I have not watched all the trailers/ videos, so what about the weapons? Are there lots like Aces High II? Also, when you shoot someone with a machinegun, does their plane break apart like I saw in the videos? If so, I will definitly check it out!
Every single weapon from WW2 made for each plane in the game is in the game. And in the 1946 expansions, some other "what if WW2 lasted another year?" type weapons and scenarios are there as well.
And to your second question, yes, it totally does. You see fabric and paint chips fly off as you hit them. Land a cannon burst on the wingtip and watch it fly off, maybe even hitting your roosterpit or flying into your radiator (has happened to me). Get a nice shot on the place where the wing attaches to the fuselage and watch the wing fly off, leaving the enemy plane spinning downward in a death spiral.
Get a hit in his radiator and watch him start spewing smoke. Get a machine gun hit in his fuel tanks and watch them leak fuel, fuel which he can't use (as fuel is important and realisticly modeled). Get a cannon in his fuel tanks and watch the plane go boom. Get a hit in his propeller and he can't fly anymore. Get a hit in the roosterpit and he'll watch as his instruments are shot out, and soon he himself will be shot out.
Get someone in the parachute as they are ejecting and watch them go down. Get someone in the gears as they're landing and, unless they're lucky, will go down in a heap of smoke, creating a large obstacle to prevent takeoff on that runway. Watch as he crash-lands, he goes spinning into one of the airfield's AA guns, taking out the operators, or into the fuel depot, which blows up quite handily.
This game is freakin' amazing.
