For my third flight I entered the first campaign. Here are some of the briefing and planning screens. (Note: Click on most shots for a larger image. The interface runs at 1024x768, but I have reduced some of the full size shots to 640x480.)

Wind and weather affect your flight as well as visibility. You can turn off wind gusts and wind effects individually if you are a newer pilot and don't want to deal with the hassle. More experienced sim fliers will enjoy the challenge.

Click to continue

Target Recon

The light source shading is perfect, and I feel that I am looking at a real aluminum skin instead of a simulated aircraft. The terrain is beyond Flying Corps Gold and looks great. But let's talk about some of the innovations in modeling.

First, the padlock system mirrors the options of Flying Corps and is oriented to give you the most help possible while dogfighting. You can choose to have autopadlock On or Off, and you can also choose to have padlock switch from an interior to exterior (player to target) view. I personally like this system very much.

Note the reflection 1 o'clock high.

Furthermore, the padlock view affords a number of other indicators to help your SA as well as your orientation. Top right you see the horizon ball, top left the "radar" overlay. In addition, you have the cockpit reflections, and if you use the fixed view you will have a red indicator ball (like the X in EAW) floating around the edge of your screen to indicate the direction to pull to the bandit.

Second, an innovation for MiG Alley is surface reflection that will signal to you the position of an aircraft that is beyond your visual range. The glint off a cockpit or shiny metal surface will often be your first clue that other aircraft are nearby. (Click for another sample.)

As we are seeing in other current simulations, exhaust smoke and conn trails are also modeled. I was pleased to see that damage modeling extends beyond the damage effects to the skin of the aircraft itself.

SUMMARY

MiG Alley is looking hot and may yet be the best sim of 1999. With detailed mission planning, sweeping strategic control, great dogfighting action and SIX different aircraft to fly, MiG Alley will be a virtual feast for sim pilots this fall.

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