From: masten@beta.lanl.gov (David A. Masten)
Subject: New sim for Power Users (tm)!
Organization: Los Alamos National Lab
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 17:21:02 GMT

Hey, has anyone got that new flight sim from MD?  It's touted as being
incredibly realistic, and it doesn't require that you have the "right
hardware"!  There are some drawbacks, but overall I'm impressed.  Below
is my preliminary review based on a few hours of play testing.

But first, to let you know where I'm coming from.  I rate realism of
above all else in flight sims.  Following in importance are modelling of
combat, graphics, sound, and 'fun'.  Falcon 3 is my current favorite.

F15 Eagle
No PC req'd
No copy protection
est $36M

Well, my first impressions was very favorable.  The graphics are
incredible, throw away Stunt Island, AOTP, and MPS's version!  Very nice
detail including many decals, struts on the canopy, moving flaps,
ailerons, gear, airbrake.  They must have used SVGA as I couldn't find a
jagged edge anywhere except for one ugly one on the tailplanes.  But one
can overlook this one slip-up. External views were equally revolutionary,
eclipsing even Commanche: Max Overkill!  No obvious pixels, and very
smooth framerate.  The gradient horizon was terrific, though sky color
wasn't as nice as dusk in F3.  But MD says that it is randomly generated
and is sometimes quite beautiful.  And I've been told night looks like
night.  Framerate was awesome, who needs localbus!  One problem,
switching between cockpit and outside views requires a very cumbersome
and lengthy procedure of toggling many buttons, raising the canopy,
unbuckling harnesses, and climbing down a ladder.  Why didn't they just
use the function keys?  And how do you use these in flight?  Similarly,
the intro sequences are tiresome.  A quick 'escape' to the cockpit option
would be appreciated.

Sound support is also pretty good, but the engines weren't anywhere near
loud enough.  I would like to see a volume control.  Digitized support
was comprehensive, no garbled 'waypoint, blah, blah' messages (although I
find F3's wingmen comments more entertaining).

Cockpit avionics are also superbly modelled.  They look just like those
in F15III, nice job MD!  They must have used that new HOTAS system
csipg'ers have been talking about as there were over 20 buttons between
the throttle and stick.  I at first found it confusing, but you get the
hang of it.  I recommend this combo for all you Power Users (though I'm
not sure if you need different PROMs for each game).  The buttons and
springs seemed very rugged, and the stick didn't slide all around (no c-
clamp required).  The throw was a little long, but I understand GD is
working on another sim that will have a force sensitive stick.  Can't
wait to try that one!

So I was really psyched to this point, but then I took it for a ride.  I
must admit I was a tad disappointed.  The thing accelerated like a
sceptic tank.  MD assures me this was due to the high load, so I'll
reserve judgement for now.  There was this annoying tendency for the
plane to lose altitude at very low speed, even though its nose was
pointed up!  The MD beta tester (I think they called him a 'test pilot'),
claims this is 'normal'.  Hummph, I guess he hasn't flown Jetfighter 2!
The worst part was what happened when I pulled a break turn from 600
knots.  Nothing like the pretty redouts and blackouts in CYAC.  It was
actually quite painful.  Impossible for dogfighting and clearly not ready
for the casual player.  But the best test of a flight model is the
landing.  I was just running through my famous 400 knot, quick flare,
Falcon 3 touch down, when I heard this choking sound from the beta
tester, and then suddenly I lost control of the plane.  It circled the
field on its own then made a rather mundane landing.  I must have hit the
autopilot key by mistake.


I didn't get to try out the combat mode of the plane as the tester made
some very rude comments and stormed away.  I think MD needs to work on
their marketing some if they plan to sell this to us shit-hot flight sim
jocks.

So overall, I think MD has developed what may eventually be a tour de
force sim here (I hesitate to call it a game).  But until they fix that
hi-G problem, I'll stick with Falcon 3.  And for this price, you can get
quite a number of other games.  But rumor has it a pirated version is
available on some BBS's (PLEASE DON'T START THE PIRACY DEBATE AGAIN!!)  I
look forward to giving it a more complete test when the patch comes out.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games