Hey, it's quiz night. F-15 Strike Eagle 2, Falcon, F-16 Combat Pilot and F-19 Stealth Figther. What have all these games got in common? Have you got it yet? Come on, it's easy - they all start with the letter F!

Nah, only joking, the proper answer is that they are all flight simulators. More to the point, all the planes in these so-called flight simulators are very hi-tech and practically anyone can fly them. Shooting down the enemy is no problem - click on a button and your missiles will hit the target, even though the target is 80 miles away.

What you really need is a flight sim to test your raw ability. What could be better than a World War 2 plane simulator like, err Knights of the Sky? Wait a minute, that's far too old, what we need is brand new World War 2 sims like, er, umm...
Oh well there doesn't seem to be another one. Thank God for that I'm bobbins at plane games (crash of lighting followed by small thud). Oh dear, God does move in mysterious ways. Look what I've just received - a brand spanking new copy of Reach for the Skies. Gusp!

It's 1940, it's summer and the future of World War 2 hangs in the balance. The German Luftwaffe and the might of the RAF are about to go into battle once more. This time it's the Battle of Britain and whoever wins will have a damn good chance of winning the war.

Well, in Reach for the Skies anything could happen because you get a choice of who you want to be. Germany or Britain, the choice is entirely up to yo. So, if you're good enough you could change history.

Everyone knows that Britain won the battle because we're smart, but what would have happened if Germany had won the Battle of Britain and eventually won the war? It doesn't bear thinking about - all I can say is that there is no way you'll get me scoffing frankfurters although it has to be said that you'd always get a sunbed when on holiday.

Wahey, follow me on a journey, a journey back through time where the sights and sounds of the 1940s will shock and surprise you. A chance to become a World War 2 fighter ace beckons. So let's don our flying jackets, grab our yokes and take to the skies. Or, instead I could just boot up the ST and play Reach for the Skies.

Right the game has loaded. Hmm, it offers a choice of air forces. I could become a low-down, dirty Luftwaffe pilot or I could become a brave and heroic Brit and join the Royal Air Force. The choice is mine. Hmm, a bit of a toughie. Right, proud British fighter pilot it is. Time to jump into the old Spitfire and give those Jerries a right trashing and be back in Blighty in time for tea and cakes. Chocks away, chaps.

Almost all of the game is spent in the air in your plane - or I should say planes, because you actually control a squadron. This enables you to hop from plane to plane during battle - very handy if you're about to get blown up.

The 3D is quite impressive, especially when you fly the plane over land. There are plenty of external 3D views, all with the option to zoom in and out.

The controls in Reach for the Skies are really simple. Pull back on the stick to gain attitude, push down on the stick to lose altitude and left to go left and right to go, err right. Oh, and you push the Fire button to, umm, fire. See, simple.

There are plenty of dials and meters to confuse you and the control panel looks authentic enough. There is only one little problem with Reach for the Skies, and that is that when yout ake off it takes you ages before you finally get into battle with the enemy.

You can accelerate time, but it's not very realistic. Fortunately, there is an option to start off in the air, so you're much closer to the enemy.

The game is quite difficult and chasing the enemy over land and sea is tough. The enemy always seems to be that one step ahead of you ad it is really tough to shoot it down. It wouldn't be much of a challenge if you could shoot them down really easily, though.

Once your flight has been completed you have the great chance to watch it all again by using the video option. OK, so camcorders weren't exactly available back then, but the video option is a very nice touch. You could even send your finished comedy dogfights into Jeremy Beadle and win loads of money.

Despite the little problem, Reach for the Skies is an excellent flight simulator. The presentation in very nice and everything down to the tiniest little detail has been researched, which makes the game that little bit more interesting.

There is a good manual that goes with the game explaining all about World War 2 and other such interesting facts about the planes and so on. You almost feel like you're actually flying a World War 2 fighter plane.

There is an ideal opportunity to enhance the atmosphere in three simple, but effective ways. One: Get a fan and position it on your monitor and set it at full blast. Two: Grab a white scarf and some swimming goggles and wear them. Three: Get someone with a shotgun to shoot it over your head every couple of minutes.

Hey, who said Gamer wasn't full of informative ideas? (me, get on with it you prat - Ed). One thing that I definitely would recommend, even though it's not essential, is that you play the game on an accelerated machine. This makes it mega fast and you will fall in love with it instantly.

If you're looking for a World War 2 flight sim that's as good as, if not better than Knights of the Sky, then Reach for the Skies could be the game that you're yearning for.

Rowan Software, the creators of such hits as Flight of the Intruder have come up with a cracker.

It's not exactly original stuff, but it's damn exciting and damn realistic. God damn, Reach out for Reach for the Skies, it's brill.

IT's MID-1940, The RAF have foiled Hitler's attempts to invade England, and the German leader looks to Russia as his next target. England's shores must still be defended - and that's where you can come in and write yourself on to the pages of history.

Reach for the Skies offers you the choice to play as an RAF pilot, one of the 'thin blue line', protecting England from the ravages of the Luftwaffe bombers or as a pilot in the German Luftwaffe, whose aim is to crush the RAF and pave the way for invasion.

Don't know much about...
The game gives a great degree of historical background. A separate manual provides details on the history of the conflict, and the two air forces involved. The instruction and flight manual give you the background on flying the planes, and although this is heavily biased towards the PC version of the game, a separate technical supplement guides you through the Amiga version. The manuals are well written, and contain plenty of screen shots making it easy for you to find your way through the game.

Starting the game presents you with a choice of three roles. You can either practice flying (where the enemy planes can't damage you), play as a pilot (where you are assigned a specific mission), or as a controller, where you are given the various incoming threats, and have to decide what response to take.

If you take the third option, you are put in the position of one of the pilots once you have decides what your responses are to be.

The cockpit graphics are simple but well-drawn and informative. There are none of the complex shading and lighting routines of other flight simulators, but this results in extremely good gameplay. Even on a 1Mb A500, the graphics are smooth and the plane responsive.

Pardon?
The sound is a little disappointing. The engine noise is rather weak, and doesn't change much in response to the throttle. Even touches like digitised speech samples ('Spitfire attacking') don't liven it up much.

Plus, when you're flying in a Junkers JU87 (the dive bomber which appears in every World War II film you'll ever see), the diving noise comes in whenever you point the nose downwards. IT doesn't fade in, it just switches it immediately. There is music at the start and in the in-between mission sections, but this is not overly inspiring.

Choosing the controller role adds another element to the game. As well as flying missions, you have to determine how many planes are sent to combat each of the groups of bombers, and which types of planes are sent.

It works on a day by day basis, so if any planes are damaged, they may out of service for a few days. New planes are constantly being built, but these aren't available straight away.

In the German controller role, you are given a list of possible targets, and you decide home many and which type of planes to send against each. You can also set factors like the height of the planes, and any manoeuvres on the way designed to confuse the enemy.

The plane is very responsive, and can be controlled either form the keyboard or joystick (analogue or digital). For the long periods on the way to or from a dogfight, there's an autopilot which will guide the plane in the right direction. It's also possible to switch between the various planes in flight, and the ones you're not flying will automatically engage the autopilot, which can control the plane during a dogfight. A map keeps track of the positions of the various planes during flight, and this is constantly updated.

View from the bridge
All the usual cockpit and external views are present, including a 'combat view', which comes in handy during dogfights. This external view keeps both your plane and the bandit you're attackin in view. It's a little disorientating at first, but you soon grow accustomed to the procedure.

The planes have been accurately modelled in terms of behaviour, meaning that the Spitfire and Hurricans are extremely manoeuvrable, while the German Heinkel BF110 and Junkers JU87 are hopelessly outclassed, leading to frequent loss of the latter.

Given that the planes available are allocated by the powers that be, you have to make the best of what you've got. The JU87 is the only German plane where you actually controlling the bombing, as it involves dive bombing. This is done automatically with other aircraft, and the main thrust of the game is using your fighters to defend these bombers form the British attacks while getting them close to their targets.

The Battle of Britain is divided into four stages: you can jump into any of these on either side, or run through them all in sequential order, if you live that long. If your pilot is shot down and doesn't survive, you can either continue from the next day with a new pilot, or go back to the beginning of the conflict.

Mission control
You can control various options such as the armament and difficulty level during play form menus stored under the [F10] key. You can also alter the level of graphic detail used while playing, although it's very smooth, even on a 1Mb A500 at maximum detail.

It's also possible to record your combats on video tape (during the Second World War?), which you can save to disk to watch later. This records all of the information on the positions of the planes meaning that you can watch the battle form the enemy's viewpoint.

Reach for the skies is much more playable on a low-end Amiga than close contemporaries such as Their Finest Hour. It also concentrates more on the strategic side, and offers more control over the view that you take of your plane. Reach for the Skies seems to have the edge in speed and lasting playability.

This is an excellent flight simulator, and the option of playing the controller adds an extra lasting appeal to the game. Instead of throwing all of your planes at the threat, you're forced to consider the long term implications, as the enemy will keep coming back.

Where's Douglas Bader, that's what I'd like to know? We've been waiting 37 years for the licence of this classic war film and now that it's finally come out there isn't a legless flying ace in sight - although the way I fly it might look like I've been 'hitting the bottle' a bit. (This pun appears courtesy of Carry On Wing Commander, Ealing Studios, 1964. - Ed)

Reach For The Skies - the game - is a Second World War flight sim that's got a strategy element thrown in for good measure - okay, I know that, for the unconverted, that sounds like a combination even more hideous to contemplate than Hale and Pace.

But hold on there, 'cos Reach For the Skies is one of those rarities - a flight sim that just might appeal to non-flight-sim fans (the ones who can put their prejudices aside and their brains into gear for a second).

So here's your mission briefing: it's 1940 and the Germans are bombing England while the RAF defends the country form attack. You can choose to play as either the stiff-upper-lipped English mob or the stiff-lower-limbed (well, what else explains that march?) Hunnish bunch in the prequel of the 1966 World Cup.

The FAF get to fly around in Hurricanes and Spitfires while the Luftwaffe have Ju87s, Ju88s, Do17s, He111s, Bf109s and Bf110s.

Your next decision: do you want to be a Flight Controller or just a lowly pilot? Choose to be a controller and you have to deal with all the strategy-type bits, though you do still get to fly missions. It's best to practise as a pilot first, otherwise, no matter how great a strategist you are, if you fly like a dodo then you'll let the side down, old chap.

The flight sequences are top-notch stuff. They're fast, exciting and, best of all, easy to get the hang of. Yeah, sure, the manual's full of diagrams that look like a physics project, but for once it all seems to make sense and you can be up and loop-the-looping and dog-fighting in no time.

The autopilot helps, sure, but you'll realise that as soon as you engage in combat you have to switch that off and rely on your own skills.

The authors, Rowan, also haven't gone overboard in the realism stakes. The accelerated mode means you don't spend ages hanging about in the air before anything good happens, there's a handy info panel in the cockpit which summarises what all the dials are saying (which can be switched off) and even a choice of flight realism levels. Basically, the more confident you become, the more difficult you can make the game for yourself, F1GP-style.

As for the strategy bits - well, you know the way that some sports sims have training sections that are really tedious and just get in the way of the action? Reach For The Skies is almost the exact opposite. Planning attacks (if you're in the Luftwaffe) or your defence strategy (if you're in the RAF) actually gets you more involved with the game.

The only shame is that the presentation of these sequences is so uninspired, especially considering how classy the flight sections look.

Blimey, a whole WW2 flight sim review and not a single mention of chocks... (Snip! Ed).