Falcon 3.0

Falcon 3.0 is a flight simulator video game, and the third release in the Falcon video game series.

Gameplay

Falcon 3.0 was claimed to have used flight dynamics from a real military simulator, and required a math coprocessor to enable the high fidelity flight mode. Even in less demanding modes, it was still virtually unplayable in computers running on less than a 386 computer (recommended 33 MHz 486, a top end machine at this time). It was announced well in advance of its actual release date (1991).

Falcon 3.0 offered "padlock" view - in which the player's POV is slewed in the direction of a selected target, scanning around the cockpit if necessary. It also offered players more natural looking topography than was available in existing commercial PC flight simulations - with mountains, hills, valleys and other features having their own unique shape. In older games, the user typically had to settle to ranges of uniformly shaped or sized mountains on flat ground, with areas or lines of blue for lakes and rivers.

Despite many bugs (Computer Gaming World reported that "some readers have suggested that we give Falcon 3.0 the award for 'The Buggiest Game Ever'"), Falcon 3.0 retained its reputation as the most realistic flight simulation for years. It also has a dynamic campaign mode where the player can contribute to the war effort by performing missions.

Expansions

An expansion pack Operation Fighting Tiger contains several additional scenarios, including a future skirmish between Japan and Russia, which gave the player the Japanese F-16 variant, the "FSX".

Art of the Kill, a video tutorial that teaches aerial dogfighting basics used Falcon 3.0's built-in ACMI recorder to reconstruct engagements, explains tactics and counter-tactics. Falcon 3.0 was also the subject of dozens of aftermarket books, some written by actual F-16 pilots. Only the Microsoft Flight Simulator series spawned more books.

The game was re-released in 1994 as Falcon Gold a compilation which included Art of the Kill video digitized on the CD collection, along with Operation Fighting Tiger and the announcement for Falcon 4.0. It noted for their early multiplayer support, as even the first version supported two players via a null modem serial port connection.

Reception

Falcon 3.0 sold 400,000 copies by March 1995.^[1]

Falcon 3.0 received 5 out of 5 stars in Dragon.^[2] In 1992 a Vermont Air National Guard F-16 pilot stated in Computer Gaming World that the game's flight model and avionics were very accurate, and praised the game's VGA graphics. He concluded that Spectrum Holobyte had created "the best flight simulator yet".^[3] A survey in the magazine that year of wargames with modern settings gave the game four and a half stars out of five, describing Falcon 3.0 as "not so much a game system as it is a way of life. Possibly the most complex air simulator ever released for the commercial sector",^[4] and the magazine named it the year's best simulation game.^[5] In 1996, the magazine ranked Falcon 3.0 as the tenth best computer game of all time for its introduction of "the first truly realistic flight model" for a jet aircraft and for adding "the useful (and necessary) wingmen and the first truly dynamic flight sim campaign,"^[6] as well as the seventh most innovative computer game for setting "a standard for realism and connectivity that is only now being surpassed."^[7] That year, Falcon Gold was also ranked as the 80th top game of all time by Next Generation, for being "the most exacting computer simulation created."^[8]

In 1994, PC Gamer US named Falcon 3.0 the 15th best computer game ever. The editors wrote, "There are a lot of jet simulations on the market, but none can really touch Spectrum Holobyte's Falcon 3.0 for sheer realism. The flight models are all so detailed, so unnervingly realistic, that you'll gain new respect for the men and women who fly these birds for a living."^[9]

References