I missed Skuzzy's post the irst go round thss am so I did a ubb search found it and you're right. It is a superlative post.
Here is the meat of an email I sent to a guy the other day explaining WHY AH appeals to me and why I have no problem with the price nor with thier marketing/price point test. It is a comparision for the most with AW, for he is an AWier. It took me ten minutes to write. The differences were so many.
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Another wonderful community. Alot of ex and current AW'ers are
there as well as some really good people from all over- WB's,
FA's, etc. A very large internationl player base too!
NO CON LIMITS! Not 12, not 24, not 36. I see all contacts around
me and with nary an FPS hit. Been in a 50 plus plane ceremony
and it's the balls to see all those contsacts, near and far,
and NOT choke. I lost 4 FPS.
No "canned" replies to emails asking for help or trouble resolving.
Very promtp, thorough and courtious replies.
Load up the Aces High program and with one mouse click and I'm in.
No Web portal, no banner ads.
Each actual bullet and cannon round are modelled.
Tracers selectable on....or OFF

Rockets! And four different types. Air-Air for Germans and Air-to-
ground for Allied aircraft
Fully adjustable wind settings; alt, direction, force and boundary
layers buffet
Fantastically rock steady connection - medium to low double digit
ping rates in comparison to never better than 350 with Game-
storm using the same PC and same ISP conection.
The Typhoon!
No "TOS" kOpPfS! We have a potty word filter.
Not once has the HTC online automatic updater "raped" my
installation of the sim.
News on what is currently happening and on the future at about
once a month.
NO Relaxed Realism arenas full of "kEwL dOoDz"
No magical dive bombing site on fighters!
I can fly in 1280X1024 resolution, 32bit mode with hi-res textures
with 40+fps in flight
A moving sun in the sky
Constant particapation in the newsgroup by the HTC group and even
more community particaption on their part as they fly online
several times a week talking and answering customer questions.
As well coming online and flying for fun.
Beautiful, moving, cat & mouse CLOUDS!!!
A time of day: night time, dawn, dusk, etc..
Drop tanks!
Aces High is where the old AW DOS vets are
Five channels of usable text communications
Multiple ordinance choices
Different gun calibres are modelled. Each with thier indiviual
characteristics
Lighting effects visible on terrain and aircraft, in flight or
on the ground.
A feared Yak-9U
a really good damage model; for aircraft and ground installations
Better aircraft graphics over all
Engine torque!
A much more complex and higher fidelity flight model
3D cockpits
the LANCASTER
seperate gun controls
A "wounded" pilot effect
gun pods on aircraft that had them
TERRAIN EDITOR - I can now be "Mage"
bomber pilot can gun self -controlling multiple guns if possible
gun convergance
Aces High will constantly evolve, no maintenance mode. No coasting
fantastic mission editor
Graphics are 3D and "One size fits all" full screen mode only
Much better blackout and redout features
The B-26!
Seperate fuel tanks modeled with choice of auto or manual selection
HTC has "Skuzzy" who is the VP of APPLink in Dallas who monitors and
constantly improves the performance of the connection to HTC as
well as being most helpfull to users and recommend ways to get a
better connection. Always online, always available!
Italian planes - Macchi 202 and 205
Integrated Roger Wilco vox communications
P-47D-R30. A REAL bubble top Jug
P-47D-R25. A real 350th FG Brazilian bubble top jug

Average of 120 "FULL REALism" flyers online in one arena each night
Panzer, M16, Ostwind AND an M3 troop carrier as well as the C47.
Version 1.05 will have naval features: programmable CV fleets,
user controlled PT boats, landing craft and mannable ship
batteries.
A P-38 "L" (Cod bless them!)
Easily editable sounds (.wav files)
Alot more CM tools for scenarios
3D gunsights
HTC only focus's on Aces High, not "Bop the Bunny" or "TinCan
Battle-Bots"
NO "MACRO" spewage on the public channel from the prepubescents.
Trim: It doesn't effect the socialable aspect of the game/sim in
the least. I can "fly" my plane liek I used to in AW without
loss of interaction with others at all. My time is not spent
managing my aircrafdt at all times. Just like riding a bicycle,
I do not have to think or concentrate on every nuance in
order to keep the thing in motion or upright.
Undeniabley larger group of very high caliber opponant. There is
a very large number of flyers have been doing this for 10
plus years.
The Aces High community talks more seriously about WW-II and the
aircraft of the period on thier boards.
It won't take years to get HTC fix a problem with the P-47 flight
model. If I can prove there is an error they will evaluate the
information and take emmediate action.