One of the positive aspects of Combat Flight Simulator 3 is its ‘open architecture’. Basically this means that any Tom, Dick or Harry (or Captain Magenta) can easily design a plane, scenery, mission or other enhancement and post it on the various CFS file libraries on the net for all to download. The upshot of this is that, although the out of the box version of CFS3 is a bit lacklustre and ragged round the edges, to say the least, there have been a steady trickle of enhancements since the original release, both freeware and payware, which have transformed the sim into a much more playable and better-looking game.

Allied: B17F, B17G, B29A, Lancaster, P40N, P40F, D520.

Axis: Do217N-2, Do217M1u2, Me410A, ME410B, Ta154A, Ta154B, Ta152C, Ta152H, He162A-2, Ar234-B, Ta183, Me334.

All the aircraft modelled are more than a cut above the default aircraft, with excellent detail, both inside and outside the cockpit, and flight dynamics which have been supposedly ratified by real WW2 combat pilots. They certainly ‘feel’ right in combat, behaving just as the included flight manuals say they should. It is beyond the scope of this review to describe and comment on every included aircraft, but suffice to say they are an eclectic mix of the weird and wonderful, including an obscure French fighter plane called the Dewoitine D250 (which is actually quite good!), some of the Luftwaffe’s ‘secret weapons’ which never actually saw combat, and a decent selection of heavy and medium bombers (something which was sadly lacking in the original CFS3). These are worthy of some special mention, as flying strategic bombing missions brings a different type of challenge to CFS…