REVIEWS

Mad Max Puts CFS3 To The Real World Flight Test

By Mad Max Merlin (17 October 2002)


The new interface for CFS3 is not only gorgeous, but easy and intuitive to use. Microsoft designers kept nearly all the keyboard controls the same as in CFS2.
I'm sure you all read the previews of the CFS3 beta that appeared at various flight sim websites. Frankly, when I read the early previews of the CFS3 beta, I was skeptical. As a rule I never review betas. And this is one time I'm especially glad I didn't. The final gold version of Microsoft Flight Simulator 3, Battle For Europe that will hit the store shelves in a few days is, in a word, magnificent. It is light years ahead of the beta you've been reading about up until now.

There is so much packed into CFS3 that I would not do it justice to try and cover everything in a single article. So, this will be the first in a series that examines all the key features in detail.

How do I know that the real thing is better than the beta? Well, as the combat flight simulator editor for FlightSim.Com, I was honored by Microsoft with a unique preview of the finished commercial release version of CFS3. This was not an unfinished beta software preview. It was the real deal.

In order to prove that CFS3 truly is, "as real as it gets," Microsoft flew me, along with just eight other journalists to Reno for the Gold release sneak peek. We were brought out to the middle of the desert to Reno-Stead airfield for a unique demonstration of just how real CFS3 "really" is.


The detail of each aircraft is rivaled by the realistic atmospheric effects of the scenery.

The CFS3 Top Gun Fly-off

Stead Field was a former P-51 airfield during World War II. It's a perfect spot to demo The Battle for Europe edition of CFS3. We spent the day with CFS3 developers including Rob Brown, lead game designer for CFS3, and his trusty sidekick Mike Ammerlaan. Darryl Saunders, the Simulators Product Manager from Microsoft Game Studios, was also on hand. And so were Kevin Kegin and Russ Loggins, pilots from North American Top Gun. First, the Microsoft team turned us loose with CFS3 on two banks of Dell PCs. Then, they handed us off to Kevin and Russ to actually fly an AT-6 Texan SNJ to prove that art accurately imitates reality in CFS3.

Cubans And Immelmans And Loops, Oh My!

"I like to use the 5-step KISS method when explaining how to bail out of the aircraft," explained Russ Loggins as he prepped me for my aerobatic ride in the SNJ. In the real world, you screw up and you're dead for real. No respawn. This was the real deal so I definitely listened up. "Step one, remove the headset. Step two, pull the canopy latch and shove the canopy back. Step three, release the seat harness, Step four, stand in the seat,

Even going down in flames, this Spit is a visual masterpiece.
get out of the plane any way you can and dive down toward the right trailing wing edge. That way you probably wont get smacked by the tail as the plane goes down. Oh, yeah, don't forget Step five, pull the ripcord on your left harness after you clear the plane."

OK, I know my left from my right so I'm good to go.

It was a gorgeous afternoon over the Nevada desert. No clouds, light winds. Perfect flying weather. The SNJ lifted off after an amazingly short takeoff roll. "OK raise the gear now," squawked, Kevin from the rear seat. So, I raised the landing gear and we were heading for angels 10 to start our aerobatics.

After a brief introduction to flying the SNJ, Kevin came on the intercom, "OK, she's all yours. I'm just sitting back here eating peanuts."

When I took control of the aircraft I was amazed at how close CFS3 actually comes to simulating the small increments necessary to properly control the flight of a warbird. The SNJ practically flew itself. And this, Kevin warned, is a sure way to get killed when flying in the real world. "Fly the plane, don't let it fly itself," he warned.


You'll get to fly all the late war jets including Britain's Vampires.
I maintained a steady climb at 90 mph on our way to 10,000 feet. The canopy was open, the sky was crystal clear and life was good as I leisurely turned the SNJ first toward Donner Lake to the east, and then back around toward Pyramid Lake in the west. I was in heaven.

"OK, let's get to the aerobatics," Kevin squawked. After a quick refresher in elevator trim and stall procedures, reminding me that the SNJ's stall speed was 65 mph, Kevin ran through a couple of barrel rolls and a loop. "Now, it's your turn to loop. Just nose over like you're shooting a bandit," Kevin advised.

I could have sworn I saw a Zeke down on the deck as I pushed over and quickly accelerated downward through 180 mph. Pulling back on the stick to start the loop, I immediately felt the main difference between the real world and CFS3. In an instant, I went from 1 to 2.5 Gs. It's a weird feeling to suddenly go from 200 pounds to 500 pounds of body weight in a split second. Then go from 500 pounds to nearly weightless as we rounded the top of the loop and slowed to around 35 mph. I pulled the SNJ smoothly through the loop back to level flight. That was about the most fun I've ever had with my clothes on! So, I looped it again.


The detail of ground objects is accurate down to the markings on the trains.
We completed the aerobatics with a couple of Immelmans, a few Clovers plus some Cubans just to cover most of the ACM maneuvers that you might use in CFS3.

Back on the ground, I realized we had attracted an audience. It turns out that I flew the most aggressive aerobatics of all the journalists that day. Only one poor soul decided that aerobatics was too much for him to handle and opted out. Everyone else settled for a barrel roll and a loop. I was just having fun!

Check Six! CFS3 Truly Is "As Real As It Gets!"

It was a tough call to choose which experience was more exciting: flying aerobatics in the SNJ or flying CFS3 simulated missions. In all honesty, CFS3 had everything the actual experience had except for the G-forces and the barf bag. That, and the fact that I found the SNJ's flight controls were more sensitive to small incremental movements than CFS3, but not by very much. Once I calibrated my Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback flight stick and turned off the force feedback effects, the sims handled more like the real thing than I have ever experienced with any flight simulator,

The new cockpit views give you smooth panning in 360-degrees. Stick and rudder pedals are fully animated and all the gauges and switches work, too.
anywhere. The same flying techniques I used in the real world (small incremental stick and rudder movements, proper elevator trim plus smooth coordination of ailerons and rudder accompanied with proper energy management) worked exactly the same way in CFS3. Once I stopped trying to horse the sim warbirds around and got back to real stick-and-rudder handling, my kill counts soared.

Flying In CFS3

Rob, Mike, Darryl and the rest of the CFS3 design team have done an absolutely magnificent job of creating true situational awareness of being in the cockpit of a warbird during 1943. The sounds, sights out the canopy, plus the new smooth scrolling 3D cockpit view puts you smack in the middle of the action with convincing realism. Their attention to the smallest details completes the rich symphony of sights and sounds.

Turn off the printed messages, crank up the realism to 100% and you'll have a tough time distinguishing the sim from the real thing.


The new cockpit views give you smooth panning in 360-degrees. Stick and rudder pedals are fully animated and all the gauges and switches work, too.
The sound models are a feast for your ears. Microsoft went above and beyond to record actual aircraft sounds wherever they could find living warbirds. The ME-262 is a special treat.

The sim fighters creaked and groaned as I overstressed them to the inside edge of a stall, the same way the SNJ creaked and groaned through the loops.

Another exciting new feature that adds extra realism is the ability to adjust G-tolerance for your pilot character. Gone are the days of the instant black screen blackout from CFS1 and 2. Now, you gray-out and your vision constricts as you push the G-envelope just like the real thing.

Flying over Europe. The scenery is rich with buildings, trees, even dynamically generated columns of trucks, tanks, trains, ships and soldiers all battling on the ground around you. Every mission has new surprises every time you fly it.

The details of the clouds ground structures and landscape are breathtakingly real. In multiplayer action against the Microsoft team, I often found myself nosing over and escaping through the trees to shake off a bandit on my six. A couple of times I skimmed so close to the trees I could swear I smelled the pine sap. Or, maybe it was my adrenaline pumping. Hard to tell.


Season change and so does the scenery in CFS3.

New Technology Spawns 34 Gorgeous New Aircraft

Microsoft threw away the book and built a completely new graphics engine using Gmax for CFS3. They completed the package by delivering 34 highly detailed US, British and German aircraft. I'll cover the planes in detail in future articles. The two most important factors are how they look and how well they fly.

Just one glance at these screen shots and you know they look magnificent. Each plane arrives with the most detail ever reproduced in a flightsim, far greater than the best FS2002 has ever done.

New for CFS3 is the ability to instantly customize your plane with nose art and tail markings. We now have a new palette and simple tools for squadrons to customize their aircraft.

The panels are very clean and are reasonably realistic with full working gauges and switches plus moving yoke and rudder peddles. I'm certain the freeware designers will have a ball creating highly detailed realistic panels for CFS3 aircraft. Meanwhile, the planes that come on the CDs are

Among the 34 completely new aircraft you'll find several deadly Mosquitoes.
well equipped with panels, weapons loadouts, glass canopy effects, smoke, exhaust flame and contrail effects plus much more.

How Real Do They Fly? The Numbers Don't Lie

The way the planes fly is the real magic of CFS3. Microsoft's flight models for CFS3 are unquestionably are the most accurate ever created. A combination of science and art, the design team started with mathematical aerodynamic flight models created by the team's full-time aeronautical engineer. And the numbers don't lie. What's more, the team brought in the actual pilots who flew the planes to add those subtle nuances that you only know about when you've actually been there, in the cockpit, in the air. And, to complete the realism, the team went out into the field to capture the real world look, feel and sound of the actual warbirds themselves.

After test flying them all, I'll give you detailed comments in future articles. For now, suffice to say that there are many wonderful surprises in CFS3. First of all, you'll get to fly jets. Not only those that were operational during the war such as the P-80 Shooting Star and the ME-262, but the secret super-planes including the GO-229 Nazi stealth fighter

You'll get to fly the most accurate simulation of the dreaded Nazi super fighter the GO-229.
bomber and the American P-55 Ascender. The Ascender proved to be an incredible little turn fighter while the powerful P-80 is a screaming boomer-zoomer.

The GO-229's stealth wing flight characteristics are something that you'll just have to experience for yourself. All I can say is that I'm sure glad the strategic bombing campaign destroyed Germany's ability to build more of these super-planes. If it hadn't, I'd probably be writing this in German right now.

One of the pleasant surprises for you fighter jocks is the Spitfire. Microsoft finally got it right with this scrappy dogfighter. I jinked my Spit through withering fire from formations of JU-88s, peppered several bombers in one pass and still had enough energy to take on the FW-190s who jumped in from above. It was a glorious battle and the CFS3 Spitfire handled beautifully, precisely as you'll see in actual combat footage.

Multiple Bomber Stations Bring The Battle Home To Every Crewmember


The new graphics engine renders awesome effects.
The bombers are where the most intense action is. In CFS3, you now can switch from the flight deck to every other fighting position on the aircraft. Every gun position is fully aimable and handles just like the real thing. Jump to the top turret on your B-25, bandits inbound at 11 o-clock. Jump to the tail gunner position because you also have two ME-109s hard on your six. Right waist reports three FW-190s coming out of the sun. Better get on them. While you're fighting off the enemy assault, the program's artificial intelligence takes over control of the flight deck to keep your bomber on course to the target. The sounds of battle include all the subtle nuances such as the tinkle of hot brass shell casings hitting the deck. The action is so intense you can almost smell the cordite.

A Few Undocumented Secrets Revealed

One of the more impressive features is the new way CFS3 implements the virtual flight control screen. Similar to FS2000 and FS2002, when you remove the cockpit and switch to Full View, you can see up to five transparent flight gauges on your screen plus the gunsight. In CFS3, you can now configure any gauges you choose, or remove them all for a completely unobstructed view.


In CFS3 the clouds have realistic density and volume.
The design team put in a few undocumented conveniences that I unearthed during the demo. These include:

Dynamic Mission Generator Creates Much More Than Meets The Eye

I'll cover the missions and campaigns in complete detail in future articles. What impressed me most during this preview is how the dynamic mission generator accurately replicates the ebb and flow of battle. While previous missions in CFS1 and 2 were predictably scripted, CFS3's missions are completely dynamic. Every time you fly them, you're faced with new surprises both in the air, and on the ground. Light flak on one mission turns to flak so thick you could walk on it the next go around. A milk run on one sortie could be a suicide mission the time out when you get jumped by bandits from several directions. Like Forrest Gump said, "you just never know what you're gonna get."


Man your battle stations at every fighting position on the bombers.
On one ME-262 mission, I was scrambling to intercept a flight of four B-26s with light fighter cover. I managed to launch and rip into those bombers with air-to-air rockets and cannon fire sending several to their flaming doom. Next go around, same mission, the base was being attacked by an American armored column as we scrambled to intercept a bomber armada with heavy fighter cover. I got bounced by a pair of Mustangs during my take-off roll and never made it off the ground. As I was exploding in flames, I saw the American Sherman tanks had started firing on the base hangars and the rest of my flight of 262s as they were fighting to get airborne. Now THAT was intense!

Plenty Of Multiplayer Surprises, Too!

I have to admit, there is one group of CFS2 users who will absolutely hate CFS3: the cheaters. The Microsoft design team has gone above and beyond the call of duty to make cheating virtually impossible. So, throw away all your anti-cheat ware. You won't need it with CFS3. My best advice to the cheaters is, find another game boys and girls because your number is up in CFS3.


Man your battle stations at every fighting position on the bombers.
For the rest of us, you're going to go nuts over the cooperative missions and ground attack features. What's more, the dynamic scenery now becomes part of the action, just like it is in the real world. The clouds have excellent volume and opacity. You can actually escape into a could bank or hide there and jump your unsuspecting targets. Ground terrain and building detail is accurate and you can actually fly through tree-lined valleys hunting targets or in a frantic escape from pursuing bandits. Dive down that road through the forest to rocket an advancing column of tanks and trucks. But watch out for the power line and triple-A batteries hidden in the trees. The seasons change the terrain and lighting.

Another very nice feature is that aircraft and terrain objects look right as you approach or fly away from them. They grow larger and smaller in correct proportions instead of just popping up suddenly in your face as so often happens in CFS2. And, best of all, the air-to-air envelope is accurate. Near misses are just that, near misses, instead of distant collisions.

What's It Take To Run All This?

The good news is that CFS3 puts most of its workload on your video card, not your PC. So, before you rush out and upgrade to a mega-horsepower new PC, you might just save some serious bucks and simply upgrade your video card and add some RAM on an older system. Both accessories are very inexpensive right now.

The PC I tested the release version of CFS3 on was a pretty high-powered rig:

I put the game through some brutal paces and everything ran smooth as a baby's behind without so much as a stutter. Do you need that much horsepower to run CFS3? Absolutely not. You can dial down some of the graphic features and run on a much slower system. Microsoft says the minimum requirements are a Pentium 3, 400 MHz with a 32 MB video card. I would peg it a bit higher and recommend a Pentium 3, 700 MHz, 256 MB RAM with an nVidia GeForce2 64 MB video card. I'm going to be running tests with a lower powered PC and a high powered video card and will report on the results in future articles.

In multiplayer mode, CFS3 makes heavy use of efficient server-client technology. The game host should be using a fast PC, high powered video card and DSL or cable modem broadband Internet connection. Players joining a mission using 56K dial-up Internet access won't be disappointed. CFS3 maximizes the 56K bandwidth so you'll get excellent game performance. Just don't try to host using a 56K dial-up Internet connection. And above all else, don't use voice-over-IP (VOIP) audio communications such as Microsoft Game Voice or Roger Wilco, if you're flying CFS3 with a 56K dial-up connection.

Lots Of Goodies For Designers, Too

Aircraft, mission, panel and scenery designers are going to love creating their works of art for CFS3. First off, the design tools are powerful, easy-to-use, and FREE! You can download Gmax plus Microsoft will have a software design kit available. CFS3 also makes extensive use of XML technology which greatly simplifies development.

Amazing Sim, Extraordinary Entertainment Value

October 24th marked an earth-shaking event in the world of flight simulation. That's the day Microsoft released Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 3. No hype, combat sim fans, just the simple truth: CFS3 is the ultimate breakthrough in flightsim realism, detail and performance. It ushers in a brave new world of excitement for combat and civilian sim aviators alike. CFS3 also heralds the new dynamic graphics and flight model technology that will be foundation for the next version of Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Despite all the magnificent simulation technology and realism, one of the most exciting things about CFS3 is the price. You get all this entertainment value for $50. That's right, the suggested list price is only $49.99.

If you want to be the first to grab a copy of CFS3, you can save $5 and get free shipping at Amazon when you use this URL:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00006IIVJ/flightsimcom

Nothing else even comes close to CFS3 for over-the-top entertainment value. The worst I can say is, once you get your hands on it, there will be a lot of CFS3 widows and widowers out there. "Don't bother me now darlin', I'm saving Europe!"

Other CFS3 Review Parts

Combat Flight Simulator 3 - The Luftwaffe

Combat Flight Simulator 3 Campaigns

Combat Flight Simulator 3 Mosquito

Combat Flight Simulator 3 Spitfire

Combat Flight Simulator 3 Powerhouse

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