Janes F/A-18 First Look - By Mark "Frugal" Bush Page 1 of 2
After receiving Janes F/A-18
at the weekend I thought I'd share my initial impressions with you. This
is far from a review as I need to get some real stick time in before
I can give a properly considered review. At this point I'm still flying
with the manual on my lap :)
Installing any new hardcore
sim is always a double edged sword. On the one hand is the excitement
at getting to grips with a new set of avionics, flight model etc On the
other hand is four fingers and a thumb. Whoops!! I meant on the other
hand is the knowledge that liking the sim is gonna cause you a world
of hurt in the near future. If the sim turns out to be average then it
comes off the HD and all you lost is some cash. Liking it on the other
hand is gonna cost you a whole lot more.
First you've got the study time to overcome the inevitable learning curve
that comes with an accurate set of avionics, then comes the real pain…programming
the hotas. If you survive this ordeal you then have the dubious pleasure
of setting up Game Commander to take care of the comms etc (hmm one day
I will thank Janes for the incredibly comprehensive comms in F/A-18,
but as I sit here with Game Commander open and a huge comms list all
I can think is …bastards :)
As if this wasn't bad enough, once you have completed all your configuration
jiggery pokery, loaded up your hotas config, launched your latest sim
acquisition and strapped into the cockpit you get that horrible sinking
feeling of "Dang where did I put the engine keys? And for that matter
what do I need to say into my mike to get a clearance!!!" (Hehe admit
it, you've all been there :) Oh well, back to school to learn your hotas
and Game Commander configs.
With all this in mind I opened the Janes F/A-18 box that BBall had kindly
sent over from the other side of the pond. The first thing that came
to hand was a keyboard reference card that puts most other keyboard reference
cards to shame. In fact it's so good I almost though "hmm this manual
is a lot thinner than Janes usual offerings". It includes a keyboard
chart, pictures of the various MDI screens, HUD references and a full
list of keyboard commands.
The manual itself (which was next out of the box) was the usual well
put together spiral bound affair that anyone who's ever flown a Janes
sim will feel instantly at home with. My only criticism of the manual
is that while it describes the avionics and MDI's etc it doesn't go into
any detail about their actual usage. This isn't a big problem for hardened
simmers but it does make the sim a little less accessible to the new
user.
After a 10-minute battle with the thick card insert I was able to extract
the CD. Much reorganising of the hard drive and agonising about which
software was no longer welcome on my hard drive later (eventually settling
on 3 games that I have never played but always intended too) I was able
to perform a huge (580MB) install of Janes F/A-18.
Once loaded I found the interface quite pleasant and easy to navigate.There
are several different game modes including Instant Action, Single Missions
and Campaign. The mission builder looks excellent and will certainly
extend the life of the sim especially as the campaign builder is hidden
in there. With user built Campains likely to appear very soon, the replayability
factor is outstanding. Co-operative Multiplayer is included too and by
all accounts works very well although I personally still need some more
stick time before I'm ready for the big bad world.
Diving straight into
Instant Action I found the graphics were very nice but unfortunately
my Celery 300A O/C to 450 with 128 MB ram and a Voodoo 3 is no longer
the high end kit that it was such a short time ago. My initial setting
of 1024x768 with all GFX options on high was too much for my system.
Dropping down to 800 x 600 did the trick and the sim chugged along at
an acceptable rate for me. Don't ask me what my fps was as I use the
MK1 eyeball test, if it looks smooth then it's adequate. Now if I check
and discover I'm at 12fps then I'm gonna get all pissed off and stop
enjoying the sim so I prefer to be blissfully ignorant.
