Prima Publishing builds "fast track" guides and strategy guides for a
host of games. We have previously reviewed a couple of their products,
including the guide for 688 I and Longbow II. But they also have other
combat simulation guides, including F15, Combat Flight Simulator,
Command and Conquer and many other titles.
Generally the guides we have seen are aimed at novices, and
would be better thought of as "companions" than guides. But we'll walk
you through their latest release and let you see for yourself the kind
of help offered by Prima for USAF fans.
First, let's take a look at what Prima says about their USAF strategy guide:
Complete briefings for every mission— even training, single, and multiplayer missions
Mission-by-mission playtester tips
In-depth guide to creating custom missions—trade 'em with your friends
Official USAF command fact sheets, with unit patches
Jane's USAF table of organization & Equipment (TO&E)
This listing pretty much covers the content. Here is how the content breaks down by length:
Training Mission Briefings: pp 6-33 (includes Red Flag)
Single and Multiplayer Briefings: pp.34-65
Campaign Briefings: pp 68-170
USAF Command Organization: pp 172-246
User Mission Editor: pp 248-288
- Includes 5 page Mission Wizard Tutorial
As you can see, the mission briefings and playtester tips comprise
pages 6 to 170, making up more than half of the content. Roughly one
third of the content is comprised of an Order of Battle like listing
for the USAF, including page by page breakdown of units.
For example, on page 230 is listed the Tenth Air Force, which
further is broken down into 310 Fighter Wing, 340 Flying Training
Group, 419 Fighter Wing, 442 Fighter Wing, 482 Fighter Wing and 513
Airborne Control Group. That information, together with the actual
platforms employed and a further breakedown of 340 Flying Training
Group, occupies an entire page.
This section really has me puzzled. I'm not sure what use this
information is to the average gamer. Yet this kind of information
occupies fully one third of the manual.
The mission briefings are at least useful for the novice. To be fair,
this seems the orientation of the guide in general. The more seasoned
player wouldn't likely refer to the mission briefings and tips, simply
because it would spoil the fun of discovery.
On the other hand, the section detailing the User Mission
Editor is quite useful since it supplies in printed form much of the
information contained in the Online Help section within the UME. But in
fact the user does have access to most of the same information via the
help file included with the UME, so unless you want it in printed form
there is no need to purchase the strategy guide.
Conclusions
So far it doesn't seem that Prima has hit the mark, except for
the novice who wants a mission by mission briefing in order to more
quickly achieve success. If I were building this guide, what would I
change?
First, I would divide the guide into two sections: one for the
novice and one for the more seasoned user. The novice section would
include the mission briefings, though I might skip the briefings for
the training missions altogether.
Second, I would eliminate all 75 pages of the USAF organizational information.
I would use twenty pages of that space to add to the UME section, adding an "advanced" mission building walkthrough.
Third, I would use the other 55 pages saved from eliminating the
USAF data section to cover information on threat characteristics and
threat avoidance, and perhaps to discuss some of the strengths and
weaknesses of the particular USAF platforms as modeled in the game.
This section would have to be written by someone with forty or fifty
hours experience in the game.
Finally, I would be tempted to include brief interviews with
pilots who have actually flown each of the USAF platforms modeled, as
well as an interview with the game designers, allowing them to share
general tips on mission success in each of the campaigns.
Unfortunately, this guide won't be useful for most of our readers. I
recommend that you "try before you buy," if you can get access to the
guide at a computer outlet near you.
