Jane's Advanced Strike Fighters

[CeeKay]

Jane is back!



I wonder how sim-like this is going to be with it also going console.

[Isgrimnur]

I will be watching this with interest, but I don't have high hopes.

[Zekester]

I wonder how sim-like this is going to be with it also going console.

the original wasn't a full-on sim, but it was still enjoyable

[kronovan]

Yup, the original was a sim-lite, but it was still more sim than arcade. If they end up with something along the lines of what Gaijin studios has been bringing to the consoles it could be good. On the other hand if they give it the Ubi-HAWX treatment, it could end up a stinkin pile.

Damn, wish they'd mentioned the studio behind it.

[CeeKay]

Damn, wish they'd mentioned the studio behind it.

I'm guessing that would be Trickstar Games. 

[Greggy_D]

Yep....I'm thinking HAWX 3.0

[kronovan]

Damn, wish they'd mentioned the studio behind it.

I'm guessing that would be Trickstar Games.

I didn't follow the link in the OP, so I missed that. Doesn't look like they have any experience at all with this genre and their closest attempt at a simulation was International Cricket which got mediocre reveiws. So I agree - HAWX 3. 

[Punisher]

I wonder how sim-like this is going to be with it also going console.

the original wasn't a full-on sim, but it was still enjoyable

I could have sworn that all the Jane's games were sims and even had the thick manuals to go with it...

[The Rocketman]

I wonder how sim-like this is going to be with it also going console.

the original wasn't a full-on sim, but it was still enjoyable

I could have sworn that all the Jane's games were sims and even had the thick manuals to go with it...

Weren't full sims generally a lot less hardcore than the last 10 years? Back then everyone could play a sim game, but nowadays it's far too difficult for casual gamers.

[kronovan]

I wonder how sim-like this is going to be with it also going console.

the original wasn't a full-on sim, but it was still enjoyable

I could have sworn that all the Jane's games were sims and even had the thick manuals to go with it...

For sure they were all simulations, but Advanced Tactical Fighter, Fighter Anthology and USAF were sim-lites. Some would probably group Israeli Air Force in with those too, but I wouldn't. They still came with decent manuals by today's standards, but they weren't the heafty tomes that AH-64D Longbow, F-15 and F/A-18 included.

[Razgon]

Less hardcore? Nah, people just werent just to games you could play and understand in 1 minute like you are today.

Most flightsims back then had a use for every single key on the keyboard, came with thick manuals and were generally extremely hard to figure out.

I remember the one I had on my c64 took me two monhs to learn to take off without crashing.

[The Rocketman]

I beg to differ. I grew up on Flight Simulator 4 and Dynamix games (Red Baron, the Aces range like Aces over Europe, Red Baron 2...), and these games could be played with a keyboard, a couple of numerical keys for your throttle, F for Flaps and G for Gear

These games were considered sims, and they had decent flight systems, but were not complex to learn. I kind of think the genre died because of the increase in difficulty in these games. Isn't it around the time that Falcon 4 came out that things changed?

[Razgon]

Well, that was 13 years ago now, so I guess I was thinking Falcon 4 wasnt very different from the ones before it.

fun picture, btw:

[The Rocketman]

Yeah, I actually played Falcon 4 (or rather, the updated version that's called Falcon 4 Allied Force), and enjoyed it for about 2 months. But it was just too demanding and difficult, and I quit shortly after starting my first campaign and having no clue what everyone was saying, or what was happening. I can sure appreciate it, but it's really not something I can tackle on my own.

Still, never played any of the Jane's series, I'm interested in seeing how it will turn out.

[Bullwinkle]

The Jane's games always straddled that hardcore to ease of use line pretty well, IMO.  I'm someone who always liked the idea of flightsims, but usually found them overwhelming.  However, I remember getting pretty far into most of them, even Longbow, before moving on.  I can't remember if there was an Easy mode for those games, though.

I do feel like nothing has come close to the LucasArts (or LucasFilm) sims for making me feel like I was learning the complexities of combat flying despite it being very simple on the sim side.  I can't remember if it was Battlehawks 1942 or Their Finest Hour which had me calculating the angle of attack for a dive bomb, but either way, great stuff.

[kronovan]

These games were considered sims, and they had decent flight systems, but were not complex to learn. I kind of think the genre died because of the increase in difficulty in these games. Isn't it around the time that Falcon 4 came out that things changed?

The genre came to a major turning point around the release of F4, because it turned out to be a freak year in which the market got flooded. Within the span of about 2 years, Janes F-15, Falcon 4, MS Combat Flight Sim, B-17, F-22 TaW, European Air War, Screaming Demons Over Europe, Janes WW2 Fighters, EECvH, Janes F/A-18 and F-22 v3 were released and the list goes on an on... Not to mention that the civilian sims MS FS 2000 (actually release in 99), Fly! and Flight Unlimited 3 were also released in that timeframe. The market couldn't sustain that many games and sales were disastorous for most - partly due to some being forced to market early by asshat publishers. It all led up to a number of key dev's like Microprose and Empire Interactive folding.  Those years were also unfortunate to coincide with the boom in the RTS market, which seemed to scoop up a lot of the sim crowd. Since then we've been lucky to get a quality flight sim game every other year.  

[The Grue]

Just wanted to say how much I absolutely loved the Longbow game Jane's put out.  SO much fun to pop that radar above a mountain top, paint the targets, dip back down, and then let hell loose.

[kronovan]

Just wanted to say how much I absolutely loved the Longbow game Jane's put out.  SO much fun to pop that radar above a mountain top, paint the targets, dip back down, and then let hell loose.

You could do the equivalent in Janes F-15 by pausing the game, painting your targets with the SAR, then locking them up. A lot of players used to panic in F-15 in the midst of combat with all the button pushing and stick control, but most of them overlooked that feature.

[raydude]

Just wanted to say how much I absolutely loved the Longbow game Jane's put out.  SO much fun to pop that radar above a mountain top, paint the targets, dip back down, and then let hell loose.

You could do the equivalent in Janes F-15 by pausing the game, painting your targets with the SAR, then locking them up. A lot of players used to panic in F-15 in the midst of combat with all the button pushing and stick control, but most of them overlooked that feature.

Yeah, but you could do that in Longbow in real-time because the heli could hover and because the mountain was between you and the targets. In fact, I loved being able to use the hills and mountains for cover, scooting from place to place and then hovering when I needed a quick breather.