Bought this a few days ago. Very good game and well worth buying. Never played Battlestation's Midway so do not know how they compare. Game is a mixture of simulation, tactical & arcade blast. You also get to control/fly planes as well as control ships + subs + land bases. Most missions (there are around 28 single player as US or Japanese) involve all 3-4 vehicle types and because the game is technically sound you get zero lag swapping between them either which is nice to experience for once on the PC. Loading times also deserve a special mention as they are very fast indeed. Never more than 15-20 secs and ingame there is little to none. FPS are also very good it lags ever so slightly @ 1920x1200 with 4xAA and max gfx when there is a lot of onscreen action at once. Overall its technicaly solid which in itself is rare for recent PC games!!!
The planes also handle with some realism and are easy to stall plus crashing into objects does exactly what you expect (no HAWX fantasy physics here!!). Controls are basic and arcade like but as the handling is good and realistic I can live with that. They do something different with the weapons as you can chose a certain loadout and when you use all your ammo up can either wait for the ammo to regenerate or switch to another plane in your squadron or land at the base and re-arm. In the missions if you complete the secondary goals it unlocks bonus planes/ships with stronger firepower etc etc.
This supports the wired & wireless X360 controllers although other gamepads should be fine or you can fully configure the keyboard + mouse instead.
Gfx are not totally amazing but they do work well and as the FPS with max gfx are so high (unlike HAWX) give an effective impression of the 1941 era combat. Clouds especially are well done and flying through them is pretty effective (with no slowdowns either!). Water gfx are also quite strong and they have even put underwater details like coral reefs in there
Not tried the multiplayer yet but as its a Games For Windows LIVE title it also has achievements which can be earned and added to your existing gamertag (X360 or PC). No cross platform play however as apparently PC gamers have unfair technical advantages which is why you see so few vs X360 titles!! If, however you do not want any of the LIVE features it can be played without LIVE but then you will not earn Achievements or be able to play multiplayer.
DRM is a very basic disc check only it contain's no online authentication although you need to enter the supplied LIVE access key if you wish to play online via LIVE servers.
Install takes about 25 mins even though its only 6.3GB as it uses some new DVD-Rom protection which takes ages (about 10 mins) to scan the game DVD before the install actually begins.
Overall I think this game is an absolute gem and technically for once PC gets a solid port which also looks much better than the X360 version. If you remember some of the intense battles from the movie Pearl Harbour then this game recreates some of those very well
The planes also handle with some realism and are easy to stall plus crashing into objects does exactly what you expect (no HAWX fantasy physics here!!). Controls are basic and arcade like but as the handling is good and realistic I can live with that. They do something different with the weapons as you can chose a certain loadout and when you use all your ammo up can either wait for the ammo to regenerate or switch to another plane in your squadron or land at the base and re-arm. In the missions if you complete the secondary goals it unlocks bonus planes/ships with stronger firepower etc etc.
This supports the wired & wireless X360 controllers although other gamepads should be fine or you can fully configure the keyboard + mouse instead.
Gfx are not totally amazing but they do work well and as the FPS with max gfx are so high (unlike HAWX) give an effective impression of the 1941 era combat. Clouds especially are well done and flying through them is pretty effective (with no slowdowns either!). Water gfx are also quite strong and they have even put underwater details like coral reefs in there
Not tried the multiplayer yet but as its a Games For Windows LIVE title it also has achievements which can be earned and added to your existing gamertag (X360 or PC). No cross platform play however as apparently PC gamers have unfair technical advantages which is why you see so few vs X360 titles!! If, however you do not want any of the LIVE features it can be played without LIVE but then you will not earn Achievements or be able to play multiplayer.
DRM is a very basic disc check only it contain's no online authentication although you need to enter the supplied LIVE access key if you wish to play online via LIVE servers.
Install takes about 25 mins even though its only 6.3GB as it uses some new DVD-Rom protection which takes ages (about 10 mins) to scan the game DVD before the install actually begins.
Overall I think this game is an absolute gem and technically for once PC gets a solid port which also looks much better than the X360 version. If you remember some of the intense battles from the movie Pearl Harbour then this game recreates some of those very well
