Editor's Choice Flight Pack

Rating:
Summary: Hornet 3.0/Flying Corps Gold/Flight Unlimited/Hind
Review: This is a great bundle of older sims that you're not likely to find by yourself. Though optimized for older computers, the price is probably right, especially preferable to buying each game separately. All are worthwhile except....
Flying Corps. Gold. This is a WWI flight sim and I really wanted to like it. You're supposed to be able to fly any of the famous planes of the "War to end all wars", like the Sopwith Camel, the Spad and the Albatros. Unfortunately, my version was buggied up. At some points, the sim suddenly begn bogging down, becoming little more than a slide-show. When it ran smoothly, some objects left tails of themselves, for lack of a better word, causing graphics to become unintelligible. There are probably some patches floating around, but this is supposed to be the "Gold" version, the version that comprises add-ons and patches. That's a shame because, in those first few moments before the sim starts breaking down, it looks beautiful, better than I'd come to expect on my pre-Celeron system. And unlike most of my sims, it immediately recognized by Thrustmaster WCS.
In "Flight Unlimited", you fly any one of several small aerobqtic airplanes from small airfields thruought the US. No MiGs, no Radar, no mobile SAMs, not a single piece of (high) technology - it's almost like the Gilligan's Island of sims, but boy does it make up for that. With very photorealistic terrain and a shockingly realistic-feeling flight model, you may not be able to go back to other sims, no matter how high-tech they claim to be. When you gun that engine, you may almost imagine the RPM's surging through your computer. Other nice touches are the menu interface, which you navigate by strolling around the main office of your local FBO - most sims undermine the sense of their being a world outside of your airplane for you to navigate. Though the airspace available may not match FS2000 in sheer volume, "Flight Unlimited" makes the most of it.
"Hornet 3.0" is, as you'd expect, a sim based on the Navy/USMC's F/A-18 Hornet, a carrier-based, multi-role fighter. When H3.0 first appeared, sims were grouped into two categories - pretty sims with great graphcis but lackluster realism, and those (like H3.0) that emphasized realism over graphics. H3.0 models the F-18 very closely and intricately ala the Falcon series, with numerous radar modes, detailed instruments and an uncompromising flight model. Where some sims will just tell you what your engine's thrust percentage is, H3.0 gives you turbine speed, nozzle width, exhaust gas temp, RPMs and other factoids that you must constantly digest second to second (and that's just the engine). Just getting off the ground is an exercize in supreme responsibility and, after landing, you may be patting yourself on the back, convinced that you had acheivedd an act of aerial mastery equal to shooting down a squadron of MiGs on lesser sims. With it's lower-end graphics (pre-3d accelerator) frame-rate is smooth enough to give you a fear for incredible height's and speed you've never experienced on a sim. The complexity limits the game to hardcore simmers - there's no middle ground between what the game offers as training and its harcore missions. That said, the game is also weak on missions - with no dynamic campaign or mission builder. Even the airspace seems limited. Lastly, Graphsim subsequently released a sequel "Hornet Korea" set in that embattled peninsula and offering (at last!!) support for 3d accelerator cards. If you've got any of the other games offered here, and your computer is old, then just get Hornet Korea.
Lastly, there is "Hind", based on the Russian's Mil-24 helicopter("Hind" is a western codename). I've been in love with the Hind since reading "Winterhawk" by Craig Thomas. Though called a gunship like our army's AH-64 or the Vietnam-era Cobra, the Hind is different from them and has no western equal. Loaded with guns and rockets, but also capable of carrying about 8 brave troopers (the worse your flying, the braver they are), the Hind is basically both a flying tank and a flying APC. Thus, while newer helicopter sims have better graphics (like "Jane's Longbow"), the Hind concept remains at the cutting edge - with your typical air assault missions complimented with infantry insertions and extractions. The Hind was built to answer that age-old question "yeah? you and what army?" Minuses for this great sim are it's lackluster graphics and the weak flight model for beginner's. Unless you've got rudder pedals, the beginner's flight model is all you'll be able to handle, and unless you're stuck on a P-150 or less, you've probably seen sims with more attractive graphics. Still in all, a sim you won't quickly or easily tear yourself away from. One caveat for Hind - Interactive Magic did release a 3D accelerated version of the game, but that was bundled in something called "Front Line Fighters", with "iF-16" and "Apache". Unless your computer can run "Falcon 4.0", it may be more worth your cash to forego this box and get FLF instead - you'll get 3d-accelerated Hind as well as iF-16, a decent if not quite smashing F-16 sim - and then pick up "Hornet Korea" separately. You might spend a bit more, but you'll get a better value.
The biggest dissappointment for this bundle was the packaging - the CD's don't even come with their own jewel boxes. Worse, the manuals were condensed into a single book that doesn't do justice to the sims. "Hind" and "Hornet" both deal with complex aircraft, while "Flying Corps" deals with an expansive subject (The Great War). Yet, there's a pale discussion of the great war, the explosive development of aero-warfare and the relative merits of various aircraft in that game. And despite the seemingly innumerable keystrokes needed to fly the Mil and the F-18, there are no keyboard overlays. The aerodynamics and mechanics specific to helicopters get only cursory mention here, even though there have been few truly realistic helicopter sims in PC history. The F-18 can carry just about any piece of airborne navy ordinance, yet it commands little more attention than you'd get with a set of flash-cards. Even "Flight Unlimited" got the Reader's Digest Condensation treatment. All-in all, the package is a good value, sold short by its own packaging.