Well, here's what I found-
Apparently my former account has been re-activated (even though I gave the game away and don't have the CD key). I was able to get in with nothing more than the big download and Playgate 1.60.
I was immediately updated to 1.51. A box appeared telling me my video couldn't be found (ala Gunthr's description). I went to the settings box and disabled the first two items it displays under video (no frame run ahead, no lock to refresh). With that I was able to run the game and play online.
I went German, as my particular plane of interest was the Stuka. The Germans had Mauberge, and as it looked as though there were bases slightly east being contested, I joined a mission for Stukas. Upon arrival at Berl, I saw a Somua running up the road. I dove, scored a near miss (which means you don't scratch paint) and continued to strafe for a few minutes. Realizing I was wasting time I returned for another load of bombs. Rinse and repeat.
I managed a sortie in a 110. It has lots of ammo, but it won't hurt a Somua. I used up 3 full clips in the radiator and turret ring- all wasted.
The Stuka handles wonderfully, turning on a dime. I still think I could dogfight in it, but time will tell. It definitely won't knife-edge forever now.
The framerate was good, but once again there was a near stoppage when I first approached Berl. It took about 15 seconds to cache all the info before I could safely approach the fight. I would recommend flying level over a city and using the views before trying to engage. Failure to do so is a sure auger.
My system specs are:
AMD XP 1500
20G 7200 HD
GeForce2 GTS 32MB
256 MB DDR (the real bottleneck; needs double that)
Cable connect
I was CTD'd on my last flight, and had been on a grand total of an hour (there were nearly 1,500 users on at that time). Preliminary results indicate it is indeed much better so far, but I have to get into a real mess over a city before I give a final evaluation.
