Thirty-two years have passed since you destroyed the Lucifer. Back then, you tore up its reactors and made it go nova as it exited the SOL jump node, cutting off Earth from the rest of the cosmos. Thirty-two years after you sat on your heiny to bask in the glory and sip tea, another pilot, a member of the "Lost Generation" of human Diaspora, will have to do much of it all over again. But this time, there's fireworks.

Since the victory, the rebellious Neo Terran Front (NTF) has been putting a great strain on the Terran-Vasudan relations under the new Galactic Terran-Vasudan Alliance (GTVA). Now, due to a discovery made by the NTF using an archaic device created many millennia ago by the "Ancients," a new portal has been opened that leads directly into Shivan space. The destroyers of The Great War are back, and they are definitely out for blood.

Freespace 2, follow up to last year's excellent Descent Freespace: The Great War, continues the series tradition. The excellent gameplay is based on a slick combination of X-Wing and Wing Commander with a near perfect interface and a totally distinct style. Although at its core Freespace 2 remains almost identical to the original, the enhancements made to the gameplay, along with a killer single player campaign and extensive multiplayer options, make Freespace 2 one of the very best space combat games ever made.

Though the original Freespace was definitely a winning game, it was missing, at some level, a certain visceral punch. This was due in large part to an esoteric artistic style and weapons that sometimes lacked 'kick.' Freespace 2, on the other hand, is probably the most kinetic and visceral space combat game yet. This time around, the weapons light up the starscape like Barium sprites, the capitol ships cleave each other (and fighters) in half with massive beam weapons, the battles crackle with flack, and the fighter on your 12 explodes fantastically as you send an eight pack of missiles up its tail. All this, while shock waves from rupturing capitol ships, 500 times the size of your fighter, fling you about helplessly like a moth caught in a tornado.

Freespace 2 is a hell of an update to an already solid space combat classic, but overall doesn't seriously add anything new or origional to the genre. Still, don't be fooled by Freespace 2's intense similarity to it's predecessor - there is more to love in this game than I could write about here. The new ships, new weapons (such as the extraordinarily nasty TAG missile...you'll see), the unbelievably large cap ships, and just the sheer joy of playing this title makes it an easy pick for space combat sim of the year. To anyone who has ever smiled as your target ship exploded beautifully under a hail of your missiles and gunfire, I guarantee you've never had this much fun in space before. And coming from me, that is one hell of a recommendation.

Although Flight Unlimited II has climbed its way up to the top of my flight simulation buy list, I do have a bone to pick regarding the title. I must argue that it is anything but unlimited! A very poor way to describe a title that requires you to fly in a small portion of Northern California: the Bay Area. You can fly about as far north as Napa, and as far south as San Jose, but if you have any dreams of unlimited flight elsewhere, better turn to Flight Simulator 98 and have yourself an all-expense paid trip to Paris, France, instead.

I was actually very impressed by the sound effects in this game (which is hard for me, and for a flight simulator). From the very beginning when the pilot yells "clear!" before starting the engine, every single effect was present and accurate. From the right amount of static when talking to the tower, to the sound your plane makes when it lands, Flight Unlimited II has it all.

The most revolutionary aspect of up-and-coming flight simulators has been interaction with the tower and flying under the real FAA's regulations. In this respect, no other title EVER has come even close to Flight Unlimited II. For example, in this game, you don't start at the threshold of the runway like in Microsoft Flight Simulator (unless you choose otherwise). Instead, you start at your parking space, turn on your engine, listen to AVIS, receive weather reports and other information, and then request permission to taxi to the nearest runway. From there, you must wait until clearance is given for your takeoff, and you are guided out of that airspace by the air traffic controller. But that's not all, not only do you talk to the control tower, there are other people in the world that are flying besides just you (seems like an obvious point, and yet every other sim seems to have forgotten!). Other people are requesting permission to land and takeoff as well, and waiting your turn comes with the territory! It looks as though Looking Glass hasn't forgotten a thing.

The physics of the aircraft are also great. I was impressed by the overall performance of the physics engine as well as the variables that were taken in consideration like weather, wind and turbulence. One of the biggest complaints about the original Flight Unlimited, was the purpose of the simulation: nothing. People found the game to be pointless and quickly boring. I don't want to criticize Looking Glass alone for this mistake, as Microsoft and every other company that has produced a commercial flight sim have befallen the same criticisms. Flight Unlimited II strives to do otherwise by adding in 25 missions that you can accept from delivering a package to a carrier off the coast, to picking up some escapees who just broke out of Alcatraz at midnight. You'll find these missions very challenging when flying around your hometown just isn't cutting it anymore.

Flight Unlimited II is a breakthrough title that took a piece of California land and did more with it than Microsoft did with the whole world. This game is fun to play, and is even better for Bay Area residents. I may be a little biased because I live in the Bay Area, so no hate mail from you Chicago flight enthusiasts. However, I definitely recommend it for anyone interested in general aviation, and in my opinion, Flight Unlimited II beats out Flight Simulator 98 any day.

EAW allows you to fly a total of 20 planes from the USAAC (United States Army Air Corps), RAF (Royal Air Force), or the German Luftwaffe. You can fly this happy mob of aircraft (including the German Me-262, the first jet fighter aircraft) over most of Britain, France, and Germany in either a quick mission, single mission, or one of three campaigns; 1940: Battle of Britain, 1943: European Theater, or 1944: European Theater. The two European Theater campaigns differ only when your career begins, not ends.

Once you begin a single or quick mission, or fly a campaign mission, you'll notice the quirks of the graphics engine. Restricted to a resolution of 640x480 (unless you get the patch) and operating with a 256 color, 8-bit palette, the graphics may seem at first somewhat low tech. Once you get into the meat of the game though, you might begin to appreciate the simplistic approach to graphics found in European Air War. The flat terrain, which is believable for the most part, as France and Britain are fairly flat in the areas of concern, delivers a great sense of altitude and a good sense of speed when you get down low. Also, the limited color palette gives the game a somewhat grayish, gritty feel which feels appropriate for World War 2.

The good part of all this is that the lack of complexity in the terrain allows the graphics engine to have enough power left over to support up to 256 planes in the air at once. This allows you to fly with a wing of 12 planes into a sortie that very well might include two waves of bombers (about 24) and a similar number of fighters. This gives the game one of its greatest boons, flying in a battle that is actually reminiscent of the great air brawls of WW2. 3D Accelerator support is provided through both D3D and 3DFX modes.

The flight modeling of the planes is also top notch. It really is quite thrilling to get in behind a very realistically realized B-17 and shoot its engines out, causing it to plummet to the ground trailing smoke. That's simply one of the most dramatic events that can happen in air combat. Hey, anyone ever seen Memphis Belle?

Overall European Air War is a good, solid, almost traditional WW2 flight sim. In some ways it is a last hurrah of the past just before the ultra sleek Jane's WW2 Fighters and Fighter Squadron: Screaming Demons Over Europe hit the shelves soon. Though it may seem a tad aged, European Air War offers deep, rewarding gameplay for flight gamers new and experienced that makes it a great choice for those who care more about gameplay than style.

It's a pity that the campaign isn't a bit more interesting though. With the immense narrative backdrop of WW2, there is almost no reason anymore that any WW2 flight sim should achieve anything less than making you recite Yeats' "An Irish Airmen Foresees His Death" before climbing in to the cockpit and kicking some Jerry, British, or Democratic ass.