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Looks like the real thing... and I know about it!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: September 03, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Word of warning before starting: THIS AINT AN EASY SIMULATOR. Heck, flying an airplane was never easy in the first place. So don't buy this game unless you know a think or two about G's, stalls... and how to avoid them!

Back to the review, I must say that I liked what I saw. Man, are some of these things even allowed for public knowledge?!? I thought they were classified!

I am currently working on the software component of the CF-18 of the Canadian Air Force. And a lot of what I saw in this game matches the real thing.

The details of the cockpit are astounding! Even the pilots at my workplace were impressed. Everything works as it should be. Every knob, every switch was in place. The displays give accurate outputs. Everything looks authentic... Well, almost everything. I noticed some stuff that was, shall we say, "fudged" to avoid giving classified data. You can't really blame them for that.

Graphically speaking, it looks good. It is far from flashy, but it looked quite smooth. Try flying into clouds and you'll see...

The only bad things about this game are the system requirements and the tutorial.

I have a P450 with 128 MB RAM and a decent video card. When I tried using the usual 1024 X 768 resolution with high details, the game ran slowly! Be sure you have the computer system to take advantage of the beauty of this game. I believe you need the extra resolution just to be able to read the cockpit's layout, and read the knobs' labels.

The tutorial is WAYYYY too thin. In the USAF game, you AT LEAST had a co-pilot helping you out during the training mission. Here you are left on your own. Hmmm... Better be a quick learner

So for the veteran flight simer, this is an EXCELLENT simulator.

Jane's Only Short-Coming

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: March 12, 2000
Author: Amazon User

When I read that this awesome new product by Electronic Arts was coming out, I couldn't help but be excited, knowing, that it HAS to be greater than USAF. I was wrong. It installed quickly and disapppointed me even quicker, realizing that I just bought the F15 all over again, just a different plane, different theater. This is fine... ...if it was 1997. The overall graphics are okay and the carriers landings are an improvement over other flight simulations, but the cockpit graphics, flight manual and aircraft handling are upsetting, letting you know that this latest edition to Jane's was a rushed job. My recommendation is to hold off on getting this, look at the number of disappointed flight sim jockeys and wait for Jane's to get their act together before trying to sell us a $40 dessert after a full course meal of an excellent, well-reviewed "USAF".

Awesome game, but a little complicated

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: September 19, 2001
Author: Amazon User

In the past, Jane's fighter sims have been okay, but not the best. That opininon is about to be changed with F\A-18. This sim puts you on the catapult of the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-997) and blasts you alof with at least twice as much power and exhileration than any other flight sim. Then you go skimming above the water, shooting down an occansional aircraft with your AIM 120-AMRAAM missles. Then you procede to bomb an airfield, or launch a cruise missle at enemy ships at dock or mine a bay. Then you return yo the USS Ronald Reagan and circle until your cleared for landing and lower your landing gear, flaps and tailhook. Following the LSO's (Landing Signal Officer) directions you touch down and grap an okay3. If you miss you hear bolter-bolter-bolter and you will reenter the landing pattern. If you hear a wave off, you start again. That is a typical mission in F\A-18. The complicated part is the cockpit. The cockpit has dozens of switches which re hard to memorize. the game also doesn't with a printed manual, which is really a pain. However, the game is definatly rewarding if you like dodging missles, bombing targets, launching missles, minning ports, and taking off and landing on aircraft carriers. If you don't like that, you will be bored. In other words, but this game NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not up to Jane's usually high standards.....................

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: February 04, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I had expected something that would be on par with Longbow 2, F-15, and possibly Falcon 4.0. But, I think this product still has a long way to go. The cockpit detail doesn't even come close to Falcon 4.0, the documentation is incomplete, and the training missions are really poor. Basically, you are told what 2 or 3 keystrokes to do to get an air-air or air-ground kill and then you are finished with the training mission. Then, you are told what further things you can do with a "did you know...." screen after you exit the training mission. But, you are not told how to use some of the more advanced avionics features. In fact, you really have to dig through the very small manual to find out how to use the avionics equipment, and even then you may not find what you need. I hope that Jane's is working on a patch real soon, because it is definitely not state-of-the-art and is definitely not for the hard-core flight sim fan. Shame on you, Jane's, you have sold out to the marketing suits.

DOES NOT WORK ON XP

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: February 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I was so excited after reading great reviews when I found that I had it, I popped it in and readied myself for action. After installing it, I opened it and it says that "Janes FA-18 Simulator doesnt work on your operating system" (Windows XP)
Does anyone know how I can make it work?? I would greatly appreciate it.

Listen! This is the best sim.... period...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: March 12, 2000
Author: Amazon User

You'll read about poor graphics and slow frame rate. If you have the hardware this is what you should buy... The most realistic sim you will find. You won't get the USAF kind of sim, you will get the real stuff, ok, the graphics are not that good, but the game is really exciting, you will love it... of course it from jane's. Just don't think you will get a novaligic or a USAF secual, this is very diffrent. I recomend you try it, you just need more than 400 mhz. I have an atholon 600 and a banshee and I love the way it runs.

F/A 18 Rules The Fighter sim world

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: May 01, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I shall start out by saying that this is the first Janes combat sim that I have. I love the game but I recommend that if you are a kid that you have some help during bombing ( And you can trust me on that, IT'S WAY HARD). The one thing that I like best about the game is the 3D cockpit and Flight Simulator is a joke compared to F-18. I love the Reference which has information about everything from a ZUNI rocket pod to the SU-27. Janes did a great job of creating a simulation of a maritime aircraft that wasn't even in production at the time of the game release. The game is so cool that I wish that I could try the F-15 simulation. Buy this game unless you aren't good at performing tight menouvers in a flight sim.

Extremely demanding sim - needs training module!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

"Jane's F/A-18" is one of the most challenging and complex military flight-sims around these days - rivaling "Falcon 4.0" and "Flanker 2" in that respect. Here you get to fly the F-18E, the newest version of the Hornet (distinguished by its larger size and square intakes), one that takes the can-do capability of older F/A-18C's and ups everything up a notch.

This sim is no mid-level game - certainly nothing like other Jane's "Fighters" titles (ATF, IAF, USNF '97), and being much closer to the superb but daunting "Jane's F-15". Here, you will manage the F-18E's mind boggling array of avionics and weapons. Did you think that the "multi" in multi-mode radar means that you can scan both air and ground targets? Forget it - in counter-air alone, you'll learn about ACQ, Track-While-Scan and RWS modes (and there's probably at least one more). The sensor suite alone requires a tutorial that will keep you occupied long after your dream computer is overtaken by the latest Pentium. Then there's the opposition: I may just be a novice, but those MiGs know how to work in hunter-killer teams, and since this is a Jane's game, your enemy will fire at you like you're their only enemy (boys! boys! save some SAMs for China!!). Then there's the game's ace-in-the-whole, the F/A-18E itself. Visually, the machine's a stunner in every way (I'm talking about its graphical representation; I don't think the real plane is all that pretty), both inside and out. To match its complex avionics, the jet is blessed with an almost completely click-functional flight panel. On the outside, you can almost smell that sheen of gull-gray paint (as on Falcon 4, you can customize your jet's skins). Handling wise, the F-18 here reveals the extent of the game's hardcore realism: if you came of age playing flight-sims of easily maneuverable fighter jets, keep away: Jane's F-18 is no easy performer. Instead, lose airspeed, and you nimble jet will become as agile as a UPS truck with wings. Think you're flying straight and level just because your jet's nose is right on the horizon? Not a chance - in this game, you're either about to get holed up by a missile or pancake right into the ground. Think you can defeat enemy MiGs using the old banking-turn? No way, you're not safe using that maneuver. You're never safe in this game. This is flight simulation with an accent on "flight". And let's not forget that you'll spend a fair amount of time on this game learning to grease your wonder-plane onto stretch of runway about as long as a football field from a speed of about 180 knots (if you really needed to be reminded that a game about F-18's will require you to land on aircraft carriers, it's only one more sign that this is really not for you).

If F-18, has one realism lapse it's one inherited from "Jane's F-15" - there's no training module! You get the expected "instant action", "single missions", "campaign" and "multi-player" with which you and your high-tech nightmare plane can burn up the sky, but nothing beside a few basic combat missions designed to teach you how to fly and fight your plane. We're supposed to learn as we go in the single missions, on the idea that they are simulations - but why remind us that the whole game is a simulation?. They could have had you fly "real" flights that were designed as training hops (like the paper targets in "Iron Eagle" or against drone planes or in gunnery missions against towed banners) in F-18's with training skins (high-vis colors on wing tips). That way, there could have been a dynamite training module which would have reinforced the game's otherwise winning brand of verisimilitude. It's just annoying that Jane's went to the trouble of crafting a truly deep and detailed flight-sim, and gave it nothing better to do than blow everything up.

Graphically, the rest of the game is beautiful - especially the flaming effects of missiles and destroyed airplanes. Ground terrain is nice, but not spectacular, while the upper atmosphere looks tantalizingly beautiful. While F-18 fits the same genre of extreme flight-sim occupied by Flanker2 and Falcon4 (which came out at about the same time), OpenGL graphics accelerator support sets Jane's game apart from those other ganmes which only really come alive under the older "Glide" system used on 3DFx graphics cards (Falcon will fly on my system, but not in Graphics Hardware Acceleration mode). I "flew" this game on my Win XP Pentium4 and eventually overcame WinXP compatibility problems (XP users will need to find a patch file first). Both this and Falcon 4 are worthwhile games - though the other game suffers for its slavish adherence to 3DFx cards. Also, Falcon has spawned a larger cult following than Jane's F/A-18, which means much more meaningful 3rd party files on the internet. Still, the thrill of naval aviation (and OpenGL) are enough to keep this reviewer's attention. I don't recommend you buy both programs (you'll have your hands full trying to master one of them), only that you see what your graphics accelerator is, and choose accordingly. For owners of GeForce or other cards using OpenGL, the choice is clear - "Jane's F/A-18".

it's the best simulation game i'v ever seen !!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: July 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

i have lots of flight simulation games and from all of them, Jane's has the most fun and realistic games. F/A-18 is the best from all of them. It has the best graphics, features and it's fun. Not recommended for beginners, but if you like flight games - this is the right choice!

WOW! This game rocks!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: March 02, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The people down at the Janes company have really outdone themselves this time. If you buy this game, you WILL have fun. You may die on every mission,. but you will die HAPPY, Cause this game is fun.

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