31 reviews
Sales Rank: 21836

Format: Cd-rom
Platforms: Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 95
ESRB: Everyone
Media: CD-ROM
Age: 5 - 20 years
Operating System: Windows 95
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 7.9 x 1.6

UPC: 744788552374
EAN: 0744788552374
ASIN: B00004VWUE

Release Date: January 31, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Original US. Brand new CD in paper sleeve, no manuel, same day shipping with delivery confirmation #

Accessories:

•	PC Gamer (1-year)

Similar Items:

•	Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2: Pacific Theater
•	Battle of Britain 2: Shockwave
•	B-17 Flying Fortress

Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com Review
It's a rare combat flight sim that can be all things to all people, but Battle of Britain comes close. The designers set out to model the entire pivotal WWII conflict and succeeded admirably, creating some of the best flight models and visuals this genre has ever seen. With all the realism options turned off, it's basically reduced to the level of an arcade game, but with those same options enabled, even the most jaded virtual pilots will have their hands full. This is the kind of simulation that lets players manually tweak the pitch of their propellers, and makes players deal with issues like carbureted vs. fuel-injected engines, engine torque, and blackouts from pulling too many g's.

The designers certainly didn't focus on minute details at the expense of Battle of Britain's strategic possibilities. The game engine is capable of throwing hundreds of planes in the air at once, and it simulates raids whether they are part your particular mission or not. It's possible to take off with the intention of intercepting a small flight of Stuka dive-bombers only to end up responding to a massive raid of heavy bombers attacking a town miles away. Few games give the player such a sense of playing a bit part on the stage of battle.

That's not to say the gamers' actions and input are inconsequential. Battle of Britain also comes with a campaign mode that lets players make strategic decisions as either the British or the Germans. As the British players, receive reports on incoming raids and apportion your meager resources to effectively meet each threat. German commanders get to deal with the problem of assigning fighter escorts to the bombers, knowing that the fighters can't spend more than 20 minutes over enemy soil because of fuel limitations. Those are just a few of the situations players face. It's also possible to jump into any plane in the campaign mode to play out a mission in the simulation mode. --T. Byrl Baker

Pros:

Masterful combination of cerebral strategic campaign mode and adrenaline-charged simulation mode
Excellent flight models
Beautiful terrain and buildings

Cons:

High-quality visuals require a lot of computing horsepower
Sound effects could be better
Steep system requirments
Some users report frequent system-crashing bugs

Amazon.com Product Description
From the creators of MiG Alley comes Rowan's Battle of Britain. The game offers an environment of 800 square miles to recreate the famous air war over WWII Britain. Choose to go on raids with 1,000 other Luftwaffe aircraft, or respond with fellow 200 Royal Air Force fighters. Fly the Spitfire RAF fighter, Hurricane RAF fighter, Me 109 Luftwaffe fighter, Me 110 Luftwaffe twin-engine fighter, or the Ju87 Stuka dive-bomber, then act as a gunner in Junkers 88, Heinkel 111, or the Dornier 17. The virtual cockpits feature interactivity, which allows for realistic engine management. Play a campaign from the perspective of either a pilot or commander, where the Artificial Intelligence can be set up to react historically or with the benefit of 60 years of hindsight. Alternately, play quick missions to jump right into the action. Hide in and behind cloud banks, listening to radio chatter as you prepare to strike, escort, or intercept. The landscape model features elevated sections in simulated city areas and a coastline that blends the sea and land.

Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

Be ready for the learning curve March 7, 2004
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

First, the people who have this game at the bottom of their closets are right. Unless you have just the right vid card, monitor, and memory you can forget it. Second, what comes in the box is incomplete. You will need the version .973 from the Battle of Britain Developers Group. There is no key card (CFS@ comes from Amazon with no manual or card) so you will have to get on the forum there and ask where to download the most up to date, and then you will have to deal with the the fact that the European keyboard needs to be hand marked to match yours, if your from the USA. On the plus side the people on the forum are very helpful.

You will find the learning curve daunting. If you want to fly Spitfires and you start learning on them, you will probably fail. You need to master the Hurricane first. The flight sim is harder than CFS2 and IL-2. B-17 has a tough learning curve but that has to do with it's complexity and all its quirks. BoB has a tough curve because of the flight sim. I've been "flying" sims since Lucas Films BoB. Then the Dynamix trio and the stuff from Microprose (all DOS). Picking up again a few years ago in Windows I found that much has changed. But I have yet to meet a learning curve as steep as BoB.

My copy too sat at the bottom of the closet until my old machine fried and I had to get a new one. So far I haven't had the CtD problem, but if I do it will be back to the BoBDG forum.

You have to be really interested in the Battle of Britain to buy this one. So don't buy unless your frustration level is high. Of course the BoB add on for CFS2 is a joke (misnamed for one), and I don't know of any others.

30+ at angels ten bearing 261 degrees

1 out of 5 stars Battle Of Britain   December 2, 2003
0 out of 3 found this review helpful

I own and play quite a few sims. I thought this would be a vast improvement over "European Air War" but I was wrong about this. Very, very disappointed

5 out of 5 stars rare and hard to find. a great game   January 18, 2003
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

a little hard to install but a great flt sim

3 out of 5 stars Hey, not so fast...   October 8, 2002
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

...It is still difficult to fly and even experienced simmers would be advised to start with the "novice" flight model. The AI is a lot better than in, say, CFS2 but it's not perfect. The best thing to do is to get the aftermarket patch form BDG (Battle of Britain Developers Group) which solves almost all the problems whilst improving the graphics and gameplay and is a free download. Check at SimHQ.com for details. The overall improvements to the game, along with the dynamic campaign, suddenly make this worth having...as long as you're prepared to spend a lot of time setting it up.

1 out of 5 stars Waste of money!   August 5, 2002
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

I can't even review the game, because I never could get it to work properly on my computer. Even after receiving tech help. My mistake is not checking these reviews before purchasing.