![]() ![]() After racking up several successful missions, a bunch of kills, and a medal or two, losing your pilot through no fault of your own can be maddening.Īnd this just begins to scratch the surface. Problems with the pilot log can leave your pilot listed as dead, even after landing safely at the end of a successful mission. The autopilot sometimes likes to fly your plane into the ground. The manual also mentions being able to adjust the radar's vertical scan height, but you can't actually do that in the game. If you go to track-while-scan mode in the F-15C, then back to range-while-search mode, you'll find you can no longer move the radar's scan area. (The radar will also be made more effective.)Ī lot of other flaws add frustration to the experience. Ubisoft says that counter-measures (radar jamming, chaff, and flares) are all over-done in the release version of Lock On and will be fixed in a patch. I've been directly behind a big, fat Russian AWACS plane at just a few miles' range and watched it somehow evade three radar-guided AIM-7 missiles and a heat-seeking Sidewinder as I closed in on it. Among of the most significant problems is the fact that it's very difficult to get an enemy aircraft to show up on radar - and once you've got a lock, it's extremely tough to hit him. You can watch allied and enemy planes, ships, and ground units carry out roles that go far beyond your own particular mission, and the scenery and weather effects are the best in any air combat sim so far.Īs the game stands now, though, that beauty often feels skin deep, thanks to a bunch of bugs and questionable design decisions. Cockpits are strikingly rendered, with loads of working instruments you can zoom in to view in extreme close-up without any loss of detail. Once you're in the air, Lock On's surface appeal is undeniable. Click on the "Encyclopedia" to get a little intel before a mission, and you'll find that closing it takes you to the main menu rather than back to your briefing, forcing you to reload the mission you were about to fly. Campaigns and single missions have to be selected and loaded from a Windows-style file menu, rather than from a more traditional game menu. Unfortunately, accessing them is not always fun, thanks to the none-too-friendly interface that will be familiar to all Flanker fans. That's a lot of ways to have fun with Lock On. There's also a "Quick Battle Planner" that lets you set up a whole slew of simple combat scenarios by selecting options from a menu. For more casual gamers who just want a quick fix, Lock On has six instant-action missions you launch with one click from the main menu (one each for the A-10, F-15, Su-25, Su-27, Su-33, and MiG-29). Each of those four planes is also the centerpiece of a strictly linear six- or seven-mission campaign. The sim offers five standalone missions each for the A-10, F-15, Su-25, and Su-27 players who want to fly the other planes will need to make use of the sim's complex mission editor or wait for other gamers to make new missions available. ![]() The Su-27 and Su-33 Flankers are back, of course, along with Flanker 2.0's convincing flight models, impressive scenery, and beautifully detailed aircraft. "Warthog"), the Su-25 Frogfoot, and three flavors of MiG-29 Fulcrum. It expands on the excellent Flanker 2.0 with six new flyable jets: the F-15C Eagle, the A-10 Thunderbolt II (a.k.a. Lock On: Modern Air Combat, has a lot to recommend it. Developed under the working title "Flanker: Attack," this combat flight sim from the producers of 1999's acclaimed Flanker 2.0: Combat Flight Simulator offers virtual pilots the chance to climb into the cockpit of the F-15C Eagle, the MiG-29k, the A-10 Warthog, the Su-27 Flanker, or one of several other real-life marvels of late 20th-century aviation. ![]() Take to the virtual skies for a realistic simulation of flight and combat in one of many modern U.S. ![]()
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