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The Game's The Thing!
All this whiz-bang hardware is pretty worthless without a decent combat simulation to run on it. Who wants to do spreadsheets for goodness sakes? It looks like it is going to be the year of World War II simulations. Rowan/Empire's Battle of Britain, Maddox Games' IL-2 Sturmovik, Microprose's Combat Flight Simulator 2, and Wayward/Hasbro's B-17 II, The Mighty Eighth are all I could find new on the horizon. SSI is coming out with Flanker 2.5, hopefully to be followed by Flanker 3.0. SSI will continue to support their existing customers by providing an upgrade path for owners of Flanker 2.0 to move to Flanker 2.5. If Flanker 3.0 makes it into the light, then it will be sold as the next generation in this long successful tradition of flight sims.
There is still hope for SSI's Destroyer Command (in cooperation with Ultimation) and Silent Hunter. There is less hope for Digital Integration's Add-on pack for Superhornet that seems to switch between alive and canceled on a daily basis.
A quick review of the new titles in the pipeline January of this year and their current status tells a chilling story.
TITLE PUB / DEV RELEASE DATE STATUS B17 Flying Fortress II Microprose/Wayward Design Q3, 2000 On schedule Battle of Britain Rowan/Empire Q4, 2000 On schedule Comanche IV Novalogic Unknown On schedule Comanche-Hokum Razorworks June, 2000 Patched and supported Destroyer Command SSI Q4, 2000 On schedule EF2000 v.3/Typhoon Digital Image Design Q4, 2000 On schedule F/A 18E Super Hornet Digital Integration OUT No patch, add-on pack questionable F/A 18E Jane's Combat Simulations OUT Patched and supported ATTACK SQUADRON Jane's Combat Simulations Q4, 2000 On schedule Gunship! Microprose OUT No patch IL-2 Sturmovik Maddox Games Q3, 2000 On schedule JSF Novalogic Unknown Unknown Ka52 Team Alligator SIMIS/GT Interactive OUT No patch Maximum Overkill Novalogic Unknown Unknown M1TP 3/ Tank Platoon Microprose Q3, 2000 Canceled Panzer Elite II Wings Simulations Q4, 2000 Unknown Rhino: Southeast Asia R.S.S. Q3, 2000 Unknown Silent Hunter II SSI Q4, 2000 Delayed Tornado II Digital Integration Q4, 2000 Canceled Wolfpack II Novalogic Unknown Unknown Babylon V Sierra Unknown Canceled Ground Control Sierra June, 2000 Harpoon 4 SSI/Mindscape Q3, 2000 On schedule SO3: Navy Seals Zombie Studios Q1, 2001 Star Trek: New Worlds Interplay Q3, 2000 On schedule Sudden Strike CDV Software Q3, 2000 Flanker Attack/A-10 SSI/Mindscape Q4, 2000 On schedule Tachyon Novalogic OUT Team Fortress II Sierra Unknown Unknown We need to ask ourselves why is there so much red on the chart? This leads me to voice an opinion on the future of combat simulations.
