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Reviewed by Dan "CRASH" Crenshaw

Note: All screen shots in this review are 1280X1024, 32 bit color - FSAA X4 except where otherwise noted.

Some of you may recall my scathing attack of the follow on product of Hornet Korea called Precision Strike Fighter, posted over on SimHQ.com. Graphsim had sold the licensing rights to Hornet Korea to Xicat, a company that has a less than stellar reputation in its releases. Unfortunately they held true to form with their release and tried to market a 4 years old game lacking in several key areas, technologically behind the times, and still having bugs that should have been fixed in the 4+ years gap between the releases. Understandably, I was very skeptical when I heard that Graphsim, themselves this time, were going to release a "new" version of HORNET titled Operation Iraqi Freedom.

It is going to be impossible for me not to compare these titles. Both are "follow on" versions of the original game. Just a quick note, in this review - OIF = Operation Iraqi Freedom and PSF = Precision Strike Fighter. First thing I will say is that they have already started out correctly by NOT TRYING to market this as a NEW game. Even on the official OIF website, Graphsim makes it clear that this "IS" F/A-18 Hornet Korea. The Award-Winning F/A-18 Korea Moves to the Latest Conflict in Iraq! What would have been nice is to find a list of items that have been changed, enhanced, or upgraded. To those new to this sim, it would mean little or nothing, to those of us that have been around a while, it would have been a quick reference. Perhaps they did not do this on purpose for marketing reasons. Also, it is priced at $29.95. Not the ludicrous $49.95 that Xicat tried to charge. In reality, OIF is a more likely candidate to charge a higher price based on what this sim offers compared to PSF. Regardless, the lower price tag of OIF is a feather in Graphsim's cap.

Packaging is your typical smaller format box and … light. Read that as you get a CD and that's it. That would obviously mean no manual. There is a key card folded into the front of the jewel case for quick reference, but that's it. Now, I am a big manual fan. Hornet's original manual was, and still is, a well used reference in my office. One of the best written manuals on any game in my opinion. My hat goes off to Major David "Pooch" Putze, USMCR for that one. Xicat hacked it up quite a bit, was a shame. But OIF has no manual … in PAPER format at least. When you install, you get an Icon in your programs menu for a PDF manual. The manual is formatted already for double sided printing of its 131 pages. A cursory look and it clearly is the same original manual. It has been reorganized some, some additions made to cover the Iraqi theater aspects of the game. It also has several areas deleted. The problem here is that some of the areas deleted are critical for game enjoyment. The manual gives a GREAT overview and procedural instruction on the controls and avionics of the aircraft, but glaringly omitted are the sections on Multiplay, Mission Editor and the Threat Guide. There is reference in the manual to "other specialized documents" and is referring to these items. These can be found in the game folder under manuals. Unfortunately there is really no instruction or idea where to find these. A new user may have difficulty finding them. (Hell, this OLD user took a while to dig them up). The good news is that once you do find them, you will be rewarded mightily. These sections are back to the old manual quality and depth as well (PSF had half a page or so for Multiplay configuration, the OIF manual has 14 pages). All manuals include strategically placed screen shots for making things easier to understand. Once again, Graphsim has done an outstanding job on the manual. It would be nice to have it printed, but I can understand the cost considerations when you are looking at a manual of this magnitude. I would HIGHLY recommend that Graphsim make it easier to locate this additional information.

On the box are listed system specs. Based on a few of the new features, namely:

• Beautiful and realistic satellite image-based terrain covering over 1000 square miles of Iraq, Kuwait, Iran and the Persian Gulf.
• Beautiful atmospheric effects with the sun, clouds, fog and haze.

System requirements have had to rise as well. Required is a 1Ghz processor, 1.25 GB of hard drive space, and at least a 16MB graphics card that supports OpenGL. Recommended is a 1.4Ghz CPU and 32MB video card. A far cry from the old Pentium 133 and 50 megs of hard drive space the original required. It also will run in WIN98, ME, Win2K and WinXP. Most current computer gamers should have no problem running this game with details at maximum setting or close to it. 

Installation is straight forward, no surprises. It does seem to take an awfully long time to load. Even considering the large satellite image-based terrain files that must be transmitted. It takes longer than any other game of this size to load. But realize there is over a gigabyte of terrain files due to the satellite imagery. Please note that once installed, the CD is not needed and it loads and runs very good. 

First entrance into the game, you are treated to some actual footage of GWB and a slide show with audio background. The typical hard driving rock music is the background for a very nice series of pictures of carrier ops. You can re-watch this any time by clicking on the logo in the upper left of the main UI screen. After that plays, you get to the new user interface (other kudos to Graphsims, Xicat made no attempt to create a new user interface for their "new" game). The UI is very slick, all splash screens with hi resolution backdrops of Hornets and carrier activity. There are 6 main UI selections on the main screen: 

• Mission 
• Multiplayer 
• Replay 
• Settings 
• Credits 
• Quit 

I will not go through these in the order they are on the screen, but in an order that makes a bit more logical flow sense in game play. 

Settings

Lets start off with settings since you need to go here to get everything ready to fly. The primary settings are: 

• Resolution: from 640X480 at 16 bit color up to 1280X1024 at 32 bit color 
• Detail: High, Medium and Low settings 
• Realism: High (Hardest), Medium (normal), Low (easiest) 
• Squadron: 10 different squadrons to chose from · Engine Sounds: High, Medium, Low, Off 
• Other Sounds: High, Medium, Low, Off
• Network: TCP/IP, IPX, Modem and Serial options 
• Callsign: Well, I entered CRASH, you may want enter your own. 
• Flight Control: Mouse, Joystick, and Joystick Axis Only 

Simple, clean and effective. I did note that it is QUIET in the UI. I am so used to some sort of rock n' roll backdrop that it was sort of eerie at first. Normally I turn that music off anyway. Just do not worry you have a sound problem. I installed this on 3 different systems. One system had a strange tendency to flip the UI screen image when you clicked to change a setting. I have no idea what caused this or why. It was the only system with a Radeon video card in it, so that may have something to do with it … maybe not. It was easy to deal with and I am not so sure that the game is the culprit. Just something to note that you may encounter. 

Missions 

After you get your settings in place, you are ready for MISSIONS. There are 12 training missions and 27 actual combat missions packaged with OIF. While the manual gives you TACAN settings for Hawaii, all training missions in OIF are in the desert. These 12 missions will give you the insight you need to be successful in the combat missions. After that you can go to war! 

The combat missions are ranked from 1 to 5 (easiest to hardest) so you can gradually get your feet wet and learn as you go. Each combat mission has a briefing screen, notes and a map of your target area, waypoints and threat circles. Pretty well detailed and helpful to read. Next screen in the combat mission arena is the "Choose Ordinance" screen. You can use one of 15 preset load outs or build your own. Very flexible, very easy to use and very well done. Graphsim has paid a lot of attention to detail and taken a lot of effort to make the UI easily navigable and easy to use. After that, you begin the mission, more on that later. 

One gripe I do have here is that after each mission, you must go back to the MAIN UI screen to go back into the mission list.  It would make more sense to default back to the mission list after a mission.

Replay 

This area allows you to watch a mission. Upon exiting the mission, you are asked if you want to save a replay or not. During the replay, you can just sit and watch exactly what happened, view changes and all or you can change views and see what you did from other perspectives. This feature does not work in Multiplayer. This is a great tool, again very easy to use and well done. This is not an ACMI file … it will not show you a lot of data and ranges like some other sims will. This is a complete replay of your mission with the ability to analyze your performance from various angles. 

Credits and Quit 

Now, even if you are new to gaming, I really do not think I need to go through these in detail. 

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