This years E3 was a little
disappointing on a number of counts. First the babes were not up to the
standard of previous years as far as I could tell. In fact overall ECTS
was as much of a babe fest as E3 which shouldn't be the case. Secondly
this was not a good E3 for flight sim fans. Fortunately the sims that
were here were of a very high standard but nevertheless they were a little
thin on the ground. There was nothing around for us jetsim guys unfortunately,
not even a glimpse of Typhoon, but it's gonna be a good year for WWII
fans as all of the sims on display at E3 were prop sims.
CFSII
One of our first stops was the ms stand and we were very impressed with
cfs II. The graphics are looking pretty impressive as it is using an
enhanced version of what was already a very good terrain engine. The
mission builder is very in depth and has a huge choice of objects that
can be used in your custom missions and campaigns. It seemed very intuitive
to use and was fully backwards compatible with cfs missions. They allow
you to set "Events" with their own custom triggers eg you could set an
event so that if you fly into a certain area below a certain speed and
below a certain height an enemy flight would be created to intercept
you. The types of events and their triggers are many and varied and allow
you to make your scripted missions feel fairly dynamic. Whilst CFS doesn't
offer a fully dynamic campaigns they should feel fairly dynamic thanks
to the use of the event triggers. As these triggers can be fairly complex
the team should be able to create a campaign that never flies the same
twice.
The 3D cockpits that we saw were extremely good and whilst the
flight models still need a little tweaking the P38 that we flew felt
pretty good. The padlock view system still needs some work as at the
moment it locks to the target and not your own view point this can get
pretty disorientating as your cockpit revolves around your head, which
can mean that some times your view is upright but your plane is inverted.
They said that this will be corrected in the final version though. As
with all MS simulators the architecture is open allowing third party
add ons. The interface screens look very nice, Microsoft have opted to
go for a comic book look which is quite effective. At this stage MS have
no plans for any add ons or future campaigns but they are happy for users
to create their own mods, addons and campaigns. All in all this was looking
like another potential winner from Microsoft.
B17 II
Our next stop was Hasbro and B17 II. Ken Hall was kind enough to give
us the guided tour and the sim was looking impressive as always. Ken
demonstrated a gunner being shot and then pointed out that this had also
had a side effect of sending the navigator into a panic. As Ken took
control of the navigator and instructed him to perform first aid on the
injured pilot he began to calm down. This is an impressive level of detail
and is one of the reasons that I am really looking forward to B17 II.
The damage modeling is looking real impressive too. Ken jumped into a
B17 II's door gunner position and started to fire at the nose of another
B17 in the formation, whilst I thought that this was somewhat impolite
to the other B17 it did serve to demonstrate how well damage is modeled
in the sim. Ken immediately showed an outside view of the afflicted B17
and the bullet holes were clearly visible in the nose where Ken had been
shooting. He then jumped into the nose and proudly pointed out the three
crew members lying dead, while he didn't demonstrate it I was fairly
sure that several of the other crew members were in need of new underwear
at this point.
During the demonstration I noticed some dogfights in the background between
some P38's and 109s these also looked pretty cool at one point I saw
a flight of fighters break formation to engage an incoming threat, very
impressive. Ken allowed me to fly a 109 which was cool although the flight
model felt very twitchy. Ken stated that the final flight model still
wasn't in yet. I must admit that I found this a little worrying as far
as potential release dates are concerned. Another thing that concerned
me was that this was running on an Athlon 900 and was not particularly
quick. Ken assured me that this was caused by the wrapper that they are
using to allow them to do things like shoot crewmembers and jump from
plane to plane for demonstration purposes. All in all B17 II was looking
as impressive as ever but it still looked a long way from being finished.
Battle of Britain
Our next stop was Empires booth where we looked at Battle of Britain.
The version that they had on display was still at quite an early stage
but we could see that it's shaping up nicely. Battle of Britain uses
an enhanced Mig Alley engine. Some of the improvements we could see were
new "puffy" cumulus clouds much like those in Janes F/A-18. These looked
pretty cool and will really add to the atmosphere (pun intended) as well
as enhancing the sensation of speed. Rowan are promising an enhanced
terrain engine in Battle of Britain unfortunately the version on display
was too early a build to really judge this. One big enhancement is that
the dynamic campaign now works in real time so you will see the icons
moving around whilst you are in the campaign map, this could really make
the campaign interesting. It may add a sense of urgency to some of the
missions as you see a gorilla formation heading towards one of your airbases.
Owners of Mig Alley will feel instantly at home with the interface screens.
Whilst they are laid out similarly to Mig Alley so that owners of that
title will find the sim instantly accessible they are different enough
to distinguish this as a separate product. As in Mig Alley there will
be several different flyable aircraft including the Spitfire, Hurricane,
Me109, Me110 and the Ju87. It was still too early to judge the flight
models but if those in Mig Alley are anything to go by then they will
be pretty impressive. Due to Rowans proven ability in the dynamic campaign
department this is very high on my personal wish list, lets just hope
they improve the comm system over Mig Alleys.
IL2 Sturmovik
Our last stop of day one was IL2 Sturmovik from Maddox Games. Now this
was a real beauty, the screenshots look nice but the real thing looks
better. The sky was incredible to look at, at one point the evening sky
was tinged with a reddish hue forming an awesome backdrop for the dark
grey clouds add to that the scattered cumulus clouds and you have a sight
that has to be seen to be believed. Some of the things these guys are
doing look incredible. The lighting is superb especially when you see
it reflecting off of the water. The forests are amazing. Oleg showed
me an IL2 flying high over a forest, I was very impressed with the bump
mapping. Then he overflew it again only this time at a lower altitude,
the bump mapping on the trees looked even more pronounced. Finally he
made a third pass lower still, only at this altitude it was possible
to pick out each individual tree. Man this was an impressive sight and
has to be the best representation of a forest I've ever seen in a sim.
Then it was on to the damage model which is on a par with B17 II's. At
one point Oleg showed me a plane clipping a wing during a landing with
very impressive (yet fatal consequences). The tracer fire in the game
looked real nice and bits flew off of the planes corresponding with where
the bullets hit. Oleg showed me a great dogfight with a 110 falling prey
to an IL2's rear gunner, he explained that a great deal of work had gone
into the AI to make sure it plays just right. The flight model felt pretty
good as far as I could tell, but then I'm not exactly qualified to judge.
Padlock view wasn't in yet but there were a variety of external views
to delight at. Oleg said that padlock would be in the final version (at
least I think he did unfortunately we were both fluent in different languages).
It is possible to fly as either the Germans or Russians and there are
several flyable aircraft with the IL2 being the flagship of the sim.
This is a highly unique sim both in the theatre modeled and the Russian
aircraft. The complete package is one that I am very much looking forward
to. Hmm for a jet jock I seem to be looking forward to a lot of prop
sims!
As far as the software is concerned IL2 Sturmovik definately wins my
"Best of Show Award".
