ATF

Review by Dale Wilks

Game:         ATF
by:           Janes Combat Simulations
Publisher:    Electronic Arts
Format:       CD/Rom
Available:    Now

*Requires*

O/S:          Dos 5.0+
Processor:    486/DX2-66+
RAM:          8Mb+
Graphics:     SVGA
CD-Rom:       X2
Soundcard:    All major cards supported

Recommended:  Pentium processor


*Tested on*

O/S:          DOS 6.2
Processor:    Pentium 120MHz
RAM:          16Mb
Graphics:     SVGA 1Mb
CD-ROM:       Quad speed
Soundcard:    Soundblaster AWE32
Controls:     Keyboard

Advanced Tactical Fighters

Question: When is a game not a game? Answer: when it`s a flight sim.

But surely you cry, flight sims are games, aren`t they? Well...yeees.

OK, when is a flight sim not a flight sim, then? When it`s a game. That can`t be right either, I hear you shout. You just said that flight sims are games! Well, yes, I did but...oh blimey (sigh) It`s like this, right?

Sometimes, there comes along a so-called flight sim that stretches the boundary of reality (which is where the simulator bit comes in; after all, if a representation of an aircraft is incorrect then it`s not a simulation, is it?) and fantasy (make-believe, if you will) in order to make the aforementioned flight sim more fun, more rewarding. When this happens, purists argue, the flight sim stops being a flight sim and becomes a game. See?

So, which is ATF then? Well, I`d have to say that it`s more of a game than a sim. But it`s a jolly rollicking game, in a fly-around-in-different-futuristic-aircraft-and-blow-stuff-up kind of way. More on this later.

ATF (Advanced Tactical Fighters to its mates) is the first game from Jane`s Combat Simulations, an offshoot of Jane`s Information Group. JIG has been a leading expert in the field of military information since the start of the century, and last year JIG decided to get in bed with Origin and the EA development team. Lo! JCS was born, and so Andy Hollis (he of F15 Strike Eagle III fame) created ATF, a simulation of seven of the worlds most advanced...um, tactical fighters and bombers, including the Lockheed F117A, the B-2A Spirit and the Grumman X-29 (a bizarre looking thing with forward-swept wings). You can elect to fly them on a series of one-off missions that increase with difficulty, or instead choose to undertake a campaign over a typically middle-eastern continent, whilst choosing which aircraft to use from the several that are available, and being responsible for their repair between missions; this is one game where you don`t have an unlimited supply of aircraft. During campaigns or individual missions, your pilot (which you choose yourself - including his photograph and nose/tail art; no pictures of female pilots though, unfortunately.) will progress through the ranks, and earn medals based on his performance.

Before beginning the game proper though, you can look through the masses of information about the aircraft you can fly, and other vehicles that you may well encounter. This information often takes the form of photographs, drawings or video footage, and most of it is quite fascinating. Indeed, I spent quite a bit of time just watching all of the video clips about each aircraft, and I can safely say that the FMV engine is one of the best I`ve seen. From the gorgeous animations which form the introductory sequence to the footage of the different aircraft in flight, each clip is in REAL full motion video (no crappy letterbox films here) and they`re nice and smooth. Top marks JCS! You can tell that these people really know their stuff about every aspect of the fighters included; their history, special features, cockpit layout et al. is displayed in all it`s resplendent glory.

After you`ve got fully clued up on all there is to know about every fighter plane ever, you`re ready to tackle the game itself. From the main menu you can choose to play a single mission, or start a campaign which places you in Egyptian or Russian territory, and gives you the job of controlling a whole squadron of various aircraft in a series of missions, using whichever one suits a particular mission best. Between missions the aircraft must be repaired (if they have sustained damage previously), which means that they may or may not be available, and quite often you have to fly a plane which isn`t ideally suited to the task in hand. A word of caution; never, NEVER, attempt to take on a flight of enemy interceptors in a B-2A Spirit. It`s not big and it`s not clever!

After selecting a mission, the mission briefing is displayed, so you can read a bit about the background and events that triggered the action, information on the environment, the vehicles that are likely to offer resistance, what your target is etc. I find that it always helps to know what you`re shooting at! After this, the fighter that you want to pilot must be chosen from the ones available on the tarmac, and then the plane must be armed. The default armourment is often adequate, but you may decide that, for example, sometimes you don`t need those Mavericks and you`d rather have a few more AIM-120s instead! After you`ve loaded your selection of various expensive fireworks, it`s off into the blue yonder you go, starting on the runway or in the air a few miles from your primary target.

The various external views found in all flight sims are just a keypress away, and if your system is up to it all the graphics can be displayed in high resolution SVGA. This directly affects the frame rate though, so unless you have a REALLY arse-kicking PC you may have to deselect one or two of the visual options for smooth gameplay, although I have to say that the game tends to slow down at some very strange times, which is a bit weird when you consider that ATF hasn`t the exquisite detail of say, EF2000. All the objects are fully texture-mapped and lightsourced, so they all look tops. Unfortunately, the same can`t be said of the cockpit graphics, which are OK but functional at best. Flying some of the craft gave me the impression that I was flying a great ugly thing, not a streamlined state-of-the-art fighter bomber. Explosions are great though - fireballs, white hot eruptions and belching black smoke ahoy. No complaints there then. All the in-between bits (that`s a technical term for menus and introduction screens, that) all look great, with plenty of lovely action photos of various aircraft scattered about. The drawings and photographs in the information section are great, and as I`ve said, the FMV engine is one of the best I`ve seen. I was a little disappointed by the way the game sounds though - the title music in particular is awful; scratchy and very 8-bit sounding, which is not what I would expect when I have a 16-bit AWE32 card. The in game sounds are a bit mediocre too. If my fighters afterburner started to make the same noises as the ATF afterburner makes, well I`d turn around and head for home I think! The radio chatter is good, (the pilots whoop and holler when they down a bogey (yukk!) unlike the miserable sods in EF2000 who lifelessly retort you engage, I`ll cover) but again it`s all a bit iffy and poor-sounding.

However, as I was saying earlier, I`d question whether this is a flight sim at all. JCS flight models do not obey the laws of physics as well as they could (or indeed, should; after all, this is a company that is the recognised leader in the field) and I know that in at least one case a customer has returned the game because of this. An example: if you`re cruising at 10000 feet at 90% throttle and then suddenly pull back the stick into a steep climb, you would expect your airspeed to drop accordingly wouldn`t you? Not in ATF matey. Full G turns don`t particularly bother your planes, and you can easily do a nice flat rudder turn at 500 knots. Hell, I don`t think I could do that in Wing Commander! Not only this, but there doesn`t seem to be much difference in the flight modelling of the various planes, and the weapons response to ECM, chaff and flares seems to be an entirely hit and miss affair.

Sounds like I`m giving the game a good slagging off, doesn`t it? Well don`t get me wrong; there`s a lot of fun to be had with this - lots of spanky video, seven planes to play with, two campaigns, numerous single missions AND a mission builder, but, I can`t help feeling disappointed, that`s all. I was expecting so much more...!

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Rating: 7/10 (Good! but not great)
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