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ELF 2001 Update: Day 3 and 4 Update
By Peter "Zhukov" PawelekArticle Type: Event Report
Article Date: July 12, 2001
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ELF 2001 is ramped into high gear. Everyone has pretty much arrived, and except for a brief thunderstorm when we had to power down our rigs, we've been simming on a non-stop basis (eating and sleeping is always optional…). All of our LAN problems have been ironed out now that our ever-gracious host Mane Raptor figured out that for a trouble-free European Air War (EAW) LAN game, all the clients have to connect sequentially to the host. We have been flying some intense free-for-all and co-op missions with absolutely no lag…perhaps the best flight sim experience I've ever had. It's hard to believe that a sim that came out in 1998 can still captivate us, but nothing yet has come along to dethrone EAW as king of the WW2 flight sims.
The raising of the ELF and CSIM flags. One part Iwo Jima, one part Hiroshima...
I've been flying two planes that I've previously ignored: the Tempest V and the Mossie. Both are incredibly tough birds and have the firepower to rip through just about any opposition. The German players have been favouring the Me-410A and the FW-190D, with equally favourable results. In addition to the smooth connections, it's been an honour to fly around with so much talent in the same room. If you ever get the chance, you must try EAW in a LAN setting.
While our evenings are pretty much focussed on EAW, we spend the days tooling around with other sims. As I mentioned in my previous report, we've been checking out eSim's Steel Beasts, Rowan's Battle of Britain (BoB), and the Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis Demo. It's been difficult to get a good multiplayer Steel Beasts game going because of the steep learning curve of the sim (which is hampered by the fact that I forgot to bring the manual—DOH!), but Battle of Britain continues to capture our attention. It's clear that a lot of us underestimated the depth of this sim, and I think Rowan/Empire Interactive will be chalking up a few more sales in the near future.
Cobra and Rommel man a Stuka in Battle of Britain. Faithful to Luftwaffe doctrine, the tailgunner reads aloud the landing instructions from his handy-dandy field manual...
Today (Day 4), we've started taking a closer look at Microsoft's Combat Flight Simulator 2 (CFS2). For me, it's been a total introduction to the sim and I'm impressed with the graphics and attention to detail (especially when Gramps pointed out to me that the game pretty much accurately renders Henderson field right down to the creeks and hills). It seems a bit sparse and empty compared to EAW and BoB though, with not too many planes in the sky at one time. Whether the plusses of this sim out-balance the minuses remains to be seen. We'll be taking it up for some multiplayer action on the LAN tonight, so stay tuned for a report on that.
Saitek has provided some complementary gear for ELF 2001, and I've been playing around with their X36 Flight Control System. Installation of this USB unit was a snap, and out of the box it worked with minimal fussing about. Configuration of the X36 for EAW was a snap, which involved downloading the proper configuration file and loading it into the Saitek gaming extensions utility. With the Saitek Auto-Configure TSR running in the background, it automatically loaded in the EAW settings upon running the sim.
The unit itself comes with an FCS and throttle unit, both of which are brimming with buttons, levers, and just about every doodad imaginable. It's a bit on the bulky side, and people with smaller hands might find it a bit difficult to manipulate although I had no problems myself. One innovation that I appreciate is that the X36 rudder control is a lever system on the underside of the throttle unit. I find this to be a nice alternative to the twist-handle rudder control on a lot of sticks for those of us who don't care for rudder pedals.
Well, the trout is on the grill, Lady Z is almost finished rolling her sushi, and the daily beer run just came back, so your humble correspondent is about to sign off. On tap tonight we've got more EAW to fly (of course), along with some CFS2 and Wings Simulations's Panzer Elite (I've been wanting to give the new 1.08 patch a work-out, so we'll shortly see how it withstands some intense multiplayer action). Keep your eyes peeled for another report on the never-ending battles of ELF 2001…All Combat, All The Time!
Herr Rommel Ponders his next move; Alexandria or Lincoln Maine? The world wonders....
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