May 26th, 2019
Classic Review -Jetfighter III
from Mission Studios
They're ba-aa-ack! Mission Studios is back in action! The people who brought us Jetfighter and Jetfighter II are back again, and the competition is tougher than every before! For its time, Jetfighter II was a pretty cool simulation. Back then, the competition wasn't as fierce, but it was still a pretty impressive simulation. These days, you'll probably need MO SLO to run it on today's Pentiums (or even 486s). Enter, Jetfighter III. The US Navy decides it could use the F-22N after all, carrier based operations are in full force, and the United Nations' Rapid Deployment Force needs you! Do you have what it takes? Ready to familiarize yourself with the (fictional) Naval Variant of the F-22 and spend some cockpit time in an F/A-18 Hornet? Well pal, you'd better strap yourself in, there's an awful lot of turbulence ahead!
GRAPHICS
Lets get something straight. Other simulations have offered X,XXX,XXX square miles of simulated terrain based on maps, satellite images, etc. Other simulations didn't have so much detail packed into all those miles of terrain either, at least not as many little details as Jetfighter III! If you set yourself up with some fuel (there's a cheat ) and just fly for an hour of so, you'll find things changing. You'll see powerlines weaving for miles, you'll find objects on the ground from time to time. You'll find that things are (visually) as they would appear in the real world. Jetfighter III won't have you flying across miles and miles of featureless terrain.
There's no denying that Novalogic got the jump on Mission Studios with F-22 Lightning II, and I can't come out and tell you that Jetfighter III is better looking than the photo-realism of F-22LII, but I can tell you that JFIII manages to build more of an atmosphere! If I had to compare the overall look of JFIII to another simulation, I'd say it looks very much like EF2000, only better. We've got a total of 3.5 million SQ miles of real terrain too fly over in JFIII, and believe me, it's gonna take you quite a while to fly over it all. No matter where you go, there's something to check out on the ground or in the air. Of course, there are some bare spots here and there, but only where it would be barren in the real world too.
The experience of ejecting from an aircraft is similar to doing so in USNF, but you'll find (by looking to your left and right) that your hands are gripping the chute cords. It's kinda like a heads-down cockpit view holding the stick and throttle! Control surfaces that move, jet blast deflectors on the deck of a carrier, power plants, cities, the only thing I didn't find in this simulation is someone taking their dog for a walk on the ground! There's still not quite as much ground activity as in AH-64D Longbow, but it's closer than any other sim that comes to mind.
Unlike most sims, where you pick and choose what you want to do and which missions you'd like to fly, Mission Studios took a Wing Commander style approach with JFIII. The entire simulation takes place aboard an aircraft carrier throughout which you navigate your way to make your choices. If I just wanted to take off on my first mission, I'd simply make my way to the hangar below. There, I'd find my F-22N sitting on the lift, awaiting me. There's a computer to change your aircraft and weapons load-out, and another terminal which lets you change the tail art. The entire ship looks pretty good as you point and click your way through its 3D corridors. The interface is similar to the point-and-move method used in 7th Guest and 11th Hour (interspersed animation sequences).
Atmospheric details (clouds, haze, etc..) are also done well, and I've found a few other neat things in JFIII which I haven't found in any other sims. The most noticeable (and cool) "neat thing" becomes apparent once you've smoked a bogey. If you're close enough when you eliminate the threat, you'll be able to fly right through the debris and smoke which will temporarily block your view until you've flown completely through it! It does look a little generic, and I feel the explosions could have been a bit less blocky-looking, but it is a welcome detail that we've not seen much of in other simulations. I've also found (by checking out my heads-down view in the cockpit) that the appearance of my G suit leaves a little to be desired. It's got a pixelated... almost washed-out look. All in all, this is not a bad looking simulation at all. It can't come close to the photo-realism of most of the other most recent simulations to hit the market, but it offers loads of little details to make up for that. Don't forget, it takes quite a machine to wrestle a nice cozy smooth frame rate out of JFIII in 640x480.
GAMEPLAY
Mission Studios really did take a Wing Commander style approach with this simulation. There's a detailed background story, and they chose to use a 3D approach for making your way about the carrier (just like the WC series). As a pilot in the United Nations' Rapid Deployment Force, you'll be carrying out orders in several of the world's hotspots, like Argentina and Cuba.
Carrier-based operations are what JFIII is all about, but don't expect the realism of Fleet Defender because this is NOT that realistic of a simulation. Jetfighter III is a "light" simulation. That certainly doesn't make it a bad one, but the hard-core crowd won't find the realism of SU27 Flanker or Back to Baghdad here. Though the flight model is not realistic, one thing it does convey a lot better than even most realistic simulations is the sensation of pure speed! Fly up to 30,000 feet and you'll find that you don't skyrocket up there like you would in F-22 Lightning II, but coming back down is a very different adrenaline-charged story! Since the BETA we previewed, there have been a few improvements. Flaps have been added, and rudder response has been toned down. Before, you were able to spin the aircraft around on a dime going 800 knots like you could an Apache helicopter doing 40 knots! Now, it's not quite that bad, but the reality-aspect still needs some work. Petty details notwithstanding, Mission Studios has put together a pretty decent flight model that can be compared to that of ATF or USNF. This makes JFIII easily accessible to novices and veteran hard-core sim fans alike.
Originally, there were to be three aircraft to choose from. Currently, there's only two. The F-22N (a fictional naval variant of the F-22) and the F/A-18 Hornet. Missing from the lineup is the F-14 Tomcat. I am told they may opt to add this aircraft later as part of an expansion pack. It does feel odd being on a carrier and not finding any F-14s laying around. The missions themselves are impressive, and many may take a few attempts before you get them right. Actually, many of you will be using those cheats the game offers, because some are downright tough! The background story of the game is told in the manual, and the rest unfolds as you progress through the campaigns. Speaking of the manual, what a manual it is!! I'm glad to see a manual that offers more than 20-30 pages. These days, everyone's opting to offer only on-line help or on-line manuals. Mission Studios' manual for Jetfighter III is 180 pages cover to cover! It covers just about everything from installing the simulation, basic tactics and combat maneuvers, and trouble shooting. There's also a neat section of reference material on the aircraft offered, allied and enemy. From within the simulation's interface, you can also find some cool multimedia refrence material in the library section of the carrier. It may not be as well done as the Jane's Combat Simulations stuff, but there's loads of photos and information to keep you interested for a while.
How successfully you complete your missions will determine just how the story unfolds. The whole simulation is setup with a branched campaign. To see all of the missions, you'll need to actually lose a few! The hard-core side of me wished they would have just done a very kick-ass dynamic campaign, but the two campaigns which JFIII offers will keep most people busy throughout the holidays, and I can't say that I didn't enjoy those missions.
We tried Jetfghter III on the following machines, with the following input devices.
Don't expect to play JFIII in SVGA without a SUPER fast Pentium, and I mean FAST!! In 640x480 SVGA, it could certainly play a lot smoother on our 200MHz Pentium Pro. Man, does it look good, but WOW, does it ever crush the CPU power. And this is on a 200MHz Pentium Pro with 32MB of EDO RAM, a Matrox Mystique 4MB PCI video card, and FASTVID loaded!! That's full-screen though. We were able to squeeze more FPS out of 640x480 by shrinking the screen like I used to do with DOOM II on a low-end 486. Of course, you can also turn off some of the details and scale it down for your system, but I'd recommend a well equipped 133MHz Pentium for SVGA gameplay.
On a more positive note, there's a few other video modes to choose from, if your video card supports them. 320x200, 640x400 and 640x480 are your options, and each mode gives you the ability to shrink the screen down to a more letter-boxed look. This helps performance greatly, but it also takes away from how much you can see on the screen. On a 17 inch monitor, it's quite tolerable. On a 14 inch, it gets agitating. In 320x200, it don't look bad at all, well.. not for 320x200 anyway. I really didn't notice much of a difference in 640x400 or 640x480 visually, so I opted to fly most of my missions in 640x400 because of the few FPS I would pick up. EF2000 may play a lot smoother than JFIII in 640x480, but then it doesn't offer as much visual detail as JFIII. This is where Jetfighter III could really benefit from some Rendition or 3Dfx support. Too bad that didn't make the initial release, but I can tell you some kind of 3D support is in the works. I was told that 3Dfx and Rendition support will happen, and that at first there's a possibility both will be patched, that will be later included with the first mission disk as well.
My only other major gripe about JFIII is that while flying along you'll notice a pause from time to time. It stops dead for a fraction of a second, which is a fraction of a second too long when in a sticky situation with a few Mig-29s! I believe this is the simulation loading more data for the scenery that lies ahead. Even with a 2MB SmartDrive cache loaded, and 32MB of RAM, it still takes the time to load the data. In the README it mentions that I could copy certain files from the CD over to my hard drive, and that would keep it from loading as much data from the CD, but I don't want to take up more HD space. They also mentioned that the simulation takes up about 500MB of CD space. This means there's an awful lot of terrain data in JFIII, because there's no FMV to speak of aside from the opening sequence which is animated cut-scenes. The README also mentioned they MAY put out a patch in the future to properly cache the data. Lets hope they do that soon, because if there's one thing about this sim that REALLY bothers me, it's that and that alone!
GRAPHICS
Lets get something straight. Other simulations have offered X,XXX,XXX square miles of simulated terrain based on maps, satellite images, etc. Other simulations didn't have so much detail packed into all those miles of terrain either, at least not as many little details as Jetfighter III! If you set yourself up with some fuel (there's a cheat ) and just fly for an hour of so, you'll find things changing. You'll see powerlines weaving for miles, you'll find objects on the ground from time to time. You'll find that things are (visually) as they would appear in the real world. Jetfighter III won't have you flying across miles and miles of featureless terrain.
There's no denying that Novalogic got the jump on Mission Studios with F-22 Lightning II, and I can't come out and tell you that Jetfighter III is better looking than the photo-realism of F-22LII, but I can tell you that JFIII manages to build more of an atmosphere! If I had to compare the overall look of JFIII to another simulation, I'd say it looks very much like EF2000, only better. We've got a total of 3.5 million SQ miles of real terrain too fly over in JFIII, and believe me, it's gonna take you quite a while to fly over it all. No matter where you go, there's something to check out on the ground or in the air. Of course, there are some bare spots here and there, but only where it would be barren in the real world too.
The experience of ejecting from an aircraft is similar to doing so in USNF, but you'll find (by looking to your left and right) that your hands are gripping the chute cords. It's kinda like a heads-down cockpit view holding the stick and throttle! Control surfaces that move, jet blast deflectors on the deck of a carrier, power plants, cities, the only thing I didn't find in this simulation is someone taking their dog for a walk on the ground! There's still not quite as much ground activity as in AH-64D Longbow, but it's closer than any other sim that comes to mind.
Unlike most sims, where you pick and choose what you want to do and which missions you'd like to fly, Mission Studios took a Wing Commander style approach with JFIII. The entire simulation takes place aboard an aircraft carrier throughout which you navigate your way to make your choices. If I just wanted to take off on my first mission, I'd simply make my way to the hangar below. There, I'd find my F-22N sitting on the lift, awaiting me. There's a computer to change your aircraft and weapons load-out, and another terminal which lets you change the tail art. The entire ship looks pretty good as you point and click your way through its 3D corridors. The interface is similar to the point-and-move method used in 7th Guest and 11th Hour (interspersed animation sequences).
Atmospheric details (clouds, haze, etc..) are also done well, and I've found a few other neat things in JFIII which I haven't found in any other sims. The most noticeable (and cool) "neat thing" becomes apparent once you've smoked a bogey. If you're close enough when you eliminate the threat, you'll be able to fly right through the debris and smoke which will temporarily block your view until you've flown completely through it! It does look a little generic, and I feel the explosions could have been a bit less blocky-looking, but it is a welcome detail that we've not seen much of in other simulations. I've also found (by checking out my heads-down view in the cockpit) that the appearance of my G suit leaves a little to be desired. It's got a pixelated... almost washed-out look. All in all, this is not a bad looking simulation at all. It can't come close to the photo-realism of most of the other most recent simulations to hit the market, but it offers loads of little details to make up for that. Don't forget, it takes quite a machine to wrestle a nice cozy smooth frame rate out of JFIII in 640x480.
GAMEPLAY
Mission Studios really did take a Wing Commander style approach with this simulation. There's a detailed background story, and they chose to use a 3D approach for making your way about the carrier (just like the WC series). As a pilot in the United Nations' Rapid Deployment Force, you'll be carrying out orders in several of the world's hotspots, like Argentina and Cuba.
Carrier-based operations are what JFIII is all about, but don't expect the realism of Fleet Defender because this is NOT that realistic of a simulation. Jetfighter III is a "light" simulation. That certainly doesn't make it a bad one, but the hard-core crowd won't find the realism of SU27 Flanker or Back to Baghdad here. Though the flight model is not realistic, one thing it does convey a lot better than even most realistic simulations is the sensation of pure speed! Fly up to 30,000 feet and you'll find that you don't skyrocket up there like you would in F-22 Lightning II, but coming back down is a very different adrenaline-charged story! Since the BETA we previewed, there have been a few improvements. Flaps have been added, and rudder response has been toned down. Before, you were able to spin the aircraft around on a dime going 800 knots like you could an Apache helicopter doing 40 knots! Now, it's not quite that bad, but the reality-aspect still needs some work. Petty details notwithstanding, Mission Studios has put together a pretty decent flight model that can be compared to that of ATF or USNF. This makes JFIII easily accessible to novices and veteran hard-core sim fans alike.
Originally, there were to be three aircraft to choose from. Currently, there's only two. The F-22N (a fictional naval variant of the F-22) and the F/A-18 Hornet. Missing from the lineup is the F-14 Tomcat. I am told they may opt to add this aircraft later as part of an expansion pack. It does feel odd being on a carrier and not finding any F-14s laying around. The missions themselves are impressive, and many may take a few attempts before you get them right. Actually, many of you will be using those cheats the game offers, because some are downright tough! The background story of the game is told in the manual, and the rest unfolds as you progress through the campaigns. Speaking of the manual, what a manual it is!! I'm glad to see a manual that offers more than 20-30 pages. These days, everyone's opting to offer only on-line help or on-line manuals. Mission Studios' manual for Jetfighter III is 180 pages cover to cover! It covers just about everything from installing the simulation, basic tactics and combat maneuvers, and trouble shooting. There's also a neat section of reference material on the aircraft offered, allied and enemy. From within the simulation's interface, you can also find some cool multimedia refrence material in the library section of the carrier. It may not be as well done as the Jane's Combat Simulations stuff, but there's loads of photos and information to keep you interested for a while.
How successfully you complete your missions will determine just how the story unfolds. The whole simulation is setup with a branched campaign. To see all of the missions, you'll need to actually lose a few! The hard-core side of me wished they would have just done a very kick-ass dynamic campaign, but the two campaigns which JFIII offers will keep most people busy throughout the holidays, and I can't say that I didn't enjoy those missions.
We tried Jetfghter III on the following machines, with the following input devices.
- Micron Millennia 166MHz Pentium
- Gateway 2000 G6-200 200MHz Pentium Pro (with Fastvid loaded)
- Gateway 2000 P5-133 133MHz Pentium
- Thrustmaster F-22 Pro
- Thrustmaster TQS
- Thrustmaster RCS rudders
- CH Combatstick
- CH Pro Throttle
- CH Pedals
- MS Sidewinder 3D Pro
Don't expect to play JFIII in SVGA without a SUPER fast Pentium, and I mean FAST!! In 640x480 SVGA, it could certainly play a lot smoother on our 200MHz Pentium Pro. Man, does it look good, but WOW, does it ever crush the CPU power. And this is on a 200MHz Pentium Pro with 32MB of EDO RAM, a Matrox Mystique 4MB PCI video card, and FASTVID loaded!! That's full-screen though. We were able to squeeze more FPS out of 640x480 by shrinking the screen like I used to do with DOOM II on a low-end 486. Of course, you can also turn off some of the details and scale it down for your system, but I'd recommend a well equipped 133MHz Pentium for SVGA gameplay.
On a more positive note, there's a few other video modes to choose from, if your video card supports them. 320x200, 640x400 and 640x480 are your options, and each mode gives you the ability to shrink the screen down to a more letter-boxed look. This helps performance greatly, but it also takes away from how much you can see on the screen. On a 17 inch monitor, it's quite tolerable. On a 14 inch, it gets agitating. In 320x200, it don't look bad at all, well.. not for 320x200 anyway. I really didn't notice much of a difference in 640x400 or 640x480 visually, so I opted to fly most of my missions in 640x400 because of the few FPS I would pick up. EF2000 may play a lot smoother than JFIII in 640x480, but then it doesn't offer as much visual detail as JFIII. This is where Jetfighter III could really benefit from some Rendition or 3Dfx support. Too bad that didn't make the initial release, but I can tell you some kind of 3D support is in the works. I was told that 3Dfx and Rendition support will happen, and that at first there's a possibility both will be patched, that will be later included with the first mission disk as well.
My only other major gripe about JFIII is that while flying along you'll notice a pause from time to time. It stops dead for a fraction of a second, which is a fraction of a second too long when in a sticky situation with a few Mig-29s! I believe this is the simulation loading more data for the scenery that lies ahead. Even with a 2MB SmartDrive cache loaded, and 32MB of RAM, it still takes the time to load the data. In the README it mentions that I could copy certain files from the CD over to my hard drive, and that would keep it from loading as much data from the CD, but I don't want to take up more HD space. They also mentioned that the simulation takes up about 500MB of CD space. This means there's an awful lot of terrain data in JFIII, because there's no FMV to speak of aside from the opening sequence which is animated cut-scenes. The README also mentioned they MAY put out a patch in the future to properly cache the data. Lets hope they do that soon, because if there's one thing about this sim that REALLY bothers me, it's that and that alone!
Conclusion
Jetfighter III has been in the works for a long time now. If I remember correctly, it's been about 5 years in the making. Was it worth all the time and effort? I think so. There are a few things I'd change, but it's one of the best "light" air-combat simulations around! The loads of atmosphere which JFIII offers makes most other "light" sims look pretty shabby, but most simulation lovers with low-end Pentiums and 486s will not be playing with much of an acceptable frame rate in SVGA. It's definitely a high-end Pentium simulation in terms of SVGA gameplay, and that caching problem really needs some attention fast. That aside, Jetfighter III is a really well-rounded simulation, and it's a blast!
Graphics 92%
Picture EF2000 with a much higher degree of detail. More objects can be found throughout, and so can few special effects you won't see in other simulations. It may not look as pretty as the photo-realistic F-22 Lightning II from Novalogic, but there are loads more little details in JFIII. Oddly enough though, it takes more of a machine to run Jetfighter III in SVGA than it does to run the photo-realistic F-22. A little more time optimizing the code would have been well spent, but with a few details toned down in 640x400 on a higher-end Pentium, it's very acceptable. I can say that the frame rate of the Jetfighter III boxed version is better than the demo that's been floating around, so don't let that fool you. I've seen many people on USENET complaining about the demo, and I've played with both. The full version does play better. Just keep in mind that you'll need at least a 133MHz Pentium to begin to enjoy SVGA. If you want to play, you'll have to pay, because you'll need to own some quality hardware.
Sound 90%
You won't find a soundtrack that can compete with ATF and F-22 Lightning II's Team Fat offerings, but JFIII has a noteworthy soundtrack nontheless. Without overlooking much, all of the SFX are on par with other "light" military aviation simulations like ATF, USNF '97M, etc.. and the wingman chatter is kinda neat.
Gameplay 93%
I've really enjoyed my time with Jetfighter III. Sure, the flight model isn't realistic, but as a "light" simulation, there are other things that just can be overlooked. For what it offers, JF3 is an excellent sim. It conveys a superb sensation of speed. Making your way up to 30,000 feels like it takes longer than in other sims, but coming down again becomes an adrenaline-charged experience once you reach around 1,000ft, which won't take long at all. :-)
The only feature missing from JFIII is multiplayer support. If only I could play this via modem or network with a friend as my wingman. That's too bad for us I guess. Overall, it's not a bad simulation at all. If you enjoy this type of sim, Jetfighter III can't be missed. Novices will feel right at home thanks to an excellent manual, and the hard-core guys who can enjoy ATF and F-22 should find Jetfighter III an equally, if not more, enjoyable offering.
The loading bug is quite bothersome, and I would have preferred finding a seperate key reference card in the box instead of being forced to look in the back of the manual, but other than that I have mostly good things to say about JFIII. A lot of simulations come and go, but I've got a funny feeling that this one is here to stay, and it won't soon be forgotten by many simulation lovers! Next year, Mission Studios has more plans for Jetfighter III.
A card in the box mentions a few future add-ons which would add another 5 million sq. miles of real world terrain, a mission editor, multiplayer support, 3D accelerator support, and MMX support! Too bad all of that stuff didn't make the release, but if Mission Studios play their cards right, their latest masterpiece could evolve into an even more entertaining and complete simulation than all of the other "Light" sims out there! Then again, Spectrum Holobyte had an ad for an A-10 Warthog simulation that could be linked up with Falcon 3.0 in some Falcon 3.0 boxes year back, and that never happened. I know Mission Studios wouldn't let such a thing happen, but lots of promises get a lot of people's hopes up, myself included. What's in the box is fine, but all the mentioned enhancements, especially 3Dfx & Rendition support, would be VERY nice. :-)
Overall 90%
Not a bad simulation for as long as it's taken to get it on the shelves. Offering loads of atmosphere, lots of action, and some neat visual features that other sims don't, I've got to hand it to the Mission Studios guys for putting together a damn good "light" simulation. This F-22 feels better than any other simulated F-22 on the PC market. A sensational feeling of moving along at high rates of speed has been accomplished. Not many simulations can pull that off very well, and the folks at Mission Studios had made it look all too easy. You can count on lots of missions and lots of little details, and because the campaigns are branched, most Wing Commander and X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter lovers may enjoy jumping into this game. I've got some (valid) gripes, but I really enjoy playing JF3, and I think anyone who sits down with it for a while would feel the same way. Those who can't play anything that doesn't offer the realism of Back to Baghdad and SU27 need not apply, but for those who can enjoy simplified fun with loads of other details, Jetfighter III is one of this year's best. If Mission Studios sticks by their list of promised additions, this already excellent sim can only get better!
Note from the Editor:
Speaking with Mission Studios today, we learned that we can expect the first mission disk sometime late in the first quarter of 1997. In a few weeks, Mission Studios plans to release a patch which will make calibrating your input devices a little easier, as well as making a few other tweaks here and there. There have been talks with Intel people recently, the results of which are that we can expect MMX and 3D card support from this first mission disk. Just where this disk's missions will take place has not been officially announced, but they told us they'd like to avoid going where everyone else has already gone. We think China would be a perfect hotspot, but that's just wishful thinking. We were also told they're going to aim to add the F-14 for the mission disk, and that multiplayer support is still in the works somewhere along the line, but it may not make the first mission disk's release.
This is another oldie but goodie. Originally published at PCME.com in 1996. A later edition included the mission disk, and support for 3D acceleration for 3Dfx video cards called the Platinum Editon in 1997.
