World War II based videogames may be a dime a dozen (a nickel, actually), but the industry continues to churn out quality products, one of which is Ubisoft's epic dog fighting game, Blazing Angels: Squadrons of World War II. This extremely intense and highly anticipated shooter is coming out for the Xbox 360 this March and I finally got my hands on a demo. It's not exactly packed with features and levels, but it's enough to give me a small taste of what to expect, and damnit sir (or Madame), I want some more!

In Blazing Angels, you play an Allied fighter pilot and the game allows you to fly your real world craft through the war's most important battles including Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Midway, the Liberation of Paris, Operation Dynamo, and several other classic conflicts. There's also a mouth watering online mode that supports up to 16 people, but unfortunately, it wasn't available in our demo. Actually, the only two levels I could play were the Battle of Britain and Pearl Harbor.

The Battle of Britain begins with my plane in the air and I'm instantly attracted to the gorgeous scenery. Say what you want about Namco's Ace Combat series, but Blazing Angels is by far the most visually intense flying game ever made. Not only are the planes exquisitely detailed, but the horizon as well as the craftsmanship on the ground is insane. Out in front, there's a large sun poking through immense white, puffy clouds, its rays beaming through the marshmallow. And on the ground there's...umm...well there's London. There are polygonal buildings and bridges and clock towers all over the place and it's crazy because stuff like that has never been seen before in a flying game of any type, especially one as beautiful as Blazing Angels. But things really get nuts when the enemy comes into view and suddenly there are Nazis all over the place. The goal is to protect Parliament from being destroyed but it's a task that I have trouble completing as I'm blanketed with machine gun fire and surrounded by burning wrecks that are plummeting to their doom. I weave around and dash through a few thick, black clouds but the level doesn't end well. My tail catches fire, I spiral into a building and explode.

What makes the game especially challenging is the lack of a zoom function, a feature that made Ubisoft's last WWII game, Heroes of the Pacific so enjoyable. But that's not exactly reality so I understand why it's not here in this game, but having grown accustomed to it, the lack of it makes Blazing Angels that much harder. The AI is fast and shows little mercy, as it doesn't take long to meet the grim reaper. Luckily, I can control my squad, a group of three guys named Tom, Joe, and Frank, and I can instruct them to cover my ass or break off. In fact, the enemies are such blood-thirsty bastards that you really need to utilize your squad's talents or else someone will be scraping you off the side of a building.

Controls are easy to get the hang of, especially after I messed around with the Y axis. The L trigger is used to maneuver the plane, Right trigger controls speed bursts (tilting up), slowing down (tilting back), secondary fire, and taking off. The Right trigger is for primary fire, pressing B will display your closest threat, A is your next objective, and that's about all that you need to know. And in my play sessions the planes never stalled which is definitely one less thing that I had to worry about.

As for Pearl Harbor, it's just as impressive as the aforementioned level except the scenery has changed to sun soaked Hawaii. But unfortunately, this infamous day is anything but thrilling. Japanese planes are turning the airfield into Swiss cheese and on the plus side, I performed much better in this mission, carving up my enemies and protecting the ships for as long as I could, though eventually, the AI got the better of me and kicked my ass.

Unlike the Battle of Britain, Pearl Harbor begins on the runway. To start the plane I had to rotate the right analog stick clockwise and doing so gets the propeller spinning. From there, I tilted the same analog stick up to build some momentum, then pulled back to take off. From there, I made a huge wide turn and engaged the NPCs full bore, obliterating three that were trying to drop bombs onto some of America's planes. After taking them down, then I took some time to get used to my surroundings, and just like Britain, Hawaii looks extremely impressive. White caps dance atop the ocean's surface, numerous battle ships sit in the water, palm trees, buildings, and planes decorate the ground, and rolling green hills provide a tantalizing back drop that begs to be ogled. This is just a really great looking game, not exactly the best centerpiece for the hardware, but significant for reasons that aren't immediately noticeable.