Voice over Net player to player voice communications
Cons:
Loudmouths in Novaworld (Multiplayer portion)
Mid Air refueling is too simplistic (and not really needed)
Avionics bugs
Novalogic recently released F-22 Lightning III as the latest in their
Lockheed/Martin fighter series. Novalogic continues their tradition of
ease of access for novice players, fun for all and massive multiplayer
air combat via Novaworld.net. F-22 Lightning III is the third of
Novalogic’s F-22 simulations in as many years, its predecessors being
F-22 Lightning II and F-22 Raptor.
Having played all three simulations, I have seen Novalogic break sound
barriers and constantly improve this product line while keeping the
cost reasonable. While the F-22 series has always been a little light
in the realism department, the general gameplay and look has greatly
improved through the generations. F-22 Lightning III has some definite
hits, and also some near misses, but overall is a pleasing and
well-executed simulation.
The Basics
Starting with the basics, the interface and menus are on par
with previous Novalogic simulations. All menus are straight forward,
and keyboard and joystick customization is all easy and straightforward
as well. I did have some difficulty with the custom programming and my
Thrustmaster FLCS (Steve's setup is #2 listed on our Download page.)
My solution was to simply revert to using Thrustmaster’s own
programming utility to customize my stick according to my personal
preferences. The joystick mapping in Lightning III will not support
multiple levels of button programming, so I used my custom programming
utility to get my stick dialed in. Other than this small joystick
issue, the rest of the menus functioned normally.
Gameplay and Avionics
The Single player games consist of several missions over a
series of campaigns. After completing several of the missions and
crossing over a campaign, I was a little disappointed at the lack of a
cutsequence.
Gameplay is generally good except that the AI remains a bit weak. I
found the AI pilots too easily dispatched with both AIM-9s and
AIM-120s, usually with only a single missile. I could not find any kind
of difficulty slider to ramp up the computer AI difficulty. Such a
slider would be useful and could lower the quantity of enemies while
increasing the quality.
Unfortunately, the most challenging tactic that the AI used was to send
massive flights of enemy fighters at you while the other fighter group
shot down the package you were assigned to escort.
The Wingman AI has all the basic commands such as “break right and
engage”, “engage my target”, “escort my target.” There were a few
wingman commands that were new to me such as “Engage my target’s
attacker” and “Patrol Home Base.” The Wingman does a decent job
supporting you, but unless you tell him otherwise, he’ll fly on your
six in close formation regardless of nearby bandits.
F-22 Lightning III introduces some new weapons that were not present in
the previous F-22 simulations. The BLU-109, the AGM-88 HARM, and my
personal favorite, the B61 Tactical Thermonuclear Bomb. These weapons
and the ability to mount weapons on external hardpoints indicates a
step in the right direction since the real F-22 is capable of external
mounts as well as using all of the weapons available in the simulation.
Players will love using the B-61! It’s a blast…literally!
The Avionics are good and actually are viewable in padlock mode. You
can also view any MFD close up by pressing the appropriate key on the
numpad on your keyboard. The MFDs that you’ll use the most are the
Attack Display, the Status Display, and the NAV display. The Attack
display is very useful in an area with multiple bandits. The attack
display will tell you which bandits you have already designated and
launched at.
But budget cuts seem to have impacted our troops. I have noticed that
sometimes the missile indicators disappear, or do not show up at all.
Sometimes you can see the missile indicators for your wingman as well
as other members of your flight. The absence of the SHOOTLIST from the
previous F-22 is definitely missed.
While some people may not have used it much, you’ll find yourself
wishing the Shootlist was available when there are several groups of
bandits and you keep cycling through the wrong group of targets. The
shootlist allowed you to isolate a group of targets and only target
that group while cycling targets, in Lightning III, I found the best
thing to do, is put your target group in your forward radar cone and
press “BORESITE TARGET” and then cycle targets. The Navigation display
comes in handy to augment the command steering cue. (the tadpole).
Probably the most useful MFD is the tactical Map that shows everything
your AWACS can see, or what you can see with your radar including the
labels of the flight group. While all the MFDs are covered decently,
there are a few problems in the cockpit, namely the lack of shootlist,
and the sporadic Attack display.
Tactical Map
The cockpit viewing system covers either snap views or a panable
cockpit view. Both views have their advantages or disadvantages, and
the user can choose the method he or she is most comfortable with. I
noticed that when using the padlock view when an object gets past the
halfway point of your cockpit, the view goes funky. Once an object gets
in your rear quarter, and you maintain padlock, for some reason it
doesn’t feel like you're turning correctly.
I haven’t been able to put my finger on it exactly, and a friend has
commented on the same issue. After I kept getting nailed while trying
to figure out what the padlock was doing wrong, I started using the
easy aiming indicator (red arrow) in the HUD view to locate and engage
my target. I only used the padlock when I knew the enemy fighter would
be in my front quarter because the padlock seemed to function correctly
while the enemy was in front of your plane. My advice, use the HUD only
view unless you know the enemy is in front of you, or above and forward
of you.
The Graphics are very well done. The weather and lightning effects
are VERY COOL. The rain effect was very well done with the raindrops
looking very realistic. The night vision goggles come in handy at
night, and I’m happy to see that Novalogic put it in the simulation.
The object detail is very intricate and the landscape is awesome as
usual. I do miss seeing the volcano that appeared in F-22 Raptor and
the desert terrain doesn’t feel as good as the desert in F-22 Raptor,
but it’s still very well done. Visually, F-22 Lighting 3 upholds the
graphic quality of its predecessors, and with 3D acceleration it looks
even better.
Multiplayer Fun
Multiplayer is probably my favorite feature of this simulation.
Novalogic runs a free multiplayer service called “Novaworld” that
allows up to 128 players to engage in online combat. This takes three
forms- deathmatch, RAW (Raptor Air Wars where your team defends your
base while destroying the enemy squadrons base), and the new game,
co-op play. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, you will have
no problem finding a game to play on Novaworld. The connection is solid
for most everyone, and it is fast paced gameplay.
If you’re not into the crowd thing, you can host your own game either
publicly where anyone can join, or privately for just you and your
friends for up to sixteen players. My compliments to Novalogic for
allowing us the ability to host our own dedicated servers! I was able
to host a game on one of my systems and swap the CD so I could join
into the same game on my other system, great for people who want to set
up a dedicated server on which people can play.
Multiplayer Limitations
Unfortunately with all the good things about multiplayer, there
are a few limitations. My biggest complaint is the lack of a muting
feature in Novaworld. Too many times I have found people engaging in
shouting matches and announcing what a BIG MAN they are. Also, there
are flaming wars as intense as any RAW war. So, please, Novalogic: ADD
A SELECTIVE CHAT MUTING SYSTEM TO NOVAWORLD!
Other problems I encountered were a couple of co-op missions that had
bugs in them. In one mission one of the required target flights kept
disappearing before we had a chance to kill them. After three tries we
reset the server and moved on to the next mission where after bombing a
missile boat my kill was not registered, and the missile boat was still
selected when targeting.
After close examination of the target, I could see the crater where I
hit, yet no target. Since we could not kill a target that wasn’t there,
we had to reset the server yet again. Despite this, we played Co-op one
night for four fun filled hours. I am personally glad Novalogic decided
to allow co-op in their fighter simulations.
Voice Over Net
Another new feature is VON: Voice over Net. This allows people to talk
with each other while in multiplayer games. F-22 Lighting III even
comes complete with an Andrea Electronics microphone which offers
excellent voice quality. Of course it could not replace my trusty
headset with microphone and headphones, but I don’t think Andrea will
complain much because my headset is the Andrea Electronics GameWare
headset, also excellent quality.
The VON quality itself is decent with some people reporting good
quality and others complaining. I think it’s a line quality factor
rather than a problem with VON since voice over Internet has always
been a little flaky.
Using VON I was able to communicate with several people in the co-op
game, and I found communication discipline to be an issue since most
people haven’t used voice for simulation flying much (See our Military Flight Comms and Operational Brevity).
I guess we can hope that people learn quick and concise formats in
which to transmit information to avoid confusion while flying a
mission.
Novalogic has an update checker in Lightning III, so updates
are simply a matter of clicking the button to check for new software.
As I am writing this, I am updating my F-22 Lightning III with the
latest software, a whopping 13 MB of update! Usually, they are good
about keeping the updates small, but considering the rough edges here
and there, I can see the need for a larger update. I’m waiting to see
what the update addresses as I write this article.
Final Analysis
I started really enjoying Novalogic’s aircraft simulations with
the release of F-22 Raptor and the introduction of Novaworld. F-22
Lightning III continues this fine tradition. I have had a LOT of fun
flying on both Novaworld servers and my own server. The co-op
multiplayer is the best new feature for F-22 Lightning III.
I would have loved to have seen selective chat muting in Novaworld, but
I guess I’ll just have to ignore the rude people and sort out the
useful commo. The Voice over Net feature is nice when you have a good
connection and are talking to someone with a good connection. The
graphics are as nice as ever, and even better than F-22 Raptor with 3D
Acceleration. The game itself is geared for easy learning and fast and
furious gameplay.
The price of F-22 Lightning III is low compared to other sims. I have
seen it on sale at CompUSA for only $29.95, and I think that’s a good
deal for the amount of fun you get from this sim. Bottom line, if you
liked F-22 Raptor, you’ll love F-22 Lighting III, but if in doubt, try
out the demo on Novalogic’s site first, and you may be surprised at how
much fun it can be.
If you’re looking to jump right in and duke it out with a lot of other
people online, or you want to get together with some close friends for
a game, or even if you want to fly the single player missions, F-22
Lightning III is sure to bring you hours of entertainment.
