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Fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 20, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This really is a fun game, even though the graphics is quite old. The simulation is more in-depth compared to an arcade game, but not as complex as dedicated simulators such as Falcon 4.0. There is a large variety of planes, from different nations, to choose from, as well as weapons that can be carried on each of the plane's hard points. Mods by members of the on-line community are able to greatly enhance the realism of the flight mechanics, weapon performance, etc.

How it is more realistic than an arcade game:
The player has control over flight surfaces such as rudders, flaps, and air brake, weapon bay doors, landing gears and hook (for carrier landing), wheel brakes, and even vector-thrusting (pointing the engine nozzles away from straight afterward).
Flight mechanics, such as the speeds for take-off and landing, and the effect of speed and altitude on maneuvrability, is treated professionally.
Low-altitude flying helps one avoid being detected by ground/sea based radars.
Your radar and sensors in general have a limited detection range, a limited tracking/lock-on range, and a limited field of view (degrees off to the right and to the left of the forward direction).
Different missiles use different means for guidance. For instance, semi-active radar homing requires the same target to be locked on for the entire duration of the attack, but an infra-red seeker can guide the missile independently of your plane's sensors.
Weather conditions affect your weapon's performance. Fog would make it almost impossible for an IR missile to obtain a lock, whereas a bright sun, if it is in the same general direction as the target, would draw your missile away from its intended target.
You have a limited amount ammo and countermeasures; the latter is used to mislead incoming missiles.
In addition to exploding after being hit, your plane can take on different damages, such as radar malfunction, banking to one side, leaking fuel, leaking hydraulics, and overheating. Whether you can make it back to the base may very well depend on your skill.

How this game is less complex than a dedicated simulator:
The radars and sensors in general have only one mode, as opposed to different configurations for scanning horizontally, vertically, narrowly, and broadly.
The throttle is a single function, as opposed to one or more engines each with distinct settings such as normal flight (adjustable), military power 1, military power 2, and emergency shut-down.
Flight is made more stable. In other words, the plane goes where you point and generally stays that way, instead of easily spinning or bobbing up and down.
Landing is made easier by having a forward view that is minimally obstructed, an extraordinarily strong under-carriage, and graphic instrument displays that are, in more dedicated sims, not installed or less accurate to reflect realism.

A Classic Game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 11, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I miss the days when games were so much fun. This is the first game I played as a multi-player. The graphics are low compared to today's standard, but good enough to keep things interesting. It's just a fun game to play.

limitless possiblities for flights

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 12, 2003
Author: Amazon User

With a few simple codes, you can fly any thing from 'Air Force One' to 'V-22 Osprey' to a 'B-2 Stealth Bomber' to a forward wing design aircraft to a Tomcat. It even has a reference section with so much information on aircraft and other machines that it has be on a separate disc from the rest of the game!

Fighters Antthology

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 05, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I haven't played many flight sims but I do like this one a lot. The graphics aren't the greatest but they aren't to bad, sound is pretty good, and the ability to play it over and over it a big plus. There also is a lot of info on the planes that you fly which is cool. One problem though is I can't seem to find the web site for it or any janes game. Overall I think that this is a great game.

Pretty outmoded, but oh the choices you have...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: August 10, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The graphics wernt even all that great when it came out, the game play is pretty boxed, and the scenery is just an updated version of the flat terrane of the old Falcon 3.0, and the flight models are simplified at best.

But....

the sheer scope of this game in theater and platform makes up for its now obsolete gameplay. 100+ different aircraft, 50 different weapons (plus the ability to mod in nuclear weapons) a dozen theaters, a hundred nations. Wow. Israel VS Jordan, Turkey VS Greece, Japan VS Russia, France VS normal people! The options are endless. Gameplay is quick and slick, and the mission builder while lacking the complexity of most modern day builders, still gives the game a lot of replayability. The campaigns are allright, especially the Vietnam campaign which offers the best graphics of the game.

To quote Vladimere Illyich Lenin "Quantity has a quality all its own", and this game certainly lives up to that idiom. It would be wonderful to see Janes do a remake of this game using the detailed sort of 'voxel-space' type graphics we saw in their release of "IAF: Israeli Air Force" with the HD JPG graphics used on the fighters and ground vehicles in that game. While it may be fun to fly the plethora of sierra-hotel F-15/16/18/22/117 or MiG-29/Su-27 simulators out there, there is something to be said to be able to fly a Bosnian Su-7MBK fitter or BAE Strikemaster type aircraft that makes up the real numbers in the airforces in the world. It may take a good F-22 flyer to defeat a Su-35 in single combat but it takes a real ace to beat something like an F-15 in a Vietnam era MiG or Mirage.

For the price of the game today (under [price]) its a great buy.

Better than the sum of its parts...but not by much

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: May 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Just because we can keep 30 year old fighter planes in active service doesn't mean that we should try to do the same thing with computer games about fighter planes. But EA keeps at it anyway with "Fighters Anthology", a compilation of previous fighter's titles, with some added bells and whistles for multiplayer as well. Those older games themselves show roots stretching back to the original "LHX Attack Chopper" of 1990. FA throws in the meat of USNF, "NATO Fighters" and ATF, but little else. Unfortunately, the qualitative differences of those games aren't so great, and you might just as well have picked up any one of those older games. In each of the older games, you were able to fly single or multiplayer missions in a variety of aircraft. You could fly single missions or campaigns, or even craft short missions using the mission editor. Though the campaigns limited you to a few planes, you had a much larger choice of aircraft in single missions (In ATF Gold, you could fly anything from an A-10 to the Russian Tu-160; from the unlovely AC-130 to the F-22; from the hoary old MiG-21 to some exotic experimental types that have never left a drawing board; you could even pit F-14's against F-5E's ala "Top Gun"). The problem was repetitive gameplay - the planes were dirt simple in terms of flying and avionics. Though each plane came with its own instrument panel, they were just for show - you could turn them off and not notice the difference; you got the real data from pop-up screens. The surface scenery, though using the naturally contoured terrain standard since "Falcon 3.0", is otherwise so bland and featureless, that they recalled 1991's "Chuck Yeager's Air Combat". Gameplay boiled down to the same two things - take out a primary target on the ground (like an HAS); splash an airborne target (or targets in the case of one mission against a host of incoming B-52's). Even though the missions were generic, they were also linear - you flew the same mission until you've achieved the mission goals. That is, that the missions were pre-scripted, but not even scripted that well. (EF2000 also has simple missions, but is campaigns were dynamic and, being a single plane game, was much more detailed. It also had much more modest system requirements) In each case, the story was always the same - too few wingmen against to many targets and threats. And boy, does it get tired fast. When you've reached a point where all you're doing is dogfighting, the games shine - but that's not enough to distract you from the cartoonish gameplay, crude flight dynamics and blocky graphics. Putting all of the Fighters titles together doesn't really add much, since any one of the games will have enough features alone to keep you coming back - just not enough flavor to hold you for long after your return. To its credit, FA has a much meatier multiplayer option than its predecessors, one allowing for broader conflicts - you can even hop into one of those self-propelled ack-ack guns like "Zip-23" and take over while on the ground. It's actually a lot of fun, but not enough to overcome the unreality of the game as a flight simulation. Also, though this is packaged in a box as a "classics" title, there is no printed manual, only (as ina jewel-box edition, bane of gamners!!) a CD manual in Adobe .pdf format. You can print it out, if you know somebody at Kinkos (it's a biggy) or if you work on weekends, and nobody notices a missing ream of printer paper. Instead, I'd go for USAF with its better graphics or, if you've got a mighty machine, wait a spell for Janes next crack at a "survey sim" game - you know you never have to wait long for a Jane's game to come out, or at least get previewed. If you've got an older machine like a low end Celeron or an early P2, FA or the other Fighters titles (other than IAF) will probably be the best you can fly. If you try and pick up one of the older "Fighters" games, you'll get a slightly weaker game, but perhaps a manual you can actually read. In short - if you already own ATF, USNF Marine Fighters or NATO Fighters, save your cash.

Very nice

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 18, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Janes FA is THE best flight sim around. I've had it for 2 years, bought other sims, but nothing can compare. The flight model isn't the greatest.... and neither are the graphics... but the GAMEPLAY (what really counts) is the best, bar none. Once you think you're pretty good... you go online and test yourself...(and probably get beat) against online vets. The ABAs, which are unique to this game are what keeps this one going. The ability to play 1v1..... 2v2.... 3v3... 4v4... or free-for all is great, but when you add in the ABA and the Co-op missions... it all adds up to a wonderful game. People custom build cities, and you can host guns or guns and missile fights. It's just awesome. GO OUT AND BUY THIS GAME!!!

The best of the best

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 31, 2000
Author: Amazon User

If you are a flight sim lover don't think about it, buy this one. There are 100 planes to fly and single missions to help you get started and campaigns to test your metal. You can create your missions with their mission editor. Once you think your good enough go online and see what your really made of. This is another winner from Jane. Their reference CD is excellent. This is the one sim that I play all the time ! The graphics are good and after you load the game go to Jane's web site and lod their update patch. I never have any problems playing FA, one word of advise, terminate any other programs running in your system tray. Strap in and feel the G's...

Buy This Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: July 18, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Having played this game several times I have come up with one conclusion, this is a great game. Sure the graphics aren't all that great but this game has it where it counts. I can sit at my computer for hours on end just seeing what all the aircraft can do to make micemeat out oof an Iraqi airfield (and air force one:-)).

It's Just Great!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 18, 2000
Author: Amazon User

It's a wonderful game. Although the cockpit is not that realistic, but the gameplay is perfect. You get to choose all kinds of plane, load a variety of weapons, and proceed with a lot of fun missions. I like it because it's very intense but also "according to the book." And the air-to-air dogfight is probably the best part of the whole game. It teaches you how to maneuvre your plane, avoid radar detection, and all sorts of stuff, treating you just like a fighter pilot. You get to use your brain. I love the campaigns and the missions. Anyways, it's a very good game.

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