Thanks Matt, for narrowing it down a little; it's sometime between now and infinity (I am joking of course). However, since you happen by, I would like to take this time to commend you guys on the fine work you did with the entire Flanker line. I've been playing it since I bought the original the same day I bought my first computer, in 1996. Bought 1.5 too. Because of Flanker & EF2000V1, I been a Flight sims fan every since.
I was amazed by the amazing attention to detail that Flanker included, and wished at that time that somehow, F2 could combine with (for that time at least), EF2000's amazing graphics. Well, 4 years later, your wonderful team delivered F2. I have to admit, by then, I was big into F4, but still, I was disappointed with many of the reviews which attempted to compare the two, with the loser being F2. Hey, F4's physics ain't earth shattering by any means. I was even more pissed off at many forum posters who wrote in a mean, selfish, and unconstructive manner, about this & that being wrong with F2 & when is the patch coming out! I saw the results of those childish remarks as SSI, along with many other developers, understandable began to pull away from the forums, which collateraly alienated many of the core fans.
I always loved Flanker 2.0, purchased it for $59.99 (ouch!)the day of it's released, but for some reason, played it very seldom. I think, just as the case with me and Jane's F-18 (since I played F-15 'till I memorized ALL the keyboard commands), I was ready for the next sim after playing 1.5 to almost the same level. But, with me F4 is clearly showing it's age, and is getting rather old with me. As such, I turned to experience again, the challenge of F2. Even with the exceedingly frustrating padlock view. Still, what almost two years later, IMO, F2 is the Cadillac of sims. Granted, F4 is just captivating in it's dynamic campaign, F2 still holds it's own special quality, the terrain detail is the absolutely best there is in a sim today, bar none, and the overall graphics are still very good, even when held up to certain sims 1600X1200X32 rezes. Well, since this is getting long, I would like to say a big THANKS to all of your team, and thanks for the hard work on 2.5. Especially in lieu of the fact this bench mark standard for the the gaming industry in the area of customer relations & loyalty (it goes both ways) will probably go unheeded and unrecognized by the industry, as a whole. But, I recognize the sacrifice and difficult times that the employees of SSI have had, and it does mean something to me. Now, if you're thinking I wrote all that just to get an advance release of 2.5, you're damn RIGHT, so send it on over, will you?
