by D. Eric Marlow, "Snacko" January 11th, 2000

  Sound Quality

I found the in-game sounds to be undistinguished. Runway rumble, gear, and flap sounds were not modeled, or at least were so quiet that I wasn't sure they were in the game. Strangely, the carrier deck crew's footsteps are modeled, but I doubt seriously if you could ever hear these in the real world. The Vulcan cannon sounds were about as inadequate as Bob Dole when he's not taking Viagra.

DI has elected to have the pilot speak to himself. Consequently, you are inundated with commentary such as "opening up burners", "he's got me locked up", "he's firing", and the strangely worded "it's hotting up down there" - must be the new pilot lingo.

I'm guessing that having the pilot speak to himself was based on the decision to give the pilot more situational awareness. Granted this does help in some conditions, but I would have preferred to have the ability to turn this feature off.

Realism

DI's marketing literature offers the supposition that Super Hornet is one of the most advanced and realistic simulations available. While there is no disputing that much work went into the modeling of aircraft, weapons, and carrier operations, certainly there is room for improvement when we look to Super Hornet's competitors for comparison.

One of the biggest "wows" occurs when you take off from the carrier deck for the first time. When I first viewed this product at E3 in Los Angles back in May, this really caught my attention. Super Hornet is the first and best naval aviation simulation to attempt to replicate the carrier deck operations, which include the various flight deck crewmembers, jet blast deflectors, steaming catapults, and other planes preparing to launch.

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Carrier landings are equally well modeled. The Fresnel lens (meatball) lights, Landing Signal Officer (LSO) verbal command, and individual wires are in the sim. I found landings to be challenging, but not overly difficult. An automatic carrier landing system (ACL) mode is available for those who are uncomfortable with the controlled crash that is necessary to put the bird on the deck.

I found the damage model to be sufficient, but a little rough around the edges. Items such as the APU and engines can be individually damaged, but the resulting effect on the plane would be nominal. Flight controls are rarely affected when the aircraft is damaged, and engine/APU fires would not cause the aircraft to trail smoke. External damage is not visible on the fuselage or wings.

My pilot's voice does not offer any "brevity" calls such as "Fox 2," nor did he utilize military flight comms protocols.

Super Hornet includes the AIM-120, and AIM-9M, and also models the AGM-65 (E and F), Harpoon, SLAM, HARM, JSOW, Durandal, CBU-87B, 89B, 97B, GBU-29 JDAM, and Mk82, 83, 84 dumb bombs, and LAU 61 A2G rockets.

SH does not include the new Aim-9x infrared missile, LGBs, Snakeyes, Walleyes, or does it model the integrated helmet mounted display. There is no in-flight refueling.

Go to Part VI: FM and Multiplayer