Luftwaffe Commander

Luftwaffe Commander is the third in SSI's Digital Combat Series. Luftwaffe is being developed by Eagle Interactive (Sabre Ace), and traces the evolution of the Luftwaffe from the Spanish Civil War to its destruction in WWII.

Sabre Ace was notorious for lack of viewing flexibility and a weak flight model, but this was the fault of the distributor more than the producers. With the support of SSI behind them Eagle are set to reestablish their reputation with sim fans.

Luftwaffe will feature two campaign modes, one for the hard core crowd and one for casual flyers, respectively titled the Knight's Cross and the Iron Cross. In the entry or casual mode (Iron Cross) players will be able to take off and fly and get kills with relative. But the Knight's Cross mode of play will sport a more realistic and more demanding flight models. In either mode pilots will earn a authentic decorations according to their success.

Luftwaffe Commander will include 60 unique single player missions as well as 20 unique multi player missions for up to 10 separate players. Multi player will support IPX, direct connect and TCP/IP dial up networking.

Geography will vary widely through five different theaters, from Spain and the Battle of Britain, to the War in Eastern Europe and the Luftwaffe's defeat in Germany. Each theatre will feature over 50,000 square miles of terrain.

Luftwaffe Commander will be a unique entry to the scene this winter in that players will enter the war in biplanes and then graduate to single engine aircraft after the Spanish war. Flyable aircraft will include the Me-109, the He-72 trainer and the Me-262 jet. A total of 58 Allied and Axis aircraft are portrayed and ten can be player controlled.

Nations--Fighter Command (Psygnosis)

Nations: Fighter Command is Psygnosis first foray into the WWII prop genre for serious simulation fans. The title itself stands out, and the choice was made because the player may select one of three nations from which to fight the war: Germany, England, or the USA.

As befits a serious simulation, flight characteristics are individually modeled for each of the 12 flyable aircraft. Choose to fly as a German and you may fly the Me-163, Me-262 or FW-190. American pilots have the P-38, P-47 or the P-51. British aircraft include the Typhoon, Hurricane or Spitfire.

One of the impressive features of most of the new entries in this genre is a very atmospheric interface, dressed up by vintage film clips. Nations is no different, and footage from period newsreels will have you feeling nostalgic and contribute to that sense of being there. Clips are also used as news items to reflect your progress in the war.

As an object oriented design damage modeling, including the graphical modeling of damage, is a high priority and you will see bullet holes, torn wings, broken tails, etc. I was watching a sudden throttle cut out on a 109 in the alpha and saw the puff of smoke from the exhaust port on the left front side of the aircraft as the sudden rich mixture went only partially burned. In Nations, as in FD 2.0, FSSD and Fighter Legends you will see spent shell casings falling to earth as you fire your guns. Detail to the max!

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Nations: Click for 640x480.

Nations may have set the highest goals for environment detail this year, though its hard to assess this from the alpha. But for maximum enjoyment a PII 300 or higher with AGP is recommended. Psygnosis is aiming to even model crowds on the ground where appropriate, who will scatter when you dive low to strage them or when a shot up aircraft falls out of control. Likewise cloud layers and weather effects will be fully modeled, including turbulence.

The aircraft themselves are very pleasing to the eye, with accurate paint schemes and markings. I watched the demonstrator advance the time of day from an outside view of the Spit, and the sunset was beautifully modeled.

Campaign missions will be based on historical records, with fifteen missions per nation. 10 instant-action missions, and 3 separate multiplayer missions are also planned, and a detailed custom mission creator should add even more life to the sim.

RBII 3d. Click for larger image.

Red Baron II 3d

I had a chance to interact with Phil Cowles of Dynamix at the end of a long day at E3. I noticed him at a machine at the far end of the room, scarf tossed carelessly around his neck, flight goggles black and oily, staring into space across a Lewis gun...

RBII 3d is looking as good as I hoped. There really is a revolution under way, and like so many simulation designers out there, Dynamix is putting a huge effort into meeting the expectations of sim fans around the world. In fact, Phil informed me that they will offer this upgrade FREE! That's significant, because there are a large number of people putting their time into this project, and a large number of features will be added, at least graphically.

For one, there will be not one, and not two, types of clouds, but THREE and they aim to do em right! Trees also abound, and they look VERY good. The aircraft, light source shading, etc. is all in place and looking good. Frame rate also seemed great, and of course under Voodoo2 should be excellent and V2 may actually have specific support with extra texture detail. The initial release will run under Glide only, but discussions are ongoing for D3d and OpenGL support. If you are running Voodoo2 you will be able to run under Glide at 800x600!

RBII 3d Effects. Click for larger image.

The upgrade "Superpatch" includes all previous patches and will include a new client-server multiplayer feature for Red Baron, capable of supporting a large number of simultaneous players. Initial testing indicates that this number may be as many as 100 players through the World Opponent Network (WON), but Dynamix won't commit to a specific count until the game has seen Wide Beta Testing, which is expected to begin in late July.

Players who purchase the new RB2-3d package will be receive a substantial (if not entire) refund on the purchase price of the new retail package simply by mailing in their original receipt and CD. Finally, there should be a full demo available in early July. For our original review go to Red Baron II.