33LIMA

I ran FE2 (and occasionally, SF2 Europe) on a 512Mb 8300 GS and it ran okay, but a few more FPS and the ability to rack up the graphics options a bit higher would have been welcome. So the answer for an 8400 is probably 'yes', but a better card would definitely be a good idea if you want it to run well, rather than merely 'okay'. The table here shows the comparative specs of the cards in that series, with the right-hand column giving some idea of comparative performance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_8_series. My next card after the 8300 GS was a second hand 8800 GT and it was much better with SF2 sims and a big improvement on my other sims, like Steel Fury and IL-2 '46. I would say something of the performance of the old 8800GT is about the minimum standard you want for a decent experience with SF2.

Yeah I'm also very glad padlock's there now. With that, the recent FM tweaks and maybe because I'm getting the hang of BoS gunnery with Soviet fighters where 'spray and pray' is more like 'twinkle and pray' and you have to aim more carefully, I'm doing reasonably well now, even against fighters... ...while my wingmen seem to do okay too, with or without padlock... ...and the steady stream of 'skins' is continuing, too...

There's something wrong. You should get the standard, tabbed debrief screen with (from memory) the log of events, roster and summary. Don't know how to fix it, short of a reinstall. I take it you have applied the Third Wire patch - the April 2008 one IIRC: http://www.thirdwire.com/downloads_archive.htm

A recent (pre-christmas) update has made padlock available in campaign! Also now available is the facility to have a custom, user-made 'skin' on your aircraft, which don't need unlocked. Here's a sample of what's already available. Details are here.

As a footnote, my luck didn't last long. The 109s got me on my next mission. That town was still buring across the frozen Don, over to my right... I had a good time leading the flight along at 4-500 metres, admiring the view, orienting the map against the landmarks and generally enjoying the ride in the decent weather... We met the Stukas we were hoping to intercept, though they were flying very low. I went after the Stukas while my two wingmen obligingly took on the escorting 109s, delighted to find that padlock is now working in campaign mode, after the last update... Wary of the trio's rear gunners with their fast-firing MG81Z twin-mountings, I got some hits before breaking away for a seond pass, glad of the ability to flick padlock on and off to help me track the big Junkers. But one of the 109s had slipped past my two wingmen. First I knew, there were tracers flying past. Then there was a dull bang and my Yak rolled hard left, minus its port wing... With the plane going down in a vertical nose dive I chopped the throttle and just about managed to get out . Oh well, better luck next time!

Hi tselpedes I'll let the DCS players cover the detail but Digital Combat Simulator is the current umbrella name for a range of simulation products: http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/world/ Its origins lie in Lock On - Modern Air Combat which featured modern US and Russian warplanes with a campaign set in the Crimea (IIRC). I have 'LOMAC' as ot was known but haven't played it much. The 'Flaming Cliffs' series was the next iteration of LOMAC, which has now spawned in turn the DCS series. Though it features some WW2 planes and an F-86, there is as yet no campaign or suitable theatre for these, ahead of the mooted WW2 product. There is no relationship with the Strike Fighters series, a long-running and fully-fledged set of complete combat flight sim products, with planes and campaigns including WW1 (First Eagles) and from the Cold War onwards, including Vietnam and Middle East.