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Get a life

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is perfect!!!!!
i hate it when i read that kids review! they want it easy!!!! back then it wasn't like that!!!! and that guy saying " WW2 sims are better because they have a lockon key" Hey stupid in real life there was no lockon button so live wityh it!!!!! Our men who fought up there had no problem with it!!! okay!
THIS IS A GREAT GAME SO DON'T THINK UP ANY STUPID PROBLEMS LIKE THERE'S NO LOCK ON KEY! OKAY! LIFE IS NOT EASY AND BACK THEN IT WAS MUCH HARDER!

The best dogfighting sim of it's era

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 20, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Should I review a 1999 flight sim that 4 people are going to buy? Sure, there's nothing good on TV tonight.

Mig Alley as you are probably aware portrays the air war above Korea during the Korean war of thhe early 1950s. 5 aircraft are available to fly. The P 51 Mustang, the F80 SHooting Star (Anerica's first jet) the F-84 Thunderjet, the F 86 Sabre and the Mig 15.If you've played modern jet sims like Falcon 4 be aware that these early jets are very different. Handling is a different challenge; whereas a the F16 flies so smoothly that it *feels* like you're playing a computer simulation, the early jets require much more finesse to fly. Push it past it's limits and it will either stall, or go into a dangerous spin. Apart from the way the jets physically behave, the avionics...well they didn't have any! Except for a rudimentary radar ranger for gunsights, which you'll rarely use. As a brief simplication the planes in Mig Alley are like the prop fighters of a WW2 flight sim but with considerably more engine power available. The sense of those jets behind you churning out 1000s of pounds of thrust is quite exhilarating compared to the more sluggish props and you can aptly throw the plane about the sky more than any WW2 sim you've played. The Mig 15 in particular has a great climb rate.

Although there are 5 planes to fly, most players will want to play with only two, the F86 Sabre and the Mig 15. The other planes are primarily ground attack planes, and ground attack isn't what most people who buy this are looking for. While modern ground attack is a complex affair of munitions, avionics and terrain following, the ground attack of the early 1950s is no different from WW2. Fly to the target area, point you nose at the ground target and fire away. Fun for a bit maybe, but the air to air dogfighting is where MIg Alley really shines. The F 86 and MIg 15 follow the classic tradition of "boom and zoom" that is to say one plane is faster and has a more powerful engine at the expense of maneuverability (here the Mig 15) while the other has a weaker engine but is more maneuverable. Here it's slighly more complex still; the Sabre has an extremely quick roll rate (360s degrees in 2 seconds) making it a very agile target (or hunter) in the short term, while the Mig 15 has a slow roll rate, but a higher *sustained* turn rate. There is a large difference in ammunition too, the Sabre uses high velcoity machine guns requireingl ess "lead"(or aiming ahead) at the expense of little damage inflicted, while the Mig 15 fires powerful cannon that can do terrible damaage, but the much slower muzzle velocity means that much more lead is required, making scoring a hit much trickier than with the Sabre. The thrll of dogfighting in Mig Alley is quite amazing considering that its "only" a computer game. I first got into modern flight sims with Janes's WW2 Fighters, but Mig Alley managed to top even that with sheer "Keep in my sights you @*!$!! Keep it there...gotcha!!" immersiveness.

Ohter good points- the sensation of flying is amazing. Although the green and brown Korean landscape lacks the glamour of, say, European farmland or Pacific atolls I can't think of another flight sim of it's era that gave the sensation of flying so well. A good way to measure it is to pick the view 45 degrees either left of right, then do a slow roll in that direction while looking at the landscape. Mig Alley nearly gave me vertigo with that. Another thing that sets is above most others is a dynamcic campaign (here called The Spring Offensive) In fact the campaign goes above most others in that not only is it dynamic, but you can order your squadrons of planes around on the map just like a wargame.

Situational awareness is I'm pleased to say,good. There is an artificial horizon in the top right of your screen at all times, and the relation of other planes to you is shown on a circular cross section. You can tell not only in which direction a plane is, but if it's above or below you too. Good for telling if your being tailed by an ememy. Such aids are not too unrealistic if you think about it, since in real life your situational awareness is much greater and second nature to you. There are number of padlock views available too, although these may be initially confusing. With a bit of experience though, you'll be able to have all the confidence you need in a multi plane dogfight.

Criticisms? Well the manual is practically useless. Okay ,many people don't read the manual, but still, I do, and was disappointed at how little information is given for so many words, and how haphazardly it's laid out. Giving power equatiom curves with fancy graphs is all very impressive but I would have preferred more info on how to play the campaign. There is online help but how many people read that stuff? For such a strong feature of the game, the campaign is frustratinglly difficult to get into. ALso, navigation when flying is somewhat mysterious. There is a map, but getting to waypoints really should have been explained a bit more. Also taking off informatiom can be exhasperating with collions turned on; I eventually had to change the collisons to enemy only.

Some people have complained about system crashes and such. Well I have never experienced anything like that with the patched version. MY PC is quite old by todays standards but to give an indication it's

Windows ME
1.3 Ghz
NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX video card
Creative Audigy (1)

With those specs, I have had flawless system performance.

Overall I feel that Mig Alley is a great simulation of a surprisingly overlooked era. Maybe it's due to the subject matter. The Korean War lacks the heroics of the WW2 good guys vs nasty Nazis or the cutting edge avionics of modern sims. But if you have tried and enjoyed sims like IL- 2, I recommend Mig ALley with no hesitation, in fact in some ways I think it's actually the better simulation

Outstanding dogfighting and dynamic campaign

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 21 / 27
Date: November 16, 1999
Author: Amazon User

I highly recommend this outstanding flight sim. Its only problem is mulitplay which needs some work, however the rest of the sim more than makes up for it.

Last of the real dogfights!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 20 / 20
Date: January 13, 2000
Author: Amazon User

If you are a fan of the Air campaign over Korea then this is a must have! Mig Alley accurately depicts how chaotic and close the air combat was. The campaigns are robust in that you can control not only your flight but other units that can affect the outcome of the war. It takes time to learn how to do it but it is worth it. I wish there was more medals and stuff in the campaign. The graphics rock, but you need a PC that can take it, what else is new. Yanking and Banking in this sim is not easy because spins can happen at a moments notice. Once you get the hang of it though there is nothing cooler than watching a Mig-15 burst into a fireball! One draw back is that you can't be Mig in a campaign, but you can fly single missions in one.

All in all this Sim is well worth your hard earned $$$$.

Excellent fighter sim

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: April 21, 2000
Author: Amazon User

As a trainee fighter pilot I think this is really the most realistic game I have played. Although the game is very limited, for instance in the number of exercises that can be carried out, I have still found it very usefull. The games biggest plus is the detailed map, that when printed out allows you to fly low level tatical navs using roads ,rivers etc. No game including Falcon 4 does this as well. This game with its excellent flight model is also great for ACM. Especially as it teaches you alot about energy management ( which is essential in a low power fighter ). Once again its a great pity is it doesn't allow more options ex 2v1 & 2v2 setups. Even with all its limitations its a must for any aspiring fighter pilot.

Let's be realistic here...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: January 11, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I can understand the complaints about graphics, but let's face the fact that not everyone is sitting in front of some super-fast high priced PC. I am running a K6-III 400 with 256MB of RAM and this game screams with everything cranked to the maximum. This really is a great game. It's very difficult and unique unlike most sims out there. Flying a MiG 15 is even more difficult. But that was the nature of the beast. If I really want to get picky I would point out that the MiG 15 did not have wing fences as the outside view shows in the game -- the MiG 17 was the first MiG to use this for improved high speed performance and stability. And if I wanted to get even more picky one could say that the NR 23mm and 37mm cannon don't do as much damage as they would in real life -- one shot would tear any plane apart in almost every case, including B-29s. They were derived after all from German Rheinmetall-Borsig MK-series cannon from WWII. But anyway, the only real complaint is that there is limited use with MiGs and the campaigns start you out in a Mustang where you try to hit targets on the ground that are almost invisible. I have yet to have a successful campaign mission. But that's fine -- something to work at. There's nothing wrong with the explosions or bullet tracers or little superficial stuff. The fact of the matter is that there aren't any '50s era dogfighting games on the market -- current sims being stupid high tech fighters of today using missiles and that's pretty boring. The only other complaint is that the radio chatter isn't exactly very clean, but again that's small and superficial. The only real complaints are limited MiG useage and that campaigns force you to be a ground attacker at first. If you want a really difficult simulation, this would definitely fit the bill, and the graphics aren't that bad and the options for flight and the game itself are very extensive. It's definitely a great game.

Outstanding Solo play

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 15, 2000
Author: Amazon User

An outstanding flight sim that is easy to learn, but difficult to master. Dogfights are epic and the dynamic campaign outstanding. Ground attack is as good as it gets. Flight models outstanding. Damage model outstanding. Comms is poorly laid out, but the AI helps some of this short coming. Multiplayer is only good for Head to Head and team play. Still, this one is excellent and I highly recommend it.

Mig Alley Puts You There

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: July 18, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Mig Alley gives a good feel of actually being there. It's also jets and guns, so you get up close, rather than missles. The flight model is good and you can fly close to the ground without crashing as you do in several other combat flight sims. The sounds are good and the graphics are more than adequate.

I don't care what anyone says....this is a Great Sim !!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: October 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Unlike some people I think the flight modeling is quite good. The two swept wing fighters are fast but poor in maneuvers. The straight wing fighters maneuver well in a dog fight but lack speed. The MiG has a superior rate of climb but flies like a brick at low altitude. The only flight model criticism I have is that in the game the Sabre is more prone to tail spins than the MiG. This should be reversed, In reality the MiG was more prone to tail spins due to it's high vertical stabilizer.

Damage modeling is also quite good with the MiG destroying most targets in under 3 seconds. They have even included the poor gun site effect for the MiG because the MiG was known to have a poor site in real life. With all flight model effects turned on, the Sabre is quite a challenge to fly, however from what I have read I think they may have over done it's instability a bit.

For a 5 year old game the graphics are quite good ! Some of the sound effects are a little weak but I have replaced the sound files I didn't like with mods found on the web. I love the "blackout" effect, it forces you to lay off the stick a bit. Force Feedback support is also quite good.

Campaign mode seems to have a bit of a learning curve but i'm sure once I get the hang of how it works it will only add to the realism of the game. The radio chatter is ok for the most part however I can't stand how the wingman always seem to scream GET HIM LEAD !! POUND HIM ! every time you jump on an enemy 6. It's quite annoying to say the least. Ground pounding also has a few issues. Finding ground targets in MA is like looking for a needle in a hay stack.

I have read some of the less than flattering reviews for this sim on Amazon.com and I must say I disagree with the negative reviews. Mig Alley is a fine simulation of air combat during the Korean conflict. I has features that will please casual users as well as "hard core" sim nuts. Give it a try, it's worth the 20 bucks. Just remember to add the latest developer patch and the BDG patch.

Mig alley shines where saberace failed

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: July 04, 2000
Author: Amazon User

When I got this sim, i had a year before tried saberace which was terrible, i found nothing wrong with this sim save that i felt the airfields could have been detailed better. Also trying to log onto the multiplayer was a real pain in the rear. The flight model i hear is truly accurate, sure its hard, the high speed wing stalls will get you, and i spent alot of time augering in and pushin up daiseys,but with time I became very competent an score many kills now and keep out of the stall situation. As far as the graphics go, they are stunning on a high end system, escorting a flight of b-29's going to target gives a real feeling of being there, which in essence is what we are looking for...isnt it? WildBillGT of the flight sim sq THE GALLENT TALONS

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