Installation was simple enough and the sim is spanned over 2 CDs. Don't worry though as while the game is installing you can use that time to read through the absolutely wonderful manual. Everything about the sim -- the manual, the splash screens, the intro to the sim and campaigns etc -- reeks of a 1940's era cartoon style. While some reviewers out there have found this approach to be childish and irrelevant I find it quite nice. It does give the sim a lovely 1940's feeling.

But back to the manual ... it is really well done. All three hundred odd pages are richly illustrated with plenty of drawings, photos and quotes from those that fought in the Pacific. It has the usual basic flight maneuvers and aircraft and campaign info, but it also has short biographies on those who shaped the conflict. Of note to me was the information on Bong and O'Hare…having been to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago and also swarmed over Bongs Lightning at Anoka County Airport in Minnesota. Anyway, we digress. Overall the packaging and manual is well done in typical Microsoft fashion.

But what about the sim you say? Starting with the flight model. There are some annoying little quirks in the sim. For instance, in real life flight you can trade height for speed and then use that speed to turn left or right. However in the sim you can't perform a diving left or right hand turn as your plane will just stall. This is a real pain in the backside as all the planes will end up stalling in the opposite direction of the turn! Another thing that I find particularly annoying is that regardless of your power settings you don't need to trim the aircraft out. While not a flight model issue the fact that you can sink a tanker with 50cal machine guns does seem a little strange too. On the other hand raising and lowering flaps still produces increases and decreases in altitude so at least they got that bit right.

Another thing that seems strange to me is some of the damage modeling. In just about every mission I have flown so far the aircraft will eventually become almost unresponsive when trying to bank left or right. Even if you turn on the damage status of the aircraft you will see nothing amiss. Have a look externally at your aircraft and you will see no damage. Maybe its more to do with our poor flying skills while in a dogfight but this problem is very annoying!

Overall though the aircraft are done pretty well. If you dive at high speed in a Lightning you will suffer compressibility and crash. So far I haven't managed to break the tails off through high speed diving though (even from 35,000 feet at full power the plane stays intact!). You don't get in to a turning knife fight with a Zero in a Lightning as this is just asking for trouble. Instead you have to use real world zoom and boom tactics against this aircraft. In fact you don't get in to a turning fight with any of the Japanese aircraft, as they will chew you up!

The graphics are simply outstanding. On my PIII-600 test system with all the graphics turned up to max we didn't see much of a slow down. The only time the frame rates dropped was when flying through smoke. Everything has been done really well though. Shoot at the wings of a plane and you can see your hits on them. Hit it enough times and the wings may fly off altogether. It's quite neat blowing pieces off the planes! Watching tracers from your guns is done particularly well, especially when they converge! The only thing they haven't implemented is ricochets, but I can live with that.