Pacific Fighters Review on HEXUS.net

[Nick]

Your thoughts gentlemen

Linky: http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews...lld19JRD05MDA=

[Steve]

Added a link for you folks!

[Zak33]

cheers Kez.

Deck mate....well worded...well screenied...but best.....well accurate.

The idea of Sea Based warfare filled me with excitement and frankly I was gonna get to fly an F4U Corsair AND my love, the Beaufighter....but why on EARTH do I want to fly for over an hour in a straight line, and then try to find my carrier again for another hour. It might well be an accurate portayal of WW2....but so was foot rot, and I dont see the boys playing Medal of Honour getting a bucket of muddy water free with the game to stand in for 3 years before being asked to sprint for cover.

I feel that either it is a £15 add on....OR its 6 months too early. Why on EARTH would I want to wait for a "patch" to fly the latest planes that are on the box.

Really sad....cos some stuff is great. The islands at sea look ace, and give a great scope to the game. The boats are incredible models....

but I dont wanna be bored for hours at a time.

[MA_Moby]

i'm about 7 beaufighter missions in at the moment - and - wow - a mission where the AI didn't crash - and then - wow - a mission which didn't involve 1 hour + round trip. It feels good when it works, just a shame it doesn't work more often!

Great review Deckard! Absolutely spot on and well written. Let's hope you get to up that score when they fix the bugs. That, I suppose, is the tragic thing - all us lot - the die hard fans who want the game to do well and score well and be great - are disappointed!

[Skii]

Good review Deckard, and I can't fault it in all honesty.

I have linked the hexus front page to SimHQ, there will be some strong opinions
to the contrary I've no doubt.

FURTHER EDIT - reinstated the link, flamesuit donned.

[Nick]

Skii, slap the link back in.

I believe that review is fair and honest... even though I LOVE IL2, I'll defend the review to its critics. The evidnece is there for all to see, thouygh you could argue that my opinion that the games isnt worth £35, I can defend that with the lack of content in PF compared to AEP.

Stick the link back up and let them come and discuss it in here.

[Stoo]

Solid and honest review there chap

/me joins the "wait and see" brigade

[BUFF]

Good review Deckard, and I can't fault it in all honesty.

I have linked the hexus front page to SimHQ, there will be some strong opinions
to the contrary I've no doubt.

FURTHER EDIT - reinstated the link, flamesuit donned.

I posted the review link to SimHQ's news (& Biohazcentral) earlier today too
I guess that I won't be picking this up until it hits the bargain bins but I'm sure that this review will wind up the faithful .

[Skii]

I didn't need to link it after all ..

http://www.simhq.com/simhq3/sims/boa...f=114;t=000954

[TiG]

Wel I loved reading it, and i feel it does sum up my opinion pretty well. Its good to see reviews that I trust and its amazing that a game in this poor state of completion score well in games magazines. (Guess they got the patch - teach you for buying a retail game matey

The last time i saw a game this poor was masters of orion 3, a space planet strategy games, where get this the AI wasn't even smart enough to take back any planet you captured off them !!!!!!!!!!

TiG

[Skii]

"That's what happens when you get one of them console braindead trigger pullin button butchers to review a sim that takes skill and discipline to master. Go back and play with sonic hedgehog boy. Yo mama know you tryin to review sims? "

Looks like schools out over the pond..

[TiG]

I'm sorry I forgot that AI misplaced the ground. AHHH there it is BOOM
Where does skill come into a bugged game?, ah YES I remember it requires those rose tinted specs to be warn

TiG

[musickna]

Not an unreasonable review at all. The game as shipped is incomplete, and although it will get patched, it is irksome to buy something that is not quite right, and it will be especially irksome for those who are buying this as their first introduction to Maddox games (and there will be many doing so in the U.S., I would suggest).

Hopefully the word will get out to all those folk that there is a patch coming, but many people buy for the offline experience - including me - and are not necessarily part of the sim 'community'.

Ironically, although I have had it for a few days now, I haven't hardly touched the Pacific scenarios. I loaded it on top of FB and AEP, and am working on Russian campaigns using some of the Pacific Fighters enhanced plane set (A-20, P-400, P40B/C in Russian colors)!

There are a few dramatic enhancements to the whole game consequent to this - muzzle flashes have been toned down and no longer look like explosions, aircraft now remain at an airfield after landing for a long time before disappearing, and the 'skip' waypoint feature now works for all my older missions. These are MAJOR improvements, and make this a worthwhile add-on for the moment. But as a stand-alone, it is not up to standard - yet.

[Skii]

Welcome to Hexus musickna

You're quite right about the muzzle flashes etc, some noticeable steps in the right direction.

My main bug-bear is the AI behaviour and how it ruins the offline experience, how difficult it is to gain any speed advantage over an AI Zero regardless of how fast your mount is, this was an absolutley crucial aspect of the Pacific Air War.

I wonder how Dick Bong would have faired if those Zeros always stayed 50 ft behind him ....

[Nick]

Musickna, hello and welcome.

Yes, those are fair comments, and I agree that as a standalone game, it isn't up to scratch. I do hope you notived my footnote that I have prmised to retunr and re-evaluate the game once it has been patched.

Let's hope I can genuinely and honestly score it higher.

[Fly_by_Fire]

Although you do have some fair points I don't think it's a fair review as a whole. Instead of looking at the new features more closely you have focused on every single known weak spot of the IL-2 series, most of them rather old. A fan (like I am) learns to live with these* and see the strong points instead. Your review doesn't tell me anything new.

It sounds like retaliation for all the frustrations you've had with the series in the last years rather than a review of the current product.

Some details:
- I counted 63 flyable aircraft/sub-types in the stand-alone version, not 43. There are 43 new ones that were not present in AEP yet.
- You saw only one server for the PF stand-alone version -- where did you look? There are many more now. Everybody can host one, Ubi now has a lobby for them and other game browsers will also support it. Saying that owners of the stand-alone version who want to play online will be forced to buy FB/AEP is absolutely unfair.


*e. g. ignore the dynamic campaigns and make your own missions with the help of the infinite potential the Full Mission Builder offers.