About this product

Product Information

While Warbirds III: Fighter Pilot Academy is designed primarily for networked multiplayer action, novice pilots are given the opportunity to play training missions and practice before flying online in combat against gamers with more experience. The offline missions include tutorials in the cockpit of a P38-L, take-off and landing procedures at the beginning, intermediate, and advanced skill levels, air combat maneuvers, ground gunnery, carrier practice, and target drone practice. In addition to the "Academy" part of training, offline action also includes Battles and Instant Action modes, with a myriad of customizable settings such as unlimited ammo, invulnerability, disabling structural limits and blackouts, number of wingmen, time of day, and starting altitude.<br><br>Warbirds III features three battles (Battle of Britain, B17-Tailgunner, and Liberate Paris) and nine instant-action scenarios ranging from one-on-one and two-on-two dogfights to ground assault and bombing missions. A fully functional mission editor allows unlimited construction of offline missions and gameplay offers several dimensions of control including flying, bombing and gunnery attacks, carrier operations, and driving ground vehicles. Online gameplay includes capturing enemy airfields and towns, dogfights, strafing, and much more in air, land, and sea battles with more than 65 different airplanes, tanks and ships.<br><br>At the time of the game's initial release, iEntertainment offered three separate pay plans for online competition at their Internet web site. Premium (unlimited hours in any WarBirds arena for a monthly fee), Standard (unlimited hours in demo arenas plus 15 hours of flight in any pay arena (additional hourly rates apply beyond the base 15 hours)), and Basic (same as Standard but only five hours of flight in pay arenas). Online play features numerous customization options such as private (team) radio frequencies, protocols for ignoring selected players, message transmission, rotating terrain sets, and private arenas.