Janes F/A-18 First Look - By Mark "Frugal" Bush Page 2 of 2
The graphics themselves are a bit of a mixed bag, the terrain is not
pretty but neither is it ugly. The sky though is real nice, the volumetric
clouds look awesome (and no doubt suck fps like bastards). The dynamic
lighting really looked nice too (and probably sucked fps :) The aircraft
models were also very impressive for the F18 itself, and the other aircraft
I witnessed in my short time. The carrier looks great to and is visible
from a fair distance away. There are also nice details like the water
sparkling in the sun. Ground noise is added to give a good sensation
of speed at low level. I have read a lot of criticism of the 3D cockpit
but I have to admit that I actually quite like it. I tend to spend a
lot of time in the virtual cockpits of sims panning around watching for
bandits, so this suited me perfectly.
The comms are second to none, definately a new benchmark in flight sim
comms hence my comments in the intro. The amount of communication options
are just too many to mention in this article. You can talk to just about
everyone including JSTARS, AWACS, FAC, TOWER, LSO, Wingmen, other members
of your flight and lots more. If you would want to communicate with it
then the chances are that you can in Janes F/A-18. Unfortunately this
area gets very little coverage in the manual. Again, not a problem for
the experienced simmer, but a possible source of confusion for someone
new to this genre.
The avionics are excellent as far as I can tell. They are also very complex
and so I will not say too much about them at this point. They certainly
satisfy the butten pusher in me :) One thing is for sure, this is where
the largest learning curve lies. Show me a complex set of avionics and
a fat manual and I'll show you a happy Frugster :)
The flight model does what I expect of it, it gives me a convincing sensation
of flying a big heavy chunk of metal with 2 very large engines strapped
to it :) Ok let's just pretend for a moment that I'm qualified to speak
about the flight model, after all simming is all about suspending disbelief
so lets start in this article by pretending I know what the hell I'm
talking about. The sensation of weight was quite noticeable, this is
certainly not a nimble little mover like the F16. The overal sensation
was very convincing and as a result I feel quite comfortable saying that
the FM is very good.
Carrier Ops are excellent. Whilst there is very little to the cat launches,
trapping is an entirely different matter. I found most of my traps to
be a real white knuckle ride. Carrier landings are often refered to as
a controlled crash, and nowhere is that more evident than in F/A-18.
Hehe more than once I was ordered to wave off during a landing. Bolters
are pretty hairy too, the first time you miss those wires you get that
"new underwear required" feeling so make sure you remember
to push up the throttle on touchdown. I must admit that I didn't really
notice the pitching and rolling of the carrier during any of my traps.
But then I suspect this is because I was too busy concentrating on not
going splat. My hat goes off to Bozo for his 800+ traps in real life,
just doing it in a sim scared the crap out of me. I suspect in a real
jet I would just circle the carrier saying oooh shit until my fuel ran
out :-)
My initial impressions are definitely very favourable, unfortunately
as stated in the introduction this means I'm now in line for a lot of
short term pain. Fortunately based on what I have seen so far I am confident
that I am going to be rewarded with a lot of long term pleasure.
I dare say at this point you are probably asking "So which is best, DI's
Superhornet or Janes F/A-18?" Well quite frankly, I'm not touching that
one with a 10 ft barge pole :) What I will say is that each has things
to recommend it over the other. Both currently live on my hard drive
and I'm confident that both will get a lot of stick time, which will
get the most remains to be seen.
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