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FLIGHT
SIMULATION REVIEW
Sabre Ace is the first of a line of "ace" simulations from Eagle Interactive and Virgin Interactive based on the Korean Conflict. Eagle Interactive is headed by Dave Kinney, founder of "Fightertown" combat flight simulation center in Southern California. I was a member in a squadron at Fightertown, and flew there at least twice a month. My good experiences with Fightertown, coupled with the fact that original Korean War has not been seriously portrayed by any previous simulation, fueled great expectations for Sabre Ace. Unfortunately these expectations were not met. Don't get me wrong there are several nice things about Sabre Ace, but knowing what Eagle Interactive can do, "Sabre Ace" didn't come close to the realism I expected, with that said.....lets get on with the review.
On the plus side, I was able to install Sabre Ace without any problems. The sim requires 67MB on the hard drive, plus space for DirectX 5 if you don't already have it installed. There were no choices for smaller or larger installation options. Once installed, you can adjust graphics settings to suit your machine with an impressive range of 3D settings in addition to the the normal detail levels. Kudos to Eagle Interactive for this - it allows those with video cards with partial 3D support (Matrox Millennium and Mystique, ATI, Diamond 2000 and 3000 series, to name a few) to tailor Sabre Ace's 3D graphics for their cards instead of forcing them with the typical choice of all or nothing for 3D graphics. Another thumbs-up for the "manual rudders on" selection. This allows those without rudders to disregard using the keyboard or programming their joysticks for digital rudder control, which I have found to be jerky and imprecise. Unfortunately, the poor flight model of Sabre Ace probably nullifies any benefit of this feature.
Alas, along with the above mentioned high marks, there
are many deficiencies in the graphics. The tracers are
ugly and not very believable - the F-51 tracers look like
triangles,
The core of Sabre Ace is the Training and Career
menus. Choosing either menu will first ask you to choose
sides - USSR or USA. Training is assisted by a cocky
pilot instructor who will guide you in the basics of
controlling aircraft, basic flight maneuvers, take off
and landing, and air to ground attacks. In the training
missions, you have a basic course in a The Career menu allows you to fight in the Korean
Conflict as a USAF pilot or a USSR pilot assisting the
North Koreans. You start in a prop aircraft at a low
rank, and progress in rank and responsibility, and obtain
new aircraft as the war progresses. Once you chosen sides
and your pilot, you are brought to your air base. The air
base has five areas of interest - Operations, Barracks,
Briefing, Flightline, and Training. Operations allows you
to read mail between missions - things such as promotions
and awards will be announced here. Barracks allows you to
view your uniform and awards you've earned. Training will
bring you to the training missions, and aircraft types
are dependent upon the Once you are ready to start, a quick click on the "Go Fly" button puts you on the runway. Depending on your rank and mission, you will be flying either as a wingman or as a wing or flight leader. Eagle Interactive added a nice feature called "formation augmentation" that assists in keeping your aircraft in the appropriate slot while flying formation as a wingman. Also included is a "Zap" feature that allows you to warp to the next mission critical waypoint, usually the initial point for a ground attack, the start of a combat air patrol, or on approach for landing. Zap will not work if you are damaged or if there is an enemy close by. Unfortunately, as good and fun as the career missions are, they are hampered by a very basic and (in my opinion) poor flight model. The flight model does not give a feeling of flight - aircraft "feel" as if they are floating in the air and turning is more like sitting in a car than simulating a performance aircraft. High G turns fail to bleed large amounts of speed, and you can keep the stick pulled all the way back in a turn and keep a constant speed and turn rate indefinitely. There is no buffeting to warn of impending stalls, no spins, no maximum velocity limits for any of the aircraft. Even keeping the throttles over 100% will not damage the engines as stated in the manual. Now granted I'm not a pilot, and I couldn't tell you how a real F-86 or Yak-9 handles, but from my experience with other simulations, this flight model just doesn't come close to realism. So with heavy heart I find it hard to recommend Sabre Ace. If you can handle a non-realistic simulation, and if you really liked Chuck Yeager's Air Combat, then you might like Sabre Ace. The best thing I can recommend is try it before buying. The combat simulation community has longed for a good Korean War era simulation, but Sabre Ace doesn't deliver the complete package. Sabre Ace's career missions are fun and historically accurate, but there are just too many flaws which hamper this sim. With the experience and knowledge within Eagle Interactive, I find these flaws hard to comprehend. As far as a good Korean simulation is concerned, we'll have to look forward to Mig Alley or significant patching of Sabre Ace. As far as Eagle Interactive is concerned, lets hope they can address these issues in their next sim - Phantom Ace. My Ratings for Sabre Ace Overall: Guns, Guns, Guns Graphics: Fox 2 Sounds: Fox 2 Flight Model: EJECT AI: Fox 1 Interface: Fox 2 Documentation: Guns, Guns, Guns Rating system Fox 3 = Outstanding. The top 10 percent. Must have sim. Fox 2 = Excellent. Highly recommended. Fox 1 = Average. Recommended, with reservations. Guns, Guns, Guns = Below average. May be recommended after patches/updates. EJECT = Trash. Only recommended for my ex-wife. Test system: Intel 166MMX |
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Disappointment
one came with opening the box and seeing the very small
and uninformative manual. A scant 46 pages are dedicated
to preference, control, and campaign familiarization with
only 2 pages for air combat instruction, about the same
for flight instruction...zero for air to ground. Some of
this is covered in the training missions with a pilot
instructor, similar to the training in Jane's Longbow
Series, but not as complete. Neither the training
missions nor the manual cover dogfighting techniques,
aerial combat maneuvering, or the physics of flight. For
a simulation that is supposed to cater to novice pilots,
they left out an unbelievable amount of basic
information.
Graphics
are, for the most part, outstanding, the aircraft,
cities, and most of the terrain graphics are crisp,
smooth, and very detailed. If you are close enough, you
can see an enemy pilot free fall as he bails out of a
prop aircraft. Cockpits are well detailed and all gauges
and instruments are easy to read. Clouds and their
effects under the layer are done well also. 
and
other tracers look like small squares. Explosions use the
same static graphic over and over again. Terrain graphics
at low altitudes or when viewed from a top down aspect
(in a dive, or an external view) show no detail and look
like a smudged water color painting. 3D terrain objects
(bridges, buildings, runways, etc) are not rendered until
you are within a certain range of them, then the change
from its 2D counterpart is slow, usually causing the
object to disappear for a critical second or two until
the 3D object is drawn. Many people have experienced
texture tearing and seaming (gaps and/or lines showing
where two texture graphics in the terrain meet). I had
experienced this myself at first, but updated drivers for
my Diamond Viper 330 seem to have cleared this up.
The view
system is probably the biggest problem within Sabre Ace.
All views from the cockpit are fixed, and are based
around three positions - look up- standard cockpit-and
rear views. Each of these three positions has a forward
(or in rear views, back), left, and right views, ie. Look
up and right, look left, look back and left. The padlock
in Sabre Ace will automatically switch between these
fixed views to attempt to keep your target in view. This
system isn't bad per se, but there are large blind areas
between views, and in a dogfight, you spend much of the
time with the enemy aircraft in these blind areas. The
largest blind spot is between the forward view and
forward look up view, which is used most when dogfighting
with the padlock, and usually when you need to see where
the bad guy is, and what he is doing. With a fixed view
system, overlapping views are necessary for complete
coverage, and is what this sim needs badly.
Gameplay
options start with three choices - Stand Alone,
Multiplayer, and an instant action option called
"Fly Now." Fly Now dumps you directly into a
combat situation complete with wingmen and unlimited
enemies at the novice level. Multiplayer allows you to go
head to head via direct connect, modem, or network.
TCP/IP is supported for network play, though Eagle/Virgin
include a disclaimer that it was not designed with
Internet play in mind. Network play can support up to
eight people at one time, and all mutliplayer modes offer
a wide variety of options for the battle. Stand Alone
gives you access to aircraft information screens; custom
flight setup - similar to quick mission setup in the
USNF/ATF series of sims; training and career menus.
prop
aircraft, and an advanced course in a jet aircraft. As I
stated at the start of this review, the training missions
cover only the basics and do not get into tactics or
concepts of air to air or air to ground combat.
squadron
you are assigned to. Flightline allows you to view your
aircraft, and any nose art and kill markings added to it.
Briefing will give you a text description of your
mission, mission maps, recon photos of ground targets,
and aircraft information. Missions are well designed, and
include combat air patrols, air superiority, and ground
attacks against bridges, oil facilities, chemical plants,
and other key targets. The campaign missions are the
strength of the sim, however the campaign structure is
linear not dynamic, so you will always have the same
progression of missions each time you start.