Flight sims games are now few and far between and successful ones only appear very occasionally. Being a niche market the sales of these games do not reach very high figures and conversely with the generation of profits low not many publishers are keen to support this ever dwindling market.<br><br>PC sims in effect reached their zenith a few years back and possibly one reason they have progressed slower than most other game genres could be the fact that bigger and faster PCs are needed to convey some of the ideas that the programmers want to create. It could also be in terms of what you can see, experience and do - we have seen it so many times before. It is debatable whether PC sims will ever reach the heights reached when Microsoft’s own brand buster was doing so well but the games that are around, mostly developed by technical sim boffins, are of the highest quality.<br><br>Lock On allows players to fly eight different combat jets in a conflict over the Black Sea region. The Crimean Peninsula and Western Caucus Mountains are the setting for a hypothetical, present-day air conflict. Available to the player are ground attack and air superiority fighters, including the American-made A-10 ‘tank killer’, the Russian Su-27 and the German Mig-29A. <br><br>You can fly a variety of combat aircraft in a graphically rich, audio-intense, game environment. There are over 20 single missions, each with its own background and story crammed with action that incorporates realistic flight modelling and flexible game options.<br><br>The eight flyable modern jets, includes 3 from NATO (A-10A Thunderbolt II, F-15C Eagle, and German Mig-29 Fulcrum A) and 5 Russian jets (Su-27 Flanker B, Su-25, Su-33 Flanker D, Mig-29 Fulcrum C, and Mig-29 Fulcrum A).<br><br>Eagle Dynamics, the Russian creators of this title, has an impressive background in producing class flight titles such as the original Su-27 Flanker and the highly acclaimed Flanker 2.0 and Flanker 2.5. <br><br>The game has been pitched at a wider audience, wanting this to be a fun experience and desire both novice and veteran flight sims fans to embrace the game and although certain aspects of the game are tuneable to make life a lot easier for the novice player no way is this a game you can master in a few hours. It’s a fully-fledged sim game with the kind of detailed avionics and unforgiving flight dynamics you would wish for.<br><br>The game takes place in the Black Sea region, primarily in the Crimean Peninsula and Western Caucus Mountains. These regions encompass large agricultural areas, foothills, ocean waters and towering mountains. Set in modern day, the conflict is hypothetical and includes NATO and Russian forces.<br><br>Lock On uses effective, real-world tactics to down their opponents. When in dogfight mode, the AI makes maximum use of the advantages of the aircraft. At the highest settings, the AI proves extremely challenging to most experienced computer pilots. In the air-to-ground role, the AI intelligently uses weapons, while keeping track of the risks. Players who have a good understanding with Flanker 2.0, however, will find the AI far more survivable.<br><br>Lock On offers all the familiar features and facilities sim fans are used to, including a training mode (classy) so you can becomes familiar with the game’s requirements and not constantly have to refer to the manual. That said, for the real novice the game can be slow and tedious to begin with and will need a lot of perseverance. That said, sim gamers would not expect anything less?<br><br>The amount of terrain and land detail is unsurpassed. The topography used is based on declassified, Russian satellite data and is extremely accurate. Populating the world are tens of thousands of trees, power lines, cities, bridges, buildings and railways. The Lock On world is designed to look as good from 30,000 to feet off the ground. By including so many objects in the world, players flying at low altitude will feel and incredible sense of speed and immersion as the scenery rushes by. The inclusion of such detail moves away from the slightly sterile, clinical look that other sim games sometimes convey.<br><br>When starting you are offered six instant action type missions, along with several options within a cockpit cleverly disguised as a user interface:<br><ul><br><li>Show Replay<br><li>Training<br><li>Open Mission<br><li>Mission Editor<br><li>Network Play<br><li>Campaign<br><li>Fast Battle Planner<br><li>Options<br><li>Encyclopaedia<br><li>Pilot Log Book<br> </ul><br><br>To those au fait with flight sims most are self-explanatory although the Encyclopaedia is a clever function - more of a reference guide.<br><br>The game cannot be appreciated fully enough, even early on, in the way it has been designed and even the most inexperienced pilot will managed to cope for much longer than they could hope for. This is not to say things are simple, merely intuitive.<br><br>The damaged sustained, more often it may be just a full wipe out, worked on the principle of kicking in as to where you have been hit as opposed to being hit. (There is a big difference.)<br><br>In terms of this being a technical review of a flight sim that would take pages of deep, eloquent and too much dry analytical prose, which in the case of this game isn't the overall purpose of TVG. To the average gamer that may wish to dip their toes into a flight sim without feeling inadequate but by the same token want to share in the full experience that Lock On offers, this is the perfect introduction as it surpasses many other similar titles. To the ardent flight sim fan there is more than enough here to get immersed, even in terms of expertise - planes and missions.<br><br>If there is one down side to the game then it is the fact that you will need a P4 to play this with the kind of screen update that you would expect but that can be said for many of the latest releases.