REVIEWS

Wings Over Vietnam

By Robert Jacobs (3 May 2005)

Recently, strolling through a local store I stumbled across a game called “Strike Fighters Project One”. Thinking about buying it, I went home and researched it, only to find out that it was based in a fictional world with real aircraft. That turned me off real fast. Fast forward a few months/years. Again, in the store, I saw a game called “Wings Over Vietnam” which looked like it used the same F-4 model, which had been called amazing by reviewers, and was this time set in a real world conflict, Vietnam. Underneath the box flap, was a painting of an F-4 on approach, and small screenshots of a selection of aircraft. Buried in the left hand corner was an A-6A Intruder. This has been one of my favorite aircraft for years, and never had I found an accurate A-6 model in ANY simulator. This sold me. I forked over the money and bought the game.

INSTALLATION

The game comes on a single CD with, unusually these days, and a printed manual of 55 pages. I slipped the CD into the drive, feeling slightly apprehensive, and waited for auto run to do its thing. The install program soon started up, and a few clicks and dialog boxes later, the game was on my hard drive. I left the CD in the drive, and started the game up. As a side note, I find it extremely irritating when a game requires me to keep the CD in the drive; this means I’ve got to switch CD’s between WoV, FS2004, and Rainbow Six. The shortcut on the desktop is ridiculous, but serves its purpose, a double click on it and the game launches.

INCLUDED AIRCRAFT

There is an impressive list of included Vietnam era aircraft, which are included. They are:

USAF:

Navy/Marine Corps:

All of the aircraft included have 3D cockpits modeled with working instruments. The mouse is used to pan around the cockpits in a system, which I think works extremely well and should be considered by Microsoft for FS10. The panning restricts you from looking at certain angles, and doesn’t allow you to see the cockpit side panels or directly behind you. In the A-6, you can’t pan over and look directly right, I’m assuming so that you can’t see that the bombardier isn’t present in the cockpit. The aircraft are modeled well, with excellent proportions, much better than Microsoft did one their 737 and C172. The animations are smooth and as far as I can tell, correct, although the landing gear themselves are modeled somewhat simply. This doesn’t really matter however, as they are usually retracted where they cannot be seen. The loadouts are accurate, and do have an effect on performance as can be seen when trying to take off in an A-6 loaded with 30 Mk82 Snakeyes.

THE A-6 Model

The visual model of the A-6 is probably the best example of the work, which the developers put into the aircraft present in the Sim. The Intruder has many different, and unusual features which are unknown to many developers, and due to this, it is often modeled wrong. The developer at Third Wire obviously did his homework before beginning work on the Intruder. The landing gear retraction sequence is captured for the first time correctly. The mains fold forwards up and once they are up, the nose gear begins its travel backwards between the engine intakes. The speed brakes are an especially good point. On real Intruders, the ONLY airbrakes present are the split wingtip surfaces. The spoilers on top of the wing aren’t speed brakes, and neither are the panels behind the engine exhausts. These panels behind the engines were airbrakes, but they didn’t work and could create dangerous airflow patterns, and so were sealed shut. Third Wire got it right. The overall shape is accurately captured, as are the weapons able to be carried. I’d have to say that the A-6, F-4 and A-4 are the best modeled of all the aircraft, with the rest a close second. The F-105 falls in between the two categories.

RADAR, MISSILES AND BOMBS

What’s the point of a combat-based simulator without ordnance to drop on the enemy? Weapons included are the AIM-9 Sidewinder and variants, the AIM-7 Sparrow and variants, the AIM-4 Falcon, and an assortment of bombs, rockets and gun pods. Almost all the Phantoms, with the exception of the ‘gun-nosed’ E model, carry a gun pod on the centerline station to make up for the lack of an internal cannon. Before many dogfights, and missed missile shots, you’ll be cursing the bureaucrat in Washington who did away with the cannon on the Phantom. The early Sidewinders are basically useless. Be within 1 to 2 degrees of the enemy’s tailpipe, within 1 to 2 miles, and under 2G’s of force. If the enemy’s maneuvering, forget it. The Sparrow is also hard to use, but I find it to be more reliable than the Sidewinder. As the war progresses, you get later versions of weapons, and reliability increases dramatically. The radar is extremely simple, although in practice in the fighters it works quite well. To make a radar lock for a Sparrow, point the aircraft in the general area of the target, and hit “Shift+Insert” to acquire a radar lock. Then, punch the Sparrow off and wait. For the Sidewinders, get behind the target, less than 2G’s, preferable in level flight and hit insert. When the Sidewinder growls, let `er fly, and hope for a hit.

The bombs included in the game are varied and include the famous MK82 Snakeye, the Rockeye cluster bomb, and an assortment of other dumb bombs. So far, I don’t see any ‘smart’ weapons. In contrast to the fighters, which are quite effective given the systems modeled, the bombers could use a little work. Dive-bombing works quite well, but level bombing takes a lot of work. The bombsight is essentially useless in level bombing, and the DIANE equipment of the A-6, which made all-weather bombing possible, is absent. There is no queue on when to release the bombs, or anything of the sort. In A-6’s on the VDI, there was a release marker, which crept down the VDI, and when it reached he bottom, the computer automatically released the bombs. In WoV, there is no VDI, just a radar screen. Level bombing takes some work, but with practice it comes. There are a bunch of third-party developers working on this game, and maybe someone will come up with some good attack avionics.

AI & CARRIER OPS

The AI in this game needs a little work. Wingmen always try to join up on you, the flight leader, but in many cases end up in the drink because they stalled the aircraft to join up on you. MiG’s are hard to catch and shoot down, which his accurate, and SAM’s are present in all their terrible glory. If you don’t see the SAM during its launch, you won’t see it, until it’s too late to do anything about. Carrier ops are rudimentary, with wingmen landing straight instead of on the angled deck, and disappearing soon after touchdown. Sometimes the wingmen take an impossible 90-degree turn just before touchdown and land on the water as if it were a runway. For catapults, you advance to full power, and release the parking brake.

CONCLUSIONS

Wings Over Vietnam is a good break from FS2004, and is a nice sim. Some things like the AI need work, and the carriers could be more detailed, but the aircraft and systems are fun, and it is a good all around program. I’d say to buy it, given the price and the aircraft included. There is also a large third party base, which make add-ons for the sim rivaling Flight Simulator's. This is nowhere as detailed as say, Lock On: Modern Air Combat is, but it is easier to learn, and more fun when you just have an hour to jump in and play around. This is an excellent all around Sim.

Bob Jacobs
Wingnut172N@yahoo.com

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