39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Must have!, January 30, 2001
A Kid's Review
This review is from: F/A-18 Korea Gold (Mac) (CD-ROM)
I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the Hornet series of flight simulators from Graphic Simulations. It was the first flight simulator I remember that actually made me feel like I was sitting in the cockpit of a real jet. Hornet 1.0 is somewhat crude by today's standards, but it was a major leap when it first came out. And to make it even better, it was Mac-only. Each new version brought improvements in graphics, avionics and game play.
Hornet 2.0 introduced wingmen. Hornet 3.0 introduced wingmen who actually did some good. Avionics became more realistic. F/A-18 Korea came out at the same time as Hornet 3.0. It featured awesome graphics that took advantage of 3D-accelerator cards. Unlike the Korea mission set for 2.0, it was a standalone game, and offered much better graphics than Hornet 3.0. No more flat deserts with pyramid-shaped mountains. Korean's mountainous topography was represented in stunning detail.
The latest incarnation of Hornet is F/A-18 Korea Gold. It brings Hornet to version 3.1 and Korea to version 1.1, and packages them together on one CD, along with the original missions and dozens of user-created missions. As the version numbers suggest, these are incremental upgrades to the games themselves (the Gold CD is available to owners of Hornet 3.0 and Korea for a small shipping and handling fee, or the updates can be downloaded online at MacGameFiles.com). The upgrades feature better support for OpenGL and 3Dfx acceleration in Korea, as well as InputSprocket support for USB joysticks. And, perhaps most significantly, native TCP/IP networking and Game Ranger compatibility.
Flying Hornet or Korea against live opponents over the Internet used to involve downloading system networking patches that emulated AppleTalk networks, then logging onto Internet Relay Chat to find opponents and servers. All that's in the past now. Just log onto Game Ranger, find or start a game and go to town. One word of warning, there is no real chance to change your weapons loadout once you join a game in Game Ranger. So if you don't want to get stuck with a bunch of heavy bombs instead of lethal missions, make sure you load your plane up correctly before you log onto the service.
The native TCP/IP support is a huge improvement over IPRemote and other patches. On a 56k modem, I had no problem with drop outs or latency.
GraphSim had put out OpenGL versions of Korea before in beta. But they were extremely buggy. They got it right this time. The OpenGL version worked without a hitch on my Rage128 card, providing good performance even at high resolutions. I preferred the 3Dfx version, though. Night missions are especially beautiful in 3Dfx (the flames from your smoking wreckage even have a certain charm).
The 28 missions included in each theater are unchanged, as are the network missions. Hornet and Korea missions may not be as challenging as, say, a Falcon 4.0 campaign, but they definitely get the adrenaline going, and adjusting the difficulty levels to higher settings can make a mission you've flown dozens of times seem much fresher.
But if you get bored with the included missions (the user missions are an unsorted hodge-podge), you can always design your own with the mission editor in Korea.
Some serious flight simmers have always looked down their noses at Hornet and Korea. They didn't have A-10's flight modeling or Falcon's incredible level of sophistication. But years and years after I first loaded that original Hornet program on a Mac LCIII, I still find them to be my favorite fighter simulations.
Pros o Game Ranger support o Native TCP/IP o USB support o OpenGL or improved 3Dfx
Cons o Same old missions
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best flying game ever!!!, July 30, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: F/A-18 Korea Gold (Mac) (CD-ROM)
F/18 Korea Gold is the best flight game ever.The tranning mission on this game are great.You can practice everything from landing on carriers or runways to nav. and weapons.The detail on this game is great!!!
One bad thing about this game thought is that you can only fly one plane.But however this is the best game I ever put my money into.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
not bad, June 12, 2002
A Kid's Review
This review is from: F/A-18 Korea Gold (Mac) (CD-ROM)
it is a good game but the operating manual doesnt explain how to use the extra fuel tank. Graphics are ok. In order to play and understand this game you have to read the manual which took me a while. If you love flight sims and are commited to reading a manual get this. If you like to be playing games quick, look for less sophisticated flight sims.
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