I tried WBIII this weekend. Didn't really play it enough to comment on the FM, but here are my impressions:
Likes:
1) Planeset - nice to see the stuka, hurricane etc.
2) Ground vehicles are well done in terms of model/skins
3) Haze layers are excellent.
4) Tracer was ok.
5) Towns/strat targets look varied and realistic, as did the landscape.
6) Tyre rumble was appreciated and the explosion sounds were good.
Dislikes:
1) Control surface response. Ugh! That delayed deflaction thing was very annoying - I tried to up the stick sensitivity but it had no real effect on the rate of response. Not nice.
2) Water effects look ridiculous. Like others have said, water doesn't look so dynamic from the air - especially the higher you get.
3) Tracers - AH tracers aren't the best I've seen (B17 II) but they are better than WBIII. I didn't like them - they looked more like rockets.
4) Some plane models just look wrong. The Yak-9 looks stubby compared to photographs and I think AH has got it much closer.
5) Although some of the skins are excellent, others are pretty poor compared to latest AH skins.
6) Without icons it was hard to distinguish between aircraft (running at 1280x1024 on 1 19in Trinitron screen).
As a beta it looks ok, but it has someway to go before it prises me away from AH.