B-17 Flying Fortress

List Price: $29.95 Discount Price: $14.79

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PC Gamer (1-year)

Customer Reviews:

just okay [Posted on 2003-02-09]
I have most of the major flight sims and now I have this and have only worked with it a bit but I find it a little too overcomplicated, it's taxing even for someone who is a flight simmer and is already flight tested and combat tested.
The graphics are good but first there was the necessity to download a patch which at 25mb is the largest game patch I've ever seen, the list of fixes is enough to make you question why they released it in that form anyway.

Although the amount of interactivity is less with the bombers in Janes Attack Squadron so is the level of overhead.

If you are really a B17 nut though and you want total realistic immersion in that plane then you'll like the sim.

Very realistic [Posted on 2003-02-19]
This game is probably the most realistic flight sim I've ever played. It looks like every switch, dial, and control that was on the real B-17 is accurately reproduced in this game, and all of them are fully functional with the click of a mouse button. Once you've played this game, you will know the real pre-flight procedure in a real B-17, you will know how to feather an engine in a real B-17, and you will know how to operate a Norden bombsight. Because of this, though, the learning curve is very steep. Don't expect to be flying your first mission for a while.

The graphics are pretty darn good, even though the game is 2 years old now. Personally I think the system requirements are vastly underestimated on the box. I have a Duron 1.2 GHz with a GeForce 4 (although only 128Mb of system ram) and it just runs tolerably at 800x600 with the detail levels up. The box claims it will run on a 300 MHz P2...I have a hard time believing that. Maybe in 512x384 with all the detail levels turned down, at like 25 frames per second. :) It's no wonder so many people have had problems with the game with such misleadingly low system requirements...

In conclusion I would definately recommend this game to anyone who is a WW2 aviation buff or anyone who is tired of the hackneyed fighter-based aviation combat sims and wants something a little more immersive and dramatic.

Problems with the Windows XP Professional [Posted on 2004-05-05]
I bought this game a few months ago. I didn't have any problems loading and playing it with the Windows NT platform. I was very dissapointed that I wasn't able to play with the XP. Any suggestions?
luis.gomez@us.army.mil

B-17 Flying Fortress [Posted on 2004-06-19]
This is a good PC game because in shows people what it was like to Be in the clasic B-17.I only played the game once so I did not get a good sence of the game but I liked it all the same.

Best heavy bomber sim ever made, if you're patient enough [Posted on 2005-09-02]
As the title says, if you have the patience, you will get plenty of mileage out of this game. You get to take over nearly every aspect of flying the famed B-17 Flying Fortress in strategic bombing missions over Europe. You can let your 'Fort pretty much run itself, or you can manually take control of any of its 10 crewmbers, from the Bombardier, to the Pilot, to the Tail Gunner. Whenever you're not in manual control, the plane "flies itself" although your input can greatly affect the outcome of the mission. As the campaign progresses, your crew gains experience and they are more able to do their respective jobs. The famous Norden bombsight is included in the game, designed with the help of an actual World War II bombardier who used the Norden to bomb Japan. It's as close to the real thing as you can get with a computer, and you'll feel like a champ once you figure out how to use it properly and are able to drop your 6,000 lb bomb load exactly where you want it to be from 25,000 feet up in the air. It's quite a feeling to watch your bombs drop one by one out of the bomb bay and hit the target. First you see the massive train of explosions wreaking havoc to your chosen target, followed 10 seconds later by the deafening roar. The flak is done to perfection as well. It's a bit terrifying to fly through heavy flak and watch your plane getting shot to shreds and not be able to do anything about it. It's like flying through a bunch of grenades, and when you're inside the plane you can hear the shrapnel plinking off of the airframe. You can name your crewmembers after anyone you like, you can even design your own nose art with the help of a mod. If you're really ambitious, you can be a Squadron Commander and be in total command of 12 bombers, and are able to name all 12 of them along with their 120 crewmembers. You can request reconnaisance film and intelligence information on any of the hundreds of in-game targets, and then choose which ones to target on the next mission. I've learned more about the geography of Europe from playing this game than from all the history classes I've had in my life. I could go on and on about the great times I've had on this game, but I wouldn't be fair to anyone who reads this if I don't mention the #1 pitfall of this game: the crashes. Depending on your operating system and hardware, you could have a hard time running this game without it crashing. I fought it for a month before I realized that the game didn't like my integrated sound card, and once I replaced it with a PCI card, everything was fine. Some people run the game without any difficulties whatsoever. For the $20 or so that it costs these days, if you're interested at all in flight sims or the B-17, and are willing to learn the massive amount of controls, then by all means buy this game. It's one of those games that you can play incessantly for a few months, put it down for a year or so, and then fall in love with all over again for a few more months. I don't see this game coming off of my shelf for a long long time.

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