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Strike Fighters 2, Strike Fighters 2 Vietnam, Strike Fighters 2 Europe, Strike Fighters 2 Israel all in one easy downloadable and installable package for only....$49!

Download is about 768 MB with a custom-built third wire installer/decompressor that unzips out to a 3.7 GB installation.

This offer is only good until the 28th.

Why get this if you already have Strike Fighters 1 series games?

Well, it now works on Vista/7; and there's an option that if you have a DX10 compliant card (like a NVIDIA 8800) that effectively doubles your frame rate through advanced shaders.

What Does It Look Like?

A F-8 Crusader engages a MiG over Vietnam

A-10A Thunderbolt swings in to engage Soviet Tank Column in Germany

Israeli A-4 cruises along -- note the extended jet exhaust to defeat IIR guided missiles!

Player Flyable Aircraft
• F-100D Super Sabre
• F-105D Thunderchief
• F-4B/C/D/E/J/F/M Phantom II
• F-8C/D/E/H/J Crusader
• F-15A Eagle
• F-16A Netz
• A-4B/C/E/F/H Skyhawk
• A-7A/B/C/D/E Corsair II
• A-10A Thunderbolt II
• Harrier GR.1/3
• Hunter F.6/FGA.9
• Kfir
• Mirage IIICJ Shahak
• Nesher

AI Aircraft (but can be made flyable with simple ini hack to alias a cockpit)
• MiG-17 "Fresco"
• MiG-19 "Farmer"
• MiG-21 "Fishbed"
• MiG-23 "Flogger"
• Su-7 "Fitter"
• Il-28 "Beagle"
• Tu-16 "Badger"
• Tu-22 "Blinder"
• An-12 "Cub"
• A-1H/J Skyraider
• A-6A Intruder
• B-52D Stratofortress
• B-57B Canberra
• F-84F Thunderstreak
• F-104 Starfighter
• Hunter
• Mirage III/5
• Mystère IVA
• Super Mystère B.2
• Vautour IIA

Terrains

Desert (Dhimar -- a made up middle east state for hypothetical campaigns for Strike Fighters 2)
Germany (For Strike Fighters 2 Europe)
Vietnam (For Strike Fighters 2 Vietnam)
Israel/Middle East (For Strike Fighters 2 Israel)

Campaigns

'59 Burning Sands (Fictional Middle East War)
'62 Red Thunder (European WW3)
'65 Rolling Thunder (Vietnam)
'66 Quick Sand (Fictional Middle East War)
'67 Six Day War (Israel)
'68 Red Hammer (European WW3)
'68 Rattle Snake (Fictional Middle East War)
'72 Linebacker I (Vietnam)
'72 Linebacker II (Vietnam)
'72 Desert Thunder (Fictional Middle East War)
'73 Yom Kippur War (Israel)
'75 Desert Fury (Fictional Middle East War)
'79 Red Lightning (European WW3)
'82 Lebanon War (Israel)

Add-Ons Available for SF2 (brief brief list)

F-107 Ultra Sabre
F-111A/B/C/D/E/F/K Aardvark (including USN version)
FB-111A Aardvark
F-22A Raptor
F-23A Black Widow II
J-10A Vigorious Dragon (PLAAF)
JH-7A (PLAAF)
Tu-128B/M FIDDLER

Admit it, what other flight sim lets you fly the Tu-128B/M FIDDLER, the largest interceptor ever built?



Right now, the focus in the SFP community seems to be on converting a lot of older First Generation (Strike Fighters Project 1, Wings over Vietnam, Wings over Europe, Wings over Israel) sim aircraft to the SF2 standards; so additional campaigns and maps have not yet been released in any significant number, other than enhancements to the stock SF2 campaigns.

Eventually though; Operation Tainted Cigar or "What if no one Blinked in 1962?" will be ported over, and we'll be able to take off in F-105Ds from Florida, fly a quick 90 miles, and bomb Cuba in preparation for an invasion.

Other campaigns/maps for SF1 include a Snowy Bering Strait terrain for nice WW3 action between the US and Soviet Union, which when combined with the "Long Cold Winter" campaign, let you fly F11F Tigers or Su-19s over an appropriately snowy landscape.

And of course a Taiwan terrain for the usual ChiCom/Nationalist fun.

There's also a number of projects Two Weeks (TM) from release; like:


F-108A Rapier

B-70 Valkyrie (no pics as yet)


F-103 Thunderwarrior

Avonics Modelling

This is not a detail sim, but more of a survey sim; which shouldn't be surprising, considering that Tsuyoshi Kawahito, the man behind Third Wire and the Strike Fighters series, was the lead designer for European Air War back in 1998.

There are different options for radars, you can have a simplistic arcade style mode, or a more realistic generic mode, which allows you to switch between Search Mode, Boresight Mode, Ground Map, and Terrain Avoidance Mode.

The last two are sort of not really useful (yet) in the game; since other than CCIP; there are no computer-assisted bombing modes available, which makes the F-111 add-on and planes like the B-52/B-58 not fully immersive as a player.

You can increase or decrease the radar range settings, lock onto targets in the radar; and the like.

What you can't do is change the antenna search pattern, or radar PRF/etc like in more detailed "detail sims" like Falcon 4.0.

It works sufficiently well enough.

Summary

It's pretty much what Combat Flight Simulator failed to achieve (due to the total change in file formats between CFS2 and CFS3) -- basically being Flight Simulator with a "fire" button.

This is very tempting. I love SF1 series and have Vista/DX10...

Hmmm...

does this have more arcade-ey type settings for ammo and fuel like CFS on low realism?

If there's one thing I hate, it's only carrying enough ammo to kill two people, when I'm engaging fifteen in a mission.

They have "Easy" settings for ammo useage and fuel useage. Don't know if they have "infinite fuel or infinite ammo"

EDIT: They do -- the manual is nicely on disk in PDF *and* HTML format.

Ammo Usage
Controls the rate at which ammunition is expended.

Easy: You have an unlimited supply of gun ammunition, cannon rounds and missiles.

Normal: You can run out of ammunition and armament, but you start out with twice as much.

Hard: You carry a realistic amount of ammunition, and you can only use your guns for a few short bursts.

Fuel Usage
Controls how quickly the aircraft consumes fuel.

Easy: Your fuel supply is infinite, even when you use afterburners.

Normal: Fuel is consumed at half of the normal rate during regular flight, and slightly less than the normal rate when you're using afterburners.

Hard: Fuel consumption is realistic, and you can't use afterburners very much without risking a fuel shortage later in the mission.

Honestly, I don't mind having limited ammo, I just don't like games where the amount of ammunition they give you is woefully insufficient to accomplish the mission, I.E. giving me a standard fighter's loadout of eight or nine missiles and then expecting me to take out a number of enemies that wouldn't be out of place in the typical mission from Ace Combat.

EDIT: this was a problem for me back when I played the original Operation Flashpoint. at one point I was engaging what must have been two platoons of soviet infantry with tank support, and I had about five clips for my M-16.

I just finished the Burning Sands campaign as a Mercenary. We ended up having two Mirage-III Shahaks (Finally being able to outclimb MiG-21s was blessing) and almost ran out of the good King's F-100s which were our main workhorses and I ended with about 30AA and 70+AG kills (strafing runs on airfields is great).

I only wish that you had a way of making more money in the campaigns. You're lucky to be able to afford two or three midrange aircraft the whole campaign - and that's if your wingmen don't lose any.

After you complete your primary mission, call up red crown and ask for a vector to nearest threat if the map doesn't show anything in your vicinity, and then go hunting. Aircraft yield much more money than ground targets. You can also stalk enemy formations back to their airfields and shoot them down with ease when they're in the landing pattern. If you're on a CAS mission the enemy usually have their own Il-28's which you can attack. Interestingly the A-4 is quite capable against Mig-17 and Hunters, and carries more ordnance than the F-100.

OK, so targets of opportunity do yield a monetary reward? It was always hard to tell as the economics of the missions were never explained.

Ok, I've got some spare christmas money, and I decided this was worth picking up, but it's also the first time i've ever bought a direct download game (Steam nonwithstanding) what do I do if I need to re-install the game or I want to install it on my dad's comp for him to play? If this is a one-shot deal, then i'm not paying 49.99 for a glorified rental and i'm calling my credit card company to stop payment right the fuck now.

It has no DRM. You can install it as many times as you want.

TK (the developer of the game), has said over and over he will never put SF series on Steam, because of Steam's DRM.