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dissappointing

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: October 31, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is a mini-survey sim based upon a partial history of the Israeli Air Force. Unlike its famous namesake, Jane's IAF is actually a light-weight survey simulator (allowing you to fly a range of aircraft rather than focusing on any one of them, like "Jane's Longbow", "F/A-18" or "F-15"). It's pretty tame stuff, with simple missions and fairly generic flight models. Graphics and gameplay fall somewhere between the earlier Fighters titles ("ATF" and "USNF '97") and the superlative "WWII Fighters", though the sophistication falls closer to the old games than the new. Terrain modeling is pretty lackluster - as you'd expect, terrain becomes more pixilated and less attractive the closer (lower) you fly, something flight-simmers like me have had to deal with since the days of "EF2000" (an older game with dramatically lower system demands). On my WinXP machine, the program was unresponsive and buggy - and that was on the menus!. In fact, just flying IAF reminds me of the experience I have when I get a new computer and I dust off some old games that proved too demanding for my older computer, but are clearly out-stripped by the power of the new one. Between the bugginess of the menus and the lackluster flight model, IAF looks like a product hurried out the door.

Starting no earlier than the "Six-Day War" (1967), "IAF" skips much historical ground. Admittedly, it's a bit much to expect a sim to cover everything from the pre-jet combat (of the sort that typified the "Independence War" of 1948) to the era of cutting edge-technology that developed the "Lavi". (Maybe they could have done a series, but who would want to buy a game in which all you fly were gun-armed Piper-Cubs and Dakotas, and which the only real fighter was the horrendous Avia S-199? On the other hand, they could have had an edition that started with those early days and culminated in the Sinai war of '59, with its Mysteres, Vampires and Venoms, an aspect of military aviation history overlooked by flight sims.) However, the sim also overlooks much of the IAF in its choice of aircraft - no Mystere, Vautour or Ouragan. You get to fly the Mirage-III, though it's the only flyable plane offered for the watershed '67 war. You get 2 different models of the Phantom (a legend of a fighter also overlooked by many sims) yet not a single Skyhawk, which was the IAF's workhorse in the Yom Kippur war (1973). You get the Kfir (an Israeli built, unlicensed copy of the French Mirage, yet powered by the General Electric J-79 engine), F-16D, F-15 and even tosses in the Lavi. For multi-player, you can fly either the MiG-29 or the MiG-23. The older, more ubiquitous MiG-21 is strangely unavailable (that's like a WWII game without Spitfires or Mustangs), as is the Su-7 - Soviet strike-fighter that roughly corresponds to Republic's F-105, and saw much action in 1973.

Everything about IAF's premise looks rushed, as if the idea of a game based on the IAF was enough to carry the game. It's not. By now, any system can fly this game. Those in the market for a survey sim but lack the horsepower to run "Lock-On" might consider "Jane's USAF" instead.

Israeli Air Force combat CD

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I bought the IAF combat CD several years ago and enjoyed it to the max! I had read books on the many wars Israel fought against her Arab neighbours so I knew how the IAF prosecuted the war against Arab air forces.

I enjoyed, for instance, the Six-Day War attack on the Inchas AFB in Egypt. Here's how I flew it: using the assigned IAF Mirage III CJ I flew in low under the radar until I was picked up at about 17 miles to target. There are two SAM batteries guarding the air force base, the first just east of runway 27 and the second just north of the air base. Coming from the east I took out the eastern SAM radar first with cannon fire (I ignored the SAMs themselves). Next I noted two MiG-21s on runway 27 ready for takeoff on CAP. I executed an Immelman above them and with one dive destroyed them with cannon fire (they were so close together on the runway that destroying one wiped out the other). Next I headed for northern radar installation and destroyed the center radar, again choosing not to waste precious ammo and bombs on the SAMs themselves. Once the SAM radars are destroyed you've bought yourself a little time.

Next I noted a line of four MiG-21s on a parking ramp midway along runway 9/27. I took those out with cannon fire. I also noted another 7 MiG-21s parked near the threshhold of runway 3. Again I gave them the "cannon treatment". The two Ilyushin cargo planes parked midway along runway 15/33 received similar attention.

I went after a MiG-21 returning to Inchas from CAP and also took out another Ilyushin cargo plane headed there as well. However, the objective of the mission to Inchas was to destroy the runways. This was accomplished by bombing the runway intersections. If time ran out the voice of Kol Israel news announcer Reuben David Miller would command the IAF to "get outta there".

As you can probably tell I thoroughly enjoyed the IAF combat CD and have been blown from the sky many times. One more thing. In either the historical or ficticious Arab-Israeli conflicts on the CD, don't let the Syrian MiG-29s get on your tail. They are hell to shake!

If you are an IAF fan get this CD!

NO JOYSTICK USAGE? WHATS UP WITH THAT??

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 8
Date: December 02, 2001
Author: Amazon User

NO JOYSTICK USAGE? WHAT'S UP WITH THAT. DON'T BE FOOLED BY THE BOX, THIS GAME STINKS!! THE SAME AIR CRAFT GRAPHICS AS USAF (WHICH I HAVE AND I'D GIVE IT 5 STARS!) FIRST OF ALL, YOU CAN'T USE A JOYSTIC(...) DON'T BUY THIS GAME IT'S GOT THE SAME PRICE AS USAF AND BY THE WAY DON'T BOTHER WITH F-15 EATHER! (I HAVE ALL THREE AND FROM BEST TO WORST IT'S:USAF, F-15, THEN FINALY IAF) (...)

Excellent Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: August 06, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I really like this Sim. It isn't the most realistic game. It can be little difficult to learn. But the Graphics are good on Middle Range processor. Janes support is pretty good with service for the simulators available through the internet. It good game for casual simers.

sim pilot

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: February 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I like the historic cd that comes with it. The terrain down low looks like JetFighter 3. That is the only down fall I noticed. I use my CH Flight stick control. Most keyboard controls are like most other flight sims. This is an older game now. If you like easy to fly and land planes, this is for you.

good and bad

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: May 05, 2000
Author: Amazon User

the game has very good graphics and it looks really cool but the game itself is very hard to learn. In the beginning, you can go through a training scenario except when the person instructs you what t do, he seems to do it out of place. Like when he tells you to turn at a cetain point, he seems to say it very late. Also, the game is very challenging and it is very complicated but otherwise a good game.

Good Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 13, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The last review is why 12 year olds should not be allowed on the i-net...stupid kid...probably thinks that pong is high tech...I don't have a problem using my Sidewinder joystick...someone should teach him how to plug it in....now for the game...I liked it overall...I do not understand the lack of flyable A-4 Skyhawks, and Dassault Mysteres...I have always read that these were major workhorses for the Israelis. I recommend buying it, don't expect USAF but you will get a good flight sim just the same..

Excellent Sim

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: May 23, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This sim was a real breakthrough for a Janes game. It was the first game that had very realistic looking terrain. Every other game since then has improved on that, but this was the first. I really like this game, because you get to learn the history of one of the most dominante Air Force's in the world. Its also good because you get to fly for another air force. Normally its just American Air Force. Its also very cheap right now. A great game for those of us who still have slower computers.

Excellent Sim, very real but difficult to learn.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: January 12, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I found Israeli Air Force to be an incredible simulation game. However some of the training scenarios were difficult to follow especially in the critical air to ground training. Many missions are hard to perform since the sim seems to easily kill your wingmen and assisting sections. All in all worth the money, especially if you want to engage foreign fighters such as the awesome Mig-29 and the lightning fast Mig-25.

Could've been a contender....

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: May 21, 2001
Author: Amazon User

With all the survey sims out there (flight sim programs that let you fly a bunch of planes rather than having to concentrate on one like "Flanker" or "Jane's F-15") somebody was bound to come out with one modeled against the legendary Israeli Air Force. (Alas, Iraqui Air Force fans will have to wait.) Unfortunately, the IAF isn't that well served by this title which improves on previous Jane's Fighters titles (like ATF and USNF) but not in ways that reflect how far sims have come since the mid 1990's. In IAF, you fly in one of seven IAF jets in air conflicts beginning with the now mythic Six Day War of 1967. The IAF Jets include the Mirage III (Israel's top fighter in '67), the Kfir C-7 (a low cost copy of the Mirage designed in Israel when the French cut off military ties), both the F-4E and its high-tech descendant, the Phantom 2000, the F-15 and F-16 (because, why not?) and the Lavi - Israel's aborted entry into the ATF game. Problems with this sim are the lackluster graphics which improve over ATF and USNF but not by that much. The terrain looks pretty realistic from high altitude but pixilates lower down where Israeli pilots probably do most of their work (whether in busting tanks or just to evade radar). Low-altitude pixilation has been a problem for sometime, and it's annoying that anybody can release a flight sim with that problem and a minumum stated hardware requirement of a 266 megahurtz. Low-level flight is handled better on Eidos' "Joint Strike Fighter", with less pixilation, consistently smooth frame-rate and more modest hardware requirements. You'll need pretty powerful hardware for this game. Most publishers understate the hardware you'll need to effectively run their games, though differing in the degree to which they understate. For Jane's titles, you'll probably want a system offering a healthy %150 over the minimum stated hardware requirements of their games. Why that much power is needed is something I stopped asking myself after playing Jane's ATF.

Another problem is the historical ground covered - as if the history of Israeli warfare began no earlier than 1967, and neglecting both the jury-rigged IAF of 1948 (with its WWII surplus planes and volunteer pilots) and the IAF of the '56 Sinai campaign, with its core pilots making their way through the transition to jets. Also underwhelming are the choice of aircraft - we have two versions of the Phantom, but not a single version of the "Skyhawk", Israel's workhorse bomber of the '73 war. While the game offers the player the chance to fly the '67 war, the only plane represented here is the Mirage III, forgetting that Mystere's and Ouragans that flew important missions in that war. You can fly MiGs in multiplayer, but only the MiG-23 and the MiG-29. The MiG-21, which was to the cold war skies what the Mustang or Spitfire were to WWII, is inexplicably absent. Also missing is the Su-7, the dedicated strike fighter of Isael's opponents. And, ofcourse, neglect of the War of Independence and the Sinai Campaign highlights the absence of the aircraft most closely identified with those conflicts (the Spitfire and Avia S-199 of the WOI and the Mustang and Mystere B2 of 1956).

In short, if IAF is at the edge of your computer's performance, and a survey sim is what you want, then stick with ATF (you can use the mission builder to recreate the Israeli air wars). If your computer is more powerful, you might want to consider the more expansive Jane's USAF.

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