Strike Fighters 2: North Atlantic revisited

[MigBuster 2,860]

 

 

 

Back in 2012, Thirdwire fans awaited with baited breath the latest release of the Strike Fighters 2 series and what new goodies it would bring to everyone.

As it turned out the game was quite a departure from the previous four titles and wasn’t just the old engine with a new terrain and new objects. For most, many of the new features and changes added to the series and bought some hope for the future, whereas some features were less promising.

 

Starting off with the good points then..........

The Setting

The game takes place primarily over Iceland with its cold war airbases such as Keflavik NAS and perhaps gives us a bit more options for Cold War scenarios than doing the South Atlantic (Falklands) which some may have thought the obvious choice.

 

 

The real Keflavik in real Iceland! (Wikipedia)

 

New Terrain

New with SF2NA came a bold new attempt at a more modern LOD based terrain engine utilising DX10 instead of the older DX9. The water looked amazing:

Iceland's man made shoreline!

 

And the runways are even shaped like the actual ones on Iceland instead of the generic bases from the previous four titles. More on this later……..

Fed up with the hot weather the RAAF decide to holiday in Iceland

 

New music

For a fresh new start, new menu music, that wasn’t too bad actually – I never replaced it!

Yes I realise that is a post cold war shot!

 

 

Fleet Defender

With this release we got the first F-14A from Thirdwire, although this in itself was not ground breaking because there was a very good Mirage Factory F-14 set available as well. It was the Avionics this brought that was the big plus, including support for Active Radar missiles, and a TWS mode that could support multiple simultaneous shots. On the other hand Soviet bombers now came with a ton of anti-ship cruise missiles, jammers and countermeasures.

Catch us if you can!

 

Join the Navy

Okay so a load of new ships and weapons in this release………and not just a set of new objects, but new ways they could be used in game:

·         Carrier groups and support groups in campaigns and single missions

·         Static aircraft on decks

·         Ships firing missiles and guns to shoot down cruise missiles and aircraft

·         More roles for aircraft including AWACs and Naval recon

 

If you liked flying the TW A-4 then the TW F-14 is rather less agile and more difficult to fly in comparison

 

Here is a list of the new objects the games came with:

Ships:

·         CGN-36 California class Cruiser

·         CVN-68 Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier

·         Gearing FRAM IB class Destroyer

·         Kashin class Destroyer

·         Kiev class Aircraft Carrier

·         Knox class Frigate

·         Krivak I class Frigate

·         Krivak II class Frigate

·         LCC-19 Blue Ridge class Amphibious Command Ship

·         LHA-1 Tarawa class Amphibious Assault Ship

·         LPD-4 Austin class Amphibious Transport Dock

·         Oliver Hazard Perry class Frigate

·         Oliver Hazard Perry (82) class Frigate

·         Spruance class Destroyer

·         Spruance (82) class Destroyer

Weapons

·         AIM-54A Phoenix

·         SA-N-3 Goblet (M-11 Shtorm) SAM

·         SA-N-1B Goa SAM

·         SA-N-4 Gecko SAM

·         RIM-2F Terrier SAM

·         RIM-7E/H Sea Sparrow SAM

·         RIM-66B Standard SAM

·         K10S (AS-2 Kipper) Cruise Missile

·         KH22 (AS-4 Kitchen) Cruise Missile

·         KSR5 (AS-6 Kingfish) Cruise Missile

Bears with Flares!

 

The Campaign and missions

A big change from the previous titles and perhaps more game like in some respects in the way it was essentially fleet verses fleet. The single missions were more limited due to engine changes and lack of relevant land based targets. If you like Naval intercept missions or ones where you attack the Soviet fleet then it should be right up your street.

F-4K - More challenging in the intercept role than the F-14

A-4G - Even more challenging!

 

 

New Aircraft with SF2 NA (Drool)

• Grumman F-14A Tomcat
• Grumman F-14A_77 Tomcat
• Vought A-7E_74 Corsair II
• Grumman A-6E Intruder (No Pit)
• Grumman A-6E_79 Intruder (No Pit)
• Grumman E-2C Hawkeye (No Pit)
• Grumman EA-6B Prowler (No Pit)
• Tu-16K-10-26 Badger C (No Pit)
• Tu-16K-26 Badger G (No Pit)
• Tu-16K-26_73 Badger G (No Pit)
• Tu-16P Badger J (No Pit)
• Tu-16P_72 Badger J (No Pit)
• Tu-16RM-1 Badger D (No Pit)
• Tu-22KD Blinder B (No Pit)
• Tu-22M2 Backfire B (No Pit)
• Tu-22M3 Backfire C (No Pit)
• Tu-22PD Blinder E (No Pit)
• Tu-22RD Blinder C (No Pit)
• Tu-95RT Bear D (No Pit)
• Yak-38 Forger A (No Pit

 

 

Merging

Yes the game can still be merged with the other 4 titles, expansion packs and DLCs! You may also find that a lot of my DLCs live in Iceland exclusively.

 

That is a Yak-38 Forger landing on the Kiev don't you know

 

 

 

Now lets look at some of the more controversial additions.

Mr AWACs controller

Rejoice for Red Crown woman has been replaced by Mr AWACs controller guy!

I don’t know how many were pleased to see the E-2 AWACs get blown out of the sky on a regular basis (or even shot it down yourselves) – if they were it was probably down to the guys somewhat laid back voice. How exactly Thirdwire managed to find or even consider using this guys voice for this role is known only to them but it was not on any kind of professional level.

Luckily there is a set of modded voice files to replace this blight on the series. 

We really don't care about your situation.....

 

 

The Terrain Engine

Despite DX10 and gorgeous sea there were a few issues with the terrain which you could surmise were due to having to release the game earlier than expected.

·         The frame rate was considerably worse.

·         You needed DX10 capability to run it.

·         The land was a barren wasteland with unrealistic looking terrain and coastlines – not befitting a sim or a game.

·         The files for modding it were locked away so potentially no more 3^rd party terrains. Whether Thirdwire intended to sell us future Terrain DLCs is still an unknown.

 

But the sea was nice.

 

Luckily the game still supported the older terrain format so Gerwin did put out an old format Iceland terrain and Stary put out some enhanced tiles that I use to this day without the new sea. This mod worked in DX9 and had far better frame rates all round.

 

 

Some related Mods:

 

 

 

[FalconC45 157]

MiGBuster, can I put this on my facebook page?

 

Falcon

[MigBuster 2,860]

12 hours ago, FalconC45 said:

MiGBuster, can I put this on my facebook page?

 

Falcon

Yes you can.

[+gerwin 449]

Nice Review! Early 2012 was an exciting time for fans of the series. I actually have to play around with the SF2NA campaign and such, since I was always too busy modding it instead. The Naval War features are really interesting and added welcome new gameplay to the game.

PS. Stary's tileset you linked to requires and older version of my IcelandNA terrain mod. I don't think that version is available for download anywhere. The latest IcelandNA Classic terrain introduced brown rock transition tiles. A full tileset is included with the Terrain mod anyways, but it has a lower resolution compared to Stary's.

 

 

[jeanba 1,915]

Nice review with usefull links

 

Wish for new SF2 support by TW :(

Edited November 13, 2017 by jeanba

[Slartibartfast 153]

Been a long time since I have played or even checked in on what is happening was a bit of a slap from TW ditching the PC guys who got them going... might have to do a reinstall and have a nostalgic fly around...

[MigBuster 2,860]

On 11/12/2017 at 7:23 PM, gerwin said:

PS. Stary's tileset you linked to requires and older version of my IcelandNA terrain mod. I don't think that version is available for download anywhere. The latest IcelandNA Classic terrain introduced brown rock transition tiles. A full tileset is included with the Terrain mod anyways, but it has a lower resolution compared to Stary's.

 

 

Was that removed as well? - not seeing anything

 

[+gerwin 449]

This is the topic that I maintained about the Classic IcelandNA Terrain. The download location is mentioned right at the top there. I host my own website with a humble Strike Fighters Downloads section. That may have confused you.

[MigBuster 2,860]

That's the baby! cheers

[+daddyairplanes 8,609]

On 11/13/2017 at 9:30 AM, Slartibartfast said:

Been a long time since I have played or even checked in on what is happening was a bit of a slap from TW ditching the PC guys who got them going... might have to do a reinstall and have a nostalgic fly around...

indeed it has been awhile.  good to see you checking in

[Snailman 517]

Good old times. When I joined with the Vertical addon eheh.  That's how I found CombatAce, searching for Yak-38s to fly

[Slartibartfast 153]

On 15/11/2017 at 2:25 AM, daddyairplanes said:

indeed it has been awhile.  good to see you checking in

Hey DA I lurk nowadays just a serious lack of time due to work which has screwed me over... we got hit with the major Trojan/Virus thing back end of June wiped everything out at work so fun and games all round...

[Boresight 51]

Hello MigBuster,

 

Nice to read this review, as North Atlantic will always be a classic for me.

This release was the sole reason why I updated my PC to Windows 7 a few years ago, (wich I'm still using by the way.)

 

Where did you get that Menu Screen from ?

Is it isolated or part of some mod package ?

 

Thank you.

[MigBuster 2,860]

Hello

It is nowhere but on my PC

HD 1920 x 1080 if you want a copy of the set?

 

[Boresight 51]

On 29/04/2018 at 11:20 PM, MigBuster said:

Hello

It is nowhere but on my PC

HD 1920 x 1080 if you want a copy of the set?

 

Hello again,

 

Thank you no need to bother, found something similar in the download section (menu screens) !

 

 

[stixs 0]

Is this update ready?? and where can I purchase it??

[jeanba 1,915]

The update is made of several modes which can be downloaded:

links are provided at the end of the first post ("some related modes") : click on the images

 

SF2NA can be purchased at thirdwire

Edited August 29, 2018 by jeanba

[stixs 0]

On ‎29‎/‎08‎/‎2018 at 10:06 AM, stixs said:

I find it a little confusing to add the Airfield_7+8_Addon , sorry new at this

 

[JosefK 911]

Some nights I just dream I could buy the source code for this program and pay to keep developing it.  It's a great, great air combat & strategy game.  Very grateful for the CombatAce.com community building on it, keeping the game relevant & timely & lively.

[jeanba 1,915]

same here !

[MiGMan_Flight_Sim_Museum 5]

Great overview!!

[+Viper63a 651]

Nice review + essential links - Very nice. A good starting place for beginners and a reminder for the rest of us...