Oh, Ain’t it Grand? After downloading megabyte upon megabyte of scenery from the Internet in the past, I was eager to see how the “professional” scenery compared. Everyone knows that the scenery which ships with Flight Simulator is pretty sparse and that there have been a lot of sims lately that boast their superior scenery as a major selling point. This would be my chance to see how good scenery could be with Microsoft’s Flight Simulator 98 by experimenting with Grand Canyon for Microsoft Flight Simulator & Combat Flight Simulator from Wilco Publishing. Grand Canyon covers about 12,000 square miles, … Continue reading Grand Canyon will leave you breathless→
Reality, anyone? Launch Hangsim. Ready to dive into the world of hang-gliding and ultralight aircraft? Hangsim, from Wilco Publishing, is a much cheaper and safer way to learn the fundamentals than heading for the airport or hillsides. The manual is short [34 pages], but it is densely packed with aircraft specifications and tutorials for first-timers. The tutorial on understanding air currents and gliding is very concise, yet written to be easily understood. As a simulation, Hangsim delivers realistic flight dynamics, thermals and a variety of aircraft to try. Seven different hang-gliders, paragliders, regular gliders, and ultralights are included. Keyboard and … Continue reading Hangsim soars on the PC→
So, you have always wanted to command a platoon of Panzers (yourself and three wingmen), or perhaps a platoon of American Sherman tanks (again yourself and four wingmen) is more to your liking? Well this and much more is available from Psygnosis’s publication of Wings Simulations Panzer Elite. This first person (tank) perspective game will leave you actually believing that you can jump into one of the twenty-two German and American tanks depicted and fight the enemy, whomever that may be! This is a truly engrossing game. Is it easy? No. Is it worth the effort to pick up and … Continue reading Panzer Elite is the King Tiger of WWII simulations→
Gran Turismo’s release last year changed my opinion completely about racing games. What was once considered a genre of shallow, fast racers and slow, boring simulations suddenly experienced a racing title with depth, tons of cars and plenty of tracks to race them on. Talk has been brewing about the anticipated sequel, with its rumored 500+ cars, tons of additional tracks, and a brand new rally engine. These talks were also ruined by extensive delays. The worst delay came out when Gran Turismo 2 would not even make it to release before the Christmas holiday, as some retailers expressed a … Continue reading Gran Turismo 2 is revved up fun→
When I was first given Touring Car Challenge, one of the first products released in the United States from European-based Codemasters, I figured it had a few strikes against it right off the cricket bat. For one, the product was a simulation of British racing. And like Dr. Who and boiled beef, its not often that British games take off in the fickle U.S. market. But forget all that. Touring Car Challenge is more like The Beatles than Dr. Who. It’s an amazingly beautiful and highly detailed game that has the potential to climb the ranks of racing simulations and … Continue reading Touring Car Challenge doesn’t lose horsepower in translation→
Okay, so ya want to fly a plane without really getting in one? Well Fly! is for you, maybe. Let me first start off by saying that after you install Fly! on a Mac please go back to the CD. Here you will find folders that are very important if you want this game to run on your Mac. I want you to open the QuickDraw and Sprockets folders, and dump all those items into your extensions folder. Now, go to the Fly! folder and grab the three items called TRIRAVE.dll, TRIGlide.dll, and ATI RAVE.dll. Dump these into your extensions … Continue reading Fly! is extremely realistic, highly complex fun→
Anyone who has ever driven on the Washington D.C. Beltway can sympathize with me when I say how bad it is. You’re driving the speed limit minding your own business when all of a sudden, some stupid speed freak comes up to you and either flashes his headlights forcing you to move faster or go to another lane, or he blazes by you, almost putting a dent in your brand new car. Sometimes said driver will even respond by giving you the Stone Cold Salute, and I think you know what that is. And what do the cops do? Nothing, … Continue reading Tokyo Xtreme Racer puts the race in road rage→
Unless you’ve been living on another planet, I’m sure you know that the new Star Wars movie is out. Contrary to what those so-called critics said about it (face it, with the exception of Leonard Maltin and Roger Ebert, critics hate science fiction), I found it to be a wonderful movie, and have already seen it multiple times. And while waiting for the new Star Wars Episode I games to be released, I spent most of my time working on the latest X-Wing game, X-Wing Alliance, and have been enjoying it for what it is. XWA takes place between The … Continue reading X-Wing Alliance is light years ahead of previous combat sims→
To anyone who has read my past reviews, it can easily be found that I am a die hard Wing Commander addict. I just feel that no other game series provided me with such excitement (and yes, many wrist injuries from breaking in so many flightsticks), and always gave me that urge to do "just one more mission." And other the other hand, I’ve never truly been a big fan of the Descent series. I don’t know why it is, but just the claustrophobic feeling of flying through those tight corridors just didn’t please me much. And when I heard … Continue reading Freespace: a welcome alternative to cramped tunnel fighting→
I used to always think that racing games were pretty shallow. Sometimes they had too few tracks; sometimes they don’t have enough cars to choose from. Some are too hard, some are just too easy. But still, racing games are very popular in the States and in Japan. You can’t go into an arcade without seeing at least one, or two these days, racing sims in operation. Consoles also have their share of racing sims. There are the shallow arcade style racers such as Ridge Racer, and the realistic sims such as NASCAR Racing. But until now, no racer was … Continue reading Gran Turismo takes the checkered flag for racing games→
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