Mustang vs Fw 190

By Phil Colvin (28 August 2002)

f you like Combat Flight Simulator 2 and you'd love to get a European Theater add-on package, then Just Flight/Flight One Software's Mustang vs Fw 190 was made for you. The added missions and campaigns are quite good, the scenery stacks up to default CFS2 scenery and the airplanes are superb. You can also fly them in FS2002.

You get the impression right away you've purchased a quality product; the packaging is very nice. There's a good sized manual included and a jewel case in a custom fitted niche. Installation in CFS2 and FS2002 on my system took less than 30 seconds each - after I waited through a five minute, twenty nine second video each time about Flight One products. This video was exceptionally well made, quite impressive, and very irritating. Gentlemen, maybe I'm an exception (I fast forward my rented videos 15 minutes before I bother hitting "play" and I deliberately show up 20 minutes late at theaters), but when I buy a new product I want to be playing with it ASAP. I'd have watched your video later. The fact that you gave me no choice, either in the installation wizard or the manual, did nothing to endear you to me.

The two flyable planes included in the package are the same P-51 and FW190 as in the earlier package "Double Trouble" from Roger Dial et. al., and they are absolutely excellent. And although only one version of each plane comes with the package, you can easily download many others to use with the included "text-o-matic" installation program.

These are just beautiful airplanes. If you admire the sleek curves of the Mustang and the deadly grace of the "Butcher Bird" then you'll want to spend a lot of time in the spot view. The level of detail is very high and the accuracy of the visual models is dead-bang on target. In my opinion they also fly a little better then the default CFS2 planes. Bombs, rockets, drop-tanks etc. are all available too just as with default aircraft. And the virtual cockpits are equal to any of the default aircraft's.

To access all of the add-on's features you need to enter CFS2 via the Mustang vs. FW190 desktop icon. There's supposed to be a "Flight One" selection off the Start menu as well, but it didn't appear. You're given a British airfield, Bodney, and a German airbase, Abbeville, from which to begin your missions and campaigns. These have slightly better detail than the CFS2 default airfields, and of course, you're also given European scenery to fly over. This is terrribly generic, but at least doesn't look like the Pacific. A package called "combat clouds" is also included, but I didn't care for them, finding them mostly a distraction.

You can choose "free flight" or "quick combat" just as in regular CFS2 play, and you can also choose single missions and campaigns as either an American or German pilot. These are very well written and there's plenty going on to keep you on your toes! I particularly enjoyed the bomber escort and enemy airfield attack missions. Lots of bombers and fighters in the air, lots of enemy planes on the ground, some of them taking off to meet you. These do have a downside, though. On my 15-month old P3 Alienware system these missions gave me slower and more badly stuttered gameplay (once the action got hot and heavy) than any other Microsoft flying game ever, and I've got 'em all. I ended up playing European Air War for awhile afterwards just to ease my frustration! Of course, there are a lot of far more powerful systems than mine out now, so you may have no such problem, but I won't be trying those missions again with my current system. In the "quick combat" mode, though, I had no such problems and there's still some fun to be had there.

Both airplanes fly well in FS2002. This is of course the Mustang that Roger Dial et. al. based their superb Reno Mustang Package on, and, like the FW190, it has the added advantage of a virtual cockpit. However, it doesn't support reflective textures like the Reno bird, nor is it a 3600 horsepower speed demon like its Reno offspring, so except for the the not inconsiderable virtue of the virtual cockpit, the Reno Mustang both looks and performs better. The FW190, however, is by far the most gorgeous version of this plane I've seen even in FS2002.

Some bugs: 1.) The "text-o-matic" feature does work, but not the way the manual says, and it doesn't appear where it's supposed to either. Find the Flight One Software subfolder in your CFS2 or FS2002 folder, then manually drag the appropriate bitmap into the "templates" folder inside, then hit the application icon and it's pretty easy to figure out from there. 2.) When you fly a mission you need to start your engine awfully fast to keep from getting rear-ended by the other fighters, and no matter what you do you can't take off as quickly as they can. In fact you can barely get into the air at all and building airspeed takes forever. Fortunately there's a button you can hit to get to the "action" part of the mission and once there you can fly normally. 3.) the "uninstall" procedure doesn't work as stated in the manual, so you've got to figure it out for yourself. 4.) No "Flight One" or "text-o-matic" selection appears on the Start Menu.

To summarize: Although needing some minor fixes, Mustang vs. FW190 is an excellent and comprehensive product, and the airplanes are as good as they get. If you're a die hard CFS2 fan, you really shouldn't be without it.