Customer Reviews

Lock On: Modern Air Combat

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(31)

 

 

Well I was reluctant to pick this up. A friend advised me that it didn't run on his top of the line PC. He said that it was fine until clouds and weather affects were added and then trouble occured. Anyway eventually I found it in a discount bin and decided to pick it up. It runs brilliantly on my machine, absolutely flawlessly. My box 2.8Ghz, 1Gig Dual Channel Ram, ATI 9600 Extreme. I was so impressed I went and bought myself a set of X45 Saitek HOTAS gear. How much fun is this. Blowing away bandits in an F15 without ever having to touch the keyboard. The sound is only in stereo unfortunately so I can mix up my EAX settings to run it on 4 speakers but a 5.1 setup would have been nice. The graphics put MSFS2004 to shame. It took me a week or so before I was comfortable flying the Eagle and there are more planes to go. The game has a great level of depth and I printed off the Flaming Cliffs manual which helped some too (all 262 pages). Campaign builder takes a little time to figure out - like the whole thing really, but this isn't a console game this is a complex piece of software. Saying all of this the game isn't for everyone, it takes time, patience and an attention to detail to get the most out of it. I spent a week or so readjusting settings till I was happy. Neverthless this has helped my love and interest of flying and quite frankly this piece of software is a hobby for me rather than a game.

Installed a demo. Don't know what the guys who posted below are talking about but im running demo on my rig with following specs:

Athlon 1700+
ATI Radeon 9500 moded to 9700
SoundBlaster Live! 5.1
513MB of SDRAM

Game settings: resolution 1600X1200, 2x AA, 4x AF

The game is smooth. Geting on average 30 FPS. Physical model is great, graphics is great both environment and landscape (i come from Ukraine so i know how landscape is supposed to look like there:)) The only thing i didn't like was the damage model. But i think it's going to be fixed by the release date.

Of course it is not an arcade game. It is a hard core flight simulation with everithing that this entails. You gotta learn how to fly.

Everyone who is passionate about aviation should get this game!

PS. If your demo isnt running great, check out ubisoft's forums. You can learn how to set up you hardware, drivers, and the game right so it is playable.

If you are not technically minded, don't buy this game. If you dont know the difference between a directX 9 card and a directX 9 compliant card (one works with DirectX 9 but does some of it in software and is useless for many modern games), dont bother. If you have a computer that is not correctly configured, don't even think about it. If you expect to run the game and play well within an hour, stop reading now.

Now for the rest of us, the ones who are sick of console games and know how to build their own machines so that they run well, irrespective of the age of the components. The ones who are prepared to sit down and actually learn how to use a program, and know that a third party manual is the only way to even begin to do justice to this simulation (it is *not* a game)... This one is for you.

Runs well on my 9500 pro (heavily overclocked, with an artic cooler mod), XP2000+ processer and 1Gb RAM and with all of the simulation settings set to high except water quality and view distance (set to low and medium respectively) - as per the manual recomendations (hint for all the folks with low frame rates!). Mine is not a high end machine, but I took pains to work out what the most stable drivers were for everything before installing this game (catalyst 3.7 for the video, plus latest VIA sound drivers for my onboard audio), because I knew it would be a demanding game... not on hardware, but on software configuration. Mid range hardware seems okay on all the latest games, but it is drivers and general software config that causes problems, ddespite what some of the other reviewers seem to think.

Know what? It worked first time, and it worked well. I'm enjoying going through the LOMAC manual (the one published by Digital Aspirin), learning how to play this beast, and when you get into the zone it is absolutely great.

For example, in one mission, I am tasked with shooting down a valuable and well protected AWACs plane that is patrolling off the coast. It is protected by a pair of F4s and there is a patroling squad of F16s nearby.... all of which totally outclasses and outguns my pair of MiGs. So its a case of tactical flight - flying undetected with stealth (passive non-emitting sensor modes), and a BVR attack on the AWACS from behind, placing the F4s in a position where they are furthest away from my escape vector when I de-cloak and initiate the attack. Following my stike on the AWACS, I head for the deck running, using the mountains as cover and using the low level air density to significantly cut missile range (yes, it even models that!). A long chase follows, with the two F4's and my wingman buying it in a short but fast dogfight, when the F4s elect to cut their altitude for speed and catch up. But I make it home, low level all the way to avoid lock-ons by the F16s, who were following at high altitude taking BVR pot-shots.

Exhilarated is the only word I can use when I made it to my side's air defences, and watched the F16s turn and sulk back home... Mission Accomplished!

Now that's gameplay.

S

While the system requirements may claim that a Pentium 800 processor is sufficient to run this game, take it from me (and from an avid community of Lock-On fans): You will need at least a 3Ghz class Pentium and the best video card money can buy to have this game perform smoothly. With that aside, strap in and ready yourself for a tour de force of corrupt textures and random game crashes (and believe me, there will be lots of those). And when you do happen to see a peculiar artifact (such as a string of out-of-place polygons coming from the sky, or the ground) rest assured, it's not some superweapon of the future; It's just yet another doodad that shouldn't be there; A result of Eagle Dynamic's saddening execution of game that was compiled with an underpaid pseudo-programmer and grossly undertested.

As for the missions and gameplay, it's a proven combat simulator. Don't expect to jump in and start firing missiles away. It will take a few hours to learn and effectively use the weaponry on these aircraft. While I have personally only trained on the A-10, I can say that the few times I managed to finish a mission (in those rare cases when an unexpected game crash didn't reboot my computer) the attention to detail paid to avionics, flight dynamics and damage models was accurately modeled. This is by no means an arcade-themed shooter. Training sessions are thorough enough to teach you the basics needed in effectively using each airplane to the best of its abilities.

While Lock-On comes off as a promising title, its wide array of bugs that plague the game keep it from becoming an memorable gem amongst combat flight-sim enthusiasts. Eagle Dynamics (the game's developer) has been slow in turning around patches in hopes of fixing some fatal flaws (as of 2005, four years after the game's launch, only 2 minor patches have been released).

With such a unlucky combination of flaky code, (forcing the player to re-play some of the missions time and time again due to crashes and freeze-ups) Lock-On should remain in its developer's shop until it matures as a product worthy of a public release.

I bought this game about a year ago, and had a really difficult time mastering the learning curve. Since the documentation was so sparse, I mostly laid off trying to master the avionics and just flew it like a dogfighter, flying Sues, MiGs and 15s in "guns only fights, and then just marveling at how beautiful the game was. Mastering navigation and landing was itself a challenge, but I just loved staring out from the cockpit during a descent and feeling very much like I was in a real cockpit in air....the illusion and immersiveness was that real.

Eventually I moved onto other games, but I never removed this game from my hard drive. It felt like a keeper. Now a year later, I've patched it, put some of the add-ons in, and I'm still learning new stuff! I've finally mastered the Su-27 BVR mode and CAC mode. I've also learned how to effectively use EOS and have successfully won missions with it. This is one of those games that you have let grow on you.....at this point I have virtually no doubt that LOMAC is going to be the Falcon4 of the next 5 years. It is going to be slowly patched and modified while hardware grows around it.

I am running an Athlon 2600, with 1GB of PC3200 RAM, and a Radeon 9700 on Windows 2000 SP4. There are a few graphics options I have to turn down, but the game is extremely stable (0 crashes) and gives me playable framerates about 90% of the time at a resolution of 1024x768. Overall the game is very scalable and needs to be tweaked to get the happy medium between performance and eye candy depending on the capabilities of your machine.

I literally can't wait for my next upgrade, and wonder how great this game will look and fly with a fast 64-bit CPU and a next gen video card.

This is a great simulation, and one which will reward you with priceless satisfaction if you are willing to invest the time and effort in learning its intricacies.

The game does exactly what it says it does, it imitates modern air combat. Learning is half the fun and despite a small manual anyone can look on-line with a little effort and find tons of useful information to learn more. The search button on forums is a key thing to understand. Some people complain about stability but the game has never ctded on me once. I run an AMD XP2800+, Leadtek 6600GT graphics card, and 1gb ram. I run everything on high except water (which is the real fps killer along with mirrors). Tons of fps mods are even available if you need them and look for them. I previously ran the game on medium with my XP2800, 512mb ram, and a GfTi4200 and it ran decently as long as everything was medium and water was low. It's all about tweaking, which can take time. The key is to tweak it and then keep at it instead of giving up because once you get cozy with the game you'll start to have the real fun. Getting over the initial learning curve it difficult but I think is probably well worth it if you care to understand some of the top fighters of our time.

Developed by Eagle Dynamics, the creators of Flanker 2 , Lock On is a great simulation and a joy to fly.

It requires a good PC (at least a P4 2.0 with 1024 MB RAM) and a 128MB video card (a GForce 5xxx or ATI9800) in order to really enjoy it.

It has already been patched twice and has a great online community that creates missions, skins and campaigns that you can download - and Eagle Dynamics is already developing add-ons for Lock On.

Lock on requires some time to master, but it is easy to learn and, as far as flight simulations go, it is quite intuitive.

Don't miss it!

This is a really good sim. Top notch graphics and high fidelity physics. Beware though, if you have a less than top notch computer.. consider yourself warned. This game needs a 3Ghz 1024mb RAM and 256mb video card to run properly. Anything less will be a compromise. The latest two patches have really fixed a lot of probs that were encounterd in the first release. With the patches and a good computer, this game is a dream come true!

If you like modern combat flight sims that really bring an authentic feel to flying.. choose this game. You can't go wrong here!

As you read the customer reviews you will notice that they either hate it or love it. There is no middle ground because if you can't make the sim run reasonably you will, naturally, hate it. But if you can run this outstanding sim you will, I assure you, LOVE IT!. The graphics, the complexity the feel and the amazingly powerful editor make this THE FLIGHT SIM of the day.

I loved Jane's F/A 18 and still fly it although I have not been able to get it to run well under Win XP. I fly F/A 18 under Win 98 on a 800 mhz Pentium. The Lock-On sim needs a powerful PC and I'm getting frame rates from 30 to 80fps on a 3GHZ machine with Win XP and a ATI 9800 video card. There ARE a few bugs and a visit to the UBI Lock-On web site indicates they are working hard to correct problems. A patch has already been posted and it installed on my machine without any hitches.

The program comes with an on line manual which I don't like and think comes up short in places. A printable version is availably on the UBI web site and it prints up nicely under Adobe. I'd like a better manual however and the included booklet that explains running the program itself, especially the mission editor is, at best, slim. I'm still learning how to program a custom mission. But it is coming along... takes patience.

I don't know if UBI will ever deliver additional flyable aircraft. As it is only two US aircraft are flyable... the A-10 and the F-15 Eagle. Five Russian aircraft are flyable and one is a Naval aircraft. It can fly to and land on carriers, including the USN CVN-74. The carrier CLS system is not as realiastic as the Jane's F/A 18, diappointing but maybe a improved CLS will come along with an F/A 18 or Naval JSF. Even with these small disappointments I give this Sim Five well deserved stars. I think it will be improved and look forward to that.

Final word... if you do not have a high end (i.e 2 or 3ghz) processor and good video card AND Win XP don't expect to like this program. It's a modern sim... you need modern equipment.

In spite of its age, Lock-On remains one of the key references in military simulation games. Graphics are very good -the higher you climb, the more real-life the landscape gets-, A/C's behaviors -and related flaws- are quite realistic, the number of parameters that can be fine-tuned adds to the overall realism of the game.

A few question marks remain on my side, though. For example, some of the F-15 campaign missions are almost unplayable, like the one in which a Russian A-50 AWACS must be destroyed: this is straight out of another world, with a flight of 2x F-15's scrambling to get this A50 out of the skies, as well as its Su-27 escort, with only the onboard gun! Where did the designers of Lock-On got this idea from???

That aside, Lock-On is a very good game which seems to be the last of its kind (when was a good military combat sim game last released??)