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Though somewhat over and under rated, it should be more widely owned

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First off, it's a little bit glitchy in XP depending on your system. However, if you have a Win98SE or later partition on your hard drive it will likely work fine.

The graphics are acceptable and cpu intensive. That is correct. The low level ocean effects are not very good. The "sparkle" effect on the ocean never really worked, and I can't even say that the low level detail enhancing feature is particularly doing that much for the water, either, which is VERY dark. You have to play with texures on high, however. Otherwise there's absolutely no detail to the ground, whatsoever. You really have to run this on a top of the line G4 near 4ghz or above (hyperthreading, etc) to run it with everything on max, especially the number of objects. For me with a 2.4Ghz processor the number of objects needs to be on the "required only" setting to get decent frame rates. And with everything else maxed out it still gets a little choppy sometimes, though is still playable.

Under Win98SE, the sim supports 16X anisotropic and 3X antialiasing. Some people, including me, get weird lines in the water at 3X AA, though. I usually run it with 16X & 2X, respectively, to keep things both manageable and not too jagged looking. This also takes care of the lines for the most part. It's a nice compramise. With a top of the line P4 and graphics card, I mean best of the best, you might be able to get away with 3X. At this setting (or simply with 16X/2X at 1024X768), it looks like most of the modern titles out now in terms of smooth lines and resolution. Though textures may be a little lacking in comparison, the combination of volumetric clouds, lighting, and weather effects are still more advanced than even Falcon 4 Allied Force.

The avionics and weapons modeling are second to none on Janes' FA-18 and F-15. No other sims, not LOMAC, not Falcon 4 Allied Force, can exceed the accuracy of Janes study sims on these counts. You also get CVN wire trap landings and other trappings of navy aviation that was previously only available in Flanker. Janes/EA did quite a good job of modeling the dynamics of a fully loaded high-power aircraft in real world flight. You can't reach mach 1 below 15,000ft, and even then with a full load you'll be lucky if you can manage supersonic flight while level.

Now for the bad that you probably won't hear anywhere else. I certainly didn't. Well, actually the first point I want to make isn't really a minus, just a correction to those who posted before me on here. Jane's F/A-18 never at any time had 3dfx or Open GL support. The two versions, the Original and the Classics, are differentiated only by the paper manual verses the pdf CD manual, respectively. Jane's did not re-release F/A-18 with graphics changes, and its graphics engine was new, not based on the previous F-15.

Next, while the dynamics of the F/A-18's flight envelope/altitude/top speed are modeled well, there are some glaring problems with the flight model and controls elsewhere. While there is buffetting if you have forcefeedback, there is no wavefront compression simulated. There's no reduction in acceleration as you pass through the sound barrier. Here it's just a number. The only effect for most users is that you suddenly lose all rudder "phenomena" (more on that later) of any kind. In the real world at supersonic speeds rudder becomes a small unstable sort of wobble (see X-Plane for the proper effect). This leads us to the most glaring oversight, one that has never been corrected and almost never mentioned by any reviewer:

THE RUDDER IS DEFECTIVE. It's obvious that Janes/EA did intend to implement a semi-correct one, but all you get is a wobble all the time, and even then it is infinitesimal. It's as if your aircraft yaws very slightly in the direction you apply rudder, then when you cease rudder application it "wobbles" right back to the previous heading. Not good. There are all sorts of people on the net trying to downplay this issue. It was immediately obvious to me as a defect in the programming, but only one real world Super Hornet pilot and one other guy agreed with me, and I think originally the other guy was espousing the opposite view until the real pilot set him strait. I've lost a great deal of respect for the so-called professional reviewers in magazines and the big websites after this fiasco. A lot of people won't admit to it without extreme prodding, and even then it was with "well, if you can't accept a little defect like that you won't ever be content with any sim!". Yeah, whatever, dudes.

Now, because the real Super Hornet has angled vertical fins (and thus rudder) and a fly by wire system with a funky design, you do get some roll when you apply a lot of rudder at certain speeds in the real aircraft. O.k., cool...so what's the apologists' point in mentioning this? Again, they're trying to downplay a defect by saying how Janes intended the rudder (without the roll, but present) wasn't going to be totally accurate anyway, so why complain about not having any at all? That's a pretty stupid argument to justify a defect, don't you think? Especially when I'd be perfectly content with even the most basic rudder function (which Janes/EA intended, but apparently didn't know they'd screwed up on) that is so necessary for dogfighting, refueling, and landing. This has to be the worst single, isolated oversight in an otherwise near perfect, unique flight sim I've ever seen. Good luck trying to catch the number 2 wire with no rudder, folks. It can be done, but it's a lot more difficult than it has to be.

I'm liking Jane's F/A-18 a lot. But with the rudder/trap situation, even the naval-appeal becomes almost moot. Still, between the Super Hornet's low-observable design, both launched and dragged decoys, and the twin engines (w/ fire suppression that can save your behind) there's a unique combination of strategy and variation of approach you can take. You can make it home on one engine. You can take on a field of SAM sites if you approach with EMCOM, launch your decoys high enough, use every ECM available to you, and get in & out quickly without overextending yourself. The amount of ordinance, fuel, and decoys you can carry with you is stunning.

Additional comments:

The product description is way off. You can't taxi on a carrier in this sim. Like I said before, you can't feel going supersonic...there's no perfomance change or transonic buffetting. I've never heard the canopy creak. About one third of the buttons don't function, one quarter only show their state but still require keyboard/joystick to click/push, and this sim does not do the "super bug", as I guess they call it, from start up to shut down. To be fair, Falcon 4 didn't do it either until freelance modders hacked into the software, and at least Jane's has laser guided bombs (which AF does not). The hud text is also hard to read, even with the sim set to 640X480, which you'd think would mean much larger text but is not much of an improvement over higher resolutions unless antialiasing is turned off. Team Super Hornet update #3 will include a fix to enlarge this text for those higher resolutions in 2006. There are some pretty amazing things going on with modding for FA-18, in spite of the lack of source code.

I am absolutely certain now that the only problem with rudder implimentation in this sim is an incorrect value or decimal point in the code. All that's happening is the program's rudder routines think you're flying faster than you really are. Even if you're flying below 200 knots it thinks you're going like 3 times that and just gives you that wobble (though the wobble even then should be a little bigger). Hopefully some day a hacker genious will correct the problem in a free fix for all of us since EA abandoned the title and strictly control the source code for a piece of software they can't even lose revenue on (i.e. it's out of print).

Dogfighting is excellent, though the aircraft's pitch and roll rates are too low and there's no rudder functionality beyond that slight wobble that can help in gun shots. The sluggishness of the controls can take some getting use to, especially compared to the earlier F-15's flight model, which is the finest flight model of any combat sim around. If you can get Strike Eagle to run perfectly in D3D or 3DFX on your system, there is nothing better around in that regard. Unfortunately, that one has very limited multiplayer support, a shame considering it's a two seater and Janes/EA had the know how to make it happen after Longbow 2. FA-18 has in depth multiplayer with a healthy, inclusive community.

There's also a campaign editor, in addition to the mission editor. It's cryptic and you need to read a lot of stuff on the net to even begin to use this undocumented feature, but it's there. Some gurus have gone to great lengths to create new wars for your enjoyment. There are also tons of voice-overed training missions online that are quite good.

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.

Cath the 3 wires! or...maybe 4....

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 11, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Great game in general despite of it's age....
Nice skies and clouds...

Great and accurate flight.. you can't just pull off your super hornet without losing power especially at low speeds..

makes you feel carrier ops from jumping off the flight deck to trapping back at the carrier... Even if you can touch-down straight on Land-based runways doesn't mean you can easily catch the wires om the flight deck.. takes a lots of hours of practice.. even months for my case....

nice array of air-to-air and air-to-ground munitions, each has their unique ways of deployment from fire-and-forget AIM-120 to Lase 'em up Paveway LGB's

flexible mission editor for realistic theater of war..(why just edit the campaign missions instead?..)

Downs...Terrain looks like a molded sandbox and the "black" seas
lots of bugs if played w/o the patch. You can't taxi your plane in the carrier only on Land-based Airfields

verry exelence sim

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: August 12, 2003
Author: Amazon User

very good service verry good aircraft sim ill buy more in the future this store i recomented to any one five star to the store

BUCKLE YOUR SEAT BELTS

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: March 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

BEING A VETERAN OF THE UNITED STATES MILITARY, MOST SIM'S WE GET OUR HANDS ON JUST AREN'T REAL, FAKE LOOKING MORE GAME THEN SIM, BUT JANE'S INFROMATION GROUP AND ELECTRONIC ARTS HAVE PUT TOGETHER ONE OF THE BEST, IF NOT THE BEST SIM THAT I HAVE EVER PLAYED. THE WORLD OF F/A 18 IS SO REAL FROM THE USE OF THE ATFLIR TARGETING POD, TO THE NIRD(NORMALIZED IN RANGE DIPSLY) FOR THE LAUNCH OF A AMRAAM MISSLIE. THIS GAME USES THE MOST ACCURATE REPORTS OF THE DAY, AND PUT'S IT ALL TOGETHER IN A 3-D REAL TIME REAL WORLD PACKAGE THE AIMS TO PLEASE. SO IF YOU LIKE FLIGHT SIMS BE PREPAIRED FOR THE RIDE OF YOU LIFE AS YOU KEEP YOUR ANGLE OF ATTACK IN THE YELLOW, LOWER YOUR FLAPS, CUT YOUR SPEED, DROP YOUR GEAR, AND LINE UP FOR THE 3 POINT SCORE WITH E/A'S/JANE'S F/A/ 18!

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".

I feel...I feel the need...the need for speed!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: December 08, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is a piece of art. Not software, art

In this game, you fly the famous F/A-18E Super Hornet, the Navys most advanced strike fighter. You have a lot of weapons and equipment at your disposal, about 30 each of Air-to-Air and Air-to-ground, ranging from the M61 Vulcan cannon, the AGM-65 Maverick, the AIM-120 AMRAAM, AIM-9 Sidewinder, TALD's(Tactical Air launched decoys) and the like to NAVFLIR, ATFLIR, Chaff, and data link pods.

The flight model is extremely realistic, but you can adjust it to the level of realism you want. For you people that can fly but cant land on a carrier, your in luck, because the F/A-18E has an ACLS (Automatic Carrier Landing System). However, you should be at least and ace in the virtual sky, if you are a pudknocker(if you dont know what that means forget it), dont buy it. Start with something like F-22 Lightning.

The scenery is terrific to. When you turn it up to 1024x8??x32, it looks pretty photogenic. The carriers, other ships, planes, ground objects, etc, are all extremely accurate. Then theres the cockpit. Its beautiful. You will find yourself staring at it a long time. Its extremly accurate, compared to pictures I've seen of the real F/A-18E's cockpit. All the switches (except for 2) are active in the cockpit, everything really works, no showbiz here.

In overall, this game is really good. It does run on XP, but you will have to download the patch that's on cd first. Also, if you dread textbook type manuals, reconsider.

All Around good game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: June 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Jane's F/A-18. A game that does most things right. Good graphics.... good sound... challanging... yet easily learned. If your interested in applying real world tactics in a game.. this is one that you can do that in.
You will need however... at least a 600MHZ P3 or AMD Athlon proccessor to run this with 80%-90% of the graphics at the highest levels. It would also be advisible to have a GE Force2 graphics card or a ATI Raedon 7500.

Perhaps the most detailed flight sim that you will ever see.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: March 21, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The biggest mistake you can make about this F/A-18 Hornet simulation is confusing it with one of the "Jane's Fighters" games like ATF or USNF '97 - simple games packing a lot of variety but little realism or much deep detail. Instead "Jane's F/A-18" is more like previous Jane's games which focused on a single machine, like "Jane's F-15" or "Jane's Longbow" and were extremely complicated and demanding. In short, this new F/A-18 game may be the most complicated sim you'll ever be able to run on your computer. Here, you can fly the titular attack jet in both ACM and strike missions in single play, campaign mode or instant action. The action is centered around USN carrier ops near Russia's Kola Peninsula, familiar territory for Tom Clancy or Craig Thomas fans. Simulating the new F/A-18E, the radically redesigned (and so-called "Super Hornet") the game intricately models the demanding flight model as few sims can, while also allowing you to peruse an extremely detailed flight panel with mouse-clicked switches, and navigate reams of information from an extensive suite of analog instruments and digital multi-function displays. Think you'll just have a radar with three modes? (air, ground and nav) Forget it - it's not 1992 anymore. In "Jane's" you'll have to contend with numerous master modes and sub-modes for either counter-air or ground attack profiles, and you'll have to manage the information yourself. Think your magic airplane will fly whichever way you play the stick, and will stall gracefully? Forget it - this plane may look the a beauty, but it's a beast when it comes to edge-of-the-envelope flying, with yaw-skidding and some unpleasant (if recoverable) departures. Just getting through the instant action will require that you've perused the game's extensive manual (more on that below). While newer sims can raise the bar on graphics or sound, it won't be soon before a new sim raises the standard for outright and utterly demanding realism.

That said - a couple of complaints. First, I got the CD Classics version which (big surprise) came with another CD-ROM where the manual should have been. (i.e. although this looks like a boxed edition, it's actually an oversized jewel-case release). You can print the manual off the disc, but it will run well over 200 pages - better get a binder and a hole-puncher. (This was especially aggravating for a game that was so complicated, the manual was indispensable.)

What really kills me is the huge gap between the game's realistic and arcade-like gameplay. (You can either play the game's hyper-realistic aspects or the Super-Mario version - with no middle ground). This was also a problem on "F-15". Why not have some training missions or a module of the game set in Florida ala "Bogeys and Bandits" in which you must fly with demonstrated proficiency before being cleared to fly in fleet ops (let alone combat). And why no "car-qual" - carrier qualifying flights that every aviator must complete before he's certified to land on carriers? (This was actually something required on the original "Jetfighter" of 1990, a game which had no other aspirations for realism). In short, the game is so eager to blast a hole in something, that it never gets a chance to show you how deep and convincing a flight simulation (military or otherwise) it really is. In short, if you're looking for an easygoing flight sim, go for one of the survey sims like USAF. If what you want is a more detailed sim, but still one that won't tax you too hard, try "Total Air War" or EF2000 (v 2.0). Go for this game only if you need the most demanding sim you can find. I flew this game off my P2 4 GHz with no problems except initial compatibility problems with Win XP, but these were resolved once I downloaded the patch.

Best Flight Game of its time

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: December 29, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Of all the flight sims I've played this one was the best. Everything about it was wonderful from the graphics to the game play.

I recommend this to anyone who like combat flight sims.

Since its from janes it carries alot of accuracy along with it.

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