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he Joint Strike
Fighter program came about in 1993, the follow-up program after
cancellation of two projects for the Pentagon. As a cost savings
measure and to develop a single design for the Navy, Marines and Air
Force the Joint Strike Fighter program was to replace some 3000
aircraft. Competition between Boeing and Lockheed Martin was to
decide which of the two would win the bid to provide the new fighter.
Boeing's X-32 and Lockheed Martin's X-35 are both modelled in this
sim, and some of the most modern threat aircraft such as the Sukhoi
Su-35 Flanker and MiG-29 Fulcrum your adversaries.Joint Strike Fighter from EIDOS Interactive turns out to provide the sim experience of these high tech modern aircraft. Providing both single and multiplayer modes, the action is rapid, tense, and very realistic. There is a dogfight mode with a nifty random situation generator -- you're tossed into a dogfight in any of the 4 different campaign theatres scattered around the world....and they're all potential hot spots too. The four action theatres are Afghanistan, Colombia, Korea and the Kola Peninsula in eastern Europe.
Each of the same theatres are available in the Campaign mode, where a series of missions are undertaken to complete an objective. Campaigns start out with a mission plan, where you plan and decide the tactics you'll execute to accomplish your strategic goals. A map overlay in the mission planner gives a variety of different missions to undertake. You plan the number of wingmen to take along, the armament load and the waypoints according to your goals. Some missions are ground targets -- convoys, military bases, radar installments, cargo vessels, factories, SAM installations -- and along the way you may encounter enemy fire from air and ground defenses. As you plan a mission, the necessary information is available for your tactics.
Hmmm, I'd say that targeted adversary is in for trouble....A2A on its way!
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Gameplay: first let me say that there is definitely a learning curve in this simulation because the cockpit functioning and flying is realistic. No quick scan of the manual for this sim....I'd suggest taking more than a cursory look at the manual. Thankfully, the manual is well done, with thorough descriptions of all the cockpit functions. Learning to use the MFD (multi-function display) and the many switches simply increases the realism of flying the missions. Switching between the six MFD modes becomes second nature relatively quickly and I soon had control over the systems. There were times, though, when busy in the cockpit either a call from a wingman or similar warning stole attention quickly!
Also included in the documentation is a nice two sided keystroke summary card. One side has the entire keyboard map on it, the other a picture of the cockpit view and the HMD (head mounted display) in Air to Air mode, along with HMD targeting icons and NAV MFD icons. I went through JSF with both joystick and keyboard control finding either good but naturally preferring joystick control for more realism. I did not run JSF in multiplayer although the documentation here is again top notch.
Notice the lense flare effects of the sun on the camera on the follow plane!
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Recommended Configuration is a Pentium 166 or faster processor, Windows95 with DirectX 5.0, 32 Mb RAM, joystick, 16 bit SVGA graphics card, 160 Mb Hard drive space, 4x or faster CD-ROM drive and any Windows supported sound card.
My test system was a Pentium 166MMX processor, Windows95 with DirectX 5.0, 32 Mb RAM, Logitech Wingman joystick, Diamond Viper 330 Turbo graphics card with 4 Mb RAM, full install of the sim on the hard drive, 4X CD-ROM drive, and a Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold sound card. On this system JSF ran nicely, with smooth frame rates with no jerkiness or pauses.
Still, if there were any complaints on my part they were small -- as I was learning the sim I had a tough time landing the aircraft. It turns out that I had not inactivated part of the autopilot, on each approach the terrain warning system overrode my controls and increased altitude, meanwhile the female cockpit voice (affectionately I called her Bitchin' Betty) was instructing me to "Pull up" "Pull up". Understand that this is my problem, not JSF's. I did not encounter any problems with JSF other than staying away from it. In fact...I understand I'm due for a preflight briefing for a mission. Why don't you join me with this highly recommended simulation?
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Bill Otten BOttenHARP@aol.com |
 Published by: EIDOS Interactive www.eidosinteractive.com |