| E3: Best of Show
by Eric "Snacko" Marlow |
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Jane's F/A-18 - Jane's is at it again, and their "Project X" has came to light as an F/A-18. In this sim they model the forthcoming Super Hornet, but just the E model - the now infamous front-seat/back-seat doesn't look to make it into this version. Even so, what I saw was incredible. Multiplayer will include cooperative play, and the sim does include ACMI functionality. The F/A-18 object itself is truly amazing and the cockpit it very nice. The flight model displayed is undergoing some work right now, as one would expect for a product so early in the development process. The sim makes use of the best facets of F-15 and should give us something to look forward to. Fly! - Terminal Reality set up across the street from the main hall an actual fuselage of an old Cessna. Inside the fuselage they had installed all of the controllers necessary to fly the sim. I had a great time with the realistic yoke and pedals. This set up gave me a good feel as to how the flight model performed. They really weren't set up in this display to explore the other options of the sim, but according to recent press releases, this sim is almost ready for prime-time. From what I saw, this sim will give Microsoft and Looking Glass a run for their money. MS Flight Simulator 2000 - Well, I tried to give this one an honest look-see, but the versions they had set up at the booth were quite rough. Frame rates were very poor and I had a lot of trouble in getting my booth to work at all. Granted this is probably early in the development cycle, but a working prototype should have been on display. What I did see didn't look that different than MSFS '98, so I think we'll come back to this one when it's had a little more time to simmer. Jane's USAF - Although it might be easy to dismiss this survey sim as just another soft-to-medium core game, Jane's/EA has put together something more than what might look to be on the surface as an improvement to IAF. There looks to be voice activation for wingman commands as well as mission recording and playback. High-res fanatics should be please as screen resolutions should go as high as 1280x1024. And yes, the shimmering terrain has been fixed. USAF also includes virtual as well as 2D cockpits. When you hook this into Jane's World War, we may have a winner here. Let's take a look at some of my highlights: Best Jet Sim Finalists: Digital Integration/Titus Super Hornet, Empire/Rowan - MiG Alley, EA/Jane's F/A-18, and SSI's Flanker 2 - Winner: Tie - Super Hornet and MiG Alley |
 Gunship III Best First Person Shooter Finalists: Redstorm's Rainbow Six Rouge Spear and TalonSoft's Hidden and Dangerous - Winner: Tie Best Naval Sim Finalists: SSI's Harpoon IV, Fighting Steel, Destroyer Commander, and Silent Hunter II - Winner: Harpoon IV Best Helo Sim Finalists: Microprose's Gunship III, Simis Ka52 Team Alligator - Winner: Gunship III
 Gunship III Best WW2 Sim Finalists: Microprose B-17 II, EA/Looking Glass Flight Combat - Winner: B-17 II Best Civilian Flight Sim Finalists: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000, Terminal Reality Fly! - Winner: Fly! Best Hardware Finalists: Game Commander, Matrox G400Max, Turtle Beach Montego II - Winner: Game Commander My "winners" really reflect being able to bring something new to the table. I probably will be playing all of these sims when they arrive and I'm sure I will enjoy each and every one of them. It's just nice to see some developers/publishers concentrating on new environments, technology, situations, and gameplay. "The amount of time I have is inversely proportional to the number of new sims released to the market." - Snackoism On to Highlights and Conclusion
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