A significant point to make Ursus!
I think it's of value to repeat GreyW's posting here again:
I emailed the Czech who was originally hosting the “Unofficial Website” about a demo for WOW. He wrote back that the information he has is that a demo is ready to publish but he does not know when it will be and that it is up to Take Two…
He also briefly discussed the difference between the arcade flight model and the Classic mode and felt there was only one major unrealistic factor and that was that “planes are faster than real WWI planes.”
Perhaps if you could slow the whole sim down a tad, similar to the time compression in IL2… LOL better get the game and fly it first :0)
Now "slowing" down the game, although this sounds a bit peculiar, is in fact a good point (that is slowing down the flight models). Although high-fidelity FM's for WoW would involve more than just slowing down the aircraft (what's really needed is "speed bleed", and stalling characteristics brought on by high angle of attack maneuvering), at this point WoW displays an amazing attention to detail in so many sim-like departments!
First, the terrain is magnificient, and although you can reach the perimeter limits fairly quickly, as others have mentioned already, the game "wind blows" your course back towards the open playing area (quite an acceptable game mechanic of keeping players "where it's at" in my mind)!
Next the aircraft are very nicely modeled, with many "extra" details too (like moving aileron bellcranks with linking rods and/or cables for example). These details are not arcade stuff, but some of the finest features seen in any sim to date!
The game's audio is very nice too.
The aircraft graphics are good also, with multiple skins available for use, and the cockpits have moving controls and good texturing .........the end result is a highly-immersive in-cockpit experience from the start.
Now although I haven't played many of the single-player missions yet, some of the experinced players so far (Cas141, Ivor H, Polovski) have detailed some of the more arcadish approaches of these missions (wingman and challengers speaking to you as if they're in your cockpit with you, etc.). Like the guys have said, if a mission editor were to become available, this would work magic for duplicating authentic-like operations!
A final observation has to be made concerning the online component of WoW.........there's co-op multiplayer!!! To me this is just amazing from an "arcade game" point of view, because having "bots" (the AI) able to fill out and fly the "empty seats" online is becoming a great rarity in our simming experince nowadays! For this reason alone, it's easy to imagine realistic online missions being created (if a full mission editor becomes available that is), where two-seaters (or bombers, or float planes
)are going about their business as the pursuit planes try to interdict or protect their work...........terrific potential here!
By all rights, WoW has so many sim-like features already (at least the looks of a sim), and it's so easy to imagine how a bit more in-depth development could push this product right over the line from arcade game to sim masterpiece......really!
In the raw the potential for something more far-reaching resides within this beast........I guess time will ultimately tell.
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