What's Good	What's Bad	4.0 out of 5.0
Photo realistic scenery Diverse planes, crash modeling Good tutorials Inclusion of an editor and flight recorder	Poor frame rate on some machines Suspect flight models on sport planes Mediocre weather effects Huge install

The first thing you'll notice about FU3 is the photo-realistic screen shots on the box. FU3 continues the franchise tradition of excellent graphics. The FU3 terrain includes the Seattle area and most of rest of the northwestern United States. When the FU2 terrain is added most of the West Coast is available for your aviation pleasure with San Francisco also modeled in great detail. It is worth noting that while the FU3 terrain looks very good, it is not significantly better than the graphics found in FU2. When comparing the graphic similarities it is easy to think of FU3 as and add on to FU2 as opposed to a stand-alone product. In fact, it could be argued that the Bay Area is a more interesting place to fly. I found myself spending more time cruising around the Golden Gate Bridge then I did around the Space Needle. The best feature to recommend about the northwestern terrain is the soaring mountains and steep foothills. These are a blast to fly through at nap of the earth levels. The only graphical low point is the mediocre weather effects. Arcade games like NovaLogic's F-22 Lightning 3 have done this much better.

Of course all the graphical splendor of the terrain comes at a price. A steep price. With the options maxed on my modest system, a Celeron 464 with 128MB RAM and a Voodoo 3 3000, FU3 hit single digit frames per second (FPS) over detailed areas. I eventually found a good balance between eye candy and FPS by flying in 640 x 480 resolution with terrain detail turned to low. The sim still looks pretty good even with the options turned down. It should also be mentioned that the typical install with San Francisco and Seattle areas requires 844 MB while the full install weighs in at a whopping 2,815 MB!

The release of FU3 comes on the heels of the much-touted Fly! from Terminal Reality. Since both of these GA sims are going head to head in the market place one can't help but compare them. While both sims are system hogs, at least FU3 makes for a pretty slide show. FU3 stands head and shoulders above the featureless ugly flat tan terrain found in Fly! FU3 also features stunning changes in elevation and diverse terrain features. Although Fly! will be your sim of choice if you are interested in instrument flight, FU3 wins hands down for more casual visual rules flight. This distinction is carried over in the instrument panels. FU3 takes a simpler approach to instrumentation when compared to the hyper realistic panels found in Fly!

Damage modeling in FU3 is fairly good, but perhaps not as good as in the original. The original Flight Unlimited featured damage modeling that responded to high-G maneuvers. I loved it when you pulled too many Gs in a turn or loop and both wings folded up and fluttered to the ground. This doesn't happen in FU3 but the plane does break up nicely when it impacts the ground. At least the planes aren't made of the same rubber found in Fly! Flight modeling can also be described as fairly good, but not great. The civilian planes seem believable, but the hobbyist/stunt planes such as the P51 Mustang and the Fokker DR1 are poor. While flying a former military plane I would expect to perform high-G maneuvers. I would also expect to be able to easily push either of these planes into departed flight such as spins and stalls as seen in European Air War and Red Baron 3D. In either of these sims yanking and banking will send you into departed flight in an instant. In FU3 I really tried to create a spin, but was only successful in creating some rather weak climbing stalls. FU3 doesn't even model the visual effects seen in "red-outs" or "black-outs". None of these points are very important when flying the civilian planes, but if Looking Glass is going to include planes from WWI and WWII they should make some attempt to model the complexities of those planes.

The stable of civilian planes is fairly impressive and varied. In addition to the sport planes mentioned above, FU3's hanger is crammed full with the Piper Arrow PA-28R-200, Muskrat, Windhawk USA, Trainer 172, Stemme S10-VT Motorglider, Lake Renegade T-270, Mooney TLS Bravo, and BeechJet 400A. I had the most fun with the Lake Renegade and the Motorglider. It's a blast to land on a lake with the S10-VT and watch the spray hit your windshield. I also enjoyed motoring to altitude with the T-270, shutting off the engine, then cruising for thermals with nothing but the sound of the wind in my ears. The wind effects are good enough to let you judge your relative speed by sound alone.

FU3 incorporates several features that make this sim accessible and fun for those new to flight simming. There is an excellent suite of tutorials covering a wide variety of topics from the most basic principles of flight to more advanced aviation topics. Best of all you can sit back and watch and listen to your instructor the first time thorough, then try it yourself when you feel ready. FU3 also includes several ready made "challenge" missions varying from search and rescue to tracking a bandits stolen speedboat. You can also create your own challenges. My favorite challenge mission is flying the P-51 through a twisting course of hoops suspended in mountain passes. You can record your flights on the "black box" and replay them from any view to see exactly what went wrong when you drilled the side of the mountain. FU3 also provides a myriad of settings that allows the user to tweak the difficulty of the sim. Advanced users are not left out either. FU3 ships with a terrain editor that allows advanced users to build scenery and airports throughout the entire western U.S.

Overall FU3 looks like a very polished product and a worthy installment to the series. As more user-made scenery becomes available and the frame rate is tweaked I believe this will become a favorite of GA sim enthusiast. This sim is aimed at a slightly different market then Fly! or the upcoming MS Flight Simulator 2000. FU3 does not attempt to model the whole world nor does it place a heavy focus on instrument flight. What it does is model a relatively small section of the country in splendid detail and provides the best visual rules flight experience you can have from your desk.