year 2000. TIPSelect unlimited fuel in the menu to avoid problems with warping and with your wingman's fuel supply.

AboutKorean War is a series of campaigns for Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator (1998) created by Mike Eustace and Doug Attrell. Download all the packs at www.simviation.com.

AboutLago's F-16 Falcon Collection gives you the choice of several different variants including a few 2 seaters (D model) and some of the most recognisable and colourful paint schemes.

AboutThe sequel to the acclaimed air combat sims: Su-27 Flanker 1.5, Flanker 2.0 and Su-27 Flanker 2.5.

AboutA great RTS Mech game that was challenging to run on the hardware available at time of release.

AboutSequel to Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator (1998). Set in the Pacific Theatre WWII, it significantly upgraded the graphics and fidelity of the series.

AboutThe third in the series from Microsoft, the sim raised the bar again with a detailed and fast low altitude environment suitable for ground attack missions, and a dynamic campaign. On September 18th 2002 I interviewed Scott Lee, product manager from Microsoft's Aces Studio, and checked out the beta version of Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 3.

AboutThe official expansion to Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, it is a first person perspective military sim which also enables you to fly military helicopters and aircraft.

About"The game is based on the military career of a US serviceman, who takes part in a Pacific Air campaign. Commencing in the Pearl Harbor battle as a second level serviceman in lower rankings, the objective is to fulfill all upcoming missions."

AboutUses the graphics engine from Jetfighter 5.

About"Red Skies over Europe' puts you in the seat of a fighter plane during the action packed Eastern Front conflict between the Axis Luftwaffe and the USSR Air Force during World War II."

About"Red Skies over Europe' puts you in the seat of a fighter plane during the action packed Eastern Front conflict between the Axis Luftwaffe and the USSR Air Force during World War II."

AboutMiG-15 campaign set during the early stages of the Korean War in 1950/51.

About20 mission campaign set in the Korean War - 10 missions flying the F-86 for the USAF and 10 missions flying the MiG-15 for the North Korean / Chinese / Russian forces. The missions are conveniently grouped in Air to Air and Air to Ground categories which I like. It gives you a chance to get into the rhythm of a particular role.

AboutSecond release under the solo banner of Third Wire, led by seasoned developer Tsuyoshi Kawahito.

About"Strike Fighters 2 Complete Edition is a collection of the entire Strike Fighters 2 series (over $400+ value!) including 5 games, 2 expansion packs, and 29 DLCs all in one single, easy-to-install package!"

About"Hypothetical World War III scenarios - Cold War Gone Hot - where the Soviet Red Army invades West Germany."

About"Intense air combat experience in the skies over Middle East during three major historical conflicts - 1967 Six-Day War, 1973 Yom Kippur War, and 1982 Lebanon."

About"1979 hypothetical "Cold War gone Hot" scenario - what if the Soviet Union had decided to invade West Germany in 1979? Join the US Navy and USS Nimitz Carrier Battle Group sent to reinforce the Iceland defense, protect the carrier from Soviet long-range bombers, and strike the Kiev battle group of the Soviet Northern Fleet!"

About"Join the United States Air Force, Navy or Marines, and fly historical missions from the Rolling Thunder campaign of 1964-68 and the hard-hitting Linebacker I and II campaigns of 1972."

AboutThird Wire Productions was formed by ex EA/Janes and Microprose programmer Tsuyoshi Kawahito. Their first sim was called 'Project 1' and focussed on the "classic" jets of the 1950's and '60's. After signing with a publisher in 2002 the sim was renamed to 'Strike Fighters Project 1'.

AboutSu-27 Flanker 2.0 was released for Xmas 1999 and this major upgrade was released as a free download in 2001.

AboutA jet combat game recreating the intense air combat experience in the skies over North Vietnam from 1964 to 1973. Fly the F-100 Super Sabre, F-105 Thunderchief, A-4 Skyhawk, A-6 Intruder, A-7 Corsair II, F-8 Crusader, or F-4 Phantom II.

AboutFlying through Yager is like diving into a Jack Vance novel with it's quaint mixture of old and new, the fantastic architecture, the floating ore barges - all fully animated - and the not-quite-earthly watery environs, all seasoned with a quirky sense of humour. Those who remember Strike Commander with affection will appreciate the storyline and the clever mission construction. This type of game has the potential to get people interested in flight sims - but in it's own right it's a fun filled experience. Don't take it too seriously - just have a blast! Given the drop dead gorgeous graphics and the strong role playing element, this is a good sim to recommend as it might encourage new players to look further into flight simulation generally.