I got the game at 1:30 pm on the third. I'm playing it on 360.
I have mainly played multiplayer, only a few missions into single player.
The graphics are extremelly top notch. The sound and surround effects are not quite as good as those in bad company or BF1943 (the epitome of awesome sound IMO), but very close and still top notch as well.
The only major complaint I have about the graphics is, as others have mentioned, that it is way too hard to spot planes even at surprisingly close ranges.
A relatively minor graphical complaint would be that it is way too hard to read the throttle and altitude on a standard def TV. As a matter of fact, all of the small print, history, plane facts etc. are all mostly unreadable unless you have plenty of time to squint at them, on my tv at least.
By far the largest issue that is very much holding this game back from greatness IMO is the terrible control layout. I hate to use the word 'terrible' because I'm sure I'll get jumped by a few fan-boys for it but the fact is they certainly qualify for this description. Not only are they horribly and un-intuitively located, they are downright painful on the hands. Additionally due to their poor placement the control inputs even interfere with and muddle other aspects of handling the planes way too easily and often.
My first issue is with using the WEP. It is obnoxious and interferes with gameplay to have to hold up on the right stick to keep the wep engaged. It should have been a toggle or at least there should have been an option to enable it to be a toggle. "Toggle" as in you tap up on the stick once more after throttle is at 100% to engage wep until you tap down once more to bring it back to 100%. As is, it is way too easy to accidentally apply rudder during a turn, sending you into a spin. Additionally when you are trying to apply rudder input it is awkward, inaccurate and painfull due to both the reduced input range you are forced to use while the WEP is engaged as well as the issue of the 'max rudder' edges being so undefined. You may be trying to input full right rudder in order to get a bead on an enemy but then all of a sudden your WEP goes off because you went a millimeter too far to the right. You have then lost the shot you were working 5 minutes for due to the controls, you quite possibly stall out and then get killed by your opponent; all the result of poor controls. The resulting emotion: a feeling of 'cheapness' which is the arch enemy of videogame fun.
Anyone who has tried to play the game on sim doesn't need an explanation of how awfull the 'look around' control is. I literally tore something in my hand after practicing with it for a few days and couldn't use my hand for a week. It literally makes playing the game painfull, which draws you out of the fun of the game, to say the least. They should allow the option to just click down once to engage look around. They also should have the option for the view to not be on a 'rubber band' which snaps back to center. Having it the way it is forces you to precisely move two analog sticks in complex ways at the same time rather than just tapping a direction to adjust your view.
I won't get into the proper way they should map the buttons but there are many, many ways which would have worked better which are not at all hard to think of. Hopefully they will enable some fix for this.
Despite the control issues the game is still awesome and I'm ecstatic we finally got a quality flight sim on the consoles.
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