Falcon 4.0 Allied Force

[Brewtal]

Allright who's playing it?

Because I completely missed out on the previous games I'm still catching up on how to fly this thing. But overall the game has been completely addictive and engrossing.

[B-52 GUNNER]

I would have thought that the next Sim would be at least FALCON 4.1 or 5.0

[Brewtal]

I would have thought that the next Sim would be at least FALCON 4.1 or 5.0

313811[/snapback]

From what I understand it's more of a graphical update. The Korea campaigns are still there, and they also added the Balkans.

[B-52 GUNNER]

They should have added Afghanistan and Iraq as well as Iran and the ability to fly C.A.P. missions over the USA

[Warmaker]

They expanded the controls / commands, updated the cockpit to pretty scary levels. Not for the light hearted "Secret Weapons Over Normandy" crowd.

It's one of the more hardcore sims.

It's my kind of sim!

Makes me think of the old sims I used to spend countless hours on, including the mods for them:

European Air War: I absolutely LOVED this game, it may not have had the flashy graphics of Janes WWII Fighters, but the campaign and ability to have a career covering a significant portion of the war was very nice. Example: I could be a Hauptman (Captain) in the German Luftwaffe in 1943 and finish the war alive and decorated, as a commanding officer or Oberst (Colonel) in my squadron. I could manage the aircraft and loadouts, aircrew, monitoring their success, promotions, and most of all: fatigue. I took the time, especially late in the war with so many good quality Allied aircrews in the skies, to team my newest pilots with a hardened veteran. It was great when you saw the youngest pilot attain the skills and experience to survive until the German surrender in '45. When I lost a pilot in my squadron, it was tragic.

I also vividly recall an alert for us to scramble up into the air in fall of '44. The Americans were sending a HUGE box formation of B-17s against a German city. My ragtag squadron of FW-190's quickly scrambled... all EIGHT of our aircraft . I ask ground control for any local assistance... they basically said my squadron was all that was left of the Luftwaffe in the next several hundred kilometers . Oh, by the way, I then saw a whole fighter group of P-51 Mustangs above and to the rear of the Flying Fortresses. Nice! So, what did I do as the Commanding Officer? Turn tail? Preposterous. Attack? Not a whole FIGHTER GROUP, that's for sure! I maneuvered my "squadron" into a more favorable altitude and angle, and gave the order to drop tanks and attack the Bomber formation. The FW-190 is VERY heavily armed and we had rockets equipped. We only had time for ONE pass against the bombers before the Mustangs would give chase. My mere 8 bird squadron took out 3 Flying Fortresses. A 4th one was taken down but that was due to a horrible midair collission from one of our newest pilots. No one bailed out from that one, American or German.

Longbow 2: My first game to experience the fluidity of Dynamic Campaigns. My first game to fly a helicopter with. Once I got the hang of the large differences in flying fixed wing aircraft and rotary wings, the experience took off. I quickly learned that Attack Helicopters are extremely powerful but also extremely fragile.

Falcon 4.0: My first jet simulation. It was awesome, but buggy as hell on release. There were a few official patches, but the fans kept this game alive since 1998. The fans squashed bugs and expanded the game to much higher levels. Even on the original Korean War campaign the game shipped with, the Dynamic Campaign was excellent. Missions changed depending on the situation across the peninsula. There was one campaign where the UN is cornered again on the Southeastern portion of the peninsula, another "Pusan Perimeter" but with modern weaponry. When you were flying a sorty, you look around and listen to the radio chatter. The war is raging all around you, and you really feel very small and very vulnerable. BTW, I absolutely hate SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses).

Janes F/A-18: Not as good as Falcon 4.0, but it had Carrier Operations. The scripted campaign hurt it, IMO, but the overall feeling was still very nice.

I didn't fly Janes F-15E. I love the Eagles, but for some reason I never picked it up (how shameful).

I also remember flight sims used to come not with instruction manuals... TOMES of knowledge. Controls, basics of flight and aerial combat maneuvering, aircraft recognition and general capabilities, etc. Jane's used to cram so much stuff, it was scary. Falcon 4.0 had the best when it was originally released: It had this cool blue binder with the manual inside it. Ready for you to flip through it.

It was about quality and documentation back in those days.

[hellohikaru]

I really miss Longbow 2. So hard to run these days.

Another helicopter sim i am rediscovering is DI's Hind. Dated graphics and sound but it was the first helo sim to feature realistic infantry. Just gotto try the Aghan campaign. They will shot more RPGs than you can shake a stick on.

[VF-19]

I picked up Falcon 4.0 Allied Force a few weeks ago, and after spending about $45 CDN to have the manual printed and bound, I'm still quite lost. At least I can launch missiles and bombs, and SOMETIMES hit something. Hopefully not one of my buddies.

The manual is quite awesome, and explains everything. Can't remember a key press? Hunt the button down in the cockpit and manually press it yourself. That I really really like. But I don't like it when I shut off my engine mid flight... Ooops.

Overall, dispite the somewhat dated graphics (a bonus of that is that it will run buttery smooth on today's systems), it's basically a military grade simulator for the commercial market.

[Uxi]

I never liked Falcon 4.0 before but have been considering giving these "new" takes another look as I'm in simulator withdrawl.

I think the peak of the PC fighter simulators was probably ATF-Gold. Loved that game especially once the patch unlocked all of the other craft, with cockpits... MiG-29 to F-15 to F-22 to the Aurora. Good times!

[VF-19]

I'm personally more of a WW2 flight sim junkie (except Combat Simulator 3, never liked it). I kinda like the whole idea that when you push a button something happens right away. In Falcon 4.0 you can't even shoot until you've armed your craft (master arm switch in the lower left hand corner in the frontal view). Plus there's some amount of skill involved in using guns to shoot down a plane while barely avoiding a collision.

But I like Falcon 4.0 Makes me want to dig out Lock-On (and print the manual to that), and Flanker 2.5 (and print the manual for that too). If nothing for the reading material.