Totally Games Spill WWII Flight Secrets

Thanks to GameDaily for their feature talking to Totally Games' founder, Lawrence Holland, and profiling the "just-completed Secret Weapons Over Normandy", the arcade-style WWII flight game currently "...available for the PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox." 1UP has a review of the Xbox version explaining clearly: "Once upon a time... a clever man named Larry Holland created a series of World War II flight sims that redefined the entire genre. The three games - Battlehawks 1942, Their Finest Hour, and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe - mixed exhaustive historical accuracy with a fast-paced, arcadey play mechanic." The reviewer pegs SWON as "closer to Namco's Ace Combat series in style", but still a fitting console-styled legacy for those earlier classics, and Gaming Age also approve, rating the game "a long-lived, rewarding experience."

Key Quote:

[Txiasaeia]

"... mixed exhaustive historical accuracy with a fast-paced, arcadey play mechanic..."

I think the key quote here is "arcadey play mechanic." This game plays like X-Wing Alliance with WWII fighters! The only "historical accuracy" I've found is the fact that the planes look somewhat like their real-life counterparts.

I know that the arcade flight sim genre is somewhat nonexistent on the PC, but for a flight sim enthusiast, this game is pretty much useless. If I want to be able to pull 9 G's in a flight sim, I'll load up Privateer or Independence War; if I want a "real" sim, well, Sturmovik's been out for a while, and from what I hear Lock On is supposed to be pretty good.

Re:Key Quote:

[li99sh79]

I think the key quote here is "arcadey play mechanic." This game plays like X-Wing Alliance with WWII fighters! The only "historical accuracy" I've found is the fact that the planes look somewhat like their real-life counterparts.

Considering that Holland designed pretty much every one of LucasArts's flight sims that's not surprising. I haven't had a chance to sit down with the latest incarnation of Secret Weapons, but I played those early LucasArts sims a lot. They were fun, if a bit simplistic. So lon

Re:Key Quote:

[Anonymous Coward]

So what's your problem?

I never heard that this game was being marketed for flight sim fanboys. It is geared for gamers who want to have the fun and excitement of flying and having dogfights, etc. without having to invest the countless hours memorizing a manual thicker than the New York City phone book. The "historical accuracy" is the look and general feel of the period to add to the experience.

Go back to playing Falcon 4.0, and stop making things out to be what their not.

Re:Key Quote:

[Txiasaeia]

Don't get me wrong; I don't want to begrudge gamers playing games. If I don't like a game, then so what? Maybe other people do, and that's what counts. The point is that the game mechanics are *so* "arcadey" that they don't seem anywhere close to reality -- the experience feels much too shallow, even for people who like arcade games. I could be wrong.