My experiences after giving it a few hours of play...
First of all, the install is a piece of ****. It didn't work at all for me. It didn't work at all for several other people either. The series of vulgarities and descriptions of incompetence I could come up with would still not suffice when it comes to describing UBI. They created an installation package that could not find the FB installation unless you registered FB online when it was originally installed AND used a CD-ROM (non-RW) to install AEP. They suck dog ass.
Well, after dealing with the most complicated and asinine update procedure in the world - I finally got the ****ing thing installed over a clean installation of FB.
From there it ran great, all on behalf of 1C/Maddox... if UBI had their hands on the game's source code - it'd be just like WWIIOl was out of the box. Now for what I've tested...
System specs:
GeForce 4 Ti4200 64MB - Omega 14345 drivers.
Athlon XP 2000+ (FSB 270Mhz)
512MB PC133 SDRAM (o/c to 135)
SB Live! Value
Windows 98
DirectX9.0 (required for the add on)
The upgraded FB (Aces Expansion Pack/AEP) runs just as good as, if not better than, FB on the same settings - max all over except terrain is Excellent not Perfect.
The flyable planes I've tested:
Me 163 - That is fun to fly around. Performs about the same as in AH - but has a way more detailed 3D model, and the internal cockpit model has some cool damage effects. For example, the armored glass in front of the gunsight will spider web if hit and the wooden instrument panel will look like bullet holes in wood. Its also downright deadly to B17s.
He162 - It is very fast, very manuverable and looks very cool. Its just under the 163's deadliness to bombers, but the engine is very vulnerable. The pilot will eject out of the plane as it should happen. Its an interesting plane if you are into some of Germany's very late war jet/rocket projects.
Go229 - Interesting plane to me as I saw its center section at the Garber Restoration Facility some years back and also bought the book detailing its development. Watching a flight of things attack B17s in AEP is something completely different. Since its simply a wing with no horizontal stabilizer, it can lose altitude fairly quickly when the wings are at a 90 degree angle to the ground and it uses airbrakes on either end of the wing to control yaw. Since it has no horizontal stabilizer, its controls are identical to the 163's for elevator and aileron control. Its also deadly to bombers, but the engines are EXTREMELY vulnerable and get damaged badly pretty easy. Spinning in this plane is easy at low speeds... and if that happens you will not recover - ever.
Bf110G2 - A great bomber destroyer with a wide variety of load outs. Its also pretty responsive, and the rear gunner definitely helps with taking down bombers after you've passed them. Its not a night fighter version, but it is a bomber destroyer with load outs for that and a destroyer/bomber with bomb load outs. Pretty fun plane to fly, but easy meat for most of the fighters in the game.
P38J and L - Despite what I've read over on the UBI forums (retardville), I've found them to be excellent planes when flown in their historical envelope. Really isn't much more to say on either models, they behave how I'd expect them to. Plus they look great in the game.
Finnish Gloster Gladiator (J8A) - For those not in the know, its a bi-plane that had a huge role in defending the island of Malta off of Italy. In the game, it is extremely manuverable but loses engine power in neg G manuvers due to fuel starvation. Its also highly detailed in the 3D model and the in-cockpit view. I think its the best in details.
Fiat Cr.42 - Italian bi-plane. It only has two low calibre guns compared to the J8A, but its very manuverable. It suffers the same carb flooding as well. Still, it performs within its envelope and is very well detailed in cockpit and in external.
IAR80 - Its a Romanian fighter. I'm pissed that they had this thing ready for about 7 months as a flyable... but they did NOT update the external 3D model at all in that time period. Its an all right plane, but has four low calibre guns and pretty good low speed capabilities.
YP-80 - Its a pretty cool "What if" plane, and has some pretty good performance. Compared to the Go229, however, its easy meat. The throttle, like the other jets, can't be thrown around like the prop planes - otherwise the engine will flame out (unlike the Jumo engines in the German jets, which typically catch fire if you do that). The 6 x .50s shred any German jet apart.
Finally the Spitfires. There's four versions, all MkVbs. One is the original 1941 type, the second is the clipped wing version - 1942, the third is the 1943 LF (low altitude tweaked) type, and the final is the 1944 clipped wing version of the LF type.
The original type performs the same as the one in AH, and naturally has the same armament. The view is the same from the cockpit, but unfortunately not adjustable. Kicks bellybutton in its envelope, and can dive at high speeds.
The clipped wing is the same as the above, but rolls a lot faster. FWs will be having a helluva time winning scissor fights against a well flown clipped wing Spit.
The LFs are quite a bit faster than the above type. The full wing is like the 1941 full wing type, but is a good deal faster. The clipped wing will roll faster than the full wing, but is otherwise identical.
The cockpit and the 3D model are extremely nice looking.
Here's the full list of the flyable new planes, I haven't given them all a run since theres a lot.
P-51B
P-51C
P-51D (N-9 gunsight)
P-51D K-14 gunsight)
P-63C
P-38L
P-38J
YP-80 Shooting Star
Me-163B
He-162A-2
Ta-152H-1
Mistel
Bf-109Z
Ju-87D-5
Ho-229
Bf-110G-2
SPB (Tb-3 with two flyable I-16s under wings)
IAR-80A
IAR-81C
Fiat CR.42
Fiat G.50
Ki-84-1a
Ki-84-1b
Ki-84-1c
A6M2
A6M5a
J8A – (Sweden Gloster Gladiator)
Spitfire Mk.Vb (Merlin 45) 1941
Spitfire Mk.Vb (Merlin 46) 1942 clipped wings
Spitfire LF.Mk.Vb (Merlin 50) 1943
Spitfire LF.Mk.Vb (Merlin 50) 1944 clipped wings
The pilot wounding has also been adjusted, so that if you get wounded you don't stay at that level of wound the whole time. You get seriously wounded, you progressively get worse at a rapid rate. You get lightly you get worse but at a much slower rate.
-SW
