Game Systems, Always Trying To Cheat You

Recently I've been playing a lot of Secret Weapons Over Normandy, a World War 2 flight sim. I haven't been playing the missions, since I've already beaten those and the A.I. for my wingmen drives me nuts. What I've been doing instead is a sort of test to see which planes the game considers superior.

Basically, I'll chose a plane (say a Hawker Hurricane), take two wingmen, and go at it with four computer-controlled opponents in a different aircraft (maybe a Spitfire) for five minutes. Then, I switch, and play in three Spitfires against four Hurricanes, and compare the kill ratios of the two. In that example, when I was in the Hurricane I won 20 kills to 8, but with the Spitfire, I won 52 kills to 1. So yes, the game has the Spitfire markedly superior, as it should be.

It can be more fun than it sounds like, though it can also be less fun when comparing the less gifted aircraft. A Devastator/Stuka battle is dreadfully frustrating, with the planes being so slow, so unmaneuverable, and so poorly armed. It often takes a long time to get within range of the enemy, then you get them in your sights and start firing. And firing. And firing. Not that the other craft is necessarily a flying tank (though some of them are, the Mosquito, for example), but your weapons are just so terrible. On the upside, it makes me appreciate the abilities of the good airplanes all the more.

The thing I noticed was on a few occasions I'd be pursuing a computer opponent, and they'd be twisting, turning, diving and climbing, trying to get away, while I grow more and more frustrated that they won't hold still for just one second. As we duel, they keep getting closer to the ground, until, quite abruptly, they crash. It was especially irritating the first two times because I was trying to shoot down a Soviet IL-2, which was dubbed "The Concrete Airplane". It takes a lot of bullets to down one of those things, and when they crash, all the effort is for nothing, because you don't get credit for a kill. What's worse, normally crashing causes that side to lose a point. Except the computer cleverly saves these crashes for early in the battle, before it's racked up any kills. So it's essentially a freebie, no penalty, while its wingmen have been gradually chopping me to pieces as I chased that ultimately suicidal plane (my wingmen are only useful if they have the better plane, since their skill level iss et to the same level as that of the opponents). The crashed plane then respawns somewhere else a few moments later, completely repaired, all my effort washed away.

It's a strange, but effective trick, I must say.