Air Conflicts-Pacific Carriers & Other Pacific Flight PC Titles

[FrontierCybrarian]

W8Aminute, must see War Lover if for nothing else than actual WW2 B17 clips. Steve McQueen is a dare-devil , hot-dog bomber Captain.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056676/

I really like older WW2 movies because they often have original aircraft, tanks, artillery pieces, vehicles, etc. Especially like the aircraft. Even getting bit by a Mosquito!

With income tax refund I puchased Rise of Flight, Over Flanders Fields, Microsoft Flight Sim and add-ons; WW2 War Birds, Sunderland flying boat, and Lancaster Bomber. Installed them all but haven't played. Was expecting my youngest son to participate but unfortunately to both of us he's too busy with teaching auto tech at college, getting an MS degree, and serving as Chairman of the Board in his Dept.

Things won't always be the same and I'll venture into MS Flight Sim titles...knowing the learning curve is harder with true sims  than with arcade flight types. Both have there places in the wide-open skies and in the wars.

[Rekim]

To me the best game covering this time period and place was Dynamix's Aces of the Pacific.



The graphics were actually cutting edge back in the day.  What I really liked about this game, and the feature I use to judge every flight sim since, is the campaign mode.  Today there is not a game out there, not one that I know of anyway, where to play the campaign you simply fly missions, rank up, get better aircraft when they were historically available to frontline units, get taken prisoner, escape and return to duty.  This cycle continues until the historic end of the way in August of 1945. 

Today's games seem to want you to play some scripted missions, tell a story, unlock new camo patterns for your planes, share your achievements on facebook, and then watch a fantastic movie at the end bragging about how awesome you are.  I don't want that, I just want a realistic, mundane career in which I do my job, and be done with it.

Good one W8Aminute. I'd forgotten all about this classic. Enjoyed it as any sim since. I loved all of the Aces games from Dynamics for that matter. I still have the German uboat map of the Atlantic kicking around.

[Tuna]

To me the best game covering this time period and place was Dynamix's Aces of the Pacific.



The graphics were actually cutting edge back in the day.  What I really liked about this game, and the feature I use to judge every flight sim since, is the campaign mode.  Today there is not a game out there, not one that I know of anyway, where to play the campaign you simply fly missions, rank up, get better aircraft when they were historically available to frontline units, get taken prisoner, escape and return to duty.  This cycle continues until the historic end of the way in August of 1945. 

Today's games seem to want you to play some scripted missions, tell a story, unlock new camo patterns for your planes, share your achievements on facebook, and then watch a fantastic movie at the end bragging about how awesome you are.  I don't want that, I just want a realistic, mundane career in which I do my job, and be done with it.

Good one W8Aminute. I'd forgotten all about this classic. Enjoyed it as any sim since. I loved all of the Aces games from Dynamics for that matter. I still have the German uboat map of the Atlantic kicking around.

I still have the Floppys from this.. Aces of Europe and Red Baron.. I think I have the Box for Europe!

[FrontierCybrarian]

Tuna and Rekim there was high praise for the Dynamix flight titles. Thanks for taking us dowm memory lane.

While I was away from town for a a couple years my oldest son (out of work) sold most all of my treasured software (complete in boxes, with manuals and discs)... Aces, Red Baron, etc., all of the great ones. I had hundreds of titles (used to sell software). An unhappy day when I returned.

But, also I was stupid. Not getting some to work on XP I just threw many away, like the complete Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe. Could have at least sold them. Now I find a few older titles at a local thrift store. I like their large boxes, install guides, and comprehensive manuals. Yes, I know why they don't do that anymore but it was nice while it lasted.

[FrontierCybrarian]

Finally, I was in a position to purchase Air Conflicts-Pacific Carriers...downloaded it last night from Steam (yes, it has to go through Steam no matter where you buy it). Give me a few hours of play and I'll provide some initial actual gameplay comments.

-The price point ($29.00 plus tax) for this new game is about $10-20 less than similar arcade flight titles when they were released.
-On my slow dsl it took about 3 hours to complete the download.
-The game start-up worked fine.
-The options section is limited...sound is adjustable but graphics is not.
-Arcade and Sim play. Don't know how extensive Sim play is going to be (additional rudder movement available).
-The pdf manual through Steam is really a "quick-start guide." Despite 20 pages only two pages apply, other languages     represented.
-Claims to work with xbox style gamepad, mouse/keyboard, joystick/keyboard.
-10 minutes into the tutorial I machinegunned the drone plane with success but failed in divebombing the ship (ran out of bombs and couldn't find a way to reload them...you only have one handful to begin with). That part realistic, yes... frustrating, yes for a tutorial trying to teach divebombing. I imagine I'll just have to start the tutorial over and over until I succeed in the divebombing.

Take a look at the quick start guide.

http://cdn.steampowered.com/Manuals/214910/AirConflictsPacificCarriers_Quickstartguide.pdf?t=1348247773


Game players computer specs:

-Windows 7 Pro SP1 64bit
-Intel Core i7-2600 CPU 3.40 GHz
-16 GB memory RAM
-Thermaltake esports Black gaming mouse 6500 dpi
-Coolermaster CM Storm mechanical keyboard
-Ideazon FANG gamepad
-SoundBlaster Recon 3D PCIe card
-Corsair Vengeance 1500 7.1 headphones
-Logitech Z-5500 5.1 Digital Surround Sound Speakers
-OS hard drive Western Digital Velociraptor 150 GB

Will provide more later.

[FrontierCybrarian]

Working  through an allergy or sinus head cold so didn't get as much playing time with ACPC or Borderlands 2 (the two threads I'm participating in). After an hour more play here are my observations:

-Graphics and frame rates are quite nice.

-Ambient sound is good but not fantastic, music is initially good but gets repetitive and I turned it down to 20%.

-In the training mission the bombing became much easier by bombing from bow to hull (or vice versa) than from the narrow port to starboard...duh on me.

-I was wrong about reloading bombs in the above post. The mouse scroll wheel is used to reload a couple more bombs. In the tutorial a single plane starts out with 4 bombs and later two reload ones.

-It appears that on missions you need to think about the concept of SQUAD SQUAD SQUAD and not just as an individual pilot. Do all the damage you can with the one plane but if it runs out of ammo/bombs or gets damaged just press/hold the "Q" key and a new plane will taxis from the carrier. The new plane will have the full ammo and bomb load. However, there will be limited # of planes in the squad.

-There are Campaign, Training, Instant Battle, Survive, and Restart choices. I played Instant Battle and was quite surprised at my choices. In the Pearl Harbor episode there were mostly Japanese aircraft but also U.S., U.K., and German planes available in combinations. Besides historical Zeros vs U.S., Zeros could fight Zeros, U.S. could fight U.K., and I imagine some combination of someone fighting Germany. I didn't have time to account for all the combinations.

-The speed control (right shift) initially increased the plane's speed but seemed to peak quite soon and was no longer too useful unless you pressed the decelerate key (right ctrl). Continue holding the right ctrl key will result in the engine stopping and if not right sht'ed again your plane will get premature drink (it will be salty that's all I  know).

-I stupidly tried to land a damaged plane back on the carrier and failed every time. Forgot to lower landing gear (G key). Never finished trying to land a damaged plane. Hopefully it better allow this.

-It could just be me, but I really couldn't FEEL a huge significant difference between flying a Zero, Devastator, or Wildcat. Was expecting a bit more in this area.

-Didn't take time to try out rear machine gun in Devastator. The guide indicates there is that function.

-I believe the real play in this game will likely be the CAMPAIGN where you can feel more connected to squad members and overall success.

-I had fun while playing and that is the whole purpose of a a pc game. Will it be $32 worth of fun for the hours expended. That needs to be decided through further play.

Will talk more later. Must rest some weary bones, stuffy nose, weeping eyes, & cockpit blues.

[FrontierCybrarian]

More informal comments from several more hours of play:

-As a "whimp" I'm playing on the "rookie" difficulty setting in the arcade mode.

-I'm getting to like the game more as I progress through the campaign.

-The graphics; planes, water, land, foliage, buildings/structures, clouds, smoke, machine gun fire, and bomb explosions and building fires are all done well. 

-The sounds for planes and gun fire are good.

-Sometimes when I start the game through Steam it offers a configuartion option and other times not. However, on my computer even if I adjust to a higher res the config. screen seems to be cut-off on the right side not allowing an "apply" or save feature. Why the sporadic occurrence is anyone's guess.

-This is not a "cake-walk" game even on the lowest setting and in arcade. Haven't tried simulation yet with a joystick. But I'll bet it's really tough. I had to play several missions multiple times before advancing the campaign.

-The missions to search for enemy planes via Wildcat planes and with binoculars standing on the carrier were a bit frustrating not seeing anything for several minutes until the last when it was too late. Once planes are sighted and reported Wildcats can attack and you're given an AA gun to down a suicide Japanese plane.

-Bombing will require much practice to become proficient. It's seems my bombs hit the target only about 1/3 of the time.

-Landing on the carriers is not easy either. Half the time I was successful.

-It usually takes personal operation (one at a time) of all squad planes to complete missions.

-Damage to planes is shown with bullet holes, metal chipping, smoke, slow-down and often crashes. Besides bullets and AA/flak planes get damaged from collisions, hitting trees or towers, and of course, smashing into the ground or water.

-Voicing so far is good. There is an option to "voice-over" the Japanese language.

-Before a mission there are options to change plane type, armament, bomb types, & camouflage. Don't know if all these options are accurate or historical for any given plane.

-Completing missions with the most planes still available on carrier will be the ultimate challenge in this game. In the missions I completed I never had any planes left on the carrier and only the one in air (damaged at that, too). Just completing the mission was murder. It's too bad most of my pilots were killed before returning to the carrier or bailing out.

Guess this is enough for now. Fly on Boys!

[jomni]

Thank you for your comments.

[FrontierCybrarian]

Jomni, I hope the posts have been specific enough so far to help readers determine if it's a buy, wait, or absolutely no go. Thanks for participating in the thread.

I'm still at the beginning stages of the missions in arcade but it appears I might be the only one playing and reporting...but for better or worse you're stuck with me.