What's Good	What's Bad	3.5 out of 5.0
Exciting 'Voice-Over-Net' technology Microphone included Easy free multiplayer modes Easy learning curve Awesome weather effects Good tutorials Includes keyboard template	Not realistic enough to interest the hardcore crowd Questionable flight and damage modeling affect play Sounds are a mixed bag 13MB update patch is larger than some classic sims

NovaLogic sims have always focused on fast paced fun with gently sloping learning curves. Unfortunately, the company has created controversy by frequently making wild claims of realism. This has contributed to a hotly contested debate regarding what constitutes a simulation and what is just a game. I have no intention of trying to settle that philosophical question here, but it does force a reviewer to consider his approach to critical journalism. There are two primary schools of thought in reviewing a product. One states that a golden standard should be identified within a genre and all products compared to that standard. Under this approach Lightning 3 would fare poorly under the shadow of such weighty jet sims as 'Falcon 4.0' and 'Jane's F-15'. I personally prefer the second approach, which is to rate how well a game accomplishes what it set out to do. In this light F-22 Lightning 3 shines.

The F-22 is America's latest air superiority fighter set for deployment in 2005. With it's advanced stealth technology, avionics suite, and vectored thrust maneuverability it is likely to remain the world's most deadly fighter for decades. NovaLogic does not appear to make any inflated claims about realism for this sim. The manual introduction refers to L3 as "the latest in the action-packed F-22 Lightning series" and makes no real claims to realism other then some off hand comments about advanced avionics making the F-22 easy to operate. The manual then goes on to describe several "Auto-Controls" that are standard fare in most space combat games. I believe the real F-22 is extremely advanced, but I doubt if it has such features as "auto-match speed" of targeted craft. Make no mistake; hardcore simulation nuts need not apply. This game is pure adrenalized fun.

While we are discussing realism we might as well get the hot topic of flight models out of the way. Is the flight model "realistic"? I don't know. I've never flown an F-22, few have. I can tell you that your craft can get above 45,000 feet faster then a bat out of Hades before bleeding off much speed at all. Most disconcerting of all is that energy bleeds off very slowly in high G turns. This would not be a big deal accept that you seem to be able to rate your nose around just as fast at very high velocity as at more moderate speeds. I was unable to establish a best cornering speed for this jet. What this means is that multi-player deathmatches tend to be full afterburner vertical fights with very little monitoring of throttle or energy states.

Similarly weak is the damage modeling that allows you to survive a direct missile hit with only moderate loss of control inputs. All avionics systems continue to function. If you set your gear to manual operation and forget to raise them you will get an urgent alarm from the system's warning device. The alarm will squawk until you raise the gear, but you are apparently unable to damage the gear in this way. Pushing your plane beyond speeds safe for structural integrity (Vmax) will also result in a warning, but no damage to the plane.

Update: At the developer's request, we retested the damage modeling. VMAX first appears at 790 knots. Then the F-22 went up to 817 knots for 55 seconds before developing a slight tremor. At 1:05 the tremor became more pronounced and 15 seconds later, at 1:20 the plane finally blew up. While the F-22 is a sturdy plane, it seems as though the VMAX warning is like the fuel gauge on most cars: it sets off a bit too early. Knowing this, pilots are apt to push the plane into the VMAX zone, aware they have almost a full minute before they are really under threat. The damage appears to be all or nothing, with no damage during the pre-destruction period. Even after an 8G pullout and throttle down, the F-22 responded as good as new. The times and speeds may vary of course, based on altitude and weather. It is possible, since the F-22 is still a mystery to many, that the plane is truly capable of such structural and aerobatic feats.

Now that we have all the realism stuff aside let's talk about what L3 was designed for: letting you blow lots of stuff up with a minimum of study. L3 comes with a large (9 ¼" x 7") but thin (38 page) manual. This may seem brief for an air combat simulation, but it is really enough to get into taking out targets both in the air and on the ground. There is also some additional documentation in Adobe format on the CD. This has always been a pet peeve of mine since you can't take the CD with you to the porcelain throne for a good long read. There is no separate key card, but the manual centerfold displays a key layout and can be opened up in front of your keyboard. Even better than a key card is the quickly disappearing concept of a keyboard template. L3 comes with a nice template for the function and number keys that denotes views, weapons, and engines. I wish more companies would take a cue from NovaLogic and resume including templates. Armed with these aids, and an obscenely large 13MB update patch, you're ready to begin training missions.

L3 offers you Quick Missions that allow you to jump right into the action. The first five of these missions are very good tutorials that teach you every thing you need to know to navigate, fight, and deliver weapons. There is and instructor that give you step by step instructions in an accent reminiscent of the Jane's AH-64D Longbow tutorials. Jane's and NovaLogic appear to have some of the best tutorials going right now. L3 also includes a fairly powerful and intuitive windows based mission editor for creating your own Quick Missions.

In addition to the Quick Missions you can also play in Campaign mode. The campaign missions are interesting and varied with different types of air-to-ground and air-to-air missions. The most exciting feature, and disturbing to some, is the ability to use low yield tactical nukes in some air-to-ground missions. Most of the time you get into the action almost immediately with very little transit time. These missions are extremely linear. If the mission goals are successfully completed you are allowed to advance to the next mission. If you fail a mission you will need to play it again and again before advancing or use the "Skip Mission" feature. You will have the help of an AI controlled wingman during these missions. The AI is fairly adept at protecting your six in the air, but you still need to look out for them in some cases. The first time I dropped a nuke I turned my wingman into a crispy critter when he failed to pull up as fast as my plane.

The graphics are a definite strong point for L3. L3 looks great and runs great on my Celeron 464 in 640 x480, 800 x 600, or 1024 x 768. L3 can be played in Glide or D3D, but I could tell no discernible difference in visual quality or speed. For users with lower end systems there are variety of graphic and memory usage options that can be tweaked for smooth game play. The colors used in L3 are a little bright giving a slightly cartoonish look. I noticed a slight rainbow effect in the terrain textures at all resolutions in both Glide and D3D. This effect is subtle and is no where close to the simmering effect seen in 'Israeli Air Force'. These small sniggles aside, the graphics are overall very good and convincing especially when not flying nap of the earth. Most impressive are the fabulous weather effects. I have never seen rain and storms done so well in any game. It is really awe inspiring to go up in the middle of a thunderstorm with rain blowing against your cockpit. Off in the distance flashes can be seen among high clouds, then suddenly a gigantic lighting streak rips the firmament in two. It is worth picking up this game just to see the weather effects.

Sounds in L3 are a mixed bag. Missing are the roar of planes whizzing past you and the deafening thump you would expect from an atomic detonation. More serious is the absence of auditory feedback when the air brake is open. Oddly enough, this may be the most realistic part of L3 since many combat pilots report being able to hear very little in an enclosed cockpit with a helmet and ambient engine sounds. The best sounds in the sim are the engine sounds. The whine of the twin engines spooling up is just great. Also good is the crack heard as the afterburners kick in. As modeled in this sim, engines can reach 200% power (double full military RPMs)! Unfortunately, there appears to be no way to set your throttle detents for afterburner and idle positions. This means you will hear the whine and crack over and over as you inadvertently turn your engines off then push past military power while turning them back on. The energetic music sound track can lend to the excitement although it sometimes becomes a bit overwhelming and needs turned down.

To get the most out of this game you have to try multiplayer modes. With this title NovaLogic debuts an exciting new technology called Voice-Over-Net. NovaLogic has thoughtfully provided a pretty decent Andrea Anti-noise headset microphone with the game all for a modest unit price. With a microphone and the Voice-over-Net technology you can receive and send (with a full-duplex sound card) messages to any other single player in real time. You need to select the player you wish to talk to by toggling through all names (this can take a while since L3 claims to support up to 128 players at a time), then hold down the talk key and send your message. The one caveat is that the other player must not have you muted. NovaLogic wisely included a feature to mute annoying players, but unwisely decided to have all players muted by default when entering a game. This results in constant frantically typed messages of, "Unmute me!". In fact, in my testing I saw more typing then I heard voice. This may be due in part to the sometimes-poor quality of the audio. Many players have not properly adjusted their software and are either too quite to be heard or so loud that their transmission distorts. When you find players who have adjusted broadcast volume level within the game options the voice quality is surprisingly good. Add to this that there does not seem to be much of a performance hit and you have a groundbreaking technology. The only downside is that Voice-Over-Net will not work in harmony with the excellent Game Commander voice command software.

Multiplayer games are extremely easy to connect to and free. It just takes a click from the main game menu to take you automatically to NovaWorld, NovaLogic's free Internet gaming site. From here you can choose from existing servers and three types of play. Deathmatch is a free for all come and go game, which begs for the term "Air Quake". RAW is a team based "bomb the other guy's base" game. Both of these first two games can purportedly support up to 128 players. The best use of voice technology is seen in the multiplayer Cooperative missions. This technology rocks when it comes time to communicate with your human wingmates while attacking a target. It is too bad that Co-Op missions also allow come and go play. This can really break up the continuity of a mission. Co-Op play is limited to 8 players. All of these games display very acceptable performance with minimal lag on a 56K modem.

It may be debatable if F-22 Lightning 3 is a true simulation or an action game, but I believe it succeeds at what it is designed to be and will please the audience it is targeted at. L3 provides fast, fun, and simple play with wicked weapons, great graphics and powerful performance. Add to this great new voice technology and you have a winner in Internet action. If you're looking for realism, save your bucks, but if you have a need for speed and a touch of pyromania you need this sim .. uh .. game .. uh .. software.