Application Systems Falcon 4.0: Allied Force PC

Zitat: You all have your opinions firmed up by now we hope. We wanted to give you the side-by-side comparisons without much comment, intentionally, so you see what looks best to your eyes. Now that we´re done, we´ll tell you what we think. There is just no doubt that Tom´s HiTilesAF is a superior add-on for F4:AF. In terms of crispness, definition, color, road detail, city detail, the lessening of any perceptible repeating tile effect, it wins hands down. The stock terrain has certain areas that are just plain blurry, and are even worse down in the weeds. There are areas around airbases where the coloration doesn´t look right, it has a bluish tint to it which is kind of strange. We really liked what HiTilesAF does for mountains and hills. The 3D effect is much better, not to mention the elimination of the "tweed suit" pattern that annoyed us somewhat in the Balkans mountains. We also thought it had an edge in actual simulation utility, being able to pick out moving ground targets, albeit a slight edge. And don´t forget there´s a season switcher! We really didn´t comment much on this, but with HiTilesAF you will have the ability to make it whatever time of year you want, and it´s easy to do. For more comparison shots of the different season looks, please check out Tom´s web site. For a simulation whose primary claim to fame is "immersion", HiTilesAF delivers. It really helps you feel like you´re flying a combat jet, in Korea or the Balkans. We found little FPS hit in using it, no performance issues at all, on any of the three test machines. As we said, we were hoping for night lighting effects, but this is not a reflection on HiTilesAF. F4:AF stock terrain didn´t have it either. The first official add-on for Lead Pursuit´s Falcon 4: Allied Force is available here at Tom Waelti´s web site. We found installation to be a snap and without a hitch. It comes in a 122MB zip file download (which plumps to a hefty 2GB once expanded), costs $12 USD and only $4 for repeat customers. Payment is by PayPal, credit card, or cash by mail.

Zitat: Pros: + grandiose dynamische Kampagnen + hoher Wiederspielfaktor + unschlagbare Flugphysik + einstellbarer Realismusgrad + gute KI + fantastisches Cockpit + viel Funkverkehr + 716 Seiten Handbuch (als PDF) Kontra: - extrem lange Einstiegsphase - mieses Tutorial - hoher Schwierigkeitsgrad in der Kampagne - veraltete Grafik trotz "Verbesserungen" - komplett in englischer Sprache Rivival mit toller Kampagne, grandioser Physik und schwacher Grafik.

Zitat: At this stage I realize I´ve only really scratched the surface of this sim and that there is still a huge amount for me to discover, but my first impressions are excellent and I know for sure that I personally will be spending a LOT of time on F4:AF. I am hard pushed to pick on anything as disappointing and really at this stage I can´t fault it. The only thing, as I mentioned earlier, would be a bit more variety in the ground detail and possibly to build in some visible damage modeling for the aircraft. It is very difficult for me to try and cover every area of F4:AF in this review, even after two weeks on it. But that is the nature of this sim... because that´s exactly what it is. It´s a sim, not a game. You can´t just learn it overnight. It takes time and patience and the more realistic you set the options, the longer it takes. But that is part of the enjoyment and it is far more rewarding. The first time you manage to successfully lock-up a target and hit it is a great feeling, and suddenly all those different radar modes and OSB switches seem a little less daunting. Gradually it all falls into place and becomes second nature. The more you fly it the better you get and the more you understand the how the systems function. Once you have mastered one area you can move on and learn another. Before you know it, you can fly this thing, hit targets, control your flight and get it home safely. It is only now I am using the realistic settings that I realize just how much I would be missing out on if I were still using the simplified settings. I would certainly say to any newbies looking to get into combat flight sims that this is the one, and in my eyes it is certainly a vast improvement over the original Falcon 4 that I´m used to. Just remember that you can go at your own pace, learn what you want to when you want to. If you want some action in between lessons, load up a TE or campaign on easy settings as I did. AF caters to all skill levels, so if you are a novice (like me) you can easily get into it. I know the 716 page PDF manual looks daunting at first sight, but after 2 weeks it doesn´t look quite so big to me any more! Enjoy!

Zitat: + Anspruchsvolle, dynamische Kampagnen + Detailliertes Cockpit + Hervorragende Flugphysik - Schlechtes Tutorial, hoher Schwierigkeitsgrad - Altbackene Grafik