Fans of the tactical flight genre will be delighted to hear that Atari and Red Mile Entertainment are planning to add a new title to their "Heroes" franchise. Dubbed Heroes over Europe, the game will be released in 2009 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles, as well as PC systems.

The sequel to the appreciated World War II flight combat sim Heroes of the Pacific puts aspiring combat pilots into the cockpits of major planes and sends them to fight some of the most important World War II European air battles (in high definition, of course). Heroes over Europe follows the Allied campaign from the attacks on London to the destruction of Berlin, with players under orders to strap themselves into the authentically rendered cockpits of the iconic aircrafts used in the campaign. Their mission is simple: to survive the most ferocious dogfights ever seen in a flight combat game. Accomplishing it is a bit more difficult.

"The Heroes series has brought some of the world's most exciting air battles in history to gamers all over the world, and Heroes over Europe builds on the series' impressive legacy with highly detailed realistic visual presentation and an even deeper online experience," said Cyril Voiron, Atari's VP Brand Management Worldwide Publishing.

The game is powered by a brand new graphical engine developed by Melbourne-based Transmission Games. The company promises to raise the quality bar for combat flight sim titles and in order to do so, it will bring us brand new game modes, as well as a better online multiplayer experience for up to 16 players. From a visual point of view, the game will represent a big leap into the future, bringing us beautifully rendered environments, including true-to-life re-creations of London and Berlin. Actually, the only thing that doesn't look nice for the game is the fact that the developers plan to launch additional content as downloadable packs the same day Heroes over Europe gets released. That's pretty ugly, if you ask me.