ssgtshady

Guys, I have to say, I must be the only person who didnt have a problem with FC2. Once I got it installed, unlocked, configured, and controls mapped, (the usual stuff), my inital gameplay reaction was "wow." I have a hard time even relating this game to the original lock on. Unlike in lock on where your jet starts on the runway, you start on the ramp, canopy up and engines off. You can actually call tower for clearance to start engines, which I thought really added to the immersion. (Take this from someone who is a US Air Force crew chief ;p) Then of course, you can get cleared to taxi, taxi, clear to take off, take off, etc. Gameplay wise, my graphics were silky smooth and absolutely gorgeous on full settings. Of course, I am running a i7 920 @ 3.515 GHZ, 6 gigs of RAM, GTX285 @ 5% overclock, and a Velociraptor, so I am not weak in the hardware department. I really can't say enough for the graphics improvements in the game. I found myself leaving the aircraft on autopilot, and switching thru fews because it was such great eye candy. More than once I caught myself going, "wow, that is really gorgeous." One thing I like is that you notice the event scripting in the game right away. For instance, on the first mission, my wingie would say certain things when we'd hit a waypoint, etc. Pretty cool stuff. The other thing that got my attention right away from sense of speed and acceleration. In the original lock on, when I would take off in the F-15C, I basically relied on my knowledge of when to pull back on the stick to take off, because I really wasn't getting a sense of the speed. However, in FC2, you have a much better sense of the speed, and the aircraft actually feels as if it leaps off the runway like its real counterpart. The sense of speed also carries forward to the air. MOre to come once I have more time to play with it! I've only gotten to do the first two F-15C campaign missions -- haven't even seen any combat yet :)

Theres a book out there that I read when i was in Iraq. I dont remember the name of it any more(lol), but it was about a retired pilot who goes to Saudi Arabia to teach an elite group of pilots who will be flying a squadron of F-20's -- Does anyone know what book im talking about?

I went home at lunch and statred the download, hopefully its ready to go when I get home :)

Last I heard, the release was 26Mar10 (today). Any news if thats still the case, or when it is?

EVE is definitely a good game, but oh man is it immersive. You'd better be ready to devote serious time to it :)

I will try that when I get home. I think I have been telling my wingman to attack my target! As far as strike fighters go, I'd love to play that game again, but it doesn't work in Windows 7 :(

In the meantime that I am waiting for FC2.0 to come out, I have pulled my old copy LOCK ON out of moth balls. I've really been enjoying the game, and feel that I am getting better and better. If I can, let me use the F-15C campaign to illustrate my questions. Anyone who has advice for me on how to be more successful, I would really appreciate it!. Campaign 1 : HAVCAP AWACS In this campaign, my tactic has been to grab altitude as soon as I get off the airfield. During my acent, I fly to heading 085, turn on TWS, out to a range of 80, and usually pick up the first MiG-23 right away. Of course I then bug him, his wingman, and his buddies right away. At this point, I will usually give my wingman the command to engage mission and rejoin. Once I have about 20,000 under the wings, and about 400 kts airspeed, I will start a decent to gain airspeed to about 650 kts. I am doing this, because in my understand the AMRAAM has the best results from great altitude, with high airspeed / closure rate. I am usually able to get well within my launch window before I get a launch warning from the MiG-23. It is at this point I let my first AMRAAM go on him. I have rarely seen this tactic not work, as that first Mig usually gets taken out with a good 95% + success rate. By this time I am usually within visual range, so I switch to boresight mode and aim-9's, and engage the rest of the targets. I have noticed, and I am not sure if this is coincidence, that following my use of this tactics, a lot of the other MiGs seem to go cold on me -- Does this mean they are bugging out? At any rate, I have been able to pass this mission pretty much every time I attempt. Campaign 2: A-10 Escort In this campaign, my inital tactic is the same as what I descibed above, as the first two enemies you face are two MiG-23's Easy beans, AMRAAMS seem to be making easy work of these. Now for my main issue. The next set of enemies you face are two MiG-29's. These guys are really whipping my butt. It seems my high altitude, 'boom and zoom' tactic is not working for these guys. I have been able to get one of them down with AMRAAM on a few occassions, but the other one always takes me out. From what I can understand, these bandits are employing AA-12's against me? What am I doing wrong on this encounter? Can anyone educate me on proper tactics when facing against Mig-29's and SU-27's?\ My other question involves ECM. Namely, when should you and should you not employ it? From my understanding, active missiles are capable of homing in on ECM sources. Of course, I have tried engaging the 29 drivers both with and without it, with the same result! Any help would be greatly appreciated! SSgtShady (USAF F-16 CREWDOG :) )