E3 was a whirl of activity, as always, and the simulation selection was
impressive.
It is well known that I am an avid hard-core, cooperative multi-player
oriented sim enthusiast, so it is important to explain what I was
thinking when I chose USAF as Best of Show.
First, potential is critical. I ask myself, "What can I expect to see
when the sim is complete and what are the possibilities for
enhancements?" Enhancements could originate from the developer or the
sim could have an open architecture for 3rd party companies and
individuals.
Second, appeal is critical. Will the target audience accept and enjoy
the sim? How well has the sim addressed the needs of the target
audience? Has the development team paid attention to detail? This is a
subjective criterion, depending on the type of simulation and target
audience.
Third, playability and longevity are key. While there may be sims out
that do this or that better, I am asking, "What sim impressed me the
most as an overall package?"
Using these basic criteria and others I came to the decision
that USAF by Pixel/JANES gets my vote. The surprise? This is NOT a
hard-core sim. It is primarily aimed at the medium to "lite" sim
market.
The ATF/USNF/IAF crowd will be very excited about this sim. It looks
like it should dominate the on-line flying circles in the jet arena.
(More on this later) It includes several features that you usually
associate with hard-core sims. It also has enough configurability to
allow newbies up through medium level sim players to enjoy the game.
USAF allows players to begin to experience many features and aspects of
a hard-core sim. This is GOORD because it can only result in them
looking more seriously at the hard-core end of the market and THAT can
only expand the number and quality of sims we will see in the future.
Remember, to make money the game companies must cater to the larger
markets. The more people we get into the top end, the more likely that
we will see more of the available resources channeled to our favorite
projects.
So what was it exactly that made me decide on USAF?
Let's start with the tried and true Jane's formula. The UI is easy to
use and most people will be able to jump right in and figure out what
and where the options are. There are eight aircraft to fly: F-105, F-4,
A-10, F-15C, F-15E, F-16C, F-22, F-117 (the later two both with modeled
stealth).
The flight models were not complete at E3, but don't expect a model
along the lines of SU-27 or FALCON 4.0. They will be good enough to
definitely tell the difference between each of the aircraft and unique
handling characteristics will be modeled as well. But don't get me
wrong here either, a new flight model engine is being used to allow
more realistic flight models in a multi-plane simulation. The flight
models will easily rival, and exceed, any current multi-plane sim to
date.
A Sim for the People
Newbies excluded? Not at all. There is an easy and a difficult mode for
the flight models as well. "Easy" mode will keep the newest of gamers
in the air fairly easily. The "hard" mode will give most sim pilots a
few things to keep in mind to avoid stalls, GLOC etc.
The eight aircraft in USAF span a wide range not only in
ability and complexity, but in history. Vietnam's F-105 Thunderchief
fighter-bomber is here, as well as the F-4E Phantom interceptor. From
our own day we have two air to ground aircraft - the F-117 Stealth
Fighter with LGBs, and the A-10 Warthog complete with Mavericks and its
famed 30 mm cannon.
USAF includes TWO versions of the F-15, which will keep that crowd
happy. Both the C model and the E model are present. The lightweight C,
with its powerful radar, is best known as an interceptor while the E is
the ground pounder par excellence.
No USAF simulation would be complete without the Viper, and the F-16 is
here. If Falcon 4.0 was too complex for you, this one may prove
perfect. The F-22 Lightning is well known by COMBATSIM.COM™ fans as
modeled in iF22, F22 Total Air War and F22 Lightning II.
Graphical representations of the aircraft are well done and the
cockpits are very close to the actual cockpits. 2D as well as 3D
virtual cockpits are available and are unique for each aircraft.
The terrain is bar none the very best terrain in a sim to date.
I took a high-speed trip down the Grand Canyon in an F-15C. If the
monitor had been bigger, I am sure I would have gotten nauseous.
Terrain masking was not fully implemented at E3, but will be. It was
very nice to be able to use the canyons and mountains around Nellis to
hide during the multi-player dogfights I was in during the show.
While "eye candy" does not a great sim make, to compete in the current
market, a sim must look good. USAF graphics stand with the best of them
out there. And, if you're worried about needing to upgrade yet again to
fly the newest sim out, hold on.
The PIXEL team has used a graphics engine that should allow
good graphic quality on the current "low end" machines. Expect a 233Mhz
CPU with a good graphics card to be able to run USAF: not at high
detail, but better than most current graphics intensive games out right
now. And for you "Power System" users out there, 1280X1024 is planned
as well, so crank it up and be amazed at the detail.
In USAF there is a full recording system that allows full view
changes while in playback mode. These files, as well as missions
created in the mission editor, are all swappable with other players.
It's not really an ACMI recorder, but it will be very useful in
analyzing what you did wrong or right in your last dogfight.
The player also will develop an attachment to their in-game
persona. Starting out as a lowly pleeb, you will progress through the
ranks all the way up to 4 Star General, medals and all. The game keeps
a record of your kills, hours flown, injuries, and more.
Multiplayer is planned for 16 players and will include 8V8. Force on
force will not be just dogfight either. As in IAF, there will be
missions set up that allow humans to defend an area from aggressor
humans. Cooperative missions and campaigns are also included with 4
ship flights (a step up from the 2 ship flights in IAF). Campaign is
"semi-dynamic" with branching connected scripted missions. (The
campaign was not in the demo unit at E3, so I was not able to tell much
more about it).
A full mission editor will also be included. When I asked about ground
forces interacting, I was told that they would interact and fight each
other. Campaigns are planned for RED FLAG missions at Nellis,
historical campaigns in Viet Nam (for the F-4 and F-105 junkies) and
Iraq (Desert Storm, use the F-117 in it's debute conflict), and a
futuristic campaign set in Germany.
In addition to all of these multi-player options, USAF is
slated as the first sim to be used in JANES WORLD WAR. An upcoming
online environment for integration of multiple sim types. The
"Electronic Battlefield" concept has been around for a while, and if
anyone has the resources to make it a reality, JANES does. We are not
talking about flying only here, we are talking integrating planes with
helicopters, tanks, ships, submarines … imagine getting called in for
air support because your buddy in France running a tank battle is
getting jumped by a flight of helicopters lead by someone in Australia.
Hard to believe? With the advent of higher speed Internet connections
and faster CPU's, this may soon become a realty. USAF will be the
initial test bed. Look for future titles form JANES to interface with
this arena, and may be even some updated versions of past products.
We reviewed GAME COMMANDER recently here on COMBATSIM.COM, and everyone
that I have turned on to this program has agreed it is a MUST have for
radio comms and wingman commands. USAF will have this feature built in
and I hear that it might even ship with a headset/mic unit. As far as I
know, this will be the first game released with this feature built in.
For those who do not know what this means, imagine being able to TALK
into a mic and TELL your computer run wingman what to do. Many people
have asked me how to tell my wingman in such and such a game to attack
a ground target, my running joke is "I push the radio button and tell
RHINO to attack." That works fine for a LAN game when using real
radios, or even over the Internet with Roger Wilco or the like. But now
in solo play you can talk to your wingman and tell him to "CLEAR MY
SIX" and he will. Leave your hands free to jink and evade the guy
behind you.
The Pixel team includes 5 active Israeli pilots, including an F-15
driver as producer and a COBRA pilot for a Project lead, that are
dedicated to as realistic an environment as possible while retaining as
much game play and "fun factor" as they can. They are consciously
targeting this product for the 80% or so of the mass market,
"medium-core" sim players.
If you are a USNF/ATF/IAF fan, you will get one heck of a fix soon. The
features this sim includes will give you a taste for the more extreme
type of sim like FALCON 4.0, SU-27 2.0, F/A-18 or Super Hornet, with
out the WAR AND PEACE size manuals that are usually associated with
these complex sims.
One of my primary reasons for choosing this sim as best of show was the
fact that it is going to draw more medium level sim players into the
hard-core sector. This is an excellent game on its own, but it will
also serve as an outstanding training and transitional piece to the
more hard-core world of sims.
Coupled with the fun factor involved, the ability to fly against
dissimilar aircraft in multi-player modes, and the planned connection
to JANE'S WORLD WAR make this sim unique. Add the wide range of
multi-player options including campaigns and H2H combine to make this
game, potentially, one of the most flown Internet jet sims ever.
USAF is well conceived and looks to be superbly executed. It
looks good, flys good, and is just "plane" fun. The online aspects of
this game will make it a favorite for Internet players. If only all
sims were done as well ….
You've already read the previews in major gaming magazines, so just a brief note is included here.
USAF will be the first title in an interoperable series titled
Jane's World War. Think of World War as an online battlefield
environment where every jet in the world is controlled by a human pilot
while all the other objects are controlled by the computer system.
Sounds ambitious, doesn't it? But it's been a persistent goal for
Jane's, SSI, Novalogic and others for years. To date only Novalogic has
achieved great success in the real world simulation arena with this
concept. The goal for World War is to achieve 120 players in a battle
zone at the same time.
Future Jane's titles will be integrated into World War. What
would this look like? Let's take a cue from Viking1's speculations of
last year (Strat/Sim Titles and the Genre Bender):
The following is mostly conjecture, but suppose that Fleet Command or
Harpoon 4 or 4.5 allowed eight players, with two players (one on each
side) acting as Theatre Commander, actually ordering the intercepts and
CAPs and Strike missions, and controlling the movement and engagement
of naval assets also.
Then picture the Theatre Commander of Soviet forces with his system box
and two monitors. He monitors the strategic Theatre command view from
his 21" monitor, with the ability to bring up a zoom window on a
particular area. He checks the battle scene as his strike force arrives
and he zooms in to get a closer view.
Meanwhile his second monitor has a real time view of the Flight Leader
, but the Flight Leader in the Su27 is NOT an AI machine, but one of
his LAN buddies flying in the same room in real time.
Flanker 2
Meanwhile, somewhere in Denver Colorado "Sleepdoc" and "Snacko" and a
few of their buddies are playing for the Allies. Eric "Snacko" Marlow
is Theatre Commander, directing traffic while Glen "Sleepdoc" is flying
LEAD in an F18 force that is scrambling to deal with the hostile
incursion. Of course, we can't leave out Crash and Rhino of the 209th.
These guys are both flying F16s as CAP and are already racing to engage
the incoming force.
"Snacko" and "Sleepdoc," however, are not satisfied with a 21"
hi res display, they have the Theatre map on a 60" projection system,
making their War Room look like something out of the movies! "Snacko"
kicks back in an easy chair with his IR mouse, vectoring aircraft and
sending orders to the naval commanders. Voice command software comes in
handy here!
Just when he thinks things are under control, someone else is
in the Soviet LAN group is getting a good fix on an American carrier,
and that isn't a Flanker he's flying! In fact, the only thing vaguely
resembling wings on that vehicle are the diving planes! As soon as he
lets go with his three fish, another LAN player at Allied HQ commanding
a destroyer is getting ready to loose some serious hardware on top of
that ambitious tin can!
In the real time air engagement, the 209th in F16s are doing
well against opponents in their Su27s, and all the while the respective
Theatre Commanders are monitoring the entire operation in real time
while other players are engaging on the ocean. If the Soviet Commander
loses his carrier, where are Papadoc and crew doing to land their
returning strike force?
Well, you get the picture. If these interoperable titles can handle
eight players or more, with two Theatre Commanders and at least three
other real human players on each side, suddenly it's a whole new ball
game. Once we move into sixteen or more players then the possibilities
of force on force open up.
