Zombie Virtual Reality

Spearhead is a simulation of the Abrams Main Battle Tank. It is unique in that it walks a tightrope between simulation and action game. While it retains much of the feel one would expect from a tank simulation, it is so simple to get in and play that some of the typical DOOM/Quake fans are showing interest in it.

The presentation is done simply, but effectively. Graphically the game is very cool. Natively supporting 3dfx cards, it blends detail with speed. Textures are taken from photographs of actual tanks and terrain. Sound effects are great so far, actually including spin-up and spin-down sound effects for the M1's turbine engine in addition to the various weapon sound effects.

As far as a campaign goes, it will be somewhat similar to the current iteration of Su-27. The game will come with a small collection of single missions, and a simple-to-use mission builder that will allow a wide variety of missions to be put together by fans.

Not to mention that you can expect these guys to accurately evaluate what aspects of tank combat are important to model just right in a sim and which can be safely left out in the interests of keeping the game simple. Driving performance is affected by the slope and terrain type that the tank is on. The game will model the M1's laser rangefinder and automatic shell drop compensation according to its type. You can operate the coax or jump into the commanders' ring mount to fire the heavy machine gun, and the ring mount's 270 degree traverse limitation is accurately included.

Naturally a big machine gun like that isn't much fun without infantry to hose, and Spearhead will deliver. Infantry units are articulated polygonal men, like those in iPanzer '44. They will usually be positioned as guards at key points. Sometimes they'll go running out of a building when you lob a HEAT round into it, after which you can give them the machine gun treatment, or if you're feeling particularly cruel, "put them under the tread."

There will be more features to the gameplay, but many of them haven't been actually implemented yet as of the E3 presentation. Eventually the game will support smoke grenade launchers and full thermal sights. Helicopters exist in the game world currently, but the attack AI for them is still under construction. The game supports force feedback, although the exact implementation hasn't been finalized yet. However, I must confess that struggling to keep the machine gun trained on running infantry while the FF Sidewinder bucked under my grip was much more fun than some members of Congress would like you to know.

While we have yet to see whether the final version of Spearhead will lean more towards simulation or action game, it was entertaining to jump into. We're looking forward to learning more about the how this dark horse develops.

F-22 ADF/TAW

The surprise is that the heir will instead be a set of twins, after a fashion. The name TFX3 is not used as often by the crew at DID now, since the game has split into F-22 Air Dominance Fighter and F-22 Total Air War.

To widen the appeal of F-22, DID has taken steps to improve features in the game to make it more accessible to the general public. The interface will be familiar, yet more logical and attractive. The missions and campaigns will be somewhat simpler in concept. There will also be more selectable options to make playing easier. Furthermore, the game will take advantage of Win95 in providing context-sensitive help.

Sounding too easy? Never fear, the game will be as serious as its predeccessor in virtually every respect when realism is cranked up to the max. For true sim fanatics, the Total Air War expansion promises to be a top-notch addition, aimed at the hard-core crowd. F22:TAW will include a truly dynamic campaign of incredible detail and scope. While both ADF and TAW will model the strategic level control of the AWACS command station, only TAW will include the WARGEN II dynamic campaign AI.

DID is shooting for the very pinnacle of flight combat simulation, and the effort shows. The 3dfx accelerated graphics are truly incredible. The virtual cockpit is probably the best in computer gaming. Theatre communications promise to be vastly improved. "SmartPilots" will be improved (and joining them will be "SmartTanks"). Physics will be improved. Finally, we'll get to see a high-quality ACMI system as requested.

While the 3d graphics may look a little familiar in some ways, they're far more sophisticated than before. The terrain is heavily texture-mapped and light-sourced to help bring out its features better. No texture seams are evident. Cities have excellent detail and should blend nicely into the rural areas. Terrain will be much more than endless rolling hills and the occasional similar mountain range - now the terrain shapes will have a wider variety of types and designs. The models of the various jet aircraft are all rendered with careful attention to detail. Contrails are beautifully done and actually have a little touch of wingtip vortices. Even the roads will have actual traffic, so you might have to be careful the next time you do an emergency landing!

The Virtual cockpit will be similar, but nicely improved. Instead of relying completely on four sets of transparent arrows to get positioning cues (which is good but not perfect) the game will have a large reflection of the cockpit on the top of the windscreen and only two rows of arrows. Not only will it look more realistic inside the cockpit, but it will be easier to keep references. MFD's will now be in true SVGA and will support touch screens for easier navigation.

In-theater communications may turn out to be the best ever. AWACS will be constantly staying on top of things, vectoring aircraft and changing orders as necessary to compensate for developments. To increase its flexibility, the AWACS system actually supports a vocabulary of over 10,000 words! That's over one-third of the vocabulary a person will typically draw from in daily speech. Needless to say, you can expect AWACS to play a MUCH expanded role in your missions. This kind of comms immersion should also go a long way to achieving that "suspension of disbelief" that is the holy grail of all simulators.

An ACMI system has been a heavily requested feature for quite some time now, and F-22 will deliver. Now we can examine the battles after the fact with great detail so as to evaluate which manuevers worked best and which ones failed. The discerning pilot will make good use of this feature to hone his skills. For novices this should prove a real godsend, and for moderate and even accomplished pilots it will be a valued back seat critic to make them better pilots still.

The Total Air War campaign will have considerable detailing. It allows thousands of possible starting situations, which can be saved to a file and shared with friends. You could start in the given region and say "Countries A, B, and C will be hostile, while Country D will be neutral tending towards friendly, E and F will be friendly" - add to that the ability to alter the starting resources for each country and other as yet undisclosed conditions, and it becomes plain that the dynamic campaign scenario can be really tweaked to satisfy many "What if's".

As has already been mentioned a number of times from various locations, Total Air War will let you jump into the role of the AWACS theatre commander. From this "gods eye" perspective you can direct the units in battle and personally jump into any operating F-22's in the game. This will give you a much more personalized control over the war, and give something of the feel of Flying Nightmares 2, but from the position of the air services rather than controlling the entire war singlehandedly.

Finally, the Total Air War dynamic campaign system features resource management. In EF2000 (and most modern sims, for that matter) there was never a compelling reason to not take the sexiest, most advanced weapons around. Why take the Sidewinder when you can have the ASRAAM? Why chance the slick bomb on a precision strike when you can take laser-guided bombs all the time? TFX3 will change that with realistic resource management. Don't take the fanciest smart weapon if you don't have to, it may not be around later when you really need it.

Military advisors have stated that the exotic weaponry will run out within the first few days of war even if stockpiles have been prearranged, and now you'll have to face some of the same difficult decisions. In Desert Storm, exotic weapons were used somewhat sparingly, and thus lasted throughout the war - your supplies may not last as long if you use all the good stuff first! Fortunately there will be resupply efforts, both by truck convoy and train. But look out! These resupply vehicles will actually have to make the trip to your base and can be destroyed by enemy raids, forcing you to make do with the tools at hand.

Turnabout is fair play, however, and one of the more satisfying parts of the war will be nailing enemy supply efforts, forcing them to rely on older technology equipment! Taking out those supply convoys suddenly becomes a matter of critical import!