Top notch flying thrills
Take a trip back in time with this old-school combat flight simulator which, despite its age and less than stellar graphics, provides plenty of meaty action for flying junkies to get their teeth into. It's certainly worth a look for its historical value alone, being one of the earliest flight sims to feature a dynamic environment, but beyond this there is a highly detailed and surprisingly realistic engine at work under the crude exterior. The game can be a little daunting for newcomers to the genre but for old-hands, there is much to explore here, with a detailed campaign mode, plenty of real world weapons to experiment with and some serious firepower to go head-to-head with in the skies and on the ground, including MiG 27s and 29s and anti-aircraft guns. All the weapons and aircraft are implemented in incredibly realistic fashion and feature all the foibles of the real-world, making combat a genuinely tense and exciting affair, just as it should be. The flight dynamics too are superbly well done for a game of this time, with taking off, flying and landing all being as challenging as they should be, while damage modelling is also impressively handled, given the game's age. Graphics and sound might be a touch on the crude side but once you're in the midst of a dogfight, it doesn't matter too much and the thrill of combat takes over. If you've played and enjoyed flight sims such as Falcon 3.0, F-29 Retaliator or F-15 Strike Eagle II then this will almost certainly provide the kind of action you're looking for. However, newcomers to the genre might find it a little intimidating and could perhaps be steered in the directio of something like Black Knight, a sim that is equally as good but a little more accessible.
