Flanker 2.0

Flanker 2.0

****

PC SSI

$99.95 (All ages)

Review: Peter Eley

If you are chasing the thrills that come from conquering a high-quality, challenging simulation, you will love Flanker 2.0.

It is probably the closest you can get to flying a combat aircraft without going through Top Gun school.

Because of this realism factor, it is a difficult game to pick up and master. The training manual is a solid 250 pages packed with facts and instructional diagrams. Sadly, you will need to read it.

The best way to get up in the air - and stay there - is to spend a couple of long sessions going through the training missions.

They take you through the basics of take-off, landing, essential systems and weaponry, but the manual fleshes it out with incredible detail.

The history of the game is interesting. It is based around the Su-27 Flanker, a Russian aircraft designed to wrest air supremacy from the American F-15.

The end of the Cold War meant the plane never reached its full potential, but many defence experts consider it to be the world's greatest tactical aircraft.

The SSI development team was based in Russia, and they have created a stunningly accurate representation of the plane and its flying capabilities.

This, of course, makes the game incredibly technical. To quote from the manual: "The FLCS of the Flanker limits positive and negative Gs to +8.5 and -2.5 respectively.

"However, the aircraft can be flown to +9 and -3 Gs and has design limitations of +15 and -5 Gs."

Which means that if you fly too fast, your plane will break up.

The realism is breathtaking. Try dodging a computer-guided SAM - most times they will get you just like in real combat.

And combat damage radically affects your plane's handling. Try landing on one engine with the plane trying to yaw violently to the right or left.

The two previous Flanker games were also highly accurate sims but lacked cutting-edge graphics.

Flanker 2.0 corrects that, but at a high hardware price. A Pentium 300 with a 3D card and AGP graphics is recommended.

Performance was good, but not blistering, on a Pentium 11 266 with a 12Mb Voodoo 2 card.

A Pentium 3 might be a better option if you want to run with all the graphics options at high res.

The bottom line is that the game will appeal to hard-core flyers with powerful hardware and lots of time.

* Send your comments e-mail to peter_eley@herald.co.nz

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