Quick View Ratings

• Gameplay: 85
• Graphics: 90
• Sound: 95
• Intelligence: 75
• Learning Curve: 6 Hrs
• Fun Factor: 80

Test System

• AMD233 with 1 meg cache
• 64 meg of SD Ram
• Matrox Millenium 4 MB
• Canopus Pure 3D
• Quantum UDMA 3.2
• Toshiba 24x CD
• CL AWE 64
• CH and TM HOTAS

Those who love the Hornet will likely have some history with Graphsim, so I won't bore you with the lineage. Suffice it to say that they released Hornet 3 earlier this year and followed up later with a patch that made a good sim better. With some tweaks to the flight model and much improved situational awareness in the form of cardinal type views, Hornet 3 moved into competition with the better sims on the market. Furthermore, the patched version of Hornet 3 allowed padlocking anything your heart desired, linked or not linked to radar targets.

This new release moves GSC into competition with the big boys. In some areas they fare quite well, in others they still lag behind. Lets take a look at what FA18 Korea has done for the reigning FA18 simulation.

A Room with a View

Views in Hornet have to be the most logical and flexible I have ever seen anywhere. Number keys 1-8 give you basic views, SHF and number key give you external views. View modifiers are arrow keys and 9,0. You can zoom in or out on virtually any view using SHF -/SHF =. Cardinal views are snap back type views: hit the arrow key for a quick look back or 90 degrees, release it and snap back to your set view. Hitting the padlock key (4) a second time snaps you from your bandit of choice back to front view for those times when you lose your orientation.

Physics and weapons modeling in Hornet feel as good as the patched version of 3 also. Even engine lag is accurately modelled. Sounds are also excellent, and you will KNOW when your afterburner kicks in. From squealing rubber to missile launches, sounds are solid. Incidentally, for the graphics freaks out there, the outside views in 'Korea have the best engine glow and afterburner effects I've ever seen. I felt like I was at an airshow!

I Can Fly... or Can I?

However, there are signs that all is not well in the Hornet kingdom. It could be that the king has no clothes. as that in the full release, or different? For example, fuel flow and engine thrust do not appear to be modeled with altitude changes, and the effects of loaded to unloaded appear minimal to non-existent. The other glaring problem is in landing.. the aircraft floats why too much (ie. the gound effect is exagerated).

It doesn't seem possible to line up the AoA cage and velocity vector on the landing zone of a runway and then adjust throttle to effectively complete a landing. You either have to change the AoA and/or throttle setting to "Fly" the aircraft onto the runway, cageing the AoA at the last second or risk the chance of stalling. On real carrier operations this would not be the correct method of landing.

Damage modelling is the same as Hornet 3 so far as I can tell, but looks WAY better. You can deselect damage on sub-systems as part of the difficulty level. I took a hit in my second flight that made the aircraft as responsive as an Abrams main battle tank with wings and also lost my radio.... When I reached the airfield I landed so hard that I crushed my main gear and went skidding along the runway in a cloud of smoke.... =) The shot at the top of this page is the trail of black smoke after I took the hit...

Carrier ops on the whole are well done. Check in with the flight officer, start your engines, flaps down, hook up, lock your brakes, power up to full and hit AB and the CAT lets go! Landing is the challenge it ought to be, with the exceptions noted above. The ILS combined with a data linked (CPL) AP system can help you out a lot on carrier landings. The AP is full featured and very flexible.

Learning the Ropes

Graphic Simulations has been doing some great work in the multimedia training area that has been under appreciated. 'Korea is no different, offering online training (voice, diagrams, and "real" FA18 video from the earlier version of the sim) covering everything from basic flight physics to air combat manouvers to avionics and weapon systems. Really, if you are a relative novice to the military flight sim genre, you should buy 'Korea for this feature alone!

Topics in training as listed include:

• Takeoff
• Landing
• Carrier
• Navigation
• Air/Grnd
• Air/Air

Click on Takeoff and you will find the listing above. Are you a new pilot who would like some instruction on flight basics from an accomplished jet jock? It's all here, narrated by an air force pilot. Are you a seasoned sim jock but you want some instruction on the specifics of avionics in the FA18 Hornet? That's here too!

Or perhaps you've been flying for some time but you want a brush up on basic fighter manouvers as well as missile avoidance? Even this area is covered, though briefly. You'll also find a good section on use of guns AND gun defense. Man, this package comes complete!

The Basic Flight section includes these subsections: Basic Forces of Flight, Angle of Attack (including stalls), Weight and Performance, and Sources of Drag. From here you can move into other areas like Basic Aircraft Controls and Cockpit. Seeing the World is a video and voice intro to the comprehensive viewing system.

Under A2A you will find the Basic Fighter Manouvers Training section. Covered in this section by use of diagram are the lag roll, the high yo-yo, the low yo-yo and the scissors. The instruction is quite clear, but the tactical value is explained only briefly. For example, the danger of the scissors may be obvious to seasoned vets, but is not mentioned by the instructor.

The Training module even includes detailed instruction on Carrier Ops! Wow, this is great! Excuse my non professional enthusiasm, but I've been hoping for an F18 sim for a while that was this broad and JUST MAYBE would include some good instruction in these areas. Korea is a great package for newbies to the genre in general and for the hardcore crowd as well. The detail included in the training module accomplishes much what the revolutionary training package in the original Longbow accomplished, making a great sim accessible to a much broader base by holding dweebs by the hand and offering enough depth to please the hardcore crowd. Only the lack of a dynamic campaign limits this great package, though the inclusion of the mission editor is some compensation.

However, now that Graphic Simulations has made the transition to a new graphics engine, I wouldn't be surprised if they had more good things up their collective sleeves! After all, everything is here, even the AI for the opposition. Moving from this package to a dynamic campaign engine is probably not far off....

By the way, a neat feature I haven't seen elsewhere is the ability to change the time of day dynamically in any mission. Use CTL E to move the time earlier, and CTL L to move it later at any time in your mission. If you like to fly at dawn or dusk or want to see the effects of some of the nicest looking light source shading I've ever seen, by my guest! The feature also increases replayability... a nice touch.

Did you know that the multimedia training section in Hornet 3 was written by a real air force pilot? Graphic Simulations regularly consults with actual Hornet pilots, and the beta team included an active-duty F/A-18 pilot, an active-duty F-14 RIO, an ex-F-15 instructor pilot, an AWACs pilot, a number of commercial airline and private pilots, and a software engineer who worked on the real Hornet's avionics. Btw, radar and targetting is listed under navigation, so if you look for it and can't find it, now you know!

Graphics, Detail, Effects

The sky in 'Korea is a wonder to behold. Multiple cloud layers, fog etc as one would expect, but the dawn and dusk colors and sense of space is quite amazing. As above, the engine also does light source shading which increases the richness and complexity of the views. Each graphic engine seems to have its own intrigues but this is one of the most beautiful air environments I have yet seen.

Overall the graphical environment is rich, almost as rich as the avionics! Runways and towers look great, object detail is not as high on ground objects, but aircraft are literally amazing, both inside and out. Close in one feels like one is seeing the real thing. The cockpit in version three was already legendary, and now with externals being almost as good Graphic Simulations Hornet has finally come of age.

Incidentally, load times are remarkably fast. Its likely that 64 meg of Ram is helping here but I can't recall another sim of this complexity that gets organized and up so quickly! The shots here are all taken at 800x600 which in 3dfx and Glide is the best the Voodoo chipset can do. Frame rates on my 233 are quite high. I would estimate 30 fps plus at this resolution. I haven't noticed any pauses or any tearing of terrain.

Comms seem fairly solid, though not as flexible and broad as could be. In view of the flexibility of iF22 and more recently the powerful command structure of JSF this looks like a growth area for Graphic Simulations and I suspect we may see more in later add ons.

By the way, installation didn't give me the option of seeing the intro movie, so I clicked on credits and watched a long video sequence that is on par with the movie in Longbow 2. You also listen in on extensive comms between Hammer 1 and 2 and home plate. I HATE it when the SAM gets Hammer 2.... =)

This brings up a growth area for sims. Why is it that when we fly two or three missions with a wingman and he gets shot down we don't get to call in for help? I hope that future sims will allow us that privilege. And if we neglect to do so, we lose a pilot permanently which could hamper our ongoing campaign....

Unfortunately, there is still a rudder bug present in Korea. I thought I had missed this one, but I find every once in a while my aircraft will make a sudden jerk to the right or left with my CH pedals... Hopefully a patch will be coming for this item, which apparently is a left over from Hornet 3!

Mike Berdos sent me this hint on rudder calibration:

"By the way, I've discovered the 'in-game' calibration routine for HK and am getting along much better. (Took my forever to find it, I look in the index under 'joystick, rudders, calibrate', watched the tutorial on controls, looked in the readme...it was under 'Troubleshooting in the back of the manual!). Anyway, now the rudders just suck a little instead of being impossible."

Bill Wilson has been working on a calibration fix and his solution can be found at this site: Bill Wilsons TM Page. ANd by the way, if you are having trouble with joystick calibration and are using TM gear, download their WIN95 ProPanel.

Some of you have asked me about wingman and enemy AI, and I can tell you that it is improved. Some of the missions are much tougher than those for Hornet 3, and veterans will appreciate the difference. Unfortunately, some encounters still begin as soon as you are in the air....

Mission briefings are...brief! In fact its a pity that GSC didn't expand this feature. At the moment the best you can do is read the briefing then click on the theatre map window to zoom in on the map. But since there are no waypoints on the map you are left guessing as to where you start and where you are going, and if you locate the place names relative to the briefing you have to slide the map in a TINY window to see locations. A royal pain and obviously needing work.

With a mission editor that looks awesome and even a flight recorder, there is a lot here. GSC will be setting up a place on their web site to share custom designed missions, a great idea! This comment came from GSC on the editor:

"As you experiment with the mission editor you'll find that aircraft are now doing things they've never done before. The largest improvement to the AI was adding the ability of aircraft to seek out and destroy specific types of ground units, such as AAA, SAMS and armored vehicles.

Depending on what they're loaded with, they can be instructed via the mission editor to attack units in a hierarchical manor (i.e. aircraft as top priority, then SAMS, then AAA, then other vehicles). Additionally they can be instructed to attack specific types of targets, or even ignore everything else and make NOE runs for high-value mission objectives. Over all, it's really flexible. It's a good way to get a feel for the AI by "testing" certain circumstances."

SUMMARY

GSC has given us some good improvements in FA18 Korea over Hornet 3. Their cockpit and avionics (except flight) are still tops. The virtual cockpit is one of the best out there, competing with the likes of Su27. If GSC expand the briefings and the command structure and do some flight model work Hornet could move into the mainstream with the likes of Su27 1.5. If they add a dynamic campaign system it could move into competition with even Su27 2.0 and Falcon 4.

Korea is a stand alone WIN95 product that does not need an earlier version in order to run.