12/6/2002

Let down.

First off, this update (3.5) is much buggier than it's predecessor. It's been out for weeks now and there's still no advanced Territorial game, the scoring system is fubar and the servers (By Jaleco's own admission) are having problems.

Initial hiccups? Probably. But as fanboys of the game themselves are saying; why no open beta for 3.5??

Back to gameplay.

Unless you have plenty of time on your hands, don't expect much action in the main arenas of the game (territorial combat). Long flight times means someone like me gets maybe 3 dogfights in the occasional spare hour I have to fly. In FA 2 I could get many dogfights and the immersion level was much higher.

Another letdown is everyone using the "uber" planes. Only the top planes ever get used in the main arenas. It's well and good to say "96 planes". Fact is maybe 15 get used. Most are uncompetitive to the ubers so everyone is forced to fly ubers.

Pretty good but you need some serious RAM and CPU power if you don't want frame stutters.

Sound is ok.

Controls and weapons are good. Gameplay sucks because of reasons I explain above.