I've been playing Aces High off and on since 2001. Usually, I play for about a 6 month stint and then I get tired of playing. At one point, I'd played close to 80 hours in a month. It was taking over nearly every free moment I had. I was even doing research on the side about the aircraft and their weaknesses and strengths. In the end, I considered myself to be an above average pilot. The immersion and gameplay are pretty first rate. The damage modeling and ballistics are good, the flight models are fairly realistic (at least as far as I can tell for a WWII aircraft). The have voice comm which is great feature because you can die while typing a message. Game play is good but there are drawbacks. Getting on a weak country who is out manned can be very frustrating. You end up gettting clobbered and trying to save bases while greatly outnumbered. It can be an exercise in futility. When these situations occur, you either need to grit your teeth and deal with it, log off, or change your tactics. I've always found fighting in a vehicle to be very frustrating. Half the time I couldn't see what was shooting at me and covering large distances is boring. Other times I'd score direct hits on a lesser armed target and they'd end up killing me. Most of the time I stay away from the ground vehicles except for a change of pace. Flying bombers is generally a suicide mission for the most part, that is if you're attacking any kind of defended air space. Air combat can be very stimulating and exciting but also frustrating. Sometimes, people will steal your kill. Or, you can run across a real loudmouth of an opponent who just kills the joy of the moment. You can squelch these people if you want but they will always be there. Know full well when you play this game, you will be fighting against people who take this very seriously, have spent a LOT of time learing the game, tactics and the planes are will shoot you down 9 out of 10 times. You must be willing to take your lumps and be diligent in learning your skill at air combat. This can be frustrating so you'll have to accept the learning curve, fly offline for a few hours to get to know the controls and improve your shooting skill. Maybe even read a quick book on air combat tactics. Best to fly with numbers at the start and don't get in over your head or you'll be dead. Ever since they released the 2.0 version the gameplay has become even harder. The kills came much slower and the fun just got sucked out of the game. Still, it's a fun and very addicting game and I will likely return once again to take to the skies of Aces High.
If you want to play online in a WWII setting, give this one a try. This game has a very steep learning curve, and a working knowledge of flight simulation is necessary to make learning it a little easier. But they have a... Read Full Review
This game should be far more popular than it is - it's incredibly realistic, has pleasing graphics that manage to run on any system, and has a fairly good player base so that no matter what hour of the day you sign on, y... Read Full Review
--