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Future Flanker- 2.5 And Beyond
By Bob "Groucho" MarksI admit it. I'm a pointy-nose flight sim addict. I'm one of those guys who likes manuals with the heft of a congressional budget report. Sure, helo and prop sims are engaging, and I'll even admit to dabbling in the occasional sim-lite grin machine. Show me a quality simulation of a gee-whiz gizmo loaded fast mover, however, and I will latch on to it like a lawyer on a loose wallet.
Fig. 1. Flanker 2.5 Hornets on CAPIt was with some trepidation, however, that I turned to the south and made my pilgrimage to the game-geek Mecca of E3. After all, it was starting to look like the closest thing to a new non-prop combat flight sim would be the Guillow balsa glider in Army Men 7: The Battle of the Shoe Tree.
My fears were borne out for most of the day. There were, of course, the Tomb Raider rip-offs and the exceedingly weird but highly profitable hillbilly games (my God- how many bow-hunting games can exist?). There were a couple promising prop sims, and a Shooter or two with at least one foot in the real world, but simulations of kerosene burners were conspicuous in their absence. Any evidence at all on the status of the reportedly in-work Typhoon was nowhere to be seen.
Most of the aircraft related games were introduced by their handlers by a nearly universal catch phrase- "We're trying to appeal to a wider audience…" Look, I'm no flight sim snob. Really. Hell, Crimson Skies, probably as hard-core a flight sim as Carmageddon 2 is a realistic depiction of auto racing, looks like a real hoot. But that phrase, when loosely translated, can often mean "So easy, your dog could play it after drinking a half-bottle of Nyquil out of your medicine cabinet."
Fig. 2. Flanker 2.5 Mig-29k on Takeoff
