User Reviews (21 - 31 of 101)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Totally Desaster!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 11
Date: November 30, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Hallo,

I bought this sim here in Germany 22.11.03, as an U.S.-release.
I don't know like the german-version runs. Maybe it will be fixed some more.
At the current state the sim is totally unuseable!!
Everyone has criticized Strike Fighters Project 1 cause of it's
unfinished state, thrown on the market. That was right! But believe me SFP1 was really more finished than LOMAC.
There is no way to get this game running on a W98- or Me-system!!
And with XP, bugs, bugs and some more bugs!

After 3 years of production here comes a tuned Flanker 2.0 in an totally unfinshed state, with some new eye-candy (most of it's graphical awards belong to the new graphic-accelerators and not to the program itself), the same graphical interface, and some new flyable planes.
This could have been an addon for Flanker 2.0 few years ago.

Who wouldn't believe it, look in the directory of both games, and you could clearly see the extremly relationship of both sims.

This is not what I'm waiting for 3 years now!

I'm very interested in the next flightsim-desaster. If this goes on, you get the empty box as release, and the cd with the program on it, as first patch for only a few money more!!!

Buy it!!!!!!!!!!! it's the best flight sim of 2003

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 11
Date: December 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Lots of comments in these reviews about how bad the game is, poor frame rates etc. well all I can say is that for me it loaded Ok and ran Ok straight from the box. I don't know how to get a frame rate figure, but on my system (P4 2.6ghz, Radeon 9600TX 128Mb Windows XP 512Mb ram) running at 1024x768 the graphics are extremely smooth, and look breathtaking.

The game is very customisable, and the readme file does say you will have to play with your settings in the options menu. Time spent setting things up here will pay off later - even your joystic responses can be trimmed (and need to be!). I still have some tweaking to do to stop "overgee-ing" when only making small joystick movements, but the tools are there in the options menu to allow me to do this, unlike on some games.

I only had one problem and I the time I thought it was quite major - when running the game in "high" graphics mode, jagged green vertical lines appeared on the screen, which were annoying, but then I found that setting the "haze" value to "basic" eliminated them but still gave good looking graphics, so now I'm very happy again.

This is definitely the best flight sim of this year, and if you only buy one game this Christmas, make it this one - well done ubisoft/eagle it's been worth the wait just to come in at tree op level in the A10 and lay that avenger gun onto a T80...brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrp!....bang!

If you want to try it, there is a downloadable demo on the ubisoft game website, once you try it, you will buy it!

Next purchase for me?....... a TrackIR2 as lock on supports this bit of kit, and I haven't got a third hand available to move the mouse to look around the cockpit.

To sum things up, this is Janes USAF, 4 years on, but better, and working on XP (albeit without the F16,F117,F4 and F105, but with the Mig 29, SU27, SU33, and SU25)

I only gave it 4 stars because it does require some patience in the setting up, Had this not been necessary then it would have got 5 stars

Needs work!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 14
Date: January 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User

1)Does NOT work with win98 like the box says.
2)System specs on box are LIES! You need alot closer to the top-end system specs to play with even medium settings.
3)Support sucks! No keycard in early release boxes, no manual at all and pdf manual on disk is riddled with errors(like the program).And terrible message boards.
4)F-15 radar doesn't work right
5)Aim-120 missle doesn't work right
6)UBI.com game service doesn't work right.
7)Game has a HUGE memory leak in it.
8)the sky is blue, and so will be your computer screen.
9)Does not support motherboards with Nforce2 chipsets even after 2 years of delays.

Spend your money on liquor and get drunk this weekend, you will have a better time than playing this hacked-together peice of crap(or trying to play it, anyway).

good enough

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 9
Date: January 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I wouldn't recommend Lock On unless you're a real pilot or are already adept at other hardcore sims (Jane's F-15, Falcon4). Without a decent knowledge base, it'll frustrate you. Still, LockOn's fun to play once you learn it. And when you consider that it simulates 6 jets, its realism is pretty remarkable. Avionics, radar, missles, etc. all seem to be done well. I have several complaints, though.

The visuals, while photorealistic, aren't smooth enough. Even if you knock down the settings and average 60 frames per second, you can expect frequent hiccups that detract from the game's feel. It's not horrible, but don't expect a fix since its predecessors (the Flanker series) had the same problem for years and were never fixed. It also seems unusually taxing. I only have a Radeon 9600, but I've seen it run on a $3000 alienware desktop, and it still had problems.

The feeling of flight is conveyed fairly well, but that's thanks to the graphics more than the flight models, which can feel artificial at times. Transitions from normal flight to stalls are not seamless -- your nose will sometimes pop back and forth as the sim decides which flight model to use. The rudder feels especially artificial, starting and stopping every yaw on a dime. And while LockOn's programmers tried really hard to account for every situation, they apparently left a few out...I was able to make my stalling A-10 float to the ground when it should have fallen over backwards. This is why flight models should be physics-based!

My other complaints aren't as major, but it sure would have been nice if:
-if they had included a no-cockpit mode with the HUD, radar, and RWR still showing.
-if they had put more thought into the keyboard layout... examples: "i" = activate radar, "d" = cycle weapons, and "shift+numlock" = lock next enemy air target. Sure, you can re-map every button to suit yourself, but you won't.
-if you could use your mouse to click the cockpit buttons instead of pausing to look up keyboard commands.
-if you didn't have to hit "ctrl-t" to "cancel trim settings" and keep your jet still every time you deactivated autopilot
-if there was a dynamic campaign. You feel no incentive to go out of your way to destroy enemy bombers unless it's part of your mission.
-if it wasn't so buggy. Options don't always stick, certain keyboard controls occasionally don't work, and I've heard over and over that it crashes on Windows 98/Me.

I could go on, but it's all to say that Lock On needs more work. I think I would have preferred a later release date if it would have meant having dynamic campaigns, more complete flight models, and fewer bugs. If you like flight simulations, you'll probably like it anyway.

Not Recommended, Not Fun, Too Many Bugs

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 12
Date: November 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

First off, the box says Win98SE compatible, yet LOMAC does NOT work on Win98SE for me and for everybody else that I have read on the flight sim forums. It is inconceivable that it was released like this. I also have a XP multi-boot which it does run on. Now for the really bad news. This game has so many bugs, it will be a LONG time before humpty dumpty is fixed and when 6 Ghz machines exist (see below). No dynamic campaign and No printed manual included either. The .pdf manual on disk is poor which is why this game has a steep learning curve. I have a high end 3.2Ghz, 512MB, MSI GeForce 5900 256MB machine and the frame rates stink. The best I get is 20-25fps (at medium detail!!) with little air activity, so those with mid or low end machines best forget this game! There are much better flight sims than LOMAC made in the past 5 years that work, are fun, run great, so I suggest to all to stick with those.

Greatest Comeback Ever

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: September 23, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I bought Lock-On after waiting for the price to drop because I am an avid gamer and was also afraid of spending so much on a simulation that might be beyond me. Well I worry no more, the game can be patched to 1.02 with a download and a double click, absolutely easy and the game goes from very playable to extremely playable. Some complained about bugs before, well supposedly this fixes all of them, I've not crashed once despite modding the game numerous times using a program called LOMAN. The game is stable, run well if I use modest (still looks great) settings on my GF4 ti4200P. The cd comes with an extensive manual that I got printed out to help me learn, and the game comes with great tutorials. I'm having a blast despite a simple joystick. Completely unique gaming experience if you love flying and want insight into modern technology while enjoying yourself.

Needs the correct hardware, but worth it!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Now, I heard a bunch of reviews that you need insane hardware. That's not entirely true. I have this running on my Dell Inspiron (1.6Ghz Dual-Core, 256 MB Mobility Radeon X1400, 1GB Ram), and it runs perfectly smooth. You'll need a joystick preferably with a seperate throttle, since this is a hard core sim.

I have Flanker 1.5, and I was initially reluctant to get this game, since I figured with a name like "Lock-On" it would be very arcade like. But it is not. It's even more in depth than Flanker--except the manual pales in comparison to the Flankers 200 page manual describing all types of weapons, tactics, etc.

All in all, well worth the purchase if you loved Flanker 1.0/1.5.

Kick them tires and light those fires!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: January 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User

If you have EVER wondered what it's like to fly modern military aircraft in combat, get this title! You get 8 flyable aircraft, I lose count of how many others are modeled in the game that you fly with and against, not to mention all the ground units, tanks and other armored vehicles, anti-aircraft guns, surface-to-air missles, ships, you name it, it's there, and probably quite hazardous to your health. And they are all quite busy doing their thing whilst you do yours, so you'd better be doing it right!

You choose the arena: Air-to-air combat using radar-guided and heat-seeking missles, 20 and 30mm cannon, air-to-ground combat with cluster bombs, Maverick television and infra-red guided missles, "dumb" bombs, fuel-air explosives, rockets, and a 30mm seven-barreled cannon that shoots 70 rounds per second. There are defensive systems as well, electronic counter measures, chaff and flares to help you survive the day.

The aircraft are superb, detailed cockpits for each one and the avionics that go with them. Flight models just feel right, but you do have to use some pilot skills. This is not "Gorilla Kong at Twenty Thousand Feet". If you have never flown a "hardcore" flight sim, you'll have some homework to do, but it's the fun kind, and you'll learn some incredible things about real world aircraft. Having said that, you can adjust the skill factor so that you have super-radar, unlimited weapons, and invunerability. Nice feature, that last one, you can fly and fight all day while you are learning about this environment you just got yourself into!

I haven't mention graphics, have I? Well, if you have a fairly decent system, with a good graphics card, you are in for a treat. LOMAC is graphical flight simulation Disneyland! This is as close to photo-realistic as it gets on a PC. That includes all the aircraft, objects, land, and water (oooh, that water!). I have seen a series of screen shots depicting a mid-air collision at an air show that I would have sworn were real. They were not, they were LOMAC. Seeing is truly believing here.

Now, all is not perfect in human existence, nor is it with LOMAC. It does have issues, no "show-stoppers", other than the Win 98/ME problems, but certainly things that are not right. These things are being addressed with a patch which should be out within the next month, hopefully sooner. Let me tell you, from my perspective, it's darn good now, I can't believe how much better it will be then.

To sum up, if a realistic, yet scaleable jet combat flight sim might be in future, get this one. And remember to strap in, that runway acceleration really pushes you back in the seat!

An ambitious flight simulator that delivers and then some!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: September 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This flight simulation is now the only sim I actively play. My previous sims of choice were Jane's F-15, F/A-18, Falcon 4.0, Flanker 2.5, and MS Flight Simulator 2004. It's that good.

The choice of both American and Russian aircraft is a great change from the norm, especially since they're modeled so well. The feeling of flight coupled with the amazing graphics is hard to beat in terms of immersion factor. Switchology may not be as robust as other previous sims, but when you take into account that Eagle Dynamics (the developers of this sim) are giving us 8 different aircraft, it's quite an accomplishment.

However, the incredible graphics will tax your system, so be prepapred to turn down graphics options and the missions while good, are not the strongest part of this sim.

Lock On: Must Buy

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: November 27, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The sim is incredible. From the start, you have a combined total of 8 flyable aircraft from the USAF, Luftwaffe, and Russia. A resurgent Russia makes a bid to reunite the old Soviet empire and annexes half of the Crimea Penninsula. USAF F-15 and A-10 and Luftwaffe MiG-29 squadrons are called in to deter the oncoming threat. The AI in this game is very smart. They will use doppler notch tactics to avoid radar detection and actually hide in valleys and behind mountains to ambush or evade detection. The graphics and sounds speak for themselves, obviously the best ever seen in a flight sim. The gameplay is challenging and fun, and the avionics were created with the consultation of real fighter pilots so you can ensure that this is a fidelity simulation.

BEST FLIGHT SIM EVER

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next 

Actions