Test System

• PII 300 Mhz
• 32 MB Ram
• Diamond V330
• Diamond Monster II 8 MB
• TM Stick & Throttle

It's always nice to try something new and in that spirit many will feel the urge to jump into a quality action sim, now and then. Jet Fighter: Full Burn does a fine job of providing exactly that: it's a neat thrill ride for the action-inclined and, if you have some horsepower, runs as smooth as pantyhose under 3Dfx.

Unfortunately, fans of the weightier Jane's or DID sims will not find enough complexity in JFFB to stoke their combative interest, to say the least. But all the same, entry-level simmers and virtual aces fed up with manuals denser than LSAT guides are sure to enjoy what this game offers. Even haggard warhorses out there may find this sim to have a certain charm. I did.

Let's begin with the cool: strap on a F/A-18 and head out on a free flight for some low-level barnstorming. Observe (under 3Dfx) awesome framerates as you sweep through valleys and over terrain on par with EF2000 V2.0. On the subject of eye-candy, this sim delivers big by having very nice object-detail, visible ordnance, and explosion effects, all of which I found surreally real. Panning around your jet you get an eyeful of mean-looking Maverick and AMRAAM-enough to make any MiG pilot whimper … a role which, incidentally, this game allows you to perform.

Choose your side carefully and you'll find yourself flying seat-of-the-pants a brand new Mikoyan MiG-42 - a weird-looking delta-wing evolution of the MiG-29 equipped with a pair of forward canards, presumably for shortening take-offs and enhancing maneuverability or something. It's a stealthy multirole plane that handles much like the F-22 in the game, another available option.

Each of these planes is reputed to boast its own inherent advantages within the game, undoubtedly having to do with their sneakiness, radar-absorbency and supercruise ability. I was thrilled to find a good old meat and potatoes F/A-18 with its time-tested engines and combat legacy. The plane has real personality and, in JFFB, ridiculous power under the hood and its customary lethal attack-suite - bombs, Mavericks, M-61 Vulcan.

All right, I can't help mentioning this: When watching your plane in the external you'll see your little pilot dude turn his head to track your position, then look forward again as he resumes the task of flight. God! He even makes glances over at you while he's busy maneuvering.

Also nicely handled is this rushing sensation you get during carrier launch. You really sense the raw speed of the sudden stroke. The deck of said CVN is appropriately bustling with Hornets and their navalized F22 brethren which crowd the scant flight deck; jet-blast deflectors bear the grime of a thousand launchings. Too bad we don't have little ordnance crews and Greenshirts running around: guess we'll have to wait a while longer for that feature to appear in tomorrow's sims. Smoke and, in particular, flares, caught my eye and are well done.

This game gives you a great sense of speed during low-level flight - a la JSF. The reasons for this are twofold: terrain is mountainous and easily gained with the exaggerated thrust of your (Hornet's) twin General Electric F404s. In addition, if you happen to have a wingman, he'll cruise somewhat forward and right of your plane, giving you a fine sense of speed and a nice atmospheric view of the terrain you're whisking over - even if the formation itself is a bit doctrinaire, it pays off by being more fun.

Click to continue . . .

JFFB has a full array of options for the newcomer. From the main screen you may choose to train for the U.S. Navy or for Mother Russia, connect for some multiplayer co-op or head-to-head, or jump straight into a campaign. The training missions are for the most part very easy for someone with simulation experience, but surprises do lurk in the seemingly benign airspace. During one of the ground-attack missions I found myself all at once amidst dark cloudlets of 57mm flak; these would thunk the fuselage and jar the screen in what I felt was a neat effect.

On the other hand, SAM evasion throughout the sim was disappointingly straightforward: punching chaff invariably broke the lock of a SAM. Or, failing to detect a SAM, there was little chance of surviving even one hit, just lawn dart time. Nevertheless, the skies were appropriately dangerous during that ingress phase.

Training involved such menial tasks as landing on the carrier, blowing up a huge factory with one bomb, or shooting down a multimillion dollar drone with a 'winder. These missions were well set up and helpful at easing you into the sim. (That's not to say I didn't get wasted on some of the training missions. Even virtual jet-jocks have overinflated egos, I guess.)

One problem I had with the game concerned the cockpits: by today's standards these seemed rather Spartan - both in their appearance and in their functionality. Graphically, they didn't measure up to the beauty of the world beyond them: both the F/A-18 and the MiG forward views had huge blocky framing pieces over the HUD (to represent the canopy structure) which, while closer to real life, substantially limit the vision of the occupant.

Fortunately, you can toggle the cockpit off and rely on a radar display next to the HUD for targeting, and fly with a clean forward view. The F-22 doesn't have this problem, but I don't like making the compromise in the F/A-18 and the MiG.

Moreover, the MFDs in all the cockpits can be zoomed, (much like JSF) but their contents have a nasty pixelated look up close, even in the highest available resolution (640 x 480). The information portrayed there doesn't turn out to be all that helpful anyway, as the HUD already indicates waypoints and targeting info, eliminating any need for MFDs in the first place. Perhaps it is because they are so seldom used that the game's designers elected to place less emphasis on detailing the displays.

Go to Part II