Bought it last Friday and played with it some over the weekend. I didn't invest a lot of time in it, so this is only a quick glimpse at what it is.
My machine:
ATI 9800Pro 128MB w/DNA 4.10 drivers (but I started off with Omega 4.9s).
1GB PC2700
Athlon XP 2600+ 512MB L2 Cache 1.9Ghz.
MSI KT4AV+L (built in NIC)
SB Audigy LS
Maxtor 7200RPM 30GB HDD
and well that's all that really matters.
There's two installations offered - stand alone and FB+AEP+PF. I went with the latter, no point in having it standalone.
Installed it into FB+AEP+PF, went fine. Right off the bat I had a wierd pause that I could time. Problem was using SUN Java bin and lib folders, removed those and put the originals back in - problem solved.
Next problem, water=0 for me no longer had sun and cloud reflections in the water. water=1 was unplayable. Thinking the install was screwed up, I reinstalled everything from scratch.
Didn't improve the water, but the game was faster all across the boards. Tried new drivers (DNA 4.10s) because I thought the drivers may be the cause. Nope, but now I could run water=1 at playable (25+) framerates.
So, if you install PF into FB+AEP - you should start from scratch for best performance.
Now for the game: The interface is the same with some new modifications. Instead of being a yellow hue, it's blue and has some nicer backgrounds.
The music is nice for both the Allies side and Axis side. Allies side is, dunno, but sounds good. Axis side has a Japanese-esque music track, sounds real nice.
Well the game is incomplete, they've announced it before it was released though so I knew what to expect. First patch should make it what it should have been at release, they said originally it would be out on the day of the release. Didn't happen, but they say soon. They said AEP's first patch would be out on the day of it's release, of course that took 3 weeks. And there's clearly some issues with certain plane's flight models, but it's been acknowledged and the first patch will hopefully take care of them.
The game introduces a lot of Pacific Maps, Okinawa, Midway, Pearl, Port Moresby, Kyushu, Iwo Jima, and etc... don't remember them all of the top of my head. They all look extremely nice. Of course, the majority of it is water - but the land areas are very nice... and Port Moresby area is a lot of land, with some amazing mountainous terrain. Pearl is awesome too, nice map to just setup for a dogfight server.
Offline : Same, in fact there are several problems with the dgen - but I never used the dgen because it was cow excrement. I always replaced it with Lowengrin's campaign generator, which gave a lot better missions - but will have to wait until he updates it for Pacific Fighters. AI is still dumb, but who could really expect it to be improved. AI is just always going to suck. But still, QMB is good practice and sometimes fun - the FMB now has unlimited potential (carriers in the Crimea, RN off of Normandy and the Mediterranean map).
Carriers, I don't think there's anyway you'd be prepared for this. Admittedly, it wasn't as hard as people made it out to be on the forums I read for Pacific Fighters. Wildcat is the easiest to land of the USN planes (but still, I've boltered quite a few times), Zero is the only IJN plane - but it's real easy to land, Hellcat and Corsairs - Hellcat is easier than the Corsair, but still a handful. The Corsair just bounces like it hit a sped up 7 year old on a trampoline, and if you catch a wire it can slam your nose right into the deck destroying your prop or worse, send you down into a fireball.
If you are too high, you'll bounce in any of the planes and this will usually be disastrous if you catch a wire. If you are too low, you can bounce your tail into the ground too hard and the result is usually flopping your nose into the deck if you catch a wire. In any event, bolters are real and can happen frequently so you need to gun the throttle when you touchdown just in case you need to go around again. This is in calm weather too. Storms require a smooth hand and proficiency in crosswind landings. Not to mention the carrier is rolling to the left and right at big enough angles that can break your gear.
Carrier landings can be tough, but they are fun.
Online, I didn't get to try out the 128 player server because no one was running one. I just tried some of the new online missions with people online and it was a lot of fun. The SBD can take a lot of punishment, but you'll be dead meat if two or more Zeros attack you and you're alone. Speaking of damage, carrier landings become exponentially more difficult with more damage to your plane.
The muzzle flash has been toned down a LOT during the daytime, helps a lot with planes that have nose mounted guns. This effects FB+AEP if you install PF into it.
Basically that's all there is to Pacific Fighters, its new planes, new maps, carrier operations and new weapons (napalm, tiny tims, parafrags).
It adds a lot to FB+AEP, so if you get bored with the Eastern Front, or the (limited) Western Front, you can do the Pacific Front.
-SW
