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Software Vault: The Gold Collection
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Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO
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ART12
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1993-06-13
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5KB
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FALCON 3.0
by Shreyas Shah
You may need to strap yourself in, when you sit down to play Falcon
3.0. This F-16 Simulator/Game from Spectrum Holobyte is simply a
masterpiece. If you enjoy details, and feel that it is the 'little
things' that make a game, then this is the game for you! Be
prepared to do some studying though!
Falcon 3.0, which had its roots in earlier versions, such as Falcon
& Falcon AT, is really a completely new game. The game starts off
with nice animation, and quickly puts you right into the war room.
This room, which reminded me of the room from the movie War Games,
is the heart of the game. Here you can form squadrons, commit
squadrons to different areas of conflict, jump into instant action,
configure your setup, or even play a little red flag.
After setting up your equipment, you'll need to form a squadron. You
choose a name and emblem from an available list. Once you have
chosen a squadron you may commit it to a specific theater. Falcon
3.0 comes with 3 theaters of conflict: Operation Fighting Tiger,
Panama, Israel and Kuwait built in, with the ability for additional
add-ins as they are available Once you choose a theater you will be
given daily reports on missions and it's effect on the overall
campaign. Each mission you fly can be customized as you see fit,
from changing flight plans to changing pilots' faces and names! One
note of interest here is that in most missions you will fly as part
of a group with your plane as the flight leader. You have some
control over other planes in your flight group, in that you can
issue them orders.
Once in flight the game takes on incredible realism with beautiful
graphics, many different views to watch the action, digitized voices
over your radio as your wing man and other pilots chatter back and
forth, as well as dizzying dogfights and bombing runs. The Red Flag
option allows you to create missions, and use them as practice to
gain experience, as well as learn about preparing missions (which
any good flight leader should know how to do!). Instant Action
allows you to jump straight into the cockpit of a Falcon already in
flight. No missions or campaign to follow, just shoot down the bad
guys! This is a great feature for those who aren't interested in the
simulation of a long campaign.
One nice feature is the ability to play 'Head to Head' with a
friend, by connecting with a modem. Don't expect this to be easy
though, since many problems have been reported in earlier releases.
Although these problems were supposedly fixed, in patches released
by Spectrum Holobyte, most users of this feature don't recommend it,
unless you're using high speed modems.
Falcon which is rich in breakthrough graphics, digitized video clips
and other great features does have its drawbacks. One of the biggest
is the difficulty in learning all the features of your Falcon and
techniques in flying. You have the option of using a Joystick or
Mouse and a keyboard is always needed! There is also support for the
Thrustmaster which has other features such as extra buttons that
Falcon makes use of. You're provided with a very well written and
illustrated 'Flight Manual' that is over 300 pages (I recommend
reading most of it). It provides everything from basic flight
principles to advanced fighter tactics, including how to avoid
Doppler radar's and other neat stuff. There is also historical
information about the different theaters of conflict, and advice how
to run a good campaign. There is also a comprehensive reference
section of all the different types of aircraft and weapons.
Another drawback is that this highly feature-filled game requires a
lot of hardware and memory. To start with you'll need at least a 386
(they claim it will run on a 12mhz 286 but that isn't too realistic
for game play). A minimum of 1MB RAM (2 or more if you want the
voices), DOS 5.0 and 620k free to run. This means that most people
that haven't already done so will have to start moving things into
upper memory, or use a memory manager such as QEMM or even resort to
a plain-vanilla boot disk. This is all worth it though, when you see
the whole package come together, as you fly around looking for
ground targets, or are in the middle of a fast-paced dogfight.
In summary, this is a must for any Flight Simulator lover or Fighter
Pilot wannabe! If you're looking for a quick arcade action shoot'em
up this is not for you. You'll need to do some studying and
practice, but you'll find that Spectrum Holobyte has put together an
excellent package and one that I highly recommend.
Product Information
Falcon 3.0
List Price -- $79.95
Average Street Price -- $35-$40
Spectrum Holobyte
2061 Challenger Drive
Alameda, CA 94501
(510) 522-1164
(510) 522-3587 (Fax)