F/A-18

by Electronic Arts

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000059XSG
• Media: CD-ROM
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,142 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #87 in Video Games > PC Games > Simulation > Flight
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

The F/A-18 Hornet is one of America's most capable aircraft, designed to excel at both ground attacks and air-to-air combat. Now anyone with a PC can experience the versatility of these birds firsthand with Jane's F/A-18.

F/A-18s operate from carriers, and the simulation brings this demanding environment to life. With all the realism options enabled, carrier landings many times proved more dangerous and exciting than the combat missions from which we were returning. Newcomers can turn down all of the realism settings for some quick action, but seasoned sim jockeys will love the game's attention to detail when all the bells and whistles are enabled. The fully functional cockpit is almost a game in itself, considering it simulates most of the real aircraft's radar modes, navigation modes, and other critical-information displays. This is one of those games where every key on the keyboard corresponds to some function within the simulation, and you'll have to learn them all if you want to get the most out of F/A-18.

Graphically, there are prettier flight simulators on the market, but with the right video hardware and a fast computer, F/A-18 doesn't look too bad. The terrain is a little drab, but the sky offers up spectacular sunsets. Objects in the game such as the aircraft carrier, other planes, and vehicles are modeled well. The graphics and sounds definitely take a back seat to this title's simulation aspects, which are deep enough to keep anyone interested in sophisticated jet combat occupied for some time. --T. Byrl Baker

Pros:

• Highly detailed simulation of the F/A-18
• Carrier landings are a blast
• Sky graphics are beautiful

Cons:

• Terrain is a little bland
• Not the best choice for novice gamers

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great game, bad package, May 12, 2001

By 

"the_slammer" (Reston, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: F/A-18 (CD-ROM)

Think of this more as 4.5 stars. Jane's F/A-18 is probably the best combat flight sim I have ever played. Anybody who liked F-15 or Microprose's Falcon series will love the attention to detail, superb flight modeling and living world of this game. Unfortunatley, the cheapo EA-Classics package, while cheap, robs the game of a very important tool: a printed manual.

This is a very, very complicated simulation. Almost every button in the virtual cockpit is clickable and performs an important function; everything from turning formation lights on and off to switching A-A radar submodes from RWS to TWS is possible in the game. And if the preceding sentence didn't make much sense to you, you will probably have some problems with the game.

With a printed manual, a dedicated newbie could slug his or her way through the game, learning functions and important options as they go along, responding to each situation as it comes; however, the 150 page manual comes only in Adobe Acrobat format, making it very hard to check on functions 'on the fly', no pun intended. There are a suite of tutorial missions, but they teach only very basic functions, and don't even touch on the various radar submodes, complex FLIR pod functions, and advanced air to ground missiles, all of which have unique operating modes.

Once you figure all of this out, though, this game can be infinitley rewarding: nursing a highly damaged aircraft with hydraulics problems and one engine running on fumes back to an aircraft carrier one hundred miles away, only to hear a frantic 'Wave off! Wave OFF!' from the LSO and knowing you won't have enough juice to make another pass is a very deep feeling.

All of the cockpit chatter, realistic damage effects, and advanced wingman controls help suspend your disbelief and make you think you are really in total control of a fifty-million dollar aircraft. Only one thing takes me back to the fact that it's a computer program: on my system, a P3-450 with 96 megs of ram and a 64mb Geforce 2, the game is really choppy at 800x600 with medium detail. I have a feeling this is sloppy coding on behalf of the team; the better looking Jane's USAF (from a different developing team) runs smoothly at 1024x768 with full details on my rig. Still, now I have a good reason to upgrade!

In short: If you are a serious simmer, get this game now. You won't find any better now and perhaps for a long while.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I feel...I feel the need...the need for speed!, December 7, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: F/A-18 (CD-ROM)

This game is a piece of art. Not software, art

In this game, you fly the famous F/A-18E Super Hornet, the Navys most advanced strike fighter. You have a lot of weapons and equipment at your disposal, about 30 each of Air-to-Air and Air-to-ground, ranging from the M61 Vulcan cannon, the AGM-65 Maverick, the AIM-120 AMRAAM, AIM-9 Sidewinder, TALD's(Tactical Air launched decoys) and the like to NAVFLIR, ATFLIR, Chaff, and data link pods.

The flight model is extremely realistic, but you can adjust it to the level of realism you want. For you people that can fly but cant land on a carrier, your in luck, because the F/A-18E has an ACLS (Automatic Carrier Landing System). However, you should be at least and ace in the virtual sky, if you are a pudknocker(if you dont know what that means forget it), dont buy it. Start with something like F-22 Lightning.

The scenery is terrific to. When you turn it up to 1024x8??x32, it looks pretty photogenic. The carriers, other ships, planes, ground objects, etc, are all extremely accurate. Then theres the cockpit. Its beautiful. You will find yourself staring at it a long time. Its extremly accurate, compared to pictures I've seen of the real F/A-18E's cockpit. All the switches (except for 2) are active in the cockpit, everything really works, no showbiz here.

In overall, this game is really good. It does run on XP, but you will have to download the patch that's on cd first. Also, if you dread textbook type manuals, reconsider.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps the most detailed flight sim that you will ever see., March 20, 2002

By 

Rottenberg's rotten book review (nyc) - See all my reviews

This review is from: F/A-18 (CD-ROM)

The biggest mistake you can make about this F/A-18 Hornet simulation is confusing it with one of the "Jane's Fighters" games like ATF or USNF '97 - simple games packing a lot of variety but little realism or much deep detail. Instead "Jane's F/A-18" is more like previous Jane's games which focused on a single machine, like "Jane's F-15" or "Jane's Longbow" and were extremely complicated and demanding. In short, this new F/A-18 game may be the most complicated sim you'll ever be able to run on your computer. Here, you can fly the titular attack jet in both ACM and strike missions in single play, campaign mode or instant action. The action is centered around USN carrier ops near Russia's Kola Peninsula, familiar territory for Tom Clancy or Craig Thomas fans. Simulating the new F/A-18E, the radically redesigned (and so-called "Super Hornet") the game intricately models the demanding flight model as few sims can, while also allowing you to peruse an extremely detailed flight panel with mouse-clicked switches, and navigate reams of information from an extensive suite of analog instruments and digital multi-function displays. Think you'll just have a radar with three modes? (air, ground and nav) Forget it - it's not 1992 anymore. In "Jane's" you'll have to contend with numerous master modes and sub-modes for either counter-air or ground attack profiles, and you'll have to manage the information yourself. Think your magic airplane will fly whichever way you play the stick, and will stall gracefully? Forget it - this plane may look the a beauty, but it's a beast when it comes to edge-of-the-envelope flying, with yaw-skidding and some unpleasant (if recoverable) departures. Just getting through the instant action will require that you've perused the game's extensive manual (more on that below). While newer sims can raise the bar on graphics or sound, it won't be soon before a new sim raises the standard for outright and utterly demanding realism.

That said - a couple of complaints. First, I got the CD Classics version which (big surprise) came with another CD-ROM where the manual should have been. (i.e. although this looks like a boxed edition, it's actually an oversized jewel-case release). You can print the manual off the disc, but it will run well over 200 pages - better get a binder and a hole-puncher. (This was especially aggravating for a game that was so complicated, the manual was indispensable.)

What really kills me is the huge gap between the game's realistic and arcade-like gameplay. (You can either play the game's hyper-realistic aspects or the Super-Mario version - with no middle ground). This was also a problem on "F-15". Why not have some training missions or a module of the game set in Florida ala "Bogeys and Bandits" in which you must fly with demonstrated proficiency before being cleared to fly in fleet ops (let alone combat). And why no "car-qual" - carrier qualifying flights that every aviator must complete before he's certified to land on carriers? (This was actually something required on the original "Jetfighter" of 1990, a game which had no other aspirations for realism). In short, the game is so eager to blast a hole in something, that it never gets a chance to show you how deep and convincing a flight simulation (military or otherwise) it really is. In short, if you're looking for an easygoing flight sim, go for one of the survey sims like USAF. If what you want is a more detailed sim, but still one that won't tax you too hard, try "Total Air War" or EF2000 (v 2.0). Go for this game only if you need the most demanding sim you can find. I flew this game off my P2 4 GHz with no problems except initial compatibility problems with Win XP, but these were resolved once I downloaded the patch.