Incredible as it may seem, the concept of the centrality of air superiority is not a recent invention! Luftwaffe leaders acknowledged the need to gain air superiority even in their prewar writings. The first Luftwaffe chief of the general staff, Gen Walther Wever, listed the need "to combat the enemy air force" among the Luftwaffe's priority tasks. Prior to the Polish campaign, Gen Hans Jeschonnek, a later chief of staff, wrote that:

"the most proper and essential task is the battle against the enemy air force, and it must be executed vigorously and at all costs. The second task, the support of the army, in the first days of the war cannot claim the same level of importance.... What may be achieved in the first two days by using one's own air force against an opposing army does not compare with the damage an enemy air force may inflict if it remains battleworthy."

So, whats coming up? Aces Over the Pacific II, Aces: X Fighters, Combat Flight Simulator, Confirmed Kill, EAW, Janes Fighter Legends, Fighter Duel 2.0, Fighter Squadron: Screaming Demons, Flight Combat, Luftwaffe, MiG Alley, Nations, Stormbird, Warbirds 3d (now released), and Wings of Destiny.

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Denny Atkin noted recently that Aces: X Fighters has been delayed due to the dedication of resources at Sierra/Dynamix to completing the Red Baron II 3d patch. However, the team is also working on Aces of the Pacific II, and Aces X Fighters will now be released AFTER AOTP2. We don't have any more information at all on the Aces series at the moment, but should have plenty following E3.

Next on the list is Microsoft's Combat Flight Simulator. Its intriguing that both Looking Glass Studios and Microsoft are making the venture into the combat simulation arena, though Flight Combat only began development late in 1997 and won't be released until sometime in 1999. (I assume that the goal for both Confirmed Kill, Eidos online simulation, and Flight Combat will be online play, although the latter is being developed as a boxed product from the start where Confirmed Kill was developed primarily as an online product).

Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator

MS Combat Flight Simulator shares code with FS98 but with an improved terrain system. The unknown factor is the offensive and defensive virtual pilot AI. This is a new area for Microsoft, but they do bring a wealth of programming power to the sim genre! CFS will be set in Europe and expandability is a primary goal so new aircraft will continue to be added after the initial release.

The Producer indicates that goals are high for flight modelling and avionics, and the intent is to appeal to the dedicated sim crowd as well as newbies. Individual aircraft tendencies will be modelled and naturally there will be 3d hardware support. Messerschmmitts, Spits, Mustangs.. all should be present in the initial release. CFS is aimed at the weekend flier but will probably capture the attention of a very broad audience due to the Microsoft name. Some weeks back we fielded an interview to the Producer of CFS and that interview will appear online in the next week or so.

Confirmed Kill, like EAW from Microprose, has been a while in the making. If Falcon 4 and EAW are any indication, the longer in the oven the better the loaf! In fact Confirmed Kill is only now going into beta, but the good news is that the remainder of the Flying Nightmares II team has transferred to this project and Confirmed Kill will likely benefit with a stronger tactical dimension and even more solid multiplayer support.

Confirmed Kill will enter the market as an online simulation only, but a boxed version will follow later this fall. With a great deal of effort going into flight modelling, Confirmed Kill will take to the skies with twenty individual airframes and nine more will be added over time. The first scenario will be the Battle of Midway, and offline training missions will also be present.

European Air War (EAW) is one of two prop simulations slated for release in the next few months that will feature a fully dynamic campaign system. In fact, this is probably one of the most awaited sim releases this year, up there with Falcon 4, Fighter Squadron, FD 2.0 and Total Air War. If new screen shots are any indication, its no wonder!

There have a been a variety of delays with EAW, but "waiting makes the heart grow fonder" and the sim more deep. Improvements in graphics, flight modelling, and the campaign engine have come with time, and the addition of new personnel hasn't hurt either!

EAW has twenty airframes but there are variants of some of these so the collection is broader than it first appears. For those who have wondered when we will FINALLY see this one, it looks like sooner rather than later and JUNE could be it! If some of the talent from F4s multiplayer programmers has found its way into EAW we could be in for quite a treat!

Janes Fighter Legends is the mystery ingredient in this recipe. Almost no details have been released except that we will find out a whole lot more in Atlanta! But there is no question that Janes face STIFF competition this year. Most likely JFL will be a survey product comparable to the USNF/ATF series, with less invested in physics and flight modelling than some of these other products. NO matter how good it is it won't surpass the best this year has to offer, though it may equal them.

Contrast the secrecy of Janes with the volume of preview material we have carried on Fighter Duel 2.0 developed by SPGS and distributed by Ocean/Infogrames. Its easy to anticipate a title like this because we've been loaded with detailed information on development along the way.

Fighter Duel 2.0 will carry on the best of FD original and surpass it in every dimension. With particle physics modelling, an object oriented design, sophisticated ballistics and obsessive flight modelling, this is a sim to watch for! Remember the INCREDIBLE instrument panel in FD1? The panel in two looks just as good, but now it also functions in virtual cockpit mode!

Equally impressive, a great deal of care is going into virtual pilot modelling and AI behavior. With the addition of wingman tactics, SPGS designers have had to write much more complex code in this area. Flying even the alpha in Las Vegas in March it was obvious that FD 2.0 would be a lot of fun, and graphics are also state of the art. Good news for those with the latest hardware, full Voodoo 2 and Voodoo 1 support will be present. You're running dual processors under NT? That too is supported!

As Fighter Duel original, multiplayer has been designed from the ground up. Multiplayer action is the heart and soul of this game so it will likely be every bit as stable and powerful as in the famous Netduel version.

While Fighter Duel 2.0 does not sport a fully dynamic campaign, the AI is quite sophisticated, including a strategic level of response AND resource management. If you destroy your primaries and secondaries the enemy have less ability to field good pilots and/or aircraft. Matt Shaw commented that, "We have levels. As you progress through the campaign, in each level, there are four to six missions. Depending on factors of randomness and success or failure will determine which missions you get when you advance to the next level.

For example, if you do very poorly in an offensive mission your next mission might be defensive. If you do well there your rating will improve and your crews overall ability will increase. Part of this is random also."

Click for 800x600 victory salute...

UNBELIEVABLE... That was the only thought I had when I fired up the Fighter Squadron beta for the first time. If the graphics don't cause your jaw to fall through your desk, the physics, sound and damage modelling will.. The strobe effect on props (feather and watch the apparent reversal of direction), attention to detail in damage modelling (crash lightly and bend your prop or your gear, crash hard and watch a prop break or pieces of your airframe go flying, wheels break off and go rolling or bouncing away), the flames and smoke that erupt as you score more hits on your adversary (watch the flames spread rearward as they are fanned in the wind). If thats not enough, cast your eyes over your wing and watch your wing flex and your flaps shake in the turbulence, watch from an outside view and see your gear compress when you land.

The sounds ARE awesome, from starting to idle to full throttle. Drop to an idle and the aircraft starts to shake. Ignition off and it revs as it leans out then dies. If you have a subwoofer the roar of the engines WILL be transmitted to your body via vibration. As for combat, the padlock is fairly standard, with scrolling or fixed views as you choose.

Fighter Squadron: Click for 800x600 FW-109

I changed resolution to 800x600. Just for fun I put my gear down on the P38 and watched it unfold from the external view. Slow.. very realistic. Then I came in over the beach.. incidentally, the most realistic transition graphics from sand and salt to land and water I have seen anywhere. I came down gently on the sand, slowed, and started to sink! But then I rolled out to the hard ground. Unfortunately once my momentum was gone I was on a slope and I rolled backward and sank in the sand! FSSD will have semi-dynamic campaigns and also allow us to FLY bombers! Nuff for now, more in part 2!