Airplanes in the original game that could only be flown by the computer as opponents now have cockpits and instruments so players can climb aboard and shoot up the scenery.
Get online today, though, and you'll be able to find hundreds of aircraft - some for money, others as freeware - that will fly in the game new locations that transport virtual pilots from the game's original Pacific Theater to player-created missions in Europe and multi-mission campaigns, most of which re-create historical events. Gamers could fly more than 30 missions, most in scripted campaigns for the Japanese or American side in such famous airplanes as the Zero and Hellcat.
The original game offered a handful of American and Japanese airplanes from the war in the Pacific.
While flight simulators come and go, CFS2 has become something of a classic thanks to the ubiquitous nature of the Internet and Microsoft's crafty decision to allow gamers to play with the computer code that creates the airplanes, the scenery and the special effects.