Looking Glass Studios look set to follow in Microsoft’s footsteps and make the transition from civilian to combat flight sim. Flight Combat: Thunder Over Europe will offer a wide range of aircraft, from nippy little fighters right up to lumbering great bombers. "Flight Combat: Thunder Over Europe will put gamers in the pilot’s seat of one of history’s most dynamic air battles,” said Constantine Hantzopoulos, project director at Looking Glass. “The attention to detail and gut-wrenching action will make Flight Combat one of the most intense air combat simulations on the market this fall."

Visitors to the Tokyo Game Show were buzzing with the news that Resident Evil 3 is to be released on December 3 for PlayStation 2. Could this be the first real clue as to the new console’s release date? We think so. We also think that Sony may be a little unhappy that the special date slipped out in this manner.

Emulator freaks will be delighted to hear that you can now use your favourite console controllers on the PC. DirectPad Pro is a combination hardware/software interface that enables Windows 95 and 98 to utilise PlayStation, Saturn, Atari, Mega Drive, Jaguar, SNES and other kinds of console peripherals. Get yourselves over to the ZipLabel websiteto see how it’s done. Warning – there will be a little bit of wiring involved!

Hogging the limelight in the FG Chat Forum this week was the old ‘Nintendo Vs PlayStation Vs Dreamcast Vs PlayStation 2 Vs PC' debate. Always a hot-tempered affair, but strangely enough no-one ever seems to win it. Deep down we all know it’s the Jaguar, don’t we? PS2 and Dreamcast are still slugging it out toe-to-toe, with the DC holding out well. Many readers are obviously impressed by the PS2, but they also rate the DC very highly and will buy the machine when released. Sonic is alive and kicking, or so it would seem. There has been a lot of talk about problems with software companies and their after-sales support/helpdesks. ‘Steve’ has been having major problems getting help from a certain company, as have many others. Have you got a horror story to tell? Are we getting short-changed by these big corporations? Air your views please... Elsewhere this week a wide range of weird and wonderful topics were thrashed out. The hunt for ex-Your Sinclair editor Linda Barker is hotting up. Her current whereabouts is giving the Forum’s wannabe detective ‘Clam’ a few problems. If you know what the elusive Barker is currently up to, drop into the Chat Forum and let us know. The physics of the light sabre has also given us some lighthearted titillation; some strange fellow seemed to be under the deranged delusion that Lara Croft is, in fact, a ‘Fox’; and one unfortunate reader confessed that his wife has a beard. It’s been that sort of a week.