
Heroes of the Pacific - complete
I managed to finish all the missions of the game in 'ACE' mode at the weekend, so thought it would be nice to celebrate by putting together a little slide show of the aircraft you can fly. This video shows just the Allied aircraft - I may follow this when I have time by a similar one for the Axis planes.
In conclusion, Heroes of the Pacific is most defiantly showing it's age now and will not pose any significant challenge to contemporary gamers. Having said that, as a budget title it passed some time and was fun in a very casual sort of way. Normally I would look for an updated version of this franchise, but reviews of the sequel - Heroes of Europe - are quite scathing, so I will wait until I can afford a proper flight stick and buy 'Wings of Prey' instead.
Game shot of the day - F.47 Seafire
Yes, when I do get the chance to have a game, I am still trying to complete Heroes of the Pacific (not bad seeing as I only got the game as a filler). Today's shot is of the F.47 Seafire, one of only three British marked aircraft in the game - it also happens to have one of the nicest colour schemes of the game...
Info from www.spitfiresociety.demon.co.uk: A good aircraft, too late. 2200HP of Griffon 87 drove a contra-rotating propeller, which virtually eliminated the torque reaction from the power available. It had the huge Spiteful tail section, and a folding wing. Unfortunately it was overtaken by technology (mostly the jet) and only 90 were built.
Borderlands - The Secret Armory of General Knoxx

Only just downloaded this - haven't even got time for a proper go before bed! :( But I did have a quick peek and it's looking very cool man! Immediately got my arse spanked by a set of leather clad female ninjas!

Scooter's back! And he's not the only familiar character!

Bah! I hate Crimson Lance!
Link: Borderlands DLC: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx on Steam
Game shot of the Day - dive bombing a Jap carrier!
Heroes of the Pacific: Here my SBD Dauntless dive bomber swoops down to drop my load of 500lb bombs on the deck of the Japanese aircraft carrier 'Shoho'.
Wikipedia: SBD Dauntless
Wings of Prey combat air sim
Oh my lord! Just look at that detail!
Having wetted my appetite for an accessible air combat game with 'Heroes of the Pacific' and the newer 'Battlestations: Pacific' I decided to look for something a *little* more advanced and up to date - and found the Wings of Prey demo.
As you can tell by the above screen shot the level of realism is far and away more immersive than the arcade nature of series like 'Heroes' or 'Blazing Angels', but the game still is easy to get into. This game is on my shopping list for next pay day - but does have one draw back, it requires a good quality flight stick, which cost a pretty penny.
Still, a game of this quality does deserve pushing the boat out and buying teh right gear to play it, particularly as it is one of teh few games that allows players to experience sevral WW2 Soviet aircraft types.
And the good news is WoP *should* work with a mouse!
Strangely, although I like combat flight sims I am actually less keen on flight sticks, so the idea that I *had* to use one to play WoP was a bit of a niggle for me. But the good news is that it seems I am not the only heretic that likes to fly using a mouse!
The Wings of Prey community forum has a thread about how to set up the game so that the mouse is the primary control device (with some nice screen shots), so I may be able to avoid the expense of a new gadget on my desk after all. :)
I will try this out on the demo and report back.






























