Two years ago a massive wave of World War II flight simulations hit the market – among them were titles from Electronic Arts, Microprose and Microsoft, followed by a second wave of titles from SSI, Eidos and Psygnosis. The WWII buff certainly had numerous options… unless he/she wanted to take to the skies over the Pacific Ocean! While the pack of games allowed players to fly fighters and bombers, and some of the games even included flyable Russian and Italian aircraft, the Japanese and the Pacific Theater of operations were missing completely.

Microsoft, who released the original Combat Flight Simulator in the fall of 1998 which was generally placed among the top three of the WWII titles in the pack, is now the first to bring the action to the Pacific since Microprose island-hopped back in 1994 with 1942 Pacific Air War. This time around, players can experience a variety of combat situations, complete with naval engagements and even carrier landings. Players can also make torpedo strikes against enemy ships, bomb ground-targets, and even take part in full carrier operations. Combat Flight Sim 2 also features nearly four times the graphical detail of the original title, with over 120 missions from Midway to the Soloman Islands. It doesn't look like there will be plans for a Pearl Harbor though, but maybe that would be in bad taste.

This sequel does feature seven new flyable aircraft including the American P38F Lightning, F4U Corsair, Grumman F4F Wildcat and F6F Hellcat, and the Japanese NIK2-J George, A6M2, or A6M5 Zero. Each of these aircraft is exquisitely detailed and players have the option of viewing the action from two cockpit perspectives as well as a rotateable 3D chase view. The damage model has been tweaked from Combat Flight Sim and those bullet holes and other bang ups will be more evident – there is even a new bailout sequence for those unfortunate times when you just can't keep the bird airborne!

Visually the game also appears quite rich in terms of settings, as it should since it utilizes an updated version of the Flight Simulator 2000 engine for models and terrain. While it might not seem that difficult to render a few islands and vast amounts of ocean, Microsoft did use digital elevation model data from the U.S. Geological Survey to provide as realistic terrain as possible. Weather effects have also been fine-tuned and players can head into a wild blue yonder that is full of haze, light and heavy clouds, or even a thunderstorm.