From: griffith@acuson.com (Paul Griffiths)
Subject: F-15 III review (bloody long)
Organization: Acuson; Mountain View, California
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 21:31:43 GMT

	Anxiously awaiting F-15 III, I had taken to calling up the
local Egghead store every 1/2 hour. The poor sod at Egghead was
getting pretty piqued at my incessant calling.  When I finally heard
that F-15 was in, I dashed out of work and turned my usual thirty-five
minute commute (to egghead) into a ten minute cruise. (all accidents
generated were non-fatal...well most of them).  When I got to the 
store I snatched up the silver box, (shook it to make sure it really
had disks inside...I'm not falling for the 'empty box trick again') 
and headed for the cash register.  I had to endure the usual Egghead
delay. (fifteen minutes of listening to the 'saleman' explaining to
some old biddy that the 'Star Trek screen saver' is not a game.) I
paid cold hard Amex for the box and darted out the store.  After storming
in the house and bunging my disk into slot b.  I installed the game
while catching my breath.
	Ooooh...the startup sequence was pretty nice...digitized
speech, nice view of F-15 takeoff...The wife sitting back on the
couch was impressed...(though she ruined it by asking how much did
this 'NEW' game cost...<cough..cough>)  Initially I selected a 
single mission at 'retard' level.  Flying the plane was the easy part,
figuring out all these bloody keys and trying to configure seven different
MPCD screens was not. I had to take a bath to get all the blood off me,
(see: Commute above)  so I took the thirty minutes or so to read the
manual (all the good bits anyway from cover to cover).  Feeling refreshed
and informed I took my critical eye back to my 486/33 and sat down for
a 'real' session of F-15.

	Graphically this game is 'alright'...They use bitmapping to generate
both sky and ground.  The bitmapping though is quite blocky.  Sitting back
on my couch (about ten feet from the VDU) the graphics look really nice, 
however not having the luxury of a ten foot joystick/keyboard cord, I'm
forced to sit two/three feet away and endure the blocky filled screen.
I must admit I do like some of the 'sky scapes' (tm) that are generated
when the weather is not clear.  Like some perverted Monet the sky is
filled with greys, blues, whites and aqua.  The ground is the weak part
if you ask me. Depending on the theatre the ground is either tan, with
brown blocks, green with tan blocks, or green with blue blocks.  (I'll
let you figure out which theatre is which). Hurtling above the ground
at 100ft, one does get a sense of movement alright, but the passing 
terrain gets predicatable and after a few hours of flight time passe.
Flogging along w/ full AB's over cities and towns does give some visually
appealing buildings. Mr. Sadams mailing address is done quite well, as
are most of the targets you have to blow up.  There is never any doubt
that the Sam site is a Sam site...port facilites do look like port facilities.
I'd say targets and buildings are a notch above that of GS2000.  
Mountains and hills are improved over anything else Microprose has
ejaculated lately. While still sort of a 'pyramid slapped on flat ground'
approach, they seem to have placed them close together, merged them if you
will, so that you can really start flying down valleys, crags and ditches.
To sum it up, I'd say the graphics look really cool to all those wifes/kids
and relatives that look over your shoulder, to you the pilot...well it's
the best Microprose has put out so far, and if you can endure the lands
of GS2000, and ATAC, you will certainly enjoy the lands of F15-III.

***I flew/fly F15 in Expert mode...I wanted everything authentic***
	(read: Obviously a completely anal flight simmer.)

	Right, now the meaty part.  The F-15 is a pig.  The manual mentions
it a few times, and I've read it enough to actually start to believe it.
When the F-15 is fully loaded (as it inevitably is for most missions) its
a heavy sod that would equate to 'driving a cadillac towing a four place
horse trailer down a windy highway'.  It still rolls, and gets along at
a good clip, but it's turning radius is dismal.  I have found that on the
flights back when fuel is low, and all my ordinance is burning butts back
at the target the plane does appear as nimble as Jack.  (still remember
the F-15 is no F-16, nor is it exactly a small aircraft).  The flight
model does seem to take weight into effect quite nicely, which is one
plus I'll give it.  Inside the cockpit is a first time flight simmer's
nightmare...(I can see a lot of confused dad's & kids on Christmas
day) For the more experienced it's just getting to know the keys...some
are familiar..(BKSP is select nxt target) Some are not..(Shft-1 cycles
through the MPCD (multi-purpose-color-display).  Basically you (as the
pilot and backseater) have access to seven screens, and three different
modes. (aa-ag-nav) You can pull up maps, a-g radar, a-a radar, tews, weapons
display, damage status, art. horizon, compass, flir, and probaly a
far-side calendar display if you can figure out all the bells and whistles.
F-15III really does seem to have gotten the complexity of the cockpit of
the Eagle down pat.  Once you've stumbled through the menu and flown
a few missions you begin to see what display is worth having on your
MPCD's. (pilot has three up front and backseater has four) and what is not.  
As in real life F-15 does have a TFR. (terrain following radar) I avoid
using this like the plague, one it's bloody boring and two it has a tendency
to pull up a little too high over mountains and turns your 'Strike Eagle,
into 'Radio Eagle'. (Every enemy radar within a fifty mile radius pegs you)
Most of your cockpit work revolves around switching from a-a mode to a-g
mode. Having flown this sim for more hours than I'll ever admit to, I'll
say that Display management becomes second nature, and the only way to
really have fun is flying the Eagle low...real low.  
	Weapons.  You have the usual assortment of bombs and missles...
9m, am-120, all the mk's. and a harpoon.  Bombing is as easy in III as
it was in II and I.  I have yet to really miss a target (with the bomb
that is) you are rewarded with some nice explosions when you do drop
ordinance.  Nice big belching clouds of fire, rolling with black smoke
lighting up the whole sky..(at night of course).  You could get picky
and wonder why when you've dropped a Mk82 on an infantry group, what
the hell is causing it to burn, nice, big belching clouds of fire for
the rest of the scenario..(read: Once a target explodes it does so
continually...) This is no real bugabo, in fact I kinda like it..but
this probaly says more about my early childhood than I could ever say.
	Air to air combat is usually a real pain in the ass.  When I'm
loaded to the gills with Rockeye II's...and 20000 lbs of fuel, the
last thing in the world I want is two bloody mig 29's sniffing me with
their radar. The secret to this game, as in both stealths from Microprose,
and I'm sure to the bombing game in real life, is to stay low and
avoid detection.  The Enemy AI though, seems to sense something is wrong
when Sadam's palace just got nuked, they will scramble fighters to that
area and begin a search pattern to track you down...again if you've avoided
all contact you can usually go ahead and frag your secondary target.  I
think the AI is not exactly outstanding on both the a-g and a-a forces.
HOWEVER it's really not that bad either, Case In Point.  I have been
shot down by the bastards quite a few times, without even knowing they
were tracking me... They don't use radar unless they have to, and will
sneak up on your six to get an IR shot.  

Views.
    There are the standard views common place in todays simulators, 
outside pan view, tactical, reverse tactical, padlock, side view..ad
nauseum. The one view (which jfII pilots will be familiar with) is
the panning view...here you use the keypad keys to control the pilots
head.  This is one feature I wish all sims had...not necessarily for
combat, but for passing scenery and flying the pattern. It allows a 
little more versatility in views from the cockpit..a definite plus
in my feeble mind.  

Simulation.
	Flying through clouds is always a factor for me.  If the
screen suddenly goes white...well I'm not impressed.  In F15-III, the
clouds are pretty well done, you could compare it to Falcon3...but it
could be arguable from both camps.  Night time missions are nicely done,
but how hard is it to paint a black screen?!? FLIR comes in handy, by
painting an infrared picture out the HUD. The one nice touch is the
ability to control 'position lights' Turn them on/off.  Call me silly,
but I love having the ability to play with little features like this.
(HELL the only reason MEGAFORTRESS is on my HD is cause you can turn
the windshield wipers on and off). The flight model seems to model,
what microprose tells you in the manual..(no suprise) and that is
it's a heavy plane when loaded, but has enough power to take you there.
 

	Ok, after this many paragraphs, the reader has either hit 'n' a
long time ago, or is just looking at the words as they roll along on
wondering who the stupid ass was that spent this much time typing this
'crap` in.  I'm gonna attempt to close this brief review with a list.
(Who doesn't love a list).

HITS!!!!:

1. Graphics.If you offered to drill my front teeth, then I'd be pressed to 
   say yes I do like how the sky is done...nice coloring and when
   you scream along the ground, watching the sky roll by is better
   than watching the ground scroll by.

2. Playability.  This games isn't as complex as Falcon3.  Yet still
   has enough enticement to keep me the avid flight sim. nut playing
   this game for hours.  Maybe after the novelty wears off I'll play
   this as sparsely as I do Falcon3.

3. Survivability.  Nothing gets my juices flowing as much as having
   to fly a plane that's been shot to shit. After taking a couple
   of hits from AAA, my MPCD's got shot up, I was loosing Fuel, my
   nav pod was blown off, and I'm losing oil pressure from my one
   remaining engine.  I'm a hundred miles from base and just barely
   holding my alt at 900ft.  AHhhhh...This is the life for me...
   Don't ask me why, but I like this type of stuff... Makes the
   game that much more interesting for me, and I think F-III has
   really done a nice job of giving me the chance to make it home.

4. AI.  Well, this is kind of a reluctant HIT, but I find that the
   radar guys on the ground, and aircraft do react to what you do.
   For instance I've been hugging the ground at 200 ft, and passed
   near a small town, (in Kuwait). I believe (would like to believe)
   that even though I didn't hit any radar contact I was spotted
   not long after whizzing by the town, some aircraft showed up
   ahead of me..seemingly waiting for me to wizz by...  If this
   does turn out to be my own imagination, well so be it.  But the
   AAA gunners alone, make the AI pretty fun to deal with.


5. (I'm sure there's more can't think of them)


MISSES!!!

1) Campaign mode, is dismal.  You get no sense of continuing the adventure..
   Progress reports are sad one-liners, sit-reps none existant.  This is
   one area where they couldn't improve it enough. IMHO.

2) I WANT TO BE ABLE TO HOOK UP WITH THE TANKER!!!!!!!  Why can't I!!??!
   It's there... In fact a lot of missions start with me disconnecting
   from it...WHY CAN'T I DO IT?>!?!!??!  (this really pissed me off...)
   Hell you have to fly back to the tanker to end the mission...!!!

3) Mission briefing... If this was the only information pilots got...well
   a lot of wars would have been lost...  COME ON MAN!!! They say that
   you will get an idea if it's an hi-lo-hi mission..or an lo-lo-lo mission..
   HA!! Tell me where...  Seriously, as has been mentioned I want to
   make my own waypoints...select my own way to the target..  The VCR shots
   of the target are ok...but 'NEED MORE INPUT'.  Couldn't improve this
   one enough either.

4) No automatic Back Seater...about the only thing this miserable sod says
   to me the whole flight is 'launch launch'.  BFD.  Now I'm not suggesting
   that we have a backseater of Falcon3 Ilk..(saying "request you check joker
   for the two hundred mile trip..) but at least maybe managing some systems
   and giving bogey locations would be helpful.  

5) AWACS.. Well I guess they tried to get Awacs involved here...but I've
   never found them much good.  Each time I call 'em up for a picture.
   (shft-p) I get pretty useless information such as. 'chicks 026, 50'.
   Bloody marvelous isn't it...I don't care about bloody friendly females
   dancing at the local night club... Can't they download a picture to
   one of my MPCD's?!? Shouldn't I get JUST a bit more info outta 'em?!?

6) I want to taxi and take off EVERY mission...or at least have that
   option... I hate being started 25000 ft off the ground stuck to the
   back of a fuelling hose... I WANT TO DO IT!!!  Taking off is extremely
   basic and sometimes a real drag...but hell ALL pilots do it...
   (aside: Cool pilot saying. "Take-offs are optional, landings mandatory)

7) Again I have more, but I've taken far more than my share of bandwidth.



	Overall...F-15 III has given me no lockups, cause to reboot or
 any configuration problems... It's about the best thing Microprose has
 put out in it's "aircraft" simulation line. It wouldn't hold up in a
 'realism' debate over Falcon3.  HOWEVER I think in a playability debate,
 it'd give Falcon3 a run for it's money.  I consider my self an avid
 flight simmer...hell I've stopped flying for real to afford a good system,
 and all this new software. So far, for all it's little problems, I have
 enjoyed flying F-15III. If you wanna play a game get III. If you a red
 blooded realist get Falcon3.  If you have some $$$ to throw around get
 both.  I'll probaly hold onto my copy of III...and probaly play it for
 quite a few more hours/days...until MICROPROSE puts out GRAND PRIX....

	(Sorry ...I knew this would be long..but not this long...)
			-Paul

Was it J.F.Kennedy who said "So what if I'm late for the parade what are
they going to do shoot me?!"
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games