to be "a bit empty", which he believed damaged the game's atmosphere. However, he noted that Flight Unlimited IIs "underlying playability" made it "worthwhile" and "addictive". Presley summarized, "[A]s a time-waster, a novelty item or an office toy, it does the job and it does it well." Jonathan Gordon of The Independent wrote, "The original Flight Unlimited promised much but delivered relatively little, and it's a similar story with this sequel." He noted that the graphics, while good from a distance, became "disappointingly bland" up close; and he found the game to be limited compared to Microsoft Flight Simulator '98. Flight Unlimited II was a runner-up for Computer Gaming Worlds 1997 "Simulation Game of the Year" award, which ultimately went to Longbow 2. The editors called Flight Unlimited II "the first aviation sim to truly capture the environment of real civilian flying". Aftermath In April 1998, Looking Glass released a patch for Flight Unlimited II that included six new adventures, a new plane (the Fokker Dr.I) and an "Adventure Builder Kit", which allowed players to construct their own adventures and to share them online. The patch also added moving objects on the ground. After completing Flight Unlimited II, certain members of the game's team wanted to develop Flight Unlimited III, while others wanted to create Flight Combat. Looking Glass split the team in two and expanded both with new hires, so that the games could be developed simultaneously. Flight Unlimited III lead designer Peter James later wrote that his project's development was troubled, in part because of a lack of interest from company management. It became one of Looking Glass's biggest commercial failures. Flight Combat (renamed Jane's Attack Squadron) struggled through a long and costly development cycle. Both projects contributed to Looking Glass's closure in May 2000. Mad Doc Software later completed Jane's Attack Squadron, and it was published by Xicat Interactive in March 2002. Notes External links Flight Unlimited II download at the Internet Archive 1997 video games Flight simulation video games General flight simulators Looking Glass Studios games Video games set in San Francisco Single-player video games Video game sequels Video games developed in the United States Windows games Windows-only games