I've been waiting for the next generation Pacific sim for a long time, so I bought it...even though CFS1 was very disappointing. Compared to CFS1, it is better. The 3d models are really very good, wheels turn, shocks work, cowl flaps and canopies open, wings fold, engine coughs out smoke at startup, textures are very good, the planes actually look like worn metal and not just painted. I love landing on carriers...they pitch and roll in the water (which one can apparently set up in the .cfg file for the ship). Whereas CFS1 used models that were 3 times too large, CFS2 learned from that mistake and everything appears to be proper scale and you can still make out aircraft detail at over 1000 yrds, even in low res (I'm limited to 800 res with a 25" TV).
As for flight models, they are a little bit better than CFS1, but they lack in feel. Compression effects are lacking in most planes, especially the zekes. The flaps make no lift, so carrier takeoffs with a full load of bombs or drop tanks is impossible. The Betty flies like a fighter, being 50 mph too fast and the gun data is all porked in favor of the Japanese.
I was disappointed in the 2d cockpits. Since they are bitmaps, I don't know why they just didn't take a screenshot of the 3d cockpit, save it as a .bmp and use that for a 2d cockpit. I was disappointed that only 7 planes or so are flyable, while twice as many are AI planes. Although they can be made flyable, they have no 3d or 2d cockpits...waste of a good plane model if you can't fly it! It's fun enough for an offline sim. Apparently, there are no patches planned. Why patch when the community can do it for you? I'm disappointed that a company such as MS should appear to have a resource problem.
