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European Air War from Microprose greets you with
classic war footage, great music, and the ability to jump into a
quick mission or campaign game. Missions and campaigns are activated
by joining a squadron. There are many squadrons available, each
flying different aircraft (20 models of aircraft available).
Missions are dynamic and not scripted (but feature generic
voice-overs for mission briefings). As for campaigns, there are three
choices: Battle Britain 1940, European Theater 1943 and European
Theater 1944.Once up in the air, the game throws out some great pictures. There have been great improvement in game technology lately, which can help you get a feel for what an incoming German bombing raid, or an outgoing Allied raid felt like! Hundreds of aircraft, AAA, fighters, bombers, all rendered for your 3D pleasure! The game excels in recreating the "feel" of the air war.
The realism of the aircraft can be adjusted to suit the player's requirements. You may find that you need to disable options like the propeller graphic because it is too processor intensive (hurts the frame rate), and it's just plain distracting! On the easy settings, the game is more arcade-like, but with the realistic flight model, blackout/redout enabled, engine overheats, and structural limits enabled, your flight can be sufficiently realistic.
In my case, I really enjoyed the arcade-like modes. Ironically, I
played with targeting reticles and target identification turned on.
(Obviously, none of these high-end features were implemented in World
War II vintage aircraft.) Turning off the target reticles makes the
game much more realistic (and harder). I thank Microprose for the
flexibility.
Finally, European Air War supports a wide variety of rudders, controllers, and throttles. Force feedback is supported. I tried a non-conventional controller, the Gravis Exterminator, and EAW supported most of its features. Not bad!
On a Pentium II 266 with a Matrox MGA-200 3D card, the game was smooth. The game should run well on any machine, but I strongly recommend a 3D card.
EAW doesn't try to crush the latest technological barriers (despite supporting DirectX, 3D cards, and force-feedback). This works out well for our gaming which doesn't have to suffer through endless patches. As of this review, no major patches have been released. The game works out of the box! In today's market, this is a definite "plus."
Minimum requirements:
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I Recommended: