Novalogic Flight Sim reviews/comparison?

[MrGoTime 20]

Hey, Steam sale is on, and I've got my eye on the Novalogic pack, that includes F-16 Multirole Fighter, Mig 29, and F-22 Lightening. I know these are older sims, but I was an avid Jetfighter 3 pilot, so I'm not afraid of some old school graphics. But I've never played any of the old Novalogic sims, and wondered if anyone here had any experience? What do they offer? Any good campaigns? Are they worth a few bucks?

 

Any input/opinion is appreciated!

 

Thanks,

 

-Cam/Minuteman

 

EDIT - The pack also includes Tachyon: The Fringe, for some reason. But I know all about that one already and am totally good re-playing it. It's been years :-)

 

EDIT - Another thought. Maybe I'd just be better off finding a SF2 campaign in the F-16 or something. But I have a soft spot for old sims, and would love to hear from someone who's played these. 

Edited June 17, 2015 by MrGoTime

[+russouk2004 6,958]

I have them still...F-16 Multirole Fighter, Mig 29, and F-22 Lightning....as far as I remember they were ok for the day.

http://www.old-games.com/download/6231/f-16-multirole-fighter

[MrGoTime 20]

I have them still...F-16 Multirole Fighter, Mig 29, and F-22 Lightning....as far as I remember they were ok for the day.

http://www.old-games.com/download/6231/f-16-multirole-fighter

 

But are they ok now? Is there anything notable about them? (dynamic campaign, damange model or something different)

[+Menrva 4,193]

Speaking of gameplay, these sims are rather bland and arcadish to some extent, but campaigns are particular, while not really dynamic since each mission is scripted, if you or the AI destroys something (buildings or air assets, SAM sites and so on), you will notice these changes in the next missions. 

 

F-16 MRF and MiG-29 Fulcrum use old Glide hardware acceleration/rendering, while F-22 Lightning 3 has now received a recent beta patch that you can find at Novalogic's site (i discovered it by chance) which adds 1080p resolution and improved hardware rendering.  F-22 Lightining 3 also has some missions with nuclear weapons, and unlike the first two titles (F-16/MiG-29) it has background music during missions, although it's always the same.  Voice-acting is also much better than the other titles.  MiG-29 could be interesting since it has full Russian voice-acting, but with the option of enabling English audio.

 

If they don't cost much, the three titles are indeed nice for an avid old school gamer, campaigns are scripted with nice briefings and mostly believable/enjoyable storyline.  I only criticize the fact that sometimes in missions you encounter enemy Rafales, Typhoons, Tomcats (well the Iranians have those), and aircraft that in reality were never so largely exported to other countries.

 

These games shouldn't support online features anymore, but the beta patch for F-22 L3 recently bug fixed multiplayer functions, and there is a site that still plays it online, the link is below:

http://www.f22lightning3online.com/index.php

 

All in all, wait for other reviews as well, it depends much on the gamer's likings.  Novalogic's sims are nothing particular but they are simple to play and good for some quick action, singleplayer could be boring after a while though.  Of the three, F-22 L3 is IMHO a better product (it was made in 1999, the others in 1998).  However the three games are so similar that I wonder why Novalogic didn't make a single title with the option of selecting the aircraft or something like it.

Regarding the damage model, you always survive the first missile hit IIRC, not the second though.  You can eject from the plane.  In F-22 L3 sometimes when hit by a missile you can have radar, weapons systems, countermeasures, gear and flaps faults/failures.  During a mission if you need more ammo or repairs you can land at allied airbases, it's arcadish since as soon as you make a full stop, the plane is repaired and refilled with ammo instantly.

 

In all three games you always have a wingman and you can give him orders (this option is a must to complete difficult missions).  In addition, F-22 L3 has a rather smart auto-pilot, it can land your plane at the nearest base, follow the next waypoint, etc.

Edited June 17, 2015 by blaze95

[MigBuster 2,884]

Had all of these in the day - been so long - remember they were scripted as above.

 

In F-16 there was a really easy way to dodge missiles - mainly because they were picked up on the 360 god scope. 

[Do335 382]

Had fun with Nova F-16 and -22 on some Pentium III and win2000, nice hardware at the time. Was good

[Fubar512 1,350]

Novalogic's F-16MRF & MiG-29 both date back to 1998.  Had a lot of fun with those, on my old Celeron 300A@450 / Voodoo Banshee system.  I believe that Novalogic's  F-22 came out in 2000, and it's main advantage was that it ran under both Glide and DirectX (MiG-29 and F-16 were Glide only).

 

There are some decent Glide wrappers available that will allow one to run the two earlier titles with 3D acceleration.  Unfortunately, I think that both games are limited to either 800x600 or 1024x768 resolution.

 

Anyway, the scripted missions were just OK, multiplayer through "Nova World" was smooth, albeit boring, as these were really games and not sims by any stretch of imagination.

 

I still have all 3 games sitting on a shelf.

[MrGoTime 20]

Thanks all for the input. I think I'll probably pick them up. Certainly seems worth a few bucks!