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Like a Saint Bernard rescuing lost skiers in the Alps, GMX Media has been busy saving Microsoft's Combat Flight Sim 3 from extinction.

CFS3 was a colossal disappointment to the military flight simulation community until resurrected by a much needed patch and GMX Media’s awesome add-on, Firepower (read review here).

And like that faithful and relentless hound, the boys from Britain have once again brought first aid to CFS3 in the form of another excellent add-on, D-Day 1944: Invasion of Europe.

While not quite as monumental of an improvement as Firepower, D-Day does do several things to enhance the CFS3 experience. First, there are the D-Day remodeled aircraft. D-Day provides special versions of several existing stock aircraft.

The planes have been reskinned to display the D-Day invasion stripes. Flight physics and damage modeling have been redone to create a more realistic and challenging experience. Even engine sounds have been updated to be more authentic.

However, many of the same changes to visual and sound effects provided in Firepower are included in D-Day, making it almost unnecessary to own both add-ons to achieve a superior CFS3 experience.

Second, D-Day offers the military flight sim enthusiast a dynamic air campaign modeled after the D-Day invasion. New nations now take part in the campaign, including New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. If you don’t care about the dynamic campaign you can fly any of 120 single missions.

D-Day adds only three completely new aircraft to the stock game: Spitfire MK Vb, Mosquito FB VI, and the Focke Wulfe 190 D9. To get more, especially the magnificent bombers of the era, you’ll have to pick up Firepower.

D-Day does provide a few other goodies. New scenery has been added. And there are new pilots and new voices. If you fly as an Australian you can hear Australian accents. Although I’ve yet to actually see them, there are supposed to be visible ground troops; i.e. individual soldiers who will shoot back at you when you fly low to bomb or strafe.

For my money, and if I could only choose one of these excellent add-ons, I’d pick Firepower. Flying all of those bombers and the many new Firepower Certified fighters was more exciting to me than participating in the D-Day campaign. The reason, of course, is that the real action during the invasion was on the ground not in the air. Of course, you might feel differently.

That said, if you are a bit of a historian and yearn to squash the Nazi machine during a campaign of truly historic proportions, and you don’t mind doing it from the air, D-Day 1944: Invasion of Europe could be just the ticket.


Review by Walter Hurdle.