Impossible
Control issues are the major complaint I have. The computer controlled planes seem to be able to fly and manoevre at double your speed. They can be on your tail in an instant after roaring passed you in the opposite direction. Even heavy bombers appear to have turn radii and climb/dive rates the leave the user controlled fighters in the dust. If (by pure luck) you find yourself flying towards an enemy bomber...they simply open the throttle and roar away...as if you were standing still. Soon they are simply a spec on the horizon. Try to follow them and tou get "Returning to Battle area" and your plane is turned around by the system. So enemy planes can hide outside of the imaginary circle of the 'battle area' where you can never reach them.
Trying to fly using '3rd party' view is pretty much impossible and even more so when you use the 'Camera' to follow your target. You end up looking at your plane from the front and all the controls are reversed...but sometimes not so moving the joystick control (or tilting the sixaxis controller) will turn you different directions at different times. Most of the time you end up flying upside down and backwards with the enemy flying circles around you. But that doesn't last long because while you have your head pointed at the otherplane...you simply fly into the ground and blow up.
Then there are your 'wingmen' making their useless comments. "Better get that guy off your tail!" or "Watch your six!" just before you die.
After playing this for over 20 hours, I wonder what it actually takes to complete a mission. Do you have to shoot down 20 planes in 8 minutes? $%^, I'd be happy to get off a shot in 8 minutes! I have shot down planes but that was more by accident than design. I just continuously fire my guns and occasionally one of the planes that is swarming around me will fly into my field of fire. But I have never completed a 'mission'.
I am also bothered by the lack of a free flight practice mode....not that pointless balloon busting exercise in the 'Training Mission'...but an opportunity to get some flight time in the aircraft BEFORE being thrown into combat.
Now, I don't want you to think that I am new to air combat games. I still get a lot of fun out of the Combat Flight Simulatior series on the PC. You really can fly and control the A/C in that game...NOT like this one where you do something and HOPE the plane does something close to what you wanted.
All in all, the game is impossible. The controls are unintuitive. The aircraft don't look much like the real thing. (I couldn't tell the difference between a Spitfire and a P51). The mission objectives are unrealistic and the missions themselves are boring as hell.
The more I play it, the more I want to take the disk out of the console and smash it with a hammer!
I'm glad I got it out of the bargain bin and not paid full price for it. Rent it if you want a laugh or if you just like punishing yourself.