Fighters Anthology

Details: Category: Computer; By Allen Bratton; 01.Jun; Hits: 7840

System requirements

OS: Windows 95, 98 CPU: Pentium 90Mhz RAM: 16MB HDD: 100MB/145MB for full install VIDEO: 1MB SVGA, 640x480 capable with DirectDraw 3.0 (or later) SOUND: Microsoft DirectX compatible soundcard Age: Everyone

This is a fun Fighter sim game whether you\'re an expert pilot or a beginner. It has Single Training/Practice missions for the beginner to get aquainted with the controls, a \'QuickMission\' option for easy-setup dogfights, a Mission Creator for making more detailed missions (similar to the ones already in the game if you know how) and finally the Campaign Mission. The Campaign mission is when you pick an area and fly all the missions involved consecutively. If you fail (die) then you can either start over or pick up where you last saved.

Features

There is a second CD that comes with the game. This is the \'Reference\' CD and has info on all planes in the game (unless you have add-ons). Just click the Reference button on the first game menu and you will be prompted to put in the other CD. It has lots of useful information on the planes: history, real-life payload maxes and loadouts, real pictures, a 3d rotatable model (like the one you see from external view when flying) and sometimes you have the option to \'Test Fly\' the plane. The other main feature is of course the Mission Editor. This is used to make advanced missions, such as the ones that the game uses. Here you can choose the country, enemies, allies, plane, loadout, and other things. You can add anything on the map, including aicraft carriers, other planes, buildings, airports, and ground vehicles. The game has a total of over a hundred planes without using add-ons, and not just fighters. You can fly a variety of commercial airliners, military cargo planes, bombers, and recon planes.

Graphics/Sound

This game has fairly good graphics, although they do have a lot of room for improvement, considering that it was made between 1997 and 2001. There are certain bugs. One such is that the movable wings on the F-14 and others tend to move \'up and down\' during flight. I have found a fix for this but I personally think they should have fixed it before it was released, instead of a normal gamer having to invent something. Other than this, most things are good, except that the planes have low detail compared to newer games of this genre. The sound is mostly good, especially the Midi music, depending on your card.

Bugs

As I said earlier, the wings on some planes move \'up and down\' and also the guns do not fire correctly. If you are just playing for the fun of it then it is perfectly fine. The guns fire very slowly in relation to what they should.

Performance

This game runs great with Windows 98 (which is what I am running it on) and appears to run decently on a \'95. I don\'t remember having any lockups with it whatsoever. I am sure that it would do fine on anything above a Windows 98 also.

Appropriate?

There is only one issue that I want to bring to the attention of parents and this is that when crashing, the pilot sometimes says \'oh shhh\' but doesn\'t finish because of the crash. Other than this, the game seems to be squeaky clean. Obviously, since it\'s a flight sim, there is no blood, but the idea of killing is still there. Personally I would reccomend this game to any aviation fan as it is very fun despite it\'s (graphical and reality) shortcomings.