Review

Falcon 4.0 has been through several patches since its release in late December, and the list of bugs they address is very long. The game is so incredibly complex that a lot of these problems weren't readily apparent to gamers playing the released version of Falcon 4.0 -- but the read-me files included with each new patch tell the tale, listing bug after bug that the patch fixes.

Falcon 4.0 features a very convincing flight model and extremely deep and detailed avionics, with four air-to-air radar modes and three air-to-ground radar modes (all with various submodes tailored to specific weapons and situations). Other targeting systems include forward-looking infrared for Maverick missiles, a laser guidance pod for smart bombs, and the anti-radar system used to lock HARM missiles onto enemy air defenses. Multiple automatic pilot modes can be linked to mission waypoints or ground-based navigation beacons (in fact, approaching home plate and landing with Falcon 4.0's instruments is as detailed a task as it is in a civilian sim like Microsoft's Flight Simulator). If you go in for the kind of sim that gives you lots of displays to read, instruments to watch, and switches to flip, Falcon 4.0 will make you happier than you've been since you first fired up Jane's F-15.

And that's only what's going on inside the cockpit. Outside, you're treated to the most impressive graphics you'll find in a sim (as long as you've got the hardware to run it). External views let you check out the ground war that's constantly unfolding in the game's real-time dynamic campaign -- or just watch a laser-guided 2,000-pound bomb smack into an enemy hangar. The explosions look fantastic, by the way, and splash damage is tracked, so a bomb that hits a moored patrol boat may also take out the dock, the factory next to the dock, the anti-aircraft guns protecting the factory, and maybe even one or two of the armored vehicles protecting those guns.

So is Falcon 4.0 for you? Despite the bugs and broken features, I've been game-locked on this simulation since the day I booted it, forsaking even the WWII sims I'd waited so long for. No other sim has come so close to re-creating the feel of my one flight in a jet fighter. If you stick to the sections that are fairly solid - the training missions, instant action, and dogfights - you'll keep yourself busy for quite a while. And hopefully, by the time you master the plane's systems there, the next patch will be out, and the campaign glitches will be ironed out. (MicroProse's Gilman Louie has committed not only to patching all the major bugs, but also to keeping a team working on the program for up to six months after release to add user-requested enhancements.) But if you're the type of gamer who gets really frustrated when things don't work as they should, you'll want to wait until the bugs are ironed out.