Customer Reviews

Falcon 4.0

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

OK, you definitely need to patch this puppy to the 1.08 version when you install it. But it still reeks of realism, it's something you're not going to be bored of in a couple of months. I still don't feel like I have complete mastery of the sim yet. Time after time, I am humbled by this game. And,as with every undertaking of this magnitude, it's always not going to have 100% stability or the gameplay may fall short of perfection. My hope is that Microprose/Hasbro will continually support this game for the years to come. It could be just that great in a couple more revisions! At less than $20, it's really a steal. The sims coming out right now (like Jane's F/A-18) are not even close to Falcon 4.0 at revision 1.08. Caution: people with no patience for a big learning curve should steer clear of this game. The manual is over 400 pages! You're not going to be an ace within a couple of weeks. Frustration and death are going to be the norms when you are just getting into the pilot's seat!

Summary: Fantastic flight model, incredible depth of simulation, amazing thoroughness of detail, beautiful scenery, fairly stable with 1.08 patch. Also, absolutely spellbinding on every level. The only jet fighter simulator better than this is classified.

Words simply cannot express the mind-boggling excellence of this simulation, or my level of satisfaction at finally buying, installing and taking on its challenge.
I'm a real-life pilot with over 2000 hours of small airplane flight time, and I think it's safe to say that I've got about 10,000 hours of "flight" time on classic sims such as F-19, F-117A, Janes WWII Fighters, EF2000, Mig Alley, Falcon 3.0, Janes F-15 Strike Eagle and FS98. I started "flying" on an Apple IIe in 1983, on the original Microsoft Flight simulator with a green screen monitor. Aviation, especially fighter aviation, has been an obsession of mine since I was 6 years old. If your profile sounds anything like mine, the simple truth is that Falcon 4.0 is your holy grail.
In the earlier Falcon 3.0, the people at Spectrum Holobyte pushed the outer limits of what the "casual" PC flyer could learn and do. In creating Falcon 4.0, the team at Microprose didn't just push those limits; they rammed right through them like a Durandal through runway concrete. Be assured, Falcon 4.0 isn't a game. It is nothing less than a full blown recreation of nearly every significant function and capability of the General Dynamics F-16C Block 50/52, and of every sight, sound and situation that the real life pilot of that aircraft would experience in wartime. Name a system, a weapon, a readout, a display, a HUD function, a capability or a feature of the real F-16, and the odds are about 98% that you'll find it perfectly simulated in Falcon 4.0. About the only thing this sim can't do, is yank the blood down out of your brain and make your head weigh 80 pounds, and I'm sure that only budget considerations stopped this world-class team of software developers from finding a way to provide us with that experience.
If all you want to do is ram the throttle forward, punch holes in the sky, and gun down the bad guys without having to think too much, the excellent "Jane's WWII Fighters" is the sim for you. If, however, you recognize that modern-day fighter pilots are the ultimate high performance human beings who combine tactical combat knowledge with the ability to manage incredibly complex airplanes and systems under intense physical and mental stress, and if taking on just the idea of that kind of challenge appeals to you, buy Falcon 4.0 right now before it disappears completely. The sad truth is that this sim is simply too good for 90% of its potential market - the average "casual" PC flyer will open the (very well written) 100+ page manual and feel like a Maverick has hit him or her in the noggin. USAF fighter pilots are some of the smartest, brightest, most over-achieving people on the planet, and to master Falcon 4.0, that's pretty much who you will need to be as well. If you've got what it takes, however, the rewards are here - and I do mean all the rewards are here. Everything. This is as good as PC-based jet fighter sims are ever going to be.
Note: This review applies to Falcon 4.0 flown in Campaign mode with avionics, flight model and systems all set to "realistic." If you just want to turn, burn and heave missiles at things, you can turn all that stuff down to "easy," enter the Dogfight arena, and have a blast! Also, the essential Version 1.08 patch can be found at "falcon4.com"

While searching for a good flight sim to add to my library, I read customer reviews of Falcon 4.0 on Amazon.com, was disappointed to see so many low ratings it got, then decided I should give up the 20 bucks to find out for myself.

I haven't scratched the surface of this sim yet as far as missions and AI, although I know what to expect, having flown versions 2.0 and 3.0. I came back to put in a good word for Falcon 4.0. However it seems David Smallwood's review beat me to the punch! I second his opinion....

Let's put it this way: If you're serious about recreating a hyper-realistic flying experience and not just playing a game, this is the sim to get. Granted, it may have been buggy before; I don't know. I downloaded the upgrade only a week after original purchase. It makes it work. Period.

The game is gorgeous, there are scads of infinately detailed switches and dials to set, the flight model is like butta', the views are beautiful, the sounds are terrific, the interface is good and the price is a no-brainer.

And you know what's the best part of this program? These days when you're lucky to get a 6-page installation guide with gaming software, MicroProse assembles the best set of documentation I've ever seen in the classic 'Buy the manual, get the software free' style: almost 300 pages tucked in a 'Squadron Leader Special Edition' three-ring binder with laminated tabbed sections dividers, a separate cadet quick-learning guide, a beautiful reference chart, and full-color map of Korea.... all for the ridiculously low price of under $19.95!

My advice if you're addicted to flight: pick this box up and getcher butt in flight school. It's going to take a lot of studying.

For the record, my PC is a 450MHz, with 128MB SDRAM, an 8MB videocard with Voodoo 2 3Dfx accelerator and MS Sidewinder Pro Force Feedback joystick. With this configuration I can run all the settings at full bore and it's sweet.

Falcon 4 is really two programs, a flight simulation and a ground war simulation. In my opinion, it's the best flight simulation and the best war game currently available.

Too many people have missed the amazing experience of the Falcon 4 campaign because of the irritating bugs. If you set up the program very carefully, however, the bugs aren't a problem. This worked for me: (1) start with a fast CPU, a up-to-date 3dfx video card and Win98SE with DirectX 6.1a (2) Defrag and install Falcon 4, the 1.08 patch and the 1.08i2 iBeta executable. Download all the latest device drivers. (3) Read the Falcon 4 articles and user forum at "combatsim". Do everything suggested in combatsim's "F4 Tuning" article. (4) Use PC Magazine's "Enditall" utility to terminate all unnecessary background processes before starting Falcon 4. (5) Save, exit and restart each time you end a flight in the F16. These steps will make Falcon 4 about as stable as, say, Microsoft's Flight Simulator 2000. If you're tired of ordinary computer games, it's worth the trouble.

Unfortunately, the author of the Gamespot review wrote it barely 2 months after Falcon 4.0's debuet, and a whole month before Microprose (its original owner) started releasing patches that tried to fix the problems. By the end of that year (December 7, 1999), the 1.08 patch had been released, and the game's code was relatively stable & bug free.

Of course, many have said that each patch, while fixing some things, actually broke other things in the source code. Sure, the last patch that was issued was a step in the right direction. Many thought, though, that it could've gone much further. Unfortunately, the original owner ceased all efforts with the 1.08 patch. Luckily, though, their efforts were picked up & continued by 3rd party modification groups (i.e. Realism Patch Group, eRazor, F4UT), and the code, bit & bit (through tons of turmoil), over the next 4 years, was fixed.

This is the best flight simulation I've EVER played!! The realism will BLOW YOUR MIND!! It's even better with the latest SuperPAK patch, and the Free Falcon & BMS add ons. They take Falcon 4.0 to new & exciting heights!! You will definately get your money's worth if you buy this game!! It just keeps on giving & giving!!

This game is very impressive at first sight featuring stunning graphics and realistic gameplay. However, the campaign is full of bugs and almost impossible to really play. Microprose has put out patches but they haven't fixed anything. This is a cool game, but it needs some work

This extremely comprehensive and demanding flight-sim appeared back in about 2000 and, after release looked like it was in trouble. Despite the hype (a lot of it deserved), Falcon4 (or "F4") was dogged by both huge system requirements and numerous bugs. Based on the F-16 (and following a string of hardcore sims going back to the original Falcon of 1987!), "F4" had been awaited breathlessly by fans, and arrived with numerous bugs. MPS, F4's publisher suddenly announced that they were dropping the sim, paving the way for F4's nearest competitor, "Jane's F/A-18" to become the top game for fans of highly detailed and demanding ("hardcore") flight-sims. By 2002, with the stream of flight-sims having stagnated, a 3-year old sim still has much to offer - but the sim to beat isn't necessarily "F/A-18" (a great sim to be sure) but F4, rescued and brought to beautiful useability by a legion of on-line sim-fanatics. Having gained access to F4's source-code, these fans have crafted their own software called "Service Packs" which partly patch but mostly expand the original game. I'll keep this review confined to the original, though. In short - F4 still has much to offer.

F4 is focused on the F-16, the USAF's premiere multi-role fighter. Not an original concept (you can fly the "Viper" in campaigns, single missions and "instant action") but F4 never lets you forget that the proof is in the execution. The flight model is demanding: slippery along each of the major directional axes and, for a light fighter, can lose energy and get heavy really quick. The avionics are also comprehensive - think that "multi-mode radar" means "air-to-air" and "air-to-ground"? Here, you'll be fiddling with modes even in "pure" situations (in which you'll be either primed for counter-air or ground-strike missions) learning the nuances of "range-while-search" or "track-while-search" modes while hunting MiGs. The range of weapons is wider than on older games - echoing the F-16's maturation from a small jet that could only fight with iron-dumb bombs and short range missiles like the Sidewinder to a more complex machine geared for "smart" bombs, anti-radiation missiles and AMRAAM in night or adverse weather. The enemies aren't slouches either (although that may have much to do with my failure to master this sim).

F4's campaign is set in a futuristic North Korea (making it more topical than "Jane's F/A-18" which has you flying off Russia's arctic frontier). An elaborate setup menu allows you to tailor realism and controllability. My Thrustmater WCS/FCS setup was recognized here as quickly as on "Jane's F/A-18" (unsurprising since they both have to run through Windows's control panel - but thank heaven for small miracles nonetheless) though F4's key-mapping editor seems more stubborn than that of the other game. While the game ran well normally using my GeForce3 card, the menu appears to offer support only for 3DFx cards and not OpenGL, the API for that GeForce graphics-acceleration. Unfortunately, F4 was one of those great games that appeared immediately before the end of 3dFx's reign as the king of graphics acceleration. Not only is 3DFx a thing of the past, but "Glide", the 3DFx API isn't supported by newer operating systems like WinXP. Like "Flanker 2.5", you can play Glide-supported games on your OpenGL system and still appreciate how far ahead of their time they were, but - stuck in software-only mode - never forgetting how long ago that time was. Sound was also an issue - with the sim modeling a great range of sounds (from the screams and roars of your engine down to the distinctive howls, clicks and whistles of each type's fire-control radar), but also suffering a lot of stuttering. Attention to detail is magnificent. Control surfaces and engine nozzles are convincingly animated and the F-16's trademark shoulder vortices appear in high-speed climbs. You can even customize the skins on both your airplane and those of your enemies. I gave mine the Israeli-style camo paint job that appeared in the "Iron Eagle" movies (now there's an idea for a sim, certainly one that can't be more unrealistic than the flick it was based on). The beauty is that, while F4 remains cutting edge by virtue of how far ahead of its time it was (and how few new sims have come to the market since then), the faster computers that can run F4 more comfortably are cheaper and more widely available.

SYSTEM ISSUES: I "flew" my F4 on a Pentium4 running at 4Ghz. XP accepted this sim out of the box (something else that "Jane's F/A-18" couldn't quite claim). Performance was largely smooth but became noticeably choppy at times even on simple "instant action" flights. In more elaborate game play - especially during dynamic campaigns - F4 reveals itself an incredible hog for just about every resource your computer has: the CPU, main memory, graphics memory etc. Worse, F4 suffers an acute "memory leakage" problem: as you'd expect, it takes a lot of RAM to "create" each of those enemy tanks and soldiers and endow them with AI (but not so much that they don't just turn north and run for cover), but the program doesn't de-allocate or give that RAM back as quickly as it takes it away, which means that your campaigns will bog down really quickly.

In short - if you want a truly hardcore sim, one that will make you forget your machine's obsolescence, consider what your system offers but also remain informed about what each sim's fan-base offers. With tech support becoming less supportive for such games, F4 and its competitors from 1999 will always rely on the perseverance of fans to adress their flaws. For either Jane's or F4 you'll need a machine with an even 1Ghz of processing muscle. OpenGL owners should consider F/A-18 (again - no slouch), but those owning late-generation graphics cards based on 3DFx's "Voodoo" technology should get F4.

This is the best combat simulator I have ever used. I will not bore you with the details (you can get that from other reviews). It is a shame however that Microprose rushed the release of Falcon 4 without adequate testing. It is even more tragic that no other project from Microprose is to be released. Users must rely on 3rd party patches and addons. Why, because the true power is in its untapped potential: the electronic battlefield. In Falcon 3 you had the F-18 and the Mig29 complementing and opposing the F-16. I am hopefull that one day other aircraft will be integrated making the air campaign that much more dynamic. I am a pilot myself flying in the military and I recall the feeling of dread and fascination of formation flying, well I felt it in Falcon 4, especially the air to air refuelling(at real settings). You can plan,fly and fight with your friends. For people who want authenticity are not afraid of a learning curve and for pure satisfaction this sim is for you.

overall, this is a great sim, but with alot of things that need to be aware of. first off, u cant just fire it up and expect to wack a bogey. with as much detail to realism that there is, this is no ordinary flight sim. as in a real f-16, certain controls work certain functions. u cant use ground radar to target aircraft and vice versa. u must set down and thoroughly read and re-read the book just to even figure out part of all the functions on this bird. u need to bring up the ground radar, target a building, then figure out how to arm the bombs or mavericks...no book? uh oh, have fun figurin it out. other issues: u MUST have a minumum of a 16 meg video card with this game. 8 megs might run it, but may be choppy. missions tend to load up slow. instead of helping u learn how to arm weapons and set up a shot, the training missions dont help u out at all. PLUS'es: beautiful graphics, crisp handling, and great detail. bummer's: gotta have a pretty heavy duty video card, and u need to read the manual for about a month or two to figure out what u are doing

When you buy this title, you should realize you are not buying your typical computer game, but instead an incredibly realistic simulator. Therefore, you should realize it will take a lot of practise, training and reading through the excellent manual before you start flying serious online or campaign missions. However, I believe going through that process is part of what makes it so great - you really feel a sense of achievement once you start noticing you don't end up being killed during every campaign mission anymore, you are able to get your weapons on targer and you actually start understanding what is going on around you.

It has been quite a while since the original, buggy, sim that some people here complain about was released. In the meantime it has been upgraded to an incredible level of realism. This goes far beyond just the official patches - a group of coders (eteam) have actually improved it to a level where almost every button and switch in the cockpit is functional and they are still at it. At the same time, the graphics engine has been improved to make use of the newer graphics cards. These are all free upgrades and the latest at the time of writing was eFalcon 1.09. Just do a search on the web for links to all the downloads or helpful forums.

You can also find incredible cockpits, skins and now even new theaters on the web. The work and time spent by the people creating all these add-ons have turned this sim into something that I believe won't be matched for a long time. And since they are still at it, the game you get in the end is brand new and much, much more than what you find in the box.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, someone buying this product should realize it is much more than a game and about as realistic as a non-classified sim can get. Therefore, if you are looking for just a "game", I suggest you look elsewhere as this sim is demanding - in setting up and managing all the add-ons as well as of course the actual gameplay. However, there is also an extremely wide range of resources, including many forums with very helpful enthusiasts, available to help you get the most out of it. This sim, like most flightsims, also demands a good computer and be prepared to turn down some of the graphic settings in order to achieve smooth play if you have an older system.

If you are a hardcore simmer and would really like to know what is is like to fly a modern jet fighter, this title is what you were looking for.