Sierra/Dynamix

The next couple of companies on the table have done flight sims before, but they've been a little quiet lately. Well, you know what they say about still waters. Both Virgin and Sierra are back with some serious simulation software with which they intend to flog the competition.

Red Baron II

I have to admit it: I have never been a big fan of the WWI genre. If you said I hate the entire genre you wouldn't be far from the mark. A strange and suffocating Victorian pall was hanging over society during that age - where one foot was in the future and one in the past. Technology was making inroads, but it was so crude and unrefined that the fact any machine could work seems like a miracle. Not only that, but the planes were miserable deathtraps that barely qualified as being airworthy. It has been said on several occasions that the death toll of airmen in WWI was greater as a result of loss of control or structural failure than gunfire.

As strange as it sounds, though, there was one game that single-handedly made me look forward to every opportunity to hop into one of those oversized kites and hunt down the enemy. That was all due to the original Red Baron. It may have been a little simplified, and the planes may have had far more horsepower than they were entitled to, but it had some of the most entertaining gameplay ever put into any sim. Not only could you hop into one of many different WWI era planes and mix it up with regulars and aces, but when you achieved sufficient rank, you could custom paint your airplane completely to match your personal taste and send a message to the enemy.

Red Baron is finally making its sequel appearance, and Sierra has really pulled out the stops and "gone for broke" so to speak. Red Baron II has some of the best graphics around in a non-accelerated simulation. I know that you're probably getting suspicious about all the "woo-wooing" over graphics - but this year's crop of sims really is that impressive. Now before we go any futher, I did say unaccelerated. Unfortunately, RB2 development got underway too early to design the graphics engine with 3d acceleration in mind. This doesn't mean that the game will absolutely not get the 3d card treatment in the future, but you may not want to get your hopes up too high.

Having said that, if you have the hardware, the game quality is going to amaze. Terrain and textures are not photo-realistic, but they do have a very consistent "oil painting" quality to them - rather appropriate for the era. Terrain, enemies, and objects are visible over quite a long distance - very little pop-up is apparent. Object detail is extremely good in all respects. Producer Neil Haldar was giving the grand tour, taking us into a "protect your balloon" mission where you could see the intensity of the battle some time before getting there.

Long before we were able to actually arrive on scene, we could see the balloon floating serenely yet helplessly over the countryside in the distance. It was slowly losing altitude - most likely the pilot was hoping to bring it down safely before getting nailed. A couple enemy planes that were little more than specks were trying to get a clear shot at it but were struggling. Not only were escorts trying to protect the balloon already there, but the boys on the ground were throwing anything into the air they could. Streams of anti-air tracer fire would spray into the sky from multiple locations. A couple puffs of smoke suggested some kind of artilley fire.

The enemy kept on trying to pull off the attack unsuccessfully. Finally as we started to near gun range they decided to abandon the attack and retreat - straight at us! I guess they wanted some kind of kill before going home. Neil paused the game to give the basic lowdown on the controls and let me take over. I found it very easy to get a handle on the controls and padlock system. On the first pass, I managed to hit one of the two bandits, then ended up in a big furball with his wingman. After a couple minutes of wild manuevering and "over-the-shoulder" padlocking, I finally managed to score some hits on the wingman who, trailing smoke, made an emergency landing on a field.

I wasn't finished with him yet, though - I wanted to draw blood. Taking my extra energy I pulled up and around to vector back in on him. There he was, just sitting helpless in the field. I started opening up with the machine guns and, much to my delight, saw all kinds of dirt getting kicked up where the bullets were landing. A little more adjustment and I walked the shells right into the stationary plane - which suddenly burst into flame and smoke in an unusually gruesome way. I found that the wingleader also lost his engine and landed in a nearby field - he got the same treatment. Throughout the entire time, I had completely forgotten my original dislike of the WWI era - the gameplay is really that much fun!

There's much more to the game than that, though. There will be considerable options to customize the paint job on your craft as in the original. The flight model looks like it will be on par with Flying Corps, maybe even better. Attacking an enemy aerodrome is very entertaining, especially when you hear the whine of the air raid siren and hear the zing and crackle of small arms fire below as you make pass after pass. Rockets are totally ballistic, flying only a short distance before arcing down.

One potential problem with WWI era games that have a virtual cockpit padlock is that much of the time you will be looking up without a frame of reference to see what your airplane is doing. Since there is no canopy to put markings on, and wide-angle padlocking is not supported in RB2, it can be difficult to tell the flying attitude of the plane. Fortunately, the game allows a very smooth slewing between looking directly forward and back to your padlocked target at the touch of a single button. This makes it much easier to visualize the complete air combat picture.

Finally, the way the campaign works will be very mission oriented. It will be similar to Microprose's European Air War in that you will have a pool of random missions from which you will be assigned. What's especially interesting is that all pilots will gain experience and will have their performance and kills recorded. In the case of aces, historical information will be supplied up until the point at which you start the campaign, after which only kills which happen in the game will be recorded and added to the logbook. If an ace is shot down and killed, he will no longer be a factor in the war, either on your side or the enemies' side. You can't change the outcome of the war, but nailing the enemy aces early on might make it easier to finish your missions later on.

In a manner reminiscient of Team Apache, Red Baron 2 is doing an excellent job of combining realism with great gameplay and playability. It was straight-up fun, no questions asked. While it would have been nice to see a truly dynamic campaign and 3d card support, these omissions are minor compared to how well the sequel captures the fun of the original classic.

Aces: X-Fighters

Unlike Red Baron 2 which is getting very close to completion, X-fighters is still pretty early on in the development phase. Most features haven't been implemented yet, but there is still some good stuff to report on it.

X-Fighters should win a special award for originality, it's so far from the beaten path of flight sims. To put it in simpler terms, it's what happens when you take Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe and cross-breed it with "Car Wars" or Mechwarrior 2.

While details are not forthcoming yet in the graphics department, X-fighters will run very nicely on a 3dfx machine. It actually uses the terrain and graphics engine from Earthsiege 3, which was designed for 3d acceleration from the beginning. Fortunately, Sierra designed Earthsiege's graphics engine to be very flexible from the beginning, so reusing the graphics code will help get X-fighters to stores in a more timely fashion.

The game works like this. You are the leader of the most elite, experimental division for either the Allies or Germans during the air war in WW2. You have the ability to custom build aircraft based from a pool of available parts and airframes. Which parts and airframes you get to use will vary according to several factors, not the least of which is what year is it that you are playing in at the time. After building and outfitting your squadron, you'll take them into combat against your foes in a semi-dynamic campaign, and unlike Red Baron 2, this time either side can win the war.

In WW2. England did have a jetfighter program, but basically abandoned it in preference for improving regular piston-engine aircraft. Things could have been different with perhaps a little influence, and that's exactly what you'll get in X-fighters.

Wouldn't it be great if the first Me-262 pilots got ambushed by British jets? That would wipe a few smirks off in no time flat. In X-fighters, as you continue playing the campaign, your performance will earn you influence. It is with this influence that you can acquire more materials or spend it on research to try to gain better equipment to put on your next aircraft design. With 11 basic airframes and a wide variety of parts to choose from, X-fighters promises to be one sim that will be remembered for years for its new take on flight combat.

Sabre Ace

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Virgin made a sharp move in getting their hands on Sabre Ace. Possibly the first Korean War sim since Mig Alley Ace back in the really old days on computer gaming. It's difficult to believe how far we've come in such a short time.

Sabre Ace is another title that is just fantastic. You fly for the allies or North Koreans in all the major fighters of the war from the WWII-era F-51 to the F-86 Sabre (or from a Yak to a Mig-15). Each fighter is very different: not only in turning radius, armament, and power, but also in the subtle nuances of how they handle - some are twitchy and require a steady hand, others love to be flung about with reckless abandon.

The game has some excellent terrain on a 3d-accelerator card, and while the mapping wasn't stitch-free when we played, its terrain detail was the among best out there with only Falcon 4 and iF-22 doing better.

The viewing system is rather strange, but interesting. First off, there is no virtual cockpit of any kind. The game does possess a padlock, however - and this is where it gets interesting. Once an enemy plane is padlocked, the game will automatically switch between the various cardinal views to maintain contact. Of course, for those who prefer, the views can be selected manually instead. It's not the same thing as a true polygonal virtual cockpit, but it does nearly as well in maintaining situational awareness. It takes a little getting used to, but most people should adapt to it after the first couple dogfights.

Another unique feature is a special kind of "formation autopilot". Since at the beginning of the campaign you will be flying wingman much of the time, this feature was included to help keep you in formation. The easiest way to describe it is as if there is an invisible tow line between the wing leader and yourself that keeps you near him. You can adjust how tight or loose it is so you have some control of your relative positioning. Fortunately, it is only an optional feature, so you can turn it on and off at will.

The gameplay is excellent. The game cheats a little to help situational awareness by letting you know at what bearings all the close aircraft are, as well as closure rates and ranges on them. Since the padlock is going to depend heavily on which plane you have selected to lock up, the game puts a small green mark on whatever plane is currently targeted so you can keep it all straight. Dogfighting is a real thrill, and although the dogfight AI hasn't been completed yet, it looks like the enemy will aggressively use the energy fight whenever possible.

The Korean War era is one of the best possible genres to put into a combat simulation - It mixes a very wide variety of aircraft of two different generations with the potential for carrier operations and of course, true non-BVR combat flying. It's gratifying to see it return to active duty in the sim world with Sabre Ace, but we'll also be looking forward to hearing more about the Vietnam-era Phantom Ace as well.