I think the first mistake some people have made is thinking that Tornado, by Digital Integration is the creation of Spectrum Holobyte. It is not. Digital Integration is the British company who is responsible for this new flight sim. Spectrum Holobyte is the distributor for the USA. Since this is a British strike aircraft it is only fitting that they write and produce a simulation as well. I've always had an interest in British aircraft and now have the chance to take the controls.
First Impressions
Basically this looks like a Spectrum Holobyte product in the box when you first see it on the shelf. As I have said, it is not. Nevertheless the packaging is of the same quality and like Falcon 3.0 quite com plete.
The install program menu screen is quite good having a mouse interface and will point out any problems you might face running the install program or simulation under your current configuration. I made one correction to my Config.sys before installation just to make sure. I run DOS 5.0 and use QEMM to manage memory. The installation ran smooth and the sim loaded with no problems the first time. Testing as always is done on a 486 33Mhz machine with 16 megs of RAM.
When you load the sim, after seeing the Spectrum Holobyte and Digital Integration logos, you will see the title screen showing a still picture of a Tornado fully loaded in flight. This is where you also get your first taste of the synthesized music that is good sounding and very clear through my Sound Blaster Pro. Next you are presented with the Main Menu screen. One of the first things I would suggest you do here is go to Preferences under the Options Button to set up and calibrate your joystick. The install program didn't detect my joystick port, and as a result, the deFault was keyboard for flight control. The game supports any standard analog joystick plus, the Thrust Master Flight Control System (TMFCS), and the yet to be released CH Flight Stick Pro. Also there is support for the coolie hat on both that control cockpit views that are very useful while in battle. It makes no mention in the software or any of the documentation about support for the Thrust Master Weapons Control System (TMWCS) which I found a bit surprising. I tried it with the same settings I use with Falcon 3.0 without much luck. As far as I know this sim does not support the TMWCS. This is a shame not to mention quite annoying. Spectrum will be hearing from me on this subject.
From the Main Menu screen you can watch a demo, explore terrain, view vehicles, choose the Flight Menu or make the choice of Quick Start. As always this is where I go to check out the main factor, and to me, the heart of any new flight sim-the flight model. Quick Start puts you right in the cockpit of the Tornado, airborne at 20,000 feet, a nice safe altitude for your first flight. After about ten minutes of flying around in Quick Start, completely lost, I moved on. This flight sim is different, which can be a turn off if you have little patience for learning new keyboard commands. My first im pression of Falcon 3.0 was similar. I was overwhelmed by the sim and even more put off by a 342 page manual. That was then, this is now. I feel better if the manual is in fact very thick. It usually means it is packed with valuable information. In the case of Tornado this is very true.
Manual, Technical Supplement
The first thing you will read is the Technical Supplement to install the simulation unless you want to take the chance on the old reli able A: Enter, Install Enter, which is the case here. I really did like the install features because they were very clear and would detect con figuration problems before you made an attempt to load the sim. It will tell you what you need to install the sim, to load the sim and what your configuration is at the present time. Reading the Technical Supplement will get you into the cockpit just after installation without even taking the 330 page manual out of the box. Be my guest but I advise against it, plus they did incorporate one thing that will make you pick up the manual. Copy protection. This only has to be done once unless you re-install the simulation.
"If all else fails, read the instructions!" The Tornado manual is possibly the best I have ever seen. It is very well written and explains every aspect of this flight sim right down to the smallest detail with the exclusion of keyboard commands. They keep having you refer to the quick reference card. I guess they weren't sure what the these commands would be when they sent the manual to the printer. It has one of the best tutorials that should not be over looked by the new Tornado Flying Officer. It is very straight forward and very clear. I actually enjoyed reading the manual and did so in about five days. This is where you really learn how to fly and manage Tornado. Without it you will be totally lost. I would have thought this would be a bit like Falcon 3.0 but the keyboard commands and flight systems are very different. Again this sim is from Digital Integration and we're now flying a Tornado that very much differs from the F-16. There is wing sweep to think about. If you mess this up then you will lose control over the angle of the sweep resulting in very limited and poor aircraft performance that will put you be hind in your Campaign. To get the most out of this sim spend time read ing the manual and put in as many hours of flight time as you can working with the tutorials. It will pay off in the end, trust me.
Game Play
Quick Start is the best way to find out you need the quick reference card in one hand and the joystick in the other. You have the choice of either version of the Tornado, the IDS (Interdictor/Strike) or the ADV (Air Defense Variant), and the choice of hard or easy time in the air. I found it fairly annoying to be shot at while I was trying to learn how to fly this aircraft so I switched to the Simulator under the Flight Menu. The other two choices here are Training and Combat. Training allows you to log actual flight time, gaining experience needed for future promotions, not to mention survival. Simulator and Training are where you can really learn the simulation, how to handle the Tornado and deploy weapons, both air to ground and air to air including the Mauser BK 27 Cannon. Strafing ground targets is something I really get into, and in this sim there are plenty! Tornado has 1,000 Lb General Purpose Bombs, 1,000 Lb Retarded Bombs, LGBs (Laser Guided Bombs) and Cluster bombs. You won't find Durandals in this sim. The Royal Air Force has a unique way of destroying runways with their JP.233 Dispensers. This weapon when deployed properly, at very low altitude directly over the target, releases Runway Penetrators followed by Area Denial Mines that will devastate any surface meant to support aircraft such taxiways and runways. The success of this weapon in Operation Desert Storm, used to take out the taxiways to hardened aircraft shelters in Iraq proved to be very affective. Those enemy aircraft would not leave the ground, making them useless and harm less to the allied forces without wasting magnitudes of large, expensive bombs to destroy the shelters themselves.
Like all pilots I hate SAMs. Unless of course they are Allied SAMs! Shrikes and HARMS are not present. The ALARM is similar but will act differently depending on the situation, and the end result is quite effectively the same with great accuracy. When fired this missile will fly to the target area, climb to 10,000 feet, shut down its engine and deploy a parachute. As it floats down with its seeker head pointed at the ground it will seek out any active radar. Once it finds hostile radar emissions, the missile will lock on to it, jettison the chute and fall guiding itself to the target. This is quite a sight from Target View! I love new weapons!
With time you will realize that Tornado is, like Falcon 3.0, in a class by itself, and the two cannot be compared. Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft and Strike Aircraft are two entirely different things. It offers many different ways in which you can play the game. You can fly a single mission, begin a campaign or take command of an entire air war. The only way to take Command is to successfully com plete a Level 2 Campaign. Then again Tornado offers another feature which game players will appreciate. See Cheating below.
Oh yeah, one more thing here. Don't expect any replays. No VCR this time around.
Scenario?
During Operation Desert Storm the Tornado, and her crews, played an important role flying into enemy territory low and fast to avoid hostile radar and take out enemy airfields within seconds of their arrival, and with great success. For the life of me I can't fig ure out why Digital Integration didn't include this in the simulation. There is no Desert Storm or Iraq theater. I would think that training would take place somewhere in Great Britain. No London flight here folks! This was a big disappointment. Red Baron fans will certainly frown on this. So, we are left with the enemy forces, and a hostile government that are simply, fictitiously, and annoyingly referred to as "Orange". I hope for a mission disk with real world bat tles and history.
Mission Planning
Like the manual, the Mission Planner in Tornado is one of the best, if not the best, I have ever seen. If you are familiar with MicroSoft Windows then you will appreciate the interface here. There are more windows here than I have ever seen in any game, which can be
confusing at first but the advantages are good planning, well organized and accurate strikes. You don't have to jump from one screen to the next or have to go back three screens if you decide to change your strategy or weapons load. In fact you can pull every window out, including the briefing, move them to any position, or put them all back with a single click of the mouse. There is even a moveable scale for miles to give you a visual reference on distance.
The Mission Planner presents you with a full map of the "war zone" (Orange is to the North) and everything you need to make the best use of it, including weapons loads and a key to the map icons that can be turned on or off. One nice feature is the Target Finder. With this you can plan your strategy precisely, taking out communications and H.Q. first, leaving the enemy with unorganized forces that will be yours to toy with. Setting way points and choosing targets is easy making the task a bit more enjoyable and a lot more affective when it comes time to rev up the engines, hit the afterburners (reheat) and release the brakes. A flight of six Tornadoes can devastate an enemy airfield in less than a minute and if that isn't enough for you, designate a secondary target on your way home! If you plan your mission well a third target can be hit. One way of doing this is by taking advantage of the "Target of Opportunity". While in flight from the back seat you can pick a target by creating a new way point that can be right over a AAA or SAM emplacement. "Hey! Let's drop a couple of 1,000 pounders on that bridge down there while we're in the neighborhood!" This can also be very useful if you need to get to a friendly air base in a hurry.
There is a lot more to the Mission Planner than I can tell you here. The power of this tool to plan and engage your strategy really has to be experienced by the gamer. Once you have worked with it, you will wish other sims would follow suit.
Flight Model
At first I didn't know a whole heck of a lot about the Panavia Tornado. With a little research from other sources and some time spent flying the aircraft in this simulation, I indeed know quite a bit more. Having a better feel for what this plane is capable of, (and after learning a lot of new the keyboard commands), and gathering a feel for its characteristics, I can honestly say that this is a very well done flight model. The Tornado is a strike aircraft, and plays this role very well. In a close, turning dogfight the Tornado is out-classed by the MiG-29, but there are ways to get the advantage. Similar to the F-14 Tomcat in design, the Tornado's wings can be swept forward to gain maximum maneuverability. Add in "Maneuver Flap" and the engagement will take on a whole new advantage over your adversary, slow with tighter turns. Slam the throttles to idle, hit the brakes and that MiG-29 will fly right by right into your sights. Keep him there and he's toast! A tall order, but if you are aggressive enough, and good enough, as all pilots should be, you might find you have more fun harassing the hell out of him than shooting him down.
One thing I look for when flying a new flight model is how well it simulates a nose high attitude on approach to the runway with a gentle descent and flare for touch down. In other words, "How well does this flight model simulate angle of attack?" Some flight sims will simulate stall speed very well, but seem to insist on stepping out when it comes to angle of attack. The Tornado team definitely put a lot of time and effort into simulating angle of attack. Pitch the nose of a the aircraft up about 10 degrees with wing sweep at 25 degrees, flaps, slats and gear down nice and dirty at about 150 knots. Use the throttle to control your altitude and the lift and drag are right on the money! This will take some time to learn if you're new to this, but angle of attack is there, very useful, and very well simulated.
Stability? Targets are easy to hit with pinpoint accuracy even with the dumbest of bombs. This is a stable aircraft. You have the choice of normal or high sensitivity joystick control. I chose high. The roll rate is better and more realistic. You can toggle between the two set tings any time during flight. This I designate as "Dual Rates". A handy feature if you have a tendency to over control on approach to the runway or to a target. Although I wish there was a choice for this in the Preferences screen.
What? No ailerons? None at all! There is no room for them on the wings! All this space is taken up by the flaps and slats for better lift, and at certain speeds, tighter turning. Roll control comes from the tail surfaces and spoilers on the top of the wings, again similar to the F-14. These give the same effect and are more stable, plus it take unneeded stress off the wings.
Unfortunately as I mentioned before the Thrust Master Weapons Control System is not supported. However! There is a feature called Auto Throttle. When you engage this you set the airspeed you want and the aircraft will do its best to maintain that airspeed. This is very much like Cruise Control in a car. I found this partly made up for the lack of support for the TMWCS. The Auto Pilot in this sim is divided, taking control of separate aspects of flight, meaning that it is programmable. This is a big plus and as the manual states, very realistic. You decide whether you want to fly the aircraft, control the throttle or land on your own. I found advantages to having all of these features. The flight model in Tornado is ex cellent.
Views
I don't normally talk about views. There is no rear view in this simulation, nor is there a tactical view. Need I say more?
Graphics
The HUD (Heads Up Display) in Tornado is what I would expect from any quality flight sim giving you the needed information while keeping your eyes out of the cockpit and on the target. The instrument panel and MFDs (Multi Function Displays) present clear information to the Pilot and Navigator/Weapon System Officer. There are plenty of good clear graphics here so in flight operations are made routine without guess work.
I have never seen detail on the ground like I have in Tornado! All of the graphics are polygon somewhat like the graphics found in Stunt Island. You can fly in low and fast right between buildings, under bridges and telephone lines. Following terrain gives you the feeling of reality. This is the first sim where I can actually see and feel speed. The rea son for this is there are a lot of objects on the ground. If the ground was flat and empty as in so many other flight sims it wouldn't give you the illusion of speed. Since you can't actually "feel" the motion of the aircraft, your sight is your only real reference to physical motion. Try flying next to the telephone lines and take a look out the side of the aircraft. Hitting targets is a blast because you can see them and identify them even at an altitude of 5,000 feet. Unfortunately you will not see flames burst from enemy air craft hit with missiles or guns. There will be a bright flash, and what I call dot matrix smoke, and then the enemy aircraft will disappear. Although ground hits will show severe damage like a destroyed bridge or train. I was hoping for some bit mapped explosions (and being a Falcon 3.0 fan shock rings). The only bit mapping you will find is inside the cockpit, which is very well done, and like F-15 Strike Eagle III, you will find it very true to the actual aircraft.
Tornado runs smooth on a 486 33Mhz with no clich_s or slow downs. On a 386 40Mhz the decrease in speed was noticeable but still the game was quite playable and the friend who owned the machine also owned Tornado within two hours of testing. The worst slow down on the 386 was flying down low over one of the of the many cities due to the amount of graphics, still the game was "Playable".
This is the first game I have seen that has high resolution SVGA like graphics in the Menu screens. You will find digitized pictures of aircraft and pilots that are actually menu icons. All the menus have this same high resolution, as does the Mission Planner.
Music and Sound
After getting a taste of the synthesized music, I turned it off as I do with most flight sims because once you've heard it, you've heard it. If sims would play something different every time you loaded the game, then I would perhaps leave it running. Otherwise it was good sounding. I don't buy flight sims to listen to music.
The engine sounds are, again, some of the best I have heard. They sound like turbofans inside the cockpit and outside. The explosions are even better but only if you are flying close enough to hear them, which isn't a real great idea. The warning sounds for incoming mis siles, radar locks from AAA emplacements and system failures sound a bit like something I heard from a Nintendo machine, nevertheless they do the job. Once you start hear ing these, annoying as they are, meaning #1; You've been painted by enemy radar or worse, you are about to meet face to face with an enemy SAM coming toward you at Mach 3.0, meaning #2; They just do not sound profes sional. I think it would drive the crew of a real Tornado nuts to hear this while flying a mission. Please can we have a fix for the warning sounds!
Head to Head
Modem play is offered but only in a head to head mode against another player via modem or direct connection. Normally the people I fly against prefer Falcon 3.0 (as I do) over any other flight sim that offers this form of game play for obvious reasons. Nevertheless Tornado sounded very appealing for a change so we set out to hunt each other down. Unfortunately at a baud rate of 9600 game play was very slow, and un-acceptable to either one of us. So I can honestly say that it does indeed work well, the connection is fast however game play would hopefully be faster on a 14.4 modem or via direct connection. Turning the graphics down didn't seem to speed up the frame rate so we traded our Tornadoes in for F-16s, once again.
Cheating?
Since cloning pilots with high rank and lots of experience has become so popular among game players, Digital Integration has provided one already in the game. As I said before to take Command you must have at least the rank of Wing Commander. (Not having anything to do with the Origin game) Group Captain deFault is the only way you can play the Command part of the game unless you complete a Level 2 Campaign successfully. I thought this was a nice touch especially if you prefer strategy. Command will keep you busy for hours upon end!
One other way to cheat is at the end of a mission you can either save it or abort just as in Falcon 3.0.
Debrief
Tornado is for the most part a very well done simulation of the very versatile British built strike aircraft. Can you compare this sim to the likes of Falcon 3.0 or F-15 Strike Eagle III? Well we will, because we always do. With the lack of support for the TMWCS, HOTAS (Hands On Throttle and Stick) is not present. HOTAS is something that should be included with all combat flight simulations for the sake of keeping your eyes on the target and off the keyboard. Unlike Falcon 3.0 the Mission Planner will not save your flight plan if you exit the campaign. This is a major flaw especially if you have just created a complicated flight plan for two flights attacking a target from eight different directions. This involves creating eight different flight paths and can take quite a bit of time. To have all of this vanish is truely frustrating when you are in the middle of a campaign. Even more frustrating is the lack of being able to check your six. No rear view, I can't believe there is no rear view....
I see Tornado as a flight sim that is great fun to fly, but also could stand a lot of patch work and improvement. If you are new to flying around in "Electronic Airspace" I could certainly suggest less complicated flight sims, but then again the training is clear enough to learn Tornado if you are willing to spend the time. As for Veteran pilots, I think anyone with a lot flight time, an appetite for a new aircraft, new weapons, hard core strategy and planning will appreciate the in-depth features offered in Tornado. I have the feeling that Tornado will be on my hard drive a long, long time. Good Bye Strike Commander!
Digital Integration
"British aircraft? You mean the Harrier? Sure! See, you take Jump Jet and AV8B Harrier Assault and.....no you don't throw them in the trash. You pack them up and send to Digital Integration. After they stop laughing, if they stop laughing I mean, maybe they get the idea and do their own Harrier simulation. You know, a good one this time. See what I mean?
NOTE!! There is a patch out for Tornado! It greatly enhances Tornado with additions and updates. This review was written on version 1.0. The patch will update Tornado to version 1.0c. I recomend it!
Note from the author.
I hope you enjoyed this review and it was helpful. Reviews take a great amount of time to write and they are a great deal of work. First you have to of course fly the simulation, read entire manuals and spend hours bouncing back and forth between flight sim and word processor. This review of Tornado is owned by Ken Moore and he reserves all rights to this document. If you have enjoyed this review and would like to receive a floppy containing all the flight sim reviews I have written up to date, send $5.00 to the address below. Most of this will go toward covering the cost of floppies and postage. Please enclose a brief note requesting latest reviews.
